Originally Posted by: npeshmanHi Chris,
I really like your lessons. I did see your lesson and it is very helpful. Just for whatever reason I had to really think about it longer that way about what the actual note name is. Guess I just visualize the fretboard a little bit differently.
It's funny, when I started out, I looked at the fretboard and got intimidated with how many notes there were across the fingerboard. I was a quick study when I started so I made it through but I remember that moment of 'what am I getting myself in to?'.
My wife recently started playing and she really functions well with visuals and she did the same thing I did when I started and wanted a visual to 'see' the fretboard. When I tried to explain the same thing, it didn't connect as readily. Below is the 'map' I made for her.
What it help reinforce is that it is really the same order of notes on each string but with a different 'starting' note.
If you know the order, you know all the notes on the fretboard and can start building relationships between. The part about building relationships between them is fully what Chris was talking about. With 12 notes total across 6 strings, it would seem like a lot. Break it down in to chunks and realize that it's the same pattern on each string, it's easier to then build on relationships Chris was mentioning.
Your point about memorizing the locations (I'll call them 'fret marker' notes) is not a bad idea. In a way, that's why fret markers are there, as a guide to where you are on the fretboard. If you know that the 5th string, 5th fret is a D, then you know the next note up is a D#. Easy to remember. That makes sense.
When I started, I would just take a string and pluck the string going up a string fret by fret and say the note as I pluck it. We all have our ways.
Once you can see the fretboard, making those connections becomes easier.
Chris is certainly the expert and master teacher. Me? I just got two cents but I thought worth sharing.
