what made you more familiar with the fretboard of guitar

so that you can be more sure what u're doing aand where you're going at a certain moment

thanks

 

Well, "what you're doing" and "where you're going" is one thing, that comes from yourself I guess. Only you can tell what you're aiming at so don't get too stressed over what others tell you, including myself

But when practicing, this helped me enormously in the early days: when learning a key/scale/chord, practice it in all the positions, not just the lowest one so in practice I'd try to cover everything below 12 frets in any given key. Then when you've got that covered, play each position in thirds (or wider intervals), for instance, in E minor instead of E F# G A B C D E play E G F# A G B A C B D C E or E G B D F# A C E and so on.

Chords become easier to understand when you arpeggiate them, play each note individually.

You'll pick up soonish what patterns appeal to you so there might be no point doing certain things, but this is again very personal.

Also (and I still falter with this sometimes), when practicing a scale, name each note as you play it, or even better, try to sing it as you go along.

And this is good for my tin ears: when practicing/noodling along with a certain key, whip up a drone on that note, say I'm doing D-whatever, then sequence a D-drone in the background when doing scale patterns and chords, your ears will pick up the intervals and what they mean to a key. Same way, practicing along with chord patterns and sequences can be helpful.

A metronome can work wonders, but start real slow!

 

Top post.
Singing each note or just naming it is incredibly useful...

 

Learn by heart, and practice/use the 5 Pentatonic scales, and the 7 Modes of the Major scale.

Learn all the Chord Shapes and Chord Progressions you can, but not just mere exercises,
do it from the stuff you want to actually play/sing..

You'll learn/get more used to navigate the fretboard from say the chord progressions,
songs/tracks, or the jazz standards you actually play, or want to play, alone or with other fellow musicians..

Rather than just blindly following exercises..

For instance, a good way to go in the beggining,
and some of the actual first things you'll learn in a Modern music conservatory is: Bossanova standards.
If you like the style, it's a great way to learn Chords, and learn to Apply them in a determinate context/goal..

And it could also be beneficial in other aspects depending on how you Approach it,
If you Sing the songs over the chords, you'll improve your sense of rhythm and vocal/mental tuning skills..

If you study the melodies/harmony of the track, and try to apply your scales/arpeggios over them,
you'll improve your skills in that area, get more used to think in/out the box, and certainly learn to navigate your fretboard too..

But first things first, Scales and Chords first,
then try to Apply it in the broadest number of contexts as possible..

 

Last edited: Jun 16, 2021

Playing, playing and then some more playing is a good way to get there. Familiarity breeds your sense of place.

 

Intervals and Arpeggios. The
Octave triangle will help you a lot too.
Watch this. Nice tipps and one of the best guitar learn channels on YouTube. Not only for metal players. This channel is pure gold for every guitar player.

 

Wow !

I wish that i could give a short answer, but it is not the case.
Off course, learning the fundamentals is important, but one very practical hint is :
Take simple melodies (simple because your mind and ears will have no doubt about those melodies) and play them on the guitar neck, in different places of the guitar neck. Seems too easy ? Well if it is too easy, grab your guitar and play "happy birthday" in several keys, several areas of the guitar, without mistake ! In an old video Barney Kessel gives this advice. (you can find it on YT

)
Speaking about knowing the notes on the guitar neck , one great thing : learn the natural notes (no sharps no flats) on each single string , that is 5 strings because you don't have to learn twice the Low and high "E". The names of the other notes will be easy to get because you are a half step away. About scales and arpeggios, it is good to know them, but their use will be unlighted by studying and transcribing the way the masters uses them, it is this that will make this stuff sound like the real thing.
Last thing : be extremely careful with teachers or people that say : "this is the way", because there are lots of ways !
Like stupid teachers who will telle you about "right fingering" or positions etc... Once again, real life shows that there is no "one way" !
Django used mostly TWO fingers, and players like tal Farlow, or Allan Holdsworth have huge hands, so their fingerings are different. And so and so. One more thing again : find stuff that pleases you, that you want to pick up your axe and play, practice, study, whatever, being enthusiastic about it. Because there are so many things to play and learn no matter what one's level is, that one must do it with pleasure, otherwise it's just too much ! Good Luck !

 

Last edited: Jun 16, 2021

Very true.

However I have to break patterns on my things sometimes or I'll fall into a rut of playing things just because they are familiar. But the main point is to play.

 

Be Yourself!

99.9999999% of guitarists are completely unoriginal and have nothing interesting to say with their guitar voice.

The innovators are always the people doing their own thing, not being a clone, and their technique is self-taught.

We learn the fundamentals of language at a young age, and use it effortlessly to express ourselves. That's where you should be with a guitar. When you talk, you aren't thinking about spelling or punctuation or theory. Same with music.

 

Hehe ! That is a very honest way of speaking ! I think that most of the musicians have to deal with this, even the great ones, they say it, no shame about that. Difference is that the higher the level is, the less noticeable.

 

So if you are not an innovator, or a genius what to do ? The OP did not ask about that, just asked about how to get to know the instrument better. He did not talk about being creative or innovating things. First you learn how to play, then what come out comes out. Or not !

 

I did answer the question!

There's no better way to learn an instrument than by exploring it. There's no better way to explore it than by using your own imagination.

 

True, but that only gets you so far. It's better to explorer when you've got the basics under your belt. How'd the old saying go... "Results are 95% perspiration and 5% inspiration."

And if you think innovators never practiced, well...

https://bibliolore.org/2014/04/27/slonimsky-and-coltrane/

Edit, but I'm going way off-topic so I'll see myself out of here, best of luck @samsome !