Manage to play whatever they want

Fretboard Memorization in Depth

Whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or expert guitar/bass player, being able to know every note on the fretboard and what they all sound like off the top of your head is what can turn a beginner into a pro.

But how do some people manage to play whatever they want when they want? As you might expect, this skill doesn’t come overnight and there’s no quick easy secret to it, however, there are ways to develop a feel for your instrument faster, learn each note for each fret, and keep good habits while dropping bad ones.

Setting a Foundation

First of all, my number one tip for becoming a great musician is to have a strong foundation and build your way up. This CANNOT be stressed enough because if you don’t have a strong foundation to work off of, you may come to find out, things that seem simple will be very difficult to learn later on. For this reason, we are going to start off extremely simple and you will eventually be able to work your way up. When starting to learn the fretboard, the process may seem slow at first, but over time you will see your skills greatly increase so be patient with the learning process. Another extremely important factor when trying to get better is to practice often and consistently. If you would really like to see results fast, I recommend practicing every day for at least 30 minutes, however, ultimately the more you practice, the better.

Tuning

Before we begin the process of learning the fretboard, the first place you should begin is with the tuning itself. It’s important that when you first begin learning what notes are where with each other, that you aren’t constantly changing tunings thereby changing the entire order of notes on your fretboard. The best way to memorize the notes on the fretboard is to keep your instrument tuned the same every time you practice so that you can build up your knowledge of your instrument day by day. Once you develop a good understanding of one tuning you can begin to learn another one. I would highly recommend starting with E standard tuning and developing a good understanding of how it works. E standard is the most common tuning for guitar and bass guitar and is, therefore, a great place to start. Unless you consistently use a different tuning regularly, E standard is the best place to start. If you do not know what E standard tuning is, you can set up your instrument here for guitar or here for bass.

Developing a Feel for the Fretboard

Now that we’ve established how to get set up, you’re ready to start learning what’s probably the most important part of this article, how to work your way around the fretboard. Remember that when getting started we want to start easy to build a good foundation. Before diving into the actual names of notes themselves, we are going to focus on the feeling where each note is with one another. We can accomplish this by breaking down the instrument into a couple of different sections. First, we can start by looking at the strings. When looking at all of the strings at once, the fretboard can seem like a lot to learn, however, if your instrument only had one string you could learn where all the notes are within a day or two! To make this even easier, notes are only different up until the 12th fret which typically has a special inlay on the fretboard itself (and sometimes also on the top of the neck). The 12th fret will always be the same note as the string played open (if this is not the case for your instrument you may need to have your truss rod adjusted or your instrument repaired), this is called an octave. After the 12th fret, the notes will repeat in the same pattern one octave higher. For information on octaves click here.

Now to get into the exercise that will greatly improve your awareness of where each note is. Start on the high e string (or the G string for bassists) and attempt to play a very easy song such as “Mary Had a Little Lamb” or “Hot Cross Buns” without any prior practice on the e string only. The point of this exercise is to be able to accurately guess where each note is. It is a good idea to try to play a great variety of songs so that you can actually challenge yourself instead of playing something familiar. Over time you’ll be able to develop a good memory of what each note sounds like and you can start to attempt to play more challenging songs. It’s important to take your time with this and to not jump ahead, you will not get any better if you attempt something too difficult so patience is key. Once you can play any given song off the top of your head with at least 80% accuracy, you can begin to incorporate the next string, along with the string you’ve already been working on. Repeat this process and also try to include notes above the 12th fret. Be sure you can play any given song with an accuracy of at least 80% before trying to add another string. This process takes patience and may take a few months to get good at which is why it is important to practice it a little each day.

Notes on the Fretboard

Along with trying to develop a feel for your instrument as described above, it is also important to learn what each note on the fretboard actually is. Knowing the name of each note on each fret isn’t going to take as much physical practice as getting an overall feel for your fretboard but instead will take memorization. Again, we can break up the instrument into multiple parts to make the memorization process easier. First of all, it’s important to know that there are 12 different pitches within an octave (this is also the reason why the 12th fret is an octave higher of the open string) which are each assigned a different note. The notes range from A-G# in the following order A, Bb, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, and G#. You may be wondering what the “b” and “#” symbols mean. Basically, a “b” (flat) symbol means to bring a note one half-step down whilst a “#” (sharp) symbol means to bring a note one half-step up. If you would like to read further into sharps and flats, click here. Additionally, you may see notes such as A# or Fb which are just different ways of saying Bb or E. When it comes to memorizing the fretboard we’ll start with the top string (high e on guitar or G on the bass) and simply work our way up to the 12th fret.

Once you can name any given note on any fret for the top string, work your way up to the next string until you can memorize its first 12 frets. Continue this process until you have every note on every string memorized, this will take time but will ultimately lead to you being a great musician. One last thing that may help you remember where the notes are, is by using the inlays on your guitar so you won’t have to count each individual fret to know how far up the fretboard you are. Inlays are typically located on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, and 12th fret, however, your instrument may be slightly different.

Putting Everything Together

Once you have developed a great feel for your fretboard and are aware of each note’s name, you can put the two together to develop a memory of what each note actually sounds like with its corresponding name. Over time, this is what will give you the ability to play whatever is in your head without any hesitation. You will be able to pick out what different notes are only based on their sound and will be able to translate it onto your fretboard. To be able to do this effortlessly, it will take months and months of continuous practice but it can be achieved with time and patience. Even for those who don’t wish to become professional guitar/bass players, these exercises will significantly help you with many aspects of your playing and will greatly enhance your experience as a musician.