Here are a couple of exercises, that I was taught will help you master the fret board. Probably a lot of you already know these, but I haven’t seen anything on here about it or even really on the Internet. So I figured I would put it up cause it might help some of you, as it has helped me a lot with my playing. I think a really important one to learn is the chromatic scale exercises’. This is also good for warming up with, and gaining dexterity and control. Here’s how these exercises’ work.

Exercise 1:

Play this as it is tabbed, using all four fingers in succession from index to pinky. Also, if you notice there are five notes played on the high E, just slide up to the last note using your pinky. (Note: If you tune differently, I suggest using the tuning you use mostly and just figure out the chromatic scale, and resume the exercises.)

E:--------------------------------------------------1-2-3-4-5--
B:----------------------------------------2-3-4-5--------------
G:------------------------------2-3-4-5------------------------
D:---------------------3-4-5-6---------------------------------
A:-----------4-5-6-7-------------------------------------------
E:--5-6-7-8----------------------------------------------------

And while your playing this for the first couple of times, say the notes as your playing them until you know them quite well. (Note: when your playing up the scale, say all the accidentals as sharps.) This will help you memorize all the notes on the fret board, a plus in my book.

Now you play them back down, using your fingers in succession from pinky to index. This time you can slide either your pinky or your index finger on the high E, it doesn’t really matter. And instead of saying the accidentals as sharps say them as flats this time.

E:--5-4-3-2-1---------------------------------------------------
B:--------------5-4-3-2-----------------------------------------
G:------------------------5-4-3-2-------------------------------
D:----------------------------------6-5-4-3---------------------
A:--------------------------------------------7-6-5-4-----------
E:------------------------------------------------------8-7-6-5--

Another note, you don’t have to necessarily start with the 5th fret. You can start this on any fret as long as you keep it in the chromatic scale. I recommend practicing it on three different frets all the way though, I use the 5th fret, the 12th fret, and the 15th fret. You choose which ones you want to start with. And once you master saying all the notes as you play them, you can stop doing that and you can work on playing it a little faster. Until you completely master it.

Exercise 2:

Another exercise you should do, is the same scale but on just one string. You don’t need to practice with all the strings if you don’t want. I’m going to use the low E as an example. Here’s how it works, play this as tabbed.

E:--0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-0--

Play all these notes going up using the succession index to pink for every four notes (except the open E) and repeat this up to 16 and just use your pinky to slide up to 17. Then go back down using the succession pinky to index for every four notes again, until you reach the end. I think you get what I’m saying. And yeah at first you should say each note just like in the first exercise, until you memorize each note on the fret board.

I usually practice each of these exercises for about 5 minutes, before I start shredding away. This is a really good way of warming up your fingers, especially if you play a lot of leads and/or solos. I recommend if possible to at least try going through each exercise once before you play a live show, but everyone warms up differently and not everyone has time.

Now here are the levels. DO NOT go to the next level until you can play all the way through an exercise 5 times in a row perfectly at the highest tempo. (NO sliding, No hammer-ons or pull-offs) For the first exercise you must be able to play all the way through starting on 3 different frets, and they must be separated by at least 3 frets. For the second exercise, playing on only one string is all that’s necessary. Then once you have done this, you can move up to the next level.

Beginner should play a note on each beat at 120 to 220 bpm.
Novice … at 220 to 340 bpm
Advanced … at 340 to 460 bpm
To Master you must be able to play it at 480 bpm

Once you have mastered each exercise perfectly, and you think you’re now the sh#t. There is still one more test. Some of you may have heard of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee, and if you have every seen anyone play it. You know how f##king sick it is. If you can learn to play this on guitar then it’s safe to say you have mastered the fret board. Since, they say if you can play this on piano you have mastered the piano. Below is an address to a MP3 site where Aaron Harris plays it on distorted guitar, so you can hear it. Good Luck!

Go here…http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/165/aaron_harris.html

Also, if anyone has any tips or good exercises that they use and would like to share. Please let me know about them, cause I’m looking to share with everyone’s different techniques to increase all of our playing abilities. Happy Strumming!