How did you learn all the note names on the fretboard?

[John A.]

I don’t think I’ve ever literally memorized every note on the fingerboard. But I know all the notes because I understand the logic of the fretboard - 12 frets/half-steps to an octave; intervals between strings; what different intervals look like; what the position markers do.

Honestly, it always seemed pretty obvious to me. I vaguely remember MelBay beginner books showing which notes go where, but I think I got past that and into the system of the fretboard almost immediately. I guess if you find it more difficult flash cards might help, though.

[enalnitram]

This looks like an old thread and I haven’t read through it all. When I was a teen, playing power chords, I pretty quickly learned the 5th and 6th strings. I worked out the rest like this. I drew this up years ago, to give to my students.

[ragman1]

When I was a teen, playing power chords, I pretty quickly learned the 5th and 6th strings.

Exactly.

[StoneWaller]

Specific to how the organizational part of my brain works, and probably only to mine: When I started playing again, I decided this was an early priority as a basic skill to understanding how music is made on the guitar. I compare it to learning to type if the keyboard was blank - I need to know where the letters are before I can fluently type a word.

Started with the first fret, all notes, sharps/flats,. Eg, in my head I would say F, A#Bb, D#Eb, G#Ab, C, F, and visualize that fret as a whole, slowly working my way up the finger board. Eventually I started visualizing mulitiple frets, 2 at a time, then 3, etc etc, with the goal seeing the whole fingerboard at a glance. I do this drill regularly with and with out the guitar. Sometimes by fret groups, strings, chords, arpeggios, etc. Today I had a 45 minute MRI scan, and I spent the time trapped in the tube visualizing the notes of a G13 running up the neck. I read Alan Holdsworth would see all the notes in the scales he's playing like runway lights. Kind of the same concept except I'm no Alan Holdsworth. Nonetheless the value in this ability clicks with how my brain learns.

Can I do it while playing a tune, in time? No.. not yet anyway. I have a looong way to go in every aspect of my playing, but knowing the notes helps me greatly in the learning process.

[Michael Keller]

I started taking guitar lessons when I was 13, and the teacher had me learning to read music using one of those Mel Bay guitar series. Through that, I learned most of the notes up to at least the 9th fret, and over the years I learned the rest just from reading different pieces of music, and practicing different chords/lines/exercises in different places ont he fretboard.
I'm probably rusty above the 17th fret because i rarely, if ever, use that part of the fretboard when I'm playing.

[BWV]

I used this helpful mnemonic to remember the names of the notes:

All
Bears
Can
Damage
Every
Fine
Guitar

[Christian Miller]

DAD FACE AGED A DECADE, BAD CABBAGE CAFE

All positions, along every string, every manageable octave

That’ll sort you for the natural notes.


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[Christian Miller]

Actually I just went to a café and had a cheese and kimchi toastie - does that count as bad cabbage cafe?


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[JazzPadd]

There’s an old saying, repetition teaches even the donkey! But seriously, while there are likely systems to learn the fretboard, in my very limited experience it came slowly over time from reading notation and learning some basic jazz theory to reharmonize tunes and use upper extensions. Perhaps the biggest factor was curiosity; I enjoy knowing what I’m playing.

[John A.]

I don't think I ever learned all the notes on the fingerboard in a rote sense. I learned first position note names early on via a beginner book (ISTR having the first Mel Bay and Alfred books), and then it became a matter of internalizing the patterns of how notes and intervals repeat up and down the neck. I mean once you know the intervals between strings and that an octave is 12 frets you know where every note is.

I don't think I ever had an exercise for or practiced explicitly finding all the note names on the fingerboard. I just played, and through understanding the logic of the instrument I knew where the notes were. I could be wrong about this, and maybe I'm just not remembering being put through an explicit mapping process by a teacher, but this is how I've thought about the where the notes are for as long as I can remember.

[Mick-7]

I used this helpful mnemonic to remember the names of the notes:

All
Bears
Can
Damage
Every
Fine
Guitar

Haven't heard that one

Authored by a guitar player who enjoys camping no doubt, hopefully he does not speak from experience.

[BWV]

Haven't heard that one

Authored by a guitar player who enjoys camping no doubt, hopefully he does not speak from experience.

true, but have also found that angry bears will scamper back into the woods if you pick up your guitar and start demonstrating modes

[jazzshrink]

true, but have also found that angry bears will scamper back into the woods if you pick up your guitar and start demonstrating modes

That's been my experience as well.

[PMB]

Actually I just went to a café and had a cheese and kimchi toastie - does that count as bad cabbage cafe?


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Bad Cabbage Cafe is a pretty catchy name for an establishment. So wrong it's right. We have a very successful restaurant nearby called Stinking Bishops (after the famously pungent cheese).

[jads57]

There actually only 5 strings to memorize. Take one minute on each string, 5 minutes total each day. You’ll have it done in less than a month.

[Peter C]

true, but have also found that angry bears will scamper back into the woods if you pick up your guitar and start demonstrating modes

They might be inclined to stick around for a bit of ursa major.

[DonEsteban]

This is a very depressing thread and makes me understand why guitarists are considered 2nd class musicians ... have no more words to say...

[KRosser]

I learned the neck by reading.

The very first Mel Bay Book 1, which I got when I was 5 - here's E, F and G on the first string and then two pages of melodies that use those notes. Off you go!

It wasn't until much later in life that I got into various reading methods (for example, the Leavitt and Szymczak Berklee ones, the Arnie Berle, which starts you reading horizontally along a single string rather than in position, etc.), but for a long time I basically learned all the notes on the neck by reading lots and lots of music.

The first lessons I had were classical lessons starting at 14, my teacher hipped me to the Aaron Shearer scale exercise book, which I still think is excellent, especially for sight reading and is no way "classical exclusive" for that purpose.