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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Thank you for the app!!!

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I would really recommend Anki for this - works with spaced repetition, so if you get an answer right repeatedly it will increase the time interval for when it next shows you that question again.

Helps keep the workload down whilst still reminding you of cards you know.

This was actually the first exercise I did to help memorise the notes, found it really useful but definitely something you have to stick at.

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If you imagine that you got a seven string guitar(with a B string thatā€™s lower than the E), then all of the notes on a single fret are just following the cycle of fourths from the B to G string. And then B and E string repeat

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