solfeg and learning the fretboard

Does anybody have any advice on how to learn the fretboard (notes). I'm thinking something along the lines of exercises or mental games and stuff like that. Solfegio also seems like a valuable tool for writing/improvising. An old guitar teacher once told me that if you have solfeg down, you can pretty much play in and out of every key. Does anybody have any advice on how to develop solfeg skills?

Thanks

Sometimes you should play position scales, like play a C major scale in the fifth and eighth positions, and say or sing the notes while playing them. It doesn't seem productive at first, but then start making up random melodies, but make sure you can say the note you are on at all times. After time, work it out in different keys, and pretty soon you know most of your fretboard, so you can play the same thing all over the place, and have lots of different options.


Somebody correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think solfeg is the whole Do-Re-Mi-Fa..... etc. thing. If it is, here's how I can help you.

What (I think) solfeg is, is to be able to have a name/or be able to sing this name for the note based on what interval of the scale it is. Let's work in C major, cuz it's easy.

C (1st) = Doe (A deer, a female deer right? ok enough of that...)
D (2nd) = Ray
E (3rd) = Me
F (4th) = Fa
G (5th) = So
A (6th )= La
B (7th) = Tee
C (1st or 8th) = Doe

They aren't spelled like that, but that's basically how you pronounce them.

So you use them by taking what interval of the scale it is, let's say the 3rd, or E in this case, and you say the name for it (Me).

Practice it in all keys! (ex.. Key of D: D=Doe, E=Ray, F#=Me, etc....)

The reason it is useful is because once you know how it sounds in your head, you can immediately put a melody down in any key, just transfer the Doe, or Me intervals.... etc...

Hope this has helped! Just reply if you're still confused.

thanks ace, crystal clear. I'll start doing that

Learning to read music in all positions of the neck helped me to memorize the fretboard.

reading music is a pain in the butt..alot of guitar books that ive come along dont cover past the first position but i finally found one..Im slowly gettin better at reading music

There are basically only 3 positions: 1st, 5th, and 9th...everything else is just an overlap. Of the 3 positions the notes remain the same, they just drop down 1 string. Ex. E F G (1st str in 1st pos., 2nd stri in 5th pos., 3rd str. in 9th pos.).