These exercises are taken from the PraxTrax.org Complete Fretboard Course.
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Fret 7 - Another Important Fret
Fret 7 is another fret that displays an interesting and helpful pattern. Because there are 12 frets in an octave, [pause] and each string (*except the B string) is tuned 5 frets higher than the next lower one, [pause 5 sec] that means Fret 7 will be an octave higher than the adjacent string at the nut [pause 6 sec].
This sounds a bit confusing at first, but it is really quite simple. Here is the result of this relationship:
- E0pen is E, and E is found an octave higher at A7
- A0pen is A, and A is found an octave higher at D7
- D0pen is D, and D is found an octave higher at G7
- G0pen is G, and G is found an octave higher at B8*
- B0pen is B, and B is found an octave higher at E7
This is really just an application (or illustration) of the 7 Fret Rule, isn't it.
So this makes Fret 7 an important reference point in the middle of the fretboard - right where remembering the note positions seems to be the most difficult.
Let me explain... If you can remember that D7, for example, is A, an octave higher than A0pen, [ding, ding] it should be relatively easy to see that D9 is B [ding] (2 frets or semi-tones higher) and D10 is C [ding] (up another semi-tone).
A similar line of thinking goes for the G string. If you know that G7 is D [ding] - an octave higher than D0pen [ding] - then you also know that G9 is E [ding], and G10 is F [ding].
Of course doing this sort of calculation at a leisurely pace is one thing, but doing it on the fly as you're playing is a completely different matter. All you can do is try to memorize as many note positions as you can, and then practice exeercises that force you to think on your feet.
One suggestion is to do exercises that force you to relate note positions on the fretboard to notes on a written staff - traditional music notation. This type of exercise has the advantage of giving you something to associate fretboard positions to - note positions on the staff. The same thing happens with a trumpet player, for example, when he or she learns to associate a specific psoition on the staff to a specific fingering. Eveery beginning trumpet player soon learns that the second space on the staff [pause] is played with valves 1 and 2 [pause] and that note is an A.
Being a trumpet player myself, I can attest to the fact that this association is very strong. Unfortunately using traditional notation in this way is only useful if you are reasonably familiar with reading traditional music.
I think this is something you do not get from reading tablature. Tabs help you develop associations with fret positions and you fairly quickly see relationships between these positions - chords for example - but they don't tell you what notes you are actually playing. You may say, "well, note names and traditional notation just don't matter as much on the guitar". And you would probably be correct.
But that brings into question the whole purpose of a course like this.
If you don't want to learn tradional notes, then stick with tab. But if you do, then any tricks you can think of should be tried, and reading traditional notation is one of them.
The biggest problem with traditional notation is that on the guitar you can play the same note in different places of the fretboard. And traditional notation does not make it clear which position you should be using. [graphic of staff with notes and tab]That's why a combination of traditional and tablature might be best. Exercises and simple songs like the ones linked here give you a tradional staff accompanied by the same thing in tablature. This should be helpful in learning the fretboard as long as you pay more attention to the traditional notation than you do to the tablature.
I'm certainly not ssying that traditional notation is better than tablature for guitar players. It clearly is not. I'm just saying that tablature is not going to help you learn that D7 is A or G9 is E.
These exercises are taken from the PraxTrax.org Complete Fretboard Course.
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