-
Freakout over Fretboard Wizard
Hello TAC family,
I’m a newbie (5 weeks). Finished the 30 day course, and now started the Fretboard Wizard -everything is good until I hit the Chord Matrix under the foundational five. I was like a deer in headlights. Any suggestions on another way of looking at this, or other (Tony) videos on the subject, or other ways to wrap by head around it. Also, is there a lot of memorization involved? Thanks, a wonderful 2022 to all!
-
8 Replies
-
Hey Sungreen, I’m happy for you glad to know you’re taking Fretboard Wizard. Easy to feel overwhelmed but just know that the information presented is designed to give you a basic understanding of music theory and some knowledge of what constitutes a chord and where they come from. Once you know the notes in any key are arranged in whole and half steps as WWHWWWH, a chord is constructed with the notes from the 1st, 3rd, and 5th degrees of that scale. If you were writing it down you would create 3 lines with the 2nd line starting with the 3rd note (degree) as taken from the first line and the 3rd line starting with the 5th note (degree) as also taken from the first line. The corresponding 3 note combinations under each degree are the three notes that make up those chords. No real memorization involved. This exercise is informational in a way to help you visualize and understand how chords are created.
FW opened up my eyes and made sense of the bits and pieces of what I thought I knew about music. It kind of lit a fire to make me want to learn and know more. There is so much to know in music but all the essential elements are in this course to give you a firm foundation for your guitar journey. It’s important to just enjoy the experience and knowledge you gain as you are able to absorb it. So much of it will make more sense over time. Congratulations on taking to course and have fun!
-
Thanks greatly Dan for the thoughtful reply – very helpful.
-
-
I have done and redone and redone the Fretboard Wizard and each time, I understand a little more. I had to use the TAC community a number of times when taking it. If you get overwhelmed, just walk away for a few days. But, go back to it! Tony will mention something in his Daily Challenge about the ‘key is in D Major’ and the chords are something like ‘D, Em, F#m, G, A, Bm C#dim’. That is a Deer in the headlight moment! If I hadn’t had the community I would have quit! When you get stumped, Just put in the title field, fretboard Wizard and where you are stuck. Members will get back with you. Take notes so you can look through your notes (that helped me). Good luck.
-
Thank you Cadgirl – being encouraged to use the forum when stumped certainly helps – great reminder.
-
-
@Sungreen Have to agree with @Cadgirl . Each time you go through it you understand a little more than previously. As you continue to learn the guitar, all of a sudden you have lightbulb moments and something from FBW makes so much more sense. Just do the best you can and you’ll get through it.
-
Appreciate that Loraine – those lightbulb moments are gold when they come (unfortunately, you can’t force them!)
-
-
Hi @Sungreen , welcome to TAC and welcome to Fretboard Wizard (FW). As @Cadgirl said, if you get stuck on FW content, then go to the Community Support Forum and post your question (using FW in the title), and graduates of FW will be happy to assist. In fact, it’s a graduate’s responsibility to assist any student of FW with all questions they may have regarding any content of FW. I believe that @Dan J K has given you a very detailed answer. I remember the first time I went through FW and saw the Chord Matrix section, I felt overwhelmed also. That’s when I realized I was going to have to take notes to get through this content and make sense of it. So I got a notebook and wrote things down and practiced making my own chord matrices – it really helped. That’s my suggestion to you – Notebook!
-
That’s great Bill. So simple and effective – write it down! Cheers.
-
Log in to reply.