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Joe Bonamassa Forum → Joe's Guitars, Amps and Gear → Do you "know your fretboard?"?
To all guitarists, all of you, do you "know your fretboard?"? Like can you point out every B C and D on the fretboard instantly with hardly any effort? I'm really bored and am considering learning this, however I am having an inner dialog concerning whether or not it's worth my time...
Not me. Given a key, I can probably point out 4-5 areas to play that note quickly but not all of them right away. The way I look at the fretboard is I see paths and shapes, like places I can safely tread and then there are a couple of places off the beaten path that can sound cool in the right context. I should probably know more about it, but I'm too lazy! It definately couldn't hurt to really map out and understand the guitar and how the notes relate to each other. Don't forget, while knowledge is important SOUL is even moreso.
BC&D test:
I can without little second guessing betw the 1st and 12th fret.
I know it starts over after that, but I lost my attention span.
I'd give myself a 88% on knowledge and speed on this one.
Not me. Given a key, I can probably point out 4-5 areas to play that note quickly but not all of them right away. The way I look at the fretboard is I see paths and shapes, like places I can safely tread and then there are a couple of places off the beaten path that can sound cool in the right context. I should probably know more about it, but I'm too lazy! It definately couldn't hurt to really map out and understand the guitar and how the notes relate to each other. Don't forget, while knowledge is important SOUL is even moreso.
Yeah that's the way I see it to, however being able to spider-sense possible licks in unknown areas would be a useful superpower
I can't immediately point ALL positions of a tone on the fretboard, but I'd also be able to point out four to five positions...
I don't play like " hey let's play a B ", furthermore it's like " ok here's an E chord let's play a seventh ".
I know were I can find the keynote and based on that I'm thinking in interval-based, structured patterns and figures.
Never said anything about playing sevens over e chords, simply if you know all the notes on the fretboard 
Knowing all notes on the fretboard doesn't make you a mechanical or less soulful player
Knowing all notes on the fretboard doesn't make you a mechanical or less soulful player
Of course not 
It's just the difference of "seventh of e - thats a d.. where can I find a d... playit" and "seventh of e... that's 10 half tones... so the seventh of e is there"
can you point out every B C and D on the fretboard instantly with hardly any effort?
Only on the E strings. 
It takes me a few seconds but I can do it with the rest of them too. I know the location of the root notes in each pattern of the minor pentatonic and I just back them out until I get to the high/low E or to the nut/12th fret.
Somewhat. Not names, like B or C, but definitely positions where it is the same note.
I mainly know it by octaves. If you know the low E string then you know the D string. Same with A and G...therefore it's a matter of just seeing the octaves between the D and B and G and E.
Here guys, let Joe show you how it's done. Pay attention now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LvXf7tRh4U
Roy
Here guys, let Joe show you how it's done. Pay attention now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LvXf7tRh4U
Roy
Hehe, Joe is talented but maybe teaching isn't his strong point. However what he is talking about there is always having a pattern to play in every position on the fretboard. I'm talking about pinpointing notes. Is pinpointing notes useful? Not sure, that's why I'm having this discussion
Yeah, when I was taking lessons (I recently stopped, my teacher stopped teaching) my teacher had me run what he called the CAGED exercises. That's taking C, A, G, E, and D chords, and playing them up and down the neck. So you play C in the standard position in the "C" shape, then in the "A" shape, then in the "G" shape, then the "E", then the "D", all of those being C chords, and then you do the same thing with A, in all the shapes, and G, E, and D, in all the shapes.
That really forced me to learn the notes on the fretboard, that and he would have me find an A on every string to a metronome, then A#, B, C, C#, D, etc.
It's tiresome but it's been worth it. Just recently I've found that it's real useful for playing stuff in a major key, which blues players tend to do less often than minor keys.
Joe Bonamassa Forum → Joe's Guitars, Amps and Gear → Do you "know your fretboard?"?
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