Visualizing the Entire Fretboard
I spent a bunch of time working on fretboard visualization today. The goal is to instantly know where to find the notes I want anywhere on the neck in any key. Making that second nature will help me play without thinking about the notes. Just hearing (or reading) and playing, no thinking. Eliminate the middle man.
It seems the easiest and most common way to conquer the fretboard is to break it into positions. I've based my learning around positions for a few years, but always with a desire to ultimately stray from them. Learning positions separately makes it easy to master small chunks one at a time, but again, I don't want to be distracted by too much thinking while I'm playing. Using positions, I'm always thinking about which one I'm in, and playing a wide range over quick chord changes requires a lot of position changes, shifting between different modes of playing. This approach tends to lack fluidity. The guitar is just one big collection of notes, and that's how I want to view it.
So how do I break away from positions? I've been thinking about this for a while, and I don't want to abandon what I've already learned. That should be no problem, I'll just use all the fingerings I've memorized as familiar territory that I can pass through freely rather than distinct regions with borders that require extra thought to cross.
My plan is to use the roots as anchors. Whatever chord I'm playing over, I'll know every instance of that chord's root on the fretboard. I already define different positions in my head by where the roots fall, so this seems like an easy transition. The idea is to use all the roots as landmarks and know the locations of all the intervals (b3, 5, 7, etc.) I need at a given time relative to those roots.
Today I used a new tool I have in development that lets me use anything I want as flash cards. Its most basic use is to display random notes one at a time. I used this to work on memorizing a small portion of the fretboard. I started with m7 arpeggios and played them every way I could between frets five and twelve for each new root note that came up on my screen.
I used a number of similar methods throughout the day. I'd stick with a certain position of a certain arpeggio for a while and find it as quickly as possible with each new note. I worked on ii-V transitions in the same manner. I focused on arpeggios because I like to use them as the framework for everything else I play.
jdean9 (12 Apr 2009 at 12:33pm)
hi i just came across this because i googled "fretboard visualization" ..
i'm on the same quest to master the fretboard.. probably a life-long quest and probably something that one can never learn everything about, but at least i know i can get much better at it than i'm today... i feel the most important thing for me is to work on solidifying my foundation to make it as strong as possible and then all the new little cool things or variations i happen to learn i can sort of place on top of that somewhere and see how it relates to something i already know
after a couple of years of messing about and trying some methods that seemed to be dead ends for me (like trying to memorize all the relative modes) i have pretty much arrived at what feels a good fundamental method for me, although i still need to practice it more, but it really does seem to be the right way to go. It's the same method a lot of people use i guess... one position for every root note (actually it's the space between two root notes)... you end up with 5 box shapes associated with the CAGED system , although i like to just call them position 1-5 instead of c .... starting with position 1 being the position between the root note on the 6th string and on the 4th string (ie. for A major\minor\dominant\anything then pos.1 would be around the 5th-7th fret area) ... position 2 is around\between the root note on the 4th and 2nd string etc).. i found that Guthrie Govan teaches the same system in his books and calls them 1-5 in the same way as i did so that was kindof cool... i guess it's a pretty obvious system that a lot of people use , i don't know why i spent so much time fooling around before i discovered it.
because the only thing that ever REALLY worked well for me is simple stuff like transposing chord shape or say a minor pentatonic with the root note on the 6th or 5th string... that's really easy... As apposed to trying to do the maths in realtime like Bb phrygian = Gb major bla bla ... associating everything with the natural root notes instead is just so much more immediate. And i feel like i have to know which note is the root which is the 3rd etc anyway, so thinking relatively just doesn't cut it for me.
i never really had the problem of feeling confined in a position or a box shape though.. maybe because i fooled so much around by ear before i started trying to actually memorize scales , i don't know.. For me the only important thing is just to try to learn where the notes of a particular chord or scale are, because then i can move around with more confidence and miss fewer notes when i improvise. Actually i often find it difficult to confine my hands stricly to one position, because that often results in some awkward finger stretches for certain licks that would be easier to play if i allowed my hand to slide up or down a couple of frets into another position.
anyway, i don't really know what i'm getting at here... just thinking out loud i guess : ) hope i didn't just say a lot of obvious stuff...
good luck with ur progress and please let me know if u come across anything helpful ! cheers : )
Gianca (29 Aug 2013 at 11:58pm)
Just downloaded you ear training mp3. I wanna to give something in exchange, so I'd like to share with you a little software game I developed, useful for fretboard memorization. Hope you enjoy. Thank you again. Here's the link
http://www.fachords.com/master-guitar-fretboard-game-intro/
Joe (2 Sep 2013 at 3:45pm)
I love the game! I'll see what my students think of it. Thanks!
Gianca (4 Sep 2013 at 3:12am)
welcome! glad to be helpful!