Honestly, knowing the notes on the guitar fretboard was something I took for granted at one point.
When I started learning jazz guitar, I didn’t know that it was important to know the notes on the guitar… I just did what my teacher told me to do.
This led to me “just knowing” where the notes were on the guitar neck, through countless exercises that some would consider to be pretty boring. To me though, I was just doing guitar lessons.
I was lucky because I didn’t know any better. I didn’t really have any big goals other than playing better in my school jazz band, and I just did the work without thinking about it.
The notes on the fretboard got learned in the background as I learned my teachers system for jazz guitar chords. It became second nature pretty quickly.
As it turns out, knowing the fretboard is an essential part of learning jazz guitar, and there’s no way around it.
A Direct Approach
So today I’m going to show you one of the most direct ways for you to learn the fretboard – one that’s worked well for my students over the years and will help you learn the neck as quickly as possible.
We’ll also look at a couple of other methods you can include with your normal practice – learning the fretboard doesn’t have to be something extra you do on top of your normal practice.
Honestly, knowing the notes on the guitar fretboard was something I took for granted at one point.
When I started learning jazz guitar, I didn’t know that it was important to know the notes on the guitar… I just did what my teacher told me to do.
This led to me “just knowing” where the notes were on the guitar neck, through countless exercises that some would consider to be pretty boring. To me though, I was just doing guitar lessons.
I was lucky because I just didn’t know any better. All I wanted to do was play better in my school jazz band, and I just did the work without thinking about it.
As it turns out, knowing the fretboard is an essential part of learning jazz guitar, and there’s no way around it.
So today I’m going to show you one of the most direct ways for you to learn the fretboard – one that’s worked well for my students over the years and will help you learn the neck as quickly as possible.
We’ll also look at a couple of other methods you can include with your normal practice – learning the fretboard doesn’t have to be something extra you do on top of your normal practice.
Learning the Notes on the Guitar Fretboard: A Quick and Dirty Approach
This is my favorite way to learn the fretboard quickly, without trying to memorize it by pure mental effort (which rarely works out well in the long term).
It’s a simple process that only takes you a few minutes to do, but it will really help you start to see the big picture of where the notes are on each string, and how the fretboard works.
But first, we need to be sure what the notes we’re looking for are actually called.
Enter the Musical Alphabet
The musical alphabet is made up of 7 letters: A B C D E F and G. These letters are what we call natural notes. It’s just a letter, no other musical symbols involved.
Because our musical system has 12 tones, there are more notes that exist besides just the natural notes. So we need a way to label the notes that are “in between” and fill in the remaining 5 spaces.
Check out the diagram below showing only the natural notes on the A string to get a sense of what this looks like on the fretboard.
To fill in these gaps, we need to use sharps and flats to create labels for these extra notes.
Sharp means raised – so if it’s one fret above an A, but it’s not a B yet, your note is called A Sharp (A#).
Flat means lowered – so if it’s one fret below a B, but it’s not an A yet, you call it Bb.
What these are actually called in any given moment depends on the context – what key are we in? How are the other notes around it labeled?
These are questions for another lesson. For now, we’re only concerned with learning the names themselves, and where the notes line up on the different strings.
Plus most of the time in jazz guitar, this is spelled out for you. You’ll just need to find a Bbmaj7 chord, or an F#min7 chord. There are no calculations you need to do other than being able to find the right starting note.
This is why we practice using both note names on the fretboard, as you’ll see in the next section.
Go One-String-At-A-Time
Ok so here’s the exercise. It’s not complicated, but it will help you learn the fretboard really well if you do it regularly:
- Work with one string at a time
- Play and say (out loud) the notes going up and down the string
- Then move on to the next string
- Repeat until you’ve done all 6 strings
To start out, say only natural and sharp note names on your way up the string (E F F# G G#…) and natural and flat notes going back down the string (E Eb D Db C…).
As you get more comfortable with this, try to reverse it, so you’re saying flats on the way up and sharps on the way down. This will be an extra challenge, and help make sure you really know where the notes are – not just a memorized sequence.
Use the fretboard map below as a reference as you work. The more you use it, the better you will get. Just read along as you play, string-by-string.
If you follow this approach, you will get better at finding the notes on the neck quickly. If you do it every day, you’ll get there much faster than if you only do it once in a while.
Notes on the Guitar in Practical Exercises
You don’t always have to set aside extra practice time to learn the notes on the neck. . In fact, you can use your everyday practice as a way to reinforce your fretboard knowledge.
In jazz guitar, you’re always doing something that can be used to learn the fretboard better.
For example, if you’re working on chords to a song and you’ve found a great place to play Bbmaj7…
That’s awesome – but there are at least 3 other places you can play that chord using drop 3 chords… so why not take the opportunity to find them?
If you’re playing a solo using your Eb major scale, that’s great. And there are also 4 other places to play that scale using our movable scale shapes.
See what I mean? Everything you do in jazz guitar can support your knowledge of the notes on the fretboard.
You just have to take the opportunities to learn as they come, instead of finding the quickest solution and moving on.
The more you explore the different note locations for your chords, scales, and arpeggios, the more locked in your knowledge of the fretboard will become.
Conclusion
Learning the fretboard is important if you’re going to be a jazz guitar player (or any kind of guitar player, really).
I’m not a huge fan of memorizing the notes like you would memorize dates for a history test. But there are some simple things you can do to improve your knowledge.
Going through the “quick and dirty” note names exercise from this lesson will give you a solid foundation over time. And as a bonus, it doesn’t take long to get through.
Remember that everything you play in jazz guitar is an opportunity to work on your fretboard knowledge.
You can always be looking for a different position to play that chord, scale, or arpeggio you just found.
Stick with it, and you’ll have a good handle on the fretboard in no time.
How are you working on learning the neck? Let me know in the comments below.
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If you’re looking for more music theory lessons, check out Intervals Guitar Players Need to Know, and Understanding the CAGED System.