Now this is annoying as was told not to bother learning the notes on the fretboard. I’ll give it another go.
See above. I guess that I need to go over these again.
The answer is at the bottom of the chord diagram in your post.
It’s definitely worth going over again as covered in Grade 3.
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There is a point with any learnt subject where some of the fundamentals that can be ‘put to one side’ when initially starting out, do then become extremely important later on when further expanding your knowledge / skill set.
For example, getting to grips (no pun intended!) with the open chords - rather than worrying overly about the underlying theory at that early stage - can have you producing some semblance of music purely on their own, which itself is likely to lead to self-encouragement. Which is all good 
However at some point (and I’d say you are probably there now by the questions you are asking on the theory side) you will need to know the note names to develop further and see the relationship between deeper concepts.
I don’t think anyone is saying you need to recite by rote the full fretboard before you can fully understand the theory, but you should at least be trying to make progress with the notes on the thickest 2 strings between frets 1-5. Maybe just start with 4 ‘doted’ notes and then gradually fill in the gaps . Then add in frets 6 & 7 and maybe the ‘D’ string too… After a short while their names will start to stick in memory.
Good luck!
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It appears that I’m going blind as well as deaf!
It appears so doesn’t it!
I probably know 50% of the note names as know then on strings 1, 5 and 6. The others I can work out fairly quickly knowing the string letter and the Note Circle. What I can’t do now is know the name of the note quickly to strings 2, 3 and 4. If someone pointed to a note and asked what’s it’s name! I have been practicing triads on strings 1 - 3 and reciting in my head the root name. It’s coming slowly.
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Well Stuart, if you know all your notes on the A string it’s the same note on the G string but two frets up and the same note on the B string two frets down (from the A string note).
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If you goal is to improvise to a blues backing track, then I honestly think this is the most important thing you need to resolve. Being able to feel the ‘one’ is crucial if you are going to improvise successfully. I would suggest using a really simple backing track like the one below (many backing tracks are way too busy and can confuse things). Perhaps start off by playing just one strum of the relevant chord per bar on the 1 beat. I would do this until you feel very confident that you can feel it, then perhaps move to playing a simple lick, and just repeating the same lick for each bar, again playing on the 1 beat. Take your time, it might take weeks to really feel it, but I believe this is a fundamental foundation you need to have under your belt.
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I would certainly like to!
I’ll give it a go!
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There is always good advice here sometimes I just sit back and read cheers Hec
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