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can anyone advise whether it is important to memorize the fretboard. (do u need to have ti memorized in order to use modes?)
I mean what good will it do? thank you.

Welcome to the forum,yes it's good to know your board.But don't let excessive application of technique and theory make you mechanical.
To be honest when I first saw this I was thinking that someone was talking about memorizing fret placement-me dumb.

If you don't know the fretboard how are you gonna know where to put your fingers?


Originally Posted by PandemoniumIf you don't know the fretboard how are you gonna know where to put your fingers?

*stifles grade 6 humour blue remark while snickering to self*

to some extent yes. I've taken 5 guitar lessons in my life. Basically i learned the different scale positions, and it improved my playing immensely, busting out a improv solo is becoming second nature now.

i memorize scales but i dont know exactly which fret is which note on the fretboard. i do know the positions where i can put my fingers by following the scale pattern but i do not know what is the name of each note of the scale. is it a necessity to know all the notes on the fretboard such that i can recall them instantly in order to use modes?

i doubt it. I don't think it would necessary

Heh, I can memorize it all I want, but my big fat fingers cant go past the 14th fret without going over.

It is good to know the fretboard so you can derive scales and build chords.

One thing I think that helps is if you know certain scales, play them all over the fretboard and try to name the note as you go through the scale. Also if you are used to tuning your guitar by ear, that can help too.

kaneke- good question and it all comes down to what you want to do, what styles you want to play and how far you want to take it- Most of my students do memorize the fretboard, but I have one very gifted rocker who still does pretty amazing things without knowing the fretboard and he rarely even reads tab!

But to me, he's the exception, he has an incredible, ear, and it's filling in the gaps where fretboard knowledge would cary the rest of us much further- As noted previously, you can do a lot of work with paterns, but one of the first reasons you have to know at least the lowest 2 strings is that basic barre chords are rooted on them and most stundents like their quot;repeatabilityquot;-

After that, it's usually theory that brings them back to the fretboard- As you learn how chords are constructed and how scales are built, you start to understand why lots of things work (V7 to I) and why others may not work (lydian mode in anything other than bebob At this point, you can start to see more than paterns, ie you start to recognise that C# is the leading tone into a D chord, and you start to see why the mixolidian mode give you so much fleibility covering the neck in just about every musical style.

And then the quantum leap...you start to see how all of this interacts the first time you find the octave D2 patern E chord that has been hiding just up the neck from the big old open E that you hit all of the time, you start to find inverted chords all over the neck, or you notice that the penatonic minor scale sits right on top of the associated minor chord and the same is true of the major-

And then you go into the space that very, very few guitarists ever go if they don't know the frettboard. You start to see scales up and down the string and you find yourself bridging and connecting paterns that you otherwise would never have bumbed into or been able to hear, you start finding arepgios in places that no one else has ever looked, and you start to see pull off and hameron phrasing as scales and arpegios and they all merge together. Eddie and Allan Holdsworth didn't top out their respective styles by ignoring this knowledge.

So in my it's a matter of how far you want to go- you can do a lot with record copying, video tapes, lessons, and jamming with your buddies-

But I leave you with this- If you stick with this and make it far enough, at some point the keyboardest is going to ask you, quot;how are you voicing that major 7?quot; or, the sax player is going to say quot; I want to double the end of your solo..is that run entirely chromatic or are you skipping the Eb?quot; and I've seen pretty good players just get left behind.

Good luck either way, and remember it has to be fun first!

one thing is learning your INTERVALS well, another thing is learning every single damn note on the neck.

I know all my notes on the E and A strings for doing moveable barre chords with different voicings like diminished and 7ths etc, just so i can be able to get the key of a song easily.

Once you learn all of your modes and get comfortable with being able to 'ear' your way through the neck between modes with ease, you'll notice improvement. You should also explore the feel and differences in tonality of each mode (in reference to the same key of course as in a minor=c major=d dorian etc...) as this will let you tap into different sounds when an alternate feel is called for. I recommend you simply work on improvising in one scale, then start working on the other modes next to it, and keep jamming until you can switch smoothly and use them all effectively so you dont sound like you're always running the same licks and scales over and over again.


Originally Posted by kanekecan anyone advise whether it is important to memorize the fretboard. (do u need to have ti memorized in order to use modes?)
I mean what good will it do? thank you.

I would say yes, it's worth it to attempt to memorize the fretboard. I mean, ultimately you want to know what you want in your mind and soul and be able to get it out onto the fretboard. So, it's important to know where those spots are on the fretboard.

But DON'T obssess about it. I know a lot of players that don't memorize the entire fret board. Actually, I believe BB King was one of them, and really focused on quot;blocksquot; on the fretboard.

One more thing: When you see Steve Vai, or your local sweep picking show off, doing his 2 minutes of 2 years of work to show off, don't get discouraged or think that this dude is doing it on the fly. Most quot;shreddersquot; who are flying all over the place on the fretboard do so because THEY WRITE THEIR music FIRST, then practice it over and over. And yes, it looks like they know the entire fretboard, but in reality, they very deliberately wrote the music then practiced it later.

I hate to say what others have already said, but here it goes anyway.....

When I attended the Atlanta institute of Music, I expected them to start shoving sightreading down my throat... in fact, they did the opposite... As others have said, learn the intervals... Dont just remember the patterns, but actually call out the interval while playing each note of the scale and make a note of its location in relation to the other intervals.... When I say intervals, I mean the number of the interval.... FOr instance in a major scale, you would sing quot;1-2-3-4-5-6-7-1quot;.... When you play the blues scale, quot;1-b3-4-b5-5-b7-1quot; and so on.....These are movable, so the actual names of the notes dont matter as much in this approach....

When questioned by the keyboardist or saxist, you can say that was a b7 on the run, or whatever fits the case....

Of course, that still depends on what your end state is....

If you want to take it further, it is rather easy to add to this approach and learn the names of the notes you have been playing...

Hope this gave you a different point of view on the same information....

Allen

hey.. thanks alot mates.

yea.. i am so envious of guys like slash who can come out with a piece of solo that sounds so melodic with the song. I was thinking maybe he knew something else besides scales. I thought maybe if i could memorize the fretboard and instantly recall them while im soloing and throw in mode patterns across the chords of the song being played, i might be able to play freestyle and sound great without having to prepare any lead material beforehand. Im starting to figure out some appregio patterns which i could throw in too..

But i find it really hard to memorize and recall all the notes on the fretboard at an instant.. maybe i just need more practice.

Knowing what in the heck you are doing is never a bad thing.


Originally Posted by kanekeBut i find it really hard to memorize and recall all the notes on the fretboard at an instant.. maybe i just need more practice.

definetly - it took me a while to learn (and I'm still not perfect at it), but knowing the notes on the fretboard is really useful when you come to songwriting and improvising. The way I tried learning it was to just always consciously think about what note I was playing when I was playing a solo (not just mine, but other artists' solos too).