A Fretboard In your Mind

Music Theory Notes On The Fretboard & Cycle Of 5ths
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This exercise will help you visualize and work out chords, scales, etc., without a guitar!


View the full lesson at A Fretboard In your Mind | JustinGuitar

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Coming from a different instrument this exercise is similar to how I approached notes on the fretboard when I first started.

I started by doing paper exercises on the circle of 4ths, and major 3rds (for the G->B string interval). Then I just had to memorize the notes on the thickest E string. It still took me a while before I was able to do it with any speed. Triads and Octave intervals definitely helped so I can calculate a note multiple ways at once if I have to.

The problem I have now is occasional choice paralysis. I have to think about which method would require the fewest amount of mental steps before I start figuring out a noteā€¦ but itā€™s coming along.

I found these heuristics useful to cut through the paradox of choice.

  • E string: memorize
  • A string: 5 half steps higher/4th higher than E/memorize
  • D string: octave interval back to E
  • G string: open g chord octave interval back to E
  • B string: open c chord shape octave interval to A string
  • e string: memorized
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Purely a suggestion; I use a free cuecard app. It takes a little setting up initially, but once done it randomizes the cards and will even keep score and/or show a timer (if you want to get competitive :-)).
I simply set up cards for each string up to the 12th fret in two formats; string/fret and note/string. So ā€˜String 4 Fret 7ā€™ requires me to give the note name, and ā€˜D on the 3rd stringā€™ requires me to give the fret number.
This method can obviously be used with or without a guitar, doesnā€™t need paper, and the randomizing element means I donā€™t control the sequence of the questions!!

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This was interesting, as going across all the strings (not just 5th and 6th) was how I first started learning the notes. I found it easiest to start with the fifth and tenth frets as both only have naturals (no sharps or flats) and then the 7th fret just has one sharp/flat. If you get those you can work up and down and fill the rest out over time.

I liked Justinā€™s suggestion about making use of down time to think about this. Iā€™ll sometime lie in bed at night and think through the notes.

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Iā€™m a bit confused. When I work out the 4th fret (strings 1-6), I get G#,C#,F#,B,D#,G#. The example on the website shows it as G#,D#,B,F#,CH,G#. What am I doing wrong?

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Example shows S2 as C# (please excuse my typo).

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Never mind folks, my confusion was that I wrote down the strings/notes in reverse order (i.e., listed them from S6-S1 rather than S1-S6). My bad, sorry for the distraction!

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If youā€™re looking at doing the written version of this exercise, hereā€™s a link to a spreadsheet I made with the grid that you can download and print out. Itā€™s in Open Document format, which I understand MS Office can cope with. The title MBNF Game refers to ā€œthe Mind Bending Note Finding Gameā€ which is what it was called in the old style theory ebook that is no longer available.

And here is a link to a page from random.org that generates random sequences of the numbers 1-12

Hopefully youā€™ll have made your mental image of the fretboasrd perfectly long before exhausting the 479,001,600 possible permutations! :grin:

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I have an aversion to paper, so I built a simple web app for the written version of this exercise - FretMind. It generates a new table on every refresh and will check your answers.

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