Guitar Fretboard 3 Minutes a Day Introduction

Transcription

1 Guitar Fretboard Minutes a Day Learning the Guitar Fretboard (-E--D, Go Catch Fish) by Greg Shirer

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3 Guitar Fretboard Minutes a Day Introduction he logic of the guitar s fretboard as to elude me for the last time One night after practicing ith the Katana (Japanese Sord) in Karate class, I visualized slicing up a guitar fretboard at different angles as it stood up on a stand One of the first strikes you learn comes straight don from overhead alays returning to its scabbard his shoed me ho each string consists of only to -note groups of natural notes in beteen the open string and the th fret he next strike I thought about came don at an angle from right to left and I sa these same -note groups repeated on adjacent strings five frets aay he final blo as the most direct Continuing the motion out of the scabbard on a horizontal plane revealed four notes on the th fret spelling the ord -E--D, as in jeelry, and the acronym Go Catch Fish (G-C-F) on the rd fret I realized that these ere all seven letters of the musical alphabet! he folloing method of learning the guitar fretboard is simple to follo and ill lead to more fluent sight reading Fretboard diagrams precede musical notation as an introduction to help ease the transition aay from dependence on tablature by making sense of the location of all notes Once you decipher the ritten code that is music notation, you ill immediately kno ho to produce the sounds It is intended that you concentrate and use this material to add just three minutes a day to your practice session on a regular basis making sure that you master each step comfortably before advancing lays say the note names aloud as you play Speaking out loud improves your focus and ill shorten the time it takes to remember each group Writing don your on exercises in music notation ill also speed things up It is important to revie the material often in order to retain as much as possible Very soon, learning ne music ill get easier and playing guitar ill be even more fun Good luck! Greg Shirer San Diego, California ugust --

4 Dedicated to my Dad Irin (eanie) N Shirer, Jr ho got me started ith the guitar and spent over eight months secretly learning to play just to surprise me cknoledgements Special thanks to Pepe Romero for encouraging me to rite this book and for alloing me to marry his daughter ina ho makes my life orth living hanks to my son ernardo for letting me bounce ideas around and for building such great concert guitars hanks to my students, especially Devon McCrea, for their valuable feedback as I developed this concept nd very special thanks to my best friend Mark Oens for his technical guidance and my sister nne Shirer for making this book a reality --

5 able of Contents Introduction cknoledgements Ho to Use his ook 6 Ho to Read Neck Diagrams Ho to Read Music Notation and Guitar 8 -E--D Chart : -E--D 6 G-C-F (Go Catch Fish) Chart : G-C-F Chart : -E--D and G-C-F combined Chart : Unisons Chart : ll Open String Notes 6 -E--D -Note Groups G-C-F -Note Groups Chart 6: o -Note Groups on Each String lank Manuscript Paper 6 Romanze by Robert Schumann Conclusion --

6 Ho to Use his ook hree minutes of concentrated study is all that is necessary he next time you practice, continue here you left off Revie previously learned material until it is very easy and simple for you Study the Neck Diagram and name the location of each note on the guitar (ie is on string, fret ) Play the notes in order (ie -E--D or G-C-F ) as you say the note names aloud Strings and 6 share the same letter names on the same frets Study the Music Notation until you can name the location of each note on the musical staff (ie is on line ) Study the Guitar to double-check the location of each note on the guitar Eventually, you should not need to consult the Guitar 6 Play through the musical example hile saying the note names aloud his ill speed up the learning process by helping you focus ry saying the ords, White Elephant ithout picturing one in your head -6-

7 Ho to Read Neck Diagrams Neck Diagrams are pictures of the guitar neck as if you ere playing and looking don he thinnest horizontal string, High-sounding E or String (), is on top and the thickest string, Lo-sounding E or String (6), is on the bottom Open string notes are located to the left of the diagram in slightly smaller black dots and the frets look like vertical columns he hollo dots help you visualize frets,, and 9 he double hollo dots are on fret -E--D notes are usually placed on the fretboard in larger black dots and played ith the st finger of your left hand Circled notes are played ith fingers, or on their respective fret ry to stay in position hich means that each left hand finger plays its on fret (ie don t use the same finger for to consecutive frets) G-C-F notes are usually represented by black squares and are also played ith the st finger of your left hand here are no natural notes adjacent to the right of G- C-F notes so the middle note ill be played ith either your nd or rd finger (I prefer the rd ) and the notes on the right ill be played ith your th finger --

8 Ho to Read Music Notation and Guitar his book is concerned ith bridging the gap beteen reading only and reading music notation Identifying and locating the natural letter named notes on the fretboard is only the first step herefore, the subject of rhythm is beyond our scope at present ry to play sloly and evenly as much as you can s you become more fluent you ill undoubtedly gain the confidence to learn rhythmic notation in order to master reading and playing from the music notation and becoming a literate musician [] he Musical Staff is a set of lines and spaces numbered from lo to high Notes are arranged in alphabetical order alternating beteen lines and spaces [] he reble Clef (or G Clef) establishes the nd line as G (see the cross hairs) [] he ime Signature represents the Number of eats per measure on top and the Value of the Notes being counted belo (in this case = quarter notes) [] Notes on the Lines are Every Good oy Does Fine (E-, G-, -, D-, F-) [] Notes on the Spaces spell the ord FCE (F-, -, C-, E-) [6] Ledger Lines extend notes above and belo the Music Staff [] Guitar (ablature) is similar to Neck Diagrams ith the top line representing the highest sounding string and the bottom the loest sounding string [8] he Numbers on the lines indicate hich frets to play on specific strings [9] he practical Range of Natural Notes available on the guitar he more frets your guitar has, the higher you can go [] he Musical lphabet has only natural notes n Octave (8va) occurs hen the same letter note is repeated above or belo the original note he distance beteen notes -C and E-F is only fret ll other adjacent letters are frets apart frets are required to repeat a letter note on the same string [] he name and location of the Open Notes of the SS Strings: E--D [] he name and location of the Open Notes of the RELE Strings: G--E -8-

9 Reading Music Notation and Guitar [] [][] [] [] [6] Music Notation (Say note names aloud) E G D F F C E G C D E F D C G F E [] [8] Guitar 8 C D E F C C D D E E E F F F G G G 8 (8va) C C D E F G C D E F G [9] [] (8va) 6 (8/) 6 (8/) 8 [] [] SS Strings RELE Strings E D G E -9-

10 -E--D (Open Strings) E E D (Say note names aloud) Ó Ó Ó Ó Ó Ó Ó Ó --

11 Move up Fret on String () -E--D (Frets and ) ---> E D Ó Ó Ó Ó Ó Ó --

12 -E--D (Frets and ) Move up Fret on String () ---> E D --

13 -E--D (Fret ) E D --

14 -E--D (Frets 9 and ) Move up Fret on String () ---> D E D (Say note names aloud)

15 -E--D (Fret ) 6 E E D --

16 ---> ---> ---> -6-

17 G-C-F (Open and Fret ) ---> G C F F Ó Ó Ó Ó Ó Ó Ó Ó --

18 G-C-F (Fret ) G G C F Ó Ó Ó Ó Ó Ó Ó Ó -8-

19 G-C-F (Frets and 6) ---> G C F (Say note names aloud) 6 Ó Ó Ó Ó Ó Ó Ó Ó

20 G-C-F (Fret 8) C G C F 8 8 Ó

21 G-C-F (Fret ) G C F Ó 9 Ó --

22 G-C-F (Frets and ) ---> 6 F C G F Ó --

23 ---> ---> ---> --

24 F / ---> / Move up String and Fret for "" in the next group / F / / F / F / / / ---> F / --

25 --

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27 -E--D (-Note Groups) 6 C D E F G E F G C D E F (Say note names aloud) E E E E D 8 E E D --

28 -E--D (-Note Groups) C D E F G C D E F 6 E E D D 6 6 E D 6-8-

29 -E--D (-Note Groups) C C D E F G C D E F E E D E D

30 -E--D (-Note Groups) C D C D E F G C D E F E E D E D

31 -E--D (-Note Groups) D E F C D E F G C D E F E E D D D 8 D E D

32 G-C-F (-Note Groups) G C D E F G F G G C C F F F F G G C F F --

33 G-C-F (-Note Groups) G G C D E F G G G G C C F F G G G C F --

34 G-C-F (-Note Groups) G C D E F G G C F C F G F G C F C G G C F

35 G-C-F (-Note Groups) G C D E C D E F G G 8 C 8 8 C C C F F G C G C F (Say note names aloud)

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38 Romanze Comparing Melodies on Different Strings Robert Schumann rranged by Greg Shirer When reading only from the, you are at the mercy of the arranger Listen to hat happens hen the melody is played on the nd and rd strings When you really kno the notes on the fretboard you can make your on creative decisions # 8 #

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40 Conclusion Congratulations! I hope this book as helpful and that you can see just ho poerful minutes a day can be I elcome your comments Please let me kno your likes and dislikes and let's see if e can improve this concept Click "CONC" on my ebsite: or me at gregshirer@gmailcom Greg Shirer --