An arpeggio is the notes of a chord played one after the other. When people talk about arpeggios on the guitar, they are probably talking about specific patterns that allow you to play the notes in order from the root to the 7th. So for a Major 7 arpeggio, you would play the 1, then 3, then 5, then 7.

However, if you talk about “arpeggiating a guitar chord”, you will usually just play a chord shape you know (like the open G chord) one string at a time. You could do this from low to high, high to low, or mixed up, and it would still be common to just say you were “arpeggiating the chord” for any of those.

When we talk about arpeggios on the guitar though, we’re usually talking about the first example where we play the notes in theory order.

What is the point of learning arpeggios? There are a couple reasons that usually lead people to learn these specialized shapes.

• Understanding chords better
• Creating chords
• Hand exercises
• Improving solos

Let’s break down each of these reasons a bit.

Understanding Chords

All chords have a theoretical formula that refer to the musical intervals that make them up. For example, as stated earlier a Major 7th chord is made up of the 1, 3, 5 and 7. Another way to say this is that a Major 7th chord consists of a root, a Major 3rd, a Perfect 5th, and a Major 7th.

Contrast that with a minor 7th which is made up of a 1, b3, 5, and b7, or stated differently, a root, a minor 3rd, a Perfect 5th, and a minor 7th.

Learning the theory behind different guitar chords and the arpeggios that make them up is a great way to understand what makes one chord different from another. This can help you remember the name or shape of some chords better or help you to understand its function easier.

Creating Chords

Let’s say you’re playing a progression where you want to go resolve to your root chord, but when you do, you feel slightly unsatisfied. The progression resolves, but the ending isn’t as complete as you’d like or the voice-leading (the movement of notes of one chord to the notes in the next chord, such as the highest note of one chord moving to the highest note of the next chord) is not exactly what you hear in your head.

You try a different version of your root chord, but you still aren’t satisfied. At that point you can see if building a chord works better. We know that the root chord is just the 1, 3, and 5 with the option to add the 7 if we want a more nuanced chord. So any Root, 3 and 5 below can be combined to make a chord that maybe fits what you hear in your head better as long as you can fret it simultaneously (or split it between two guitars if you’re playing in a band context).

The pattern above can start at any fret, but if for the example, let’s just assume this F Major and the root on the low E is at the 1st fret. Maybe you tried a simple Major barre chord at the 1st fret and liked it, but it was a little bit fuller than you wanted, maybe the root was repeated too many times. So you tried the Major barre off the A string (at the 8th fret), but found yourself thinking it sounded too high. Check out the diagram above and look at any R, 3, and 5. Maybe we could try the 5 on the 3rd fret of A, the 3 on the 7th fret of D, the 5 on the 5th fret of G, and the Root on the 6th fret of B. This has all the same notes as our barre chord off the E string, but no repeated roots and with a slightly different timbre since we’ve moved the high notes onto thicker strings.

Hand Exercises

You can make pretty much anything on the guitar an exercise, but using arpeggios will also get some very usable shapes cemented in your hands (we’ll explore these uses in the next section), so arpeggios are a good choice if you want to try some exercises to improve your finger independence, stretching capabilities, and movement options across the neck.

Picking arpeggios that start on the E string and then transitioning to arpeggios that start on the D string (and doing the same from A string arpeggios to G string arpeggios) can be a great way to practice all of the above.

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So using the above, you might try doing the Major 7th shape off E in the middle that starts with the middle finger on the root, and transition that to the Major 7th shape off D in the bottom left that starts on the index finger. It can be a great exercise to internalize the different arpeggio shapes and the different placements of the notes relative to a given root on the E string to be able to move from any E shape to any D shape seemlessly.

For a different exercise, you could try arpeggios that go between 4 strings, or stay only on 2 strings. These shapes will help you focus both on the stretch between fingers and when to move previous fingers to the next string to keep your playing as smooth as possible.

In part two we’ll discuss the soloing and creative applications of playing arpeggios on the guitar!

Many people think that jamming with other people is an advanced skill for musicians that have been playing for years. The truth is all you need is a scale and a basic progression (which we’ll talk about in later blogs).

The scale we are learning today is also the basis for a vast quantity of guitar riffs and solos, so knowing how to play it will give you an advantage when you approach these songs.

This is the pentatonic scale. The pentatonic scale is a five-note scale that is derived from the diatonic seven-note scale. The most common diatonic scale is the Major scale, which people often recognize as “do re mi fa so la ti do” which is featured in the song “Do Re Mi” in Sound of Music. To get the pentatonic scale from a diatonic scale, you take the fourth and seventh notes out (fa and ti are removed). Since these two notes often need to be played at certain times and not at others, they are the most likely to sound bad if played out of place. Their absence in the pentatonic scale enables you to improvise over simple progressions without playing any wrong notes!

Here is the A minor pentatonic guitar scale diagram:

A few things to pay attention to: First, guitar scale diagrams are typically read like tab, with the low E string and A string at the bottom and the high e string at the top. It is not a mirror to your guitar. You read the pitches from left to right, bottom to top. So first, play the 5^th fret of E, then the 8^th fret of E. Next, play the 5^th fret of A and then the 7^th fret of A, and so on. But keep reading for now, because we’re going to make some small additions and clarifications.

We are going to learn the scale in fifth position. On guitar, playing in position means that each finger is assigned to a fret and the number of the position is what fret you start on. In this case, the index finger will play every 5^th fret, the middle finger will play every 6^th fret, the ring finger will play every 7^th fret, and the pinky finger will play every 8^th fret.

If you were playing in first position, the index finger would play every 1^st fret, the middle finger would play every 2^nd fret, the ring finger would play every 3^rd fret, and the pinky finger would play every 4^th fret.

Most guitar scale patterns can be used starting from any fret and it will still be that quality of scale (such as major, minor and/or blues, pentatonic, etc). However, the name will change based on what fret it starts at. Since the 5^th fret of the E string is the note A, this is the A minor scale. If you started at the 8^th fret of the E string, which is the note C, the scale would be C minor, and so on. (Don’t worry too much about this right now if you aren’t familiar with your fret names, you can learn those here later.)

The pentatonic scale is enough to jam with other people, but you can add a little bit more flavor by adding an extra note called a “blue note” to create the “blues scale.”

The blues scale is played the same as the pentatonic scale, but with an added note at the 6^th fret of A (played with the middle finger) and the 8^th fret of G (played with the pinky). This note (denoted by the triangles in the following diagram) can add a little bit of flavor and contrast to the normal scale. Try it out!

If you’re still unsure how to read scale diagrams, here is a “how to read guitar scales” visual breakdown:

Make sure to memorize this pattern so that you do not need to look at it. If it helps, memorize one string at a time. (So just play E, then just play E and A, then E, A, D, etc.)

Once you have memorized the scale, be sure to play it descending as well. Here is what it looks like in tab to play the scale up and down:

Finally, when you have mastered that, make sure to alternate your picking. You will alternate your hand the same way you would for strumming, with all number counts being downs and all +’s being ups.

If you’re already comfortable reading rhythms, here’s another rhythm you could try if you’re struggling to remember which strings have the blue note:

You’ll notice that in this tab example for the blues scale, I recommend using a swing feel and a rhythm of mostly quarter notes. On the two strings with three notes, I use 8^th notes. When I was learning this scale many years ago, I found that this “One, Two, Three-and-Four” rhythm helped me remember which strings had the blue notes.

Once you have the scale memorized, play up the scale and back down. In addition to the rhythm above, try using straight 8^th notes with alternate picking for the entire scale as well.

Remember, alternate picking is similar to strumming, where every number (1, 2, 3, 4) is played with a down and every + is played with an up. If you are playing constant 8^th notes for the scale, you will always be alternating down and up. If the last note you played was an up, play a down, regardless of whether you are starting a new string or not and vice versa.

Scale Tips

Here are some tips to make your scales cleaner once you have it memorized.

As a first adjustment, when you are on the same string, leave your fingers down. For example, when you play the 5^th fret of A with your index finger, leave it down and continue pressing with your index finger as you put your middle finger on the 6^th fret, then leave both of them down while you put your ring finger on the 7^th fret. Then you can pick up all the fingers to play the next string.

This will help you play your scales a bit more legato which means smoothly (one note leads into the next note).

Oftentimes, people have a tendency to pick up their fingers (sometimes slightly) before playing each note. This creates a staccato sound (short, detached sound where a pronounced space is present between each played note).

Keeping your fingers down will also help you develop more stretch in your hands. You should do this gradually day by day, don’t hurt your hands by overdoing it. If you feel like you can’t reach a fret you’re supposed to play while keeping your fingers down, get as close as you can and try to reach farther the next day. You can make it easier to reach the further frets by making sure your index finger is as close to the fret as possible.

Over time, try to get every finger close to the metal frets (always close to the body), so ideally your index finger should be right next to the 5th metal fret, the middle finger right next to the 6th metal fret, and so on. This will allow you to use less pressure, which helps you play faster and more relaxed. It can also help reduce buzzing.

Alternate vs Economy vs Bad Habits

Alternate picking is a great starting place for beginners because it helps you keep your rhythm and momentum, but there is another way of picking called “Economy Picking”. The idea of economy picking is that no motion is wasted. You’ll notice for example, that when playing the blues scale you play “down up down” on the A string and then “up down” on the D string, which is technically inefficient.

The transition between the strings (Down on the 8^th fret of A and up on the 5^th fret of D) is good alternate picking, but contains a very slight amount of wasted motion. You’ll notice that in order to play the up on D, you actually have to move your pick over the D string, and then back when you strike it.

The idea of economy picking is that in situations like this, you will pick the new string in the direction that your hand is already moving. In this case, since your hand is already moving down, you would pick the D string with a down as well. (When you are playing on a single string, economy and alternate picking will be the same thing).

However, the reason that I don’t recommend starting with economy picking is that it is much harder to keep your rhythm unless you already have a very good rhythmic sense internalized and can control your hand to reflect that. With alternate picking, if you keep the size and force of the motion consistent for your downs and ups, they should last roughly the same amount of time, giving you a very even rhythm. Economy picking can often create rushed rhythms as the hand slides from one string to the other.

It is also harder to self-moderate with economy picking in the beginning. With alternate picking, you can simple say “down up down up” out loud in order to verify that you are playing correctly. Economy picking requires that you be very careful and know exactly what you should be playing at that moment. So in general, I recommend alternate picking when you are starting out. (And for reference, myself and many other guitar players I know who can play very fast, still play using mostly alternate picking. It is common to only use economy picking for incredibly fast speeds and sweep picking)

As an aside, a lot of people have a tendency to start every new string on a down. Occasionally, this can coincide with economy or alternate picking by chance (as in measures 1 and 2 of the example below), but it can also be not economical and not alternate (as in measures 3 and 4). If you find yourself doing this, slow down and say “down up down up” out loud as you play until you break the habit.

Jamming

Scales are a useful exercise and will definitely help your dexterity a great deal. But the real reason you want to learn them is so you can create your own music! If you have a friend who knows a 12 bar blues in Am (which we’ll discuss later), or who can simply play Am, Dm, and Em with a simply strumming pattern; you can jam together!

If someone is playing a progression such Am, Dm, Em, or the blues shuffle in Am, you can play your scale along with them and it will fit. You can start by just playing up and down the scale, but over time, you can change it up and try playing the notes in the scale in different orders.

If you don’t have a friend to play with, you can go to YouTube and search for “A minor backing tracks”. Any of these tracks should be a decent backdrop for you to practice your scale and practice creating your own licks and solos.

Don’t be shy if it doesn’t sound exactly the way you want it to. There are certainly many things we can learn to improve our soloing, but a lot of people have just learned by trial and error, finding what works, so you can start there too!

Do be aware that the blue note is probably not a note you should hang out on for very long unless you are trying to create a bit of tension in your playing, we usually use this note as a quick bit of flavor as we go from note to note, or to ornament a single note. (So maybe if you’re playing the 7th fret of A, you would quickly play the 6th fret of A before going to the 5th fret of A or returning to the 7th fret.)

Jamming with backing tracks is one of the most relaxing and fun parts of playing guitar, so try it out and let me know what you think!

This lesson isn’t meant to teach how to do barre chords in detail, but rather is meant to help clarify which shapes are which among the barre chords and how to use them with the fret names on the E and A strings.

If you feel pretty comfortable with your Major, minor, and Dominant 7 shapes on the E and A strings (6 shapes total), you can skip to here to learn how to use them with the fret names for this exercise.

Now let’s cover the chords:

I’m going to start with the barre chords that have their root on the E string. People usually learn these shapes as the F Major barre chord and its corresponding minor and 7 shapes.

I tend to teach these more as shapes that indicate a quality (quality meaning Major, minor, Dominant 7, etc) rather than as specific chords.

So this shape,

I teach as a “Movable Major Barre Chord off the E string.” The shape is a Major quality chord that can be used starting on any fret and the root of the chord is on the E string. So the chord is based “off the E string.” When it is on the 1^st fret, it is F Major, which is why I have written that in parentheses, but I’m more concerned with the shape and the quality then that one specific chord location.

I relate this chord to the E Major Open Chord that most people learn as one of their first few guitar chords.

If you concentrate on the colored circles (including the open circles that indicate open strings) you’ll notice these two shapes are the same. Think of the barre as replacing the open strings as you move the E Major chord up the neck of the guitar.

Now, the following isn’t essential knowledge, so don’t stress out about it too much if you’re new to music theory; let’s talk about chord construction really quick.

Major and minor chords are composed of three notes that we refer to as a “triad” or the “1-3-5” of that note. Basically, a triad goes up the musical alphabet from your root (whatever the letter name of the chord is) and takes every other note.

For example, if the chord is A, then the 1 is A, 2 is B, 3 is C, 4 is D, 5 is E etc. The notes in that A chord then are A, C, and E. The note on the 3 and 5 might be natural, sharp, or flat, depending on the key and what the quality of the chord is, but this is a good starting place for understanding.

If the chord is F#, then the 1 is F#, 2 is G, 3 is A, 4 is B, 5 is C, etc. The notes in that F# chord then are F#, some kind of A, and some kind of C.

(For purists or the curious, technically the notes in A are A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G# and the notes in F# are F#, G#, A#, B, C#, D#, E#, but that isn’t the focus of this lesson. Simply knowing that the notes are “some kind of” C, or A, etc will go a long way to improving our understanding.)

On my chord diagram handouts, all intervals are always color coded. Black notes are always the root note, blue notes are the 3^rd, red notes are the 5th, and green notes are the 7th. (My handouts also have versions that are labeled for people who are unable to differentiate between certain hues)

Let me show you the next guitar chord we need to know and then we’ll connect this knowledge to it.

This movable chord shape is a “Movable Minor Barre Chord off the E string.” The shape is a minor quality chord that can be used starting on any fret and the root of the chord is on the E string.

Similar to the major chord, we can relate this chord to the open E minor shape.

Once again, look at the colored circles (including the open circles that indicate open strings) and you’ll notice these two shapes are the same.

So we can see how these barre chords relate to the open E chords, but how do they relate to each other?

Well, both of these chords are composed of roots (the 1), thirds, and fifths. But if you compare the two shapes you’ll notice only the note on the G string changes. This note is the third and we can learn another theory concept from this.

The difference between a Major triad and a minor triad is that in a minor triad, we flat the third.

That doesn’t necessarily mean the note itself is a flat. It just means it moves down a half-step (one fret).

So if we have an A Major Triad, the notes in that chords are A – C# – E. The A minor chord is similar, but we flat the third by moving the third down a half-step. Therefore, an A Minor Triad is A – C – E.

For a different example, C major is C – E – G, so C minor is C – Eb – G.

Remember these formulas: a Major triad is (1 – 3 – 5) and a minor triad is (1 – b3 – 5).

It can also be helpful to remember that minor chords tend to sound dark, mysterious, or sad; whereas Major chords tend to sound bright, upbeat, or happy. Listen to these chords back to back, make sure you know how a Major chord sounds versus a minor chord and that you remember a minor chord has a lower note than the Major chord, this should help you keep straight which is which.

Our final barre chord shape off the E string (for today’s lesson), is the Dominant 7^th chord.

A Dominant 7^th chord takes the Major Triad and adds a note to it: a 7 (technically a b7). So for C7, the 1 – 3 – 5 – 7 would be C – E – G – B (technically C – E – G – Bb).

It’s important to know that the full name for this chord is Dominant 7^th, but most people will just say 7. So C Dominant 7 and Ab Dominant 7 will just be written as C7 and Ab7 respectively.

The dominant 7 chord is the only one we can shorten like this. There are other 7 chords, such as the Major 7 and the minor 7, but in order to distinguish these chords from the Dominant 7 we have to say/write the whole name.

So C Major 7 will be written as CMaj7 or CM7 or sometimes C△ 7. and C minor 7 will be written as Cmin7 or Cm7 or sometimes C-7.

Now that we have an idea of what the Dominant 7^th chord is, let’s focus on the important thing. How to do it:

Here we have the “Movable Dominant 7 Barre Chord off the E string.” The shape is a Dominant 7 quality chord that can be used starting on any fret and the root of the chord is on the E string.

Once again, we can relate this to the open E shape, E7.

As with the other shapes, the colored circles (including the open circles that indicate open strings) maintain the same relationship to each other, indicating these are the same shape.

If you look at the chord shape and compare it to the Major shape, you’ll see that we took the root on the D string and went down two half-steps to get our b7.

We can quickly learn the other three barre shapes by applying the same logic. The same way that our “_____ barre shape off the E string” chords are related to our open E chords, the barre shapes off the E string will be related to our open A chords as you can see below.

Spend some time to memorize these chords and get them down before moving to the final step.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Now that you know the fret names from the previous lesson and the barre chords from today’s lesson, you can put them together to quickly play a version of any song you can find chords for.

For this exercise, go to any tab website such as ultimateguitar.com and pick a song (this can be random from the suggested songs at the top, or a song you like, but haven’t learned yet).

The goal of this exercise is to get quicker at reading chords so that in the future you can play a song you’ve never played before, on the spot, in a passable manner. You’ll be doing a different song every day and the point is not to learn the song right now, but to get quicker at finding frets on the fretboard and putting down the right chords instantly.

Once you’ve selected a song, find a decently rated “Chords” version of the song (as opposed to tab) and open it up. If I’m learning a song, I will usually opt for tab (particularly if there is a Guitar Pro version) since it will be more detailed, but the point here is not to learn the song, but to get better at quickly playing passable versions of songs to play with others or to sing along to.

For the first few days you try this exercise, it is better to find songs that do not have alternate tunings or capos used.

If you do use a song that is tuned down, it is important to know that the vast majority of transcribers will still notate the chords as if the guitar is in standard tuning. So for instance, if the song is tuned down a whole step, the 3^rd fret of E is technically now F, but if the transcriber wants you to play a Major chord at the third fret (F Major when tuned down a whole step), it is not uncommon for them to write it as “G” since that is the chord that position is usually associated with.

Similarly, with a capo, the fret where the capo is located is treated as zero in tab and the frets are numbered/named accordingly from there as if that was the open string. So if a song has a capo at the third fret and the song has a C major in it (which could be played on a guitar without a capo as a barre at the 8^th fret of E), you will usually see them write this as “A Major” since the capo is treated as the open string and 5 frets up from the open E string is A (capo at 3 + 5 frets = 8^th fret of a guitar without a capo).

If that is confusing, don’t stress it right now. I encourage you to work mostly from tabs that don’t have capo or alternate tunings, or to ignore a capo instruction and just play as normal (it just won’t sound good when playing with the song that way).

Once you’ve chosen a song, scroll down to the chords and play them in order, always trying to find the closest available chord. Only use barre chords, do not use open chords except for the open E and open A chords. You can use strumming pattern that sounds right if you want, but since this is just an exercise it is ok to just strum each chord once.

Let’s say the first few chords of the song are as follows

Bm / F#7 / A / E7 /

G / D / Em /F#7

You can play B minor at the 2^nd fret of the A string, using a minor shape off the A string. Our options for F#7 are then the 9^th fret of A and the 2^nd fret of E. The 2^nd fret of E is closer, so we’ll play F#7 there with a dominant 7 shape off the E string.

The next chords are A and E7, so while we normally avoid open chord shapes for this exercise, we can use the open A and the open E7 since they share the same overall shape as the barre chord and they are closest to the 2^nd fret chord we just played.

For G Major, the closest barre chord is a Major barre off the 3^rd fret of E, followed by a Major barre chord off the 5^th fret of A. We have another Em next, but the closest Em is now at the 7^th fret of A, and finally the F#7 at the 9^th fret of A.

If the chord progression repeats, you can repeat it once or twice if you want, but since the point of this exercise is to get better at sight reading chords, you can just move on to the next different part of the song (maybe the chorus or bridge) and do the same thing.

Once you’ve completed this, go back to the top, and do it again, but this time, start on the other string.

In our example, we started with a B minor on the 2^nd fret of A, so this time we’ll start with a B minor on the 7^th fret of E. Then we continue on from there using the closest available chord.

Sometimes you will have chords that overlap between the two versions, that is okay. We’re just trying to avoid only using one part of the guitar neck constantly, so we start the song once from each starting point.

I also generally don’t go above the 12^th fret when doing this exercise.

The next time you do this exercise. Choose a different song. Remember that the point of the exercise is to quickly find chords, and if you start memorizing the song, you might start focusing on fret placement and muscle memory rather than forcing your brain to associate the note names with the frets and chord shapes.

After a week or so of doing this, you will find that you are able to navigate these much better, and with more practice you’ll be able to play the chords to any song quickly and without pause.

A couple other quick tips.

If you don’t know a chord, just play what you do know (reading from left to right) so if you see F#maj7, but you don’t know a Major 7 shape yet, just play F# Major.

If you see Csus4, just play C. If you see Dm/F#, just play D.

Long-term, it is good to learn these chords, but for now, just playing what you know will give you a passable version of the chord 95% of the time, it will just lack a little nuance.

Also, as you get better at this exercise, you can stop worrying about what chord is closest and instead think of whether the pitch of the harmony goes up or down in the song and play the corresponding chord. This will make it sound even more like the song.

In our example, if we thought the E minor that comes after D major shifted down in pitch, then instead of playing E at the 7^th fret of A, we could play the open E instead. But wait until you’re good at the exercise to do this, because you don’t want to inadvertently favor some parts of the neck while neglecting others.

As you continue to improve, you can bring your open chords back into the exercise and start trying to play strumming patterns that seem to evoke the feel of the song. I may address strumming and playing what you hear in a future lesson, but for now, just do the best you can.

Finally, as you continue to improve with this, learn other movable chord shapes so you can change up your voicings and increase the number of chords you can quickly execute. I’ll cover some of these in future lessons.

In the next blog of this series, I’ll be talking about basic scales and why they are lots of fun to learn.

Learning the fret names of the guitar can be daunting, but we’re going to break it down into really easy chunks.

Our long-term goal is to learn the entire neck, but right now we want the biggest bang for our buck. Most people are going to get the most usage out of the notes between the 1^st and 12^th frets on the E and A strings.

The most commonly used movable shapes, the E and A string barre chords and power chords, have their root based on the E and A strings. In addition, three of the five pentatonic scale patterns and five of the seven diatonic patterns have both their Major and minor roots on the E and A strings (the remaining two of each have either one or the other on these strings as well).

Whether you’re trying to figure out where to start your scale to play along with a jam track or you’re trying to learn the chords to your favorite song, you can easily come up with a solution for all common situations just using the E and A strings, so that’s what we’re going to focus on.

Example: Where would you start playing the above scale to jam with a track in B Major?

What fret does your barre chord need to be on if a song asks you to play F minor?

Furthermore, we’re going to only focus on the natural notes to start off with, no sharps or flats. It is pretty easy once you know the natural notes to quickly adjust up one fret for sharps (#) and down one fret for flats (b). Eventually, we want to take out even this small amount of processing, but just the natural notes will serve us well for now.

Once you know the notes on the guitar fretboard, you know them forever, so take your time. You can also use this process to learn the notes on the bass guitar since the E and A strings are the standard low strings on both instruments.

I suggest learning one note a day and spending several minutes on it despite its simplicity. I also think it’s prudent to learn them out of alphabetical order to avoid being dependent on that order. As there are seven natural notes and seven days in a week, this will create a decent level of familiarity with the notes in a week. For younger students or students with less time to practice, starting with only the E string might help.

The order I suggest is C, G, E, B, F, D, A. Students can imagine the note name printed on the fret and say the name of the fret out loud.

While it is unlikely anyone will ask you to sing the pitch without reference or to find it blindly, really listen to the sound and try to pay attention to the positioning of your hand on the fretboard to engage as many of your senses as possible in this task. If you always use your index finger for this exercise, you will have a better sense of where the notes are relative to each other.

You don’t want to just have a good sense of where the note is though, you also want it to be explicit knowledge that you know in any context.

For example someone might ask you, “Where is C on the guitar?” or you might see the chord C minor written in a song you’re learning. So you want to know that “C is the 8^th fret of E. C is the 3^rd fret of A” (Say this out loud several times during the process)

You might also be playing a chord on the third fret, or have someone ask you “what is the 3^rd fret of A”?

So say out loud to yourself, “The 8^th fret of E is C. The 3^rd fret of A is C.”

Your goal is to be able to instantly answer these questions (verbally, but more importantly, physically, by putting your finger on that fret)

Doing this for several minutes for each note (and spending at least a minute reviewing previous days in the same fashion) will help the knowledge to become subconscious.

I also like to review the notes in every order I can think of. I might review them in these orders

1) The order I learned them in

2) One string at a time, in order, counting up (start at 1^st fret and do every fret you’ve learned so far up to the 12^th fret, day 3 on the E string would be G: 3^rd fret of E, C: 8^th fret of E, E: 12^th fret of E)

3) One string at a time, in order, counting down (start at 12^th fret and do every fret I’ve learned so far down to the 1^st fret)

4) Both strings, frets 1-12 (so on day three that might be, G: 3^rd fret of E, C: 3^rd fret of A, E: 7^th fret of A, C: 8^th fret of E, G: 10^th fret of A, E: 12^th fret of E)

Do this for every note for a week. Remember, take your time. I know it can get repetitive very fast, but if you can bring your entire attention to this for 5-10 minutes a day or a week, a full half of the fretboard will no longer be as mysterious. (Yes, we’re working on two strings between 1-12, but since frets 13-24 are the exact same and use the same fret markers, and we have two E strings, this will give you a working knowledge of half the neck. Not too shabby for 35-70 minutes of work spread out over a week!

In the next blog of this series, I’ll go over some exercises you can use next to make sure your knowledge becomes instantaneous and make sure you know all the common barre chord shapes.