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Fretboard Frustration
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. New member here. I love how Tony explains his lessons, and am enjoying my experience so far. I am going through Fretboard Wizard coupled with the Daily Challenge. However, it seems so overwhelming learning the fretboard, getting comfortable with it, the patterns, and the theory behind it. What has everyone done to push through this “fear” and confusion to become comfortable and fully understand where you are on the fretboard and make sense of how best to use more than the first few frets?
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9 Replies
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Hi @markeads, I think the old saying re eating an elephant applies here. If you look at a complete fretboard diagram it’s quite overwhelming. However by starting to see relationships it make a bit more sense. FBW probably provides great examples. Take it in small steps. Maybe just work on finding one note C for example all the way up the neck. Then go on to others. notice the notes on the 5th, 7th & 12 frets. Don’t frustrate yourself by taking on to much at once. Have fun learning👍
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Welcome to the TAC community @markeads !
I agree with @Guy_H to take it piecemeal, and break things down into bite size pieces. I have to be honest that I didn’t memorize the fretboard or try to remember where all the notes were when I went through FBW. It was too overwhelming my first time through. One good thing about is that you own the course and can revisit it as often as necessary. Many people take the course yearly. I agree with Guy that you don’t want to take on too much. If taking lessons and FBW are too much, try to focus on one or the other for the time being. Good luck with it, and remember everything’s meant to be fun.
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Yeah @markeads , @Guy_H and @Loraine have given you great advice. Here’s my 2 cents.
Learn the natural notes on the low E string. Forget the sharps/flats. Just get the E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E notes down. And don’t even worry about repeating and going past the 12th fret. That’s only 8 notes and they are in alphabetical order. You’ll just have to remember where 2 notes are together without a sharp/flat note in-between. And there are only 2 of those. E and F and B and C. That’s it. Being able to “see” the notes on the low E string is the “key” to unlocking the rest of the fretboard. Start there.
MG 😀
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Yes, Big Cats Eat Fish🤔
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Oh, I never heard that mnemonic. (Ok, so how do you get that pronunciation out of that spelling?) That’s one of those things that is so foundational and used so often that I never needed a mnemonic to remember it. But of course, this only applies in C major (I don’t even want to use the word “key” as so many people think there are more than 12 keys. There’s not. It’s misunderstanding that leads to that belief. What amazes me is that even the music schools and departments teach that misleading info.) So the more useful thing to remember is W, W, H, W, W, W, H because that will give you the proper 7 notes no matter what note you start on. And that is a major scale, the mode that is the “key” to all the other 6 modes and is the reference for the formulas of all the other modes.
MG 😀
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Hi @markeads ,welcome to TAC. Everyone here has given some great advice. Take things slowly and keep it fun. Just remember – you own Fretboard Wizard – you can go through it as slowly as you want – repeat sections whenever you feel like it – skip sections if you want. The important thing is to realize that it’s like a book that you bought. Read it whenever you feel like it. Put it down whenever you want and pick it up later. You can read it as many times as you want – in fact, the more times that you read it, the more things make sense💡
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Big plus one 👍
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I forget exactly where I heard it, but a. well known player was asked about 12 fret vs. 14 fret guitars. His response was that he didn’t need 14 frets, he could get by with 3.
One of the great things about guitar, there are multiple ways to do the same thing.
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Hi there and welcome. I hope you have a lot of fun here. Just to say I haven’t got Fretboard Wizard (I’m waiting for the next release) but I’m concentrating on skills more at the moment, trying to get down all the basics of hammer ons, pull offs, slides, chords etc and it is really enough for me in the first year. I do want to learn the fretboard but I’m not letting my current lack of knowledge in that area hamper my enjoyment right now. I think it can feel a bit overwhelming trying to learn everything at once so as so many have already said, baby steps. Plan around a few things you want to get out of each 90 days and treat everything else as a bonus. Rushing it all will just make your progress slow in all areas but really gettng some great wins under your belt will be a huge confidence boost and spur you on to the next one.
Good luck.. 🤟😎🎸 Darren (Moonhare)
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