Guitar Violin
Understanding The Fretboard Of A Guitar With Simple Patterns
If you're familiar with the CAGED guitar system or you have some basic musical theory knowledge then chances are this article won't be overly interesting to you.
However if you're struggling to remember which barre chords are where and you haven't noticed that the same chords shapes we use in the open first position (example A and E) are used as barre chords in other places on the neck pay close attention because what I'm going to share with you in this lesson is going to blow your mind.
I'm going to assume in this article that you know how to play an E shape and an A shape barre chord. If you're not familiar with those then you may want to refer to a free lesson on youtube for pick up a DVD guitar lesson that covers basic guitar chords.
The Theory Behind Note Spacing
There is a musical alphabet which you may or may not be familiar with. The letters in the musical alphabet are A through G. In music, since there is a tone or sound associated with each letter and we hear those tones as higher or lower then each other, there must be some measure of spacing between a higher note and a lower note.
Spacing between music notes is measured in term so steps, either a half or whole step. These steps on the guitar neck are equal to two frets for a whole step or one fret for a half step. Using this measurement of guitar frets we can explain more about how this spacing works.
We're going to ignore all flats and sharps for this example to keep things simple and only work with the seven notes A to G. Between every note there is a whole step (that's two frets) except for two places. The first is between B and C and the second is between E and F. Those exceptions only have a half step separating them.
Here's an example of what I Mean. If we're playing the first fret of the low E string or 6th string that is an F note. If we go up two frets to the 3rd fret we're not playing a G note because we've moved up one whole step or two frets. If we move up another two frets we'll be playing an A note on the 5th fret of the E string. Another two frets and we have a B note at the 7th and here's one of the exceptions, we move up only one fret to the 8th Fret to play a C note. Remember there's only half a step between B and C.
Using Steps on the Neck with Chords
Ok let's take this new found knowledge and apply it to barre chords on your guitar. I'll assume that you know an E shape chord played as a barre chord on the first fret is an F chord. Starting with that F chord how can we get to a G chord knowing what we just learned?So let's find the G chord using the same shape. How much space is between an F and a G chord? It's one whole step right? So let's slide up two frets to the 3rd fret, keep the same chord shape and now you're playing a G chord.
Let's try another one, from the 3rd Fret G chord we can move up another two frets and what comes after G? it's an A chord right since we moved up another whole step.
I hope you can see how this pattern is working and how you can apply it to notes and chord shapes around the neck.
So how does this help you? There are two ways. First if you know where at least one chord is on the guitar neck in a barre chord formation then you can move upwards and down the neck to find other chords using this pattern I've explained.
Also understanding this pattern allows you to find notes more easily on the fretboard if you know at least one note somewhere, even if it's only the open string name.
While the information on its own doesn't do much if you learn it and practice it on the guitar neck it can open up a whole new world for you of what notes and chords are where on each string and position on the guitar neck.
Quite literally this concept changed my understanding of the guitar neck and my playing ability over night. It was the best guitar lesson I ever learned when I was first starting out and I use this same knowledge when I'm jamming alone or playing with friends, it will stick with you for good.
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