Lesson 4 - A Must Do Step:
Learning the Fret Board
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Firstly, and most importantly, do you know WHAT the
fret board is? Take a look at your guitar. It is the flat section on the
front of the neck of the guitar. You play your chords on the fret board.
There are metal bars embedded across the board, which divide it into
several parts. These are called frets.
Now that you know what a fret board is, let's discuss learning the fret
board. It seems virtually impossible that one would be expected to know
every single note on every single fret. But one must learn it. It is
more difficult than a piano but with dedicated effort you will soon know
it. Although this might seem unimportant and appear to be mere drudgery,
it is very important.
There are various methods that have been suggested for bettering one's
knowledge of the guitar fret board.
Some suggest that you must practice away from the guitar, in your mind.
Frederick Noad, in his book 'Solo Guitar Playing, suggests "mental
methods" such as "Learning by Equivalent Notes", "Transfer of Position"
and "Learning by Fret". You must keep memorizing the notes and positions
till you know them like the back of your hand.
Position-to-note and note-to-position are also mental methods. They
simply mean that whenever you think of or see a position you must know
exactly which notes lie there. Similarly, whenever you see or think of a
note, you must know exactly where to play it on the fret board.
You can also design yourself some memory games or download some that are
available online. These games usually consist of memory cards, which
have on them either the fret numbers, or the position, or both. You must
look at each card, and give the relevant information out of memory. For
example, if you pick up a card which says "Fret 3", you will have to say
"G C F A# D G" out aloud. You could play this with a partner on a
regular basis and automatically know your guitar fret board much better
than you thought you could.
Mnemonics are used for all sorts of learning. It can help you to learn
the guitar fret board as well. For example, this one - An Emu was
chasing an Ape with a Drill but tripped over a Garbage can….out popped a
Baby eating an Earthworm, helps you learn the open notes (and fret 12
and 24). The capitalized letters in bold are the open notes. If you are
witty enough, you could come up with your own mnemonics to make your
learning more fun.
Hesitation is inevitable in all new learning, but your goal should be to
minimize and eventually get rid of all hesitation. Keep pushing yourself
till you don't hesitate anymore. Take one note or one position at a
time, whichever suits you, but make sure you eliminate hesitation
altogether. Motivating yourself to stop hesitating every time you try to
play a note is an excellent learning method. |
You need to practice extensively, but then
"practice makes perfect" right?
It's vital that
you know your 'sharps' and 'flats' very well. C sharp and D flat are the same
note right? But when you're playing, do you remember that. It's essential that
you do. You must know how it is played, both ways, equally well. This will show
that nothing can confuse you or make you hesitate while playing the guitar,
because you have a thorough knowledge of the fret board.
The fret board has mother of pearl markers strategically placed, inlaid in the
wood. Usually, these markers are laid in the exact same positions in every
guitar. A standard guitar will have these markings on the third fret, the fifth
and the ninth. The twelfth fret has two markers because it is exactly one octave
higher than the open string. The fifteenth fret again has a single marker. These
markings are not only useful but important as well because they will help you
find and play the right notes on the fret board effortlessly.
Learning the fret board is an extremely time consuming and tiring task, but once
you learn it, you're on your way to becoming a better guitarist. Motivate
yourself by may be learning one fret a time. Set yourself a date by when you
will know every single note on the fret board and play them naturally. You must
not neglect this task, and consider it a very important part of learning how to
play the guitar.
