How To Memorize The Notes On the Guitar Fretboard
I admit that when I first started playing guitar I was intimidated by the amount of notes on the guitar.
I thought I would never be able to remember all the notes on the fretboard.
After all a guitar with 24 frets will have 288 different note locations to remember.
Luckily I found out that there are really simple ways to to learn all the notes on a guitar fretboard within a couple of days, if you know the right way to go about it.
See the resource section at the bottom of the article for a free guidebook that includes images to make the learning process easier.
First of all we can cut the number of positions that need to be remembered in half because the guitar fretboard repeats after the 12th fret.
The notes appear in the exact same order from the 12th to the 24th fret as they did from the 1st to the 12th.
This means there are now only 144 note locations to remember.
In total there are 12 different notes in western music, these are: C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, G#/, A, A#/Bb and B.
As you can see the #'s and b's (sharps and flats) lie between the notes C and D, D and E, F and G and G and A, A and B.
So we can now cut the number of notes we need to learn down to 42.
Now find an image of all the notes on the fretboard (you can find one on my site) and find the universal note pattern that every note follows.
Between the 1st and 12th fret each note appears once on each of the six strings.
If you take the start of the pattern to be the notes appearing on the low and high E string then you'll see the pattern repeat over and over for each note.
Learning this note pattern is probably the quickest way to learn all the notes on the guitar fretboard, although there are others.
For example if you know the circle of fifths and fourths then you'll easily be able to know all the notes because that is exactly how the strings on the guitar are tuned.
As I mentioned earlier it is best to focus on the notes C, D, E, F, G, A and B first because that way you'll automatically start seeing the sharps and flats between them.
In addition you should always sing the notes that you are playing in order to facilitate your ability to recognize notes.
Finally make sure you learn the locations of the notes without referencing other notes.
Although it's helpful in the beginning it's not good to keep doing this as it will slow you down, mentally checking where other notes are before you can find the one you really wanted.
I thought I would never be able to remember all the notes on the fretboard.
After all a guitar with 24 frets will have 288 different note locations to remember.
Luckily I found out that there are really simple ways to to learn all the notes on a guitar fretboard within a couple of days, if you know the right way to go about it.
See the resource section at the bottom of the article for a free guidebook that includes images to make the learning process easier.
First of all we can cut the number of positions that need to be remembered in half because the guitar fretboard repeats after the 12th fret.
The notes appear in the exact same order from the 12th to the 24th fret as they did from the 1st to the 12th.
This means there are now only 144 note locations to remember.
In total there are 12 different notes in western music, these are: C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, G#/, A, A#/Bb and B.
As you can see the #'s and b's (sharps and flats) lie between the notes C and D, D and E, F and G and G and A, A and B.
So we can now cut the number of notes we need to learn down to 42.
Now find an image of all the notes on the fretboard (you can find one on my site) and find the universal note pattern that every note follows.
Between the 1st and 12th fret each note appears once on each of the six strings.
If you take the start of the pattern to be the notes appearing on the low and high E string then you'll see the pattern repeat over and over for each note.
Learning this note pattern is probably the quickest way to learn all the notes on the guitar fretboard, although there are others.
For example if you know the circle of fifths and fourths then you'll easily be able to know all the notes because that is exactly how the strings on the guitar are tuned.
As I mentioned earlier it is best to focus on the notes C, D, E, F, G, A and B first because that way you'll automatically start seeing the sharps and flats between them.
In addition you should always sing the notes that you are playing in order to facilitate your ability to recognize notes.
Finally make sure you learn the locations of the notes without referencing other notes.
Although it's helpful in the beginning it's not good to keep doing this as it will slow you down, mentally checking where other notes are before you can find the one you really wanted.
Source...