Fluency across the fretboard is not about what people think it’s about.
It’s not about playing at mind-numbing speeds, exotic scales, or flashy arpeggios.
So why do most people think they need to be the next Yngwie Malmsteen, to feel they have mastered the fretboard?
Here’s why:
Most people think, tactically.
They’re looking for a magic bullet… some flashy scale to make their playing sound intelligent…
…but magic bullet solutions don’t exist.
And typically it backfires in their playing.
Ready for the honest truth?
There is a lot of delayed gratification when it comes to changes in you guitar playing.
An absorption period.
You may learn a new scale today. You can understand what notes are in the scale…
But learning to properly leverage that scale may not happen for months… for some it may take years.
Let that sink in.
You need to think differently.
You need to think, strategically.
What does that mean?
Well, I may be dating myself but do you remember the days of overhead projectors?
Your teacher would kill the lights, they would turn the projector on, and projected over a big white screen was some Geometry problem which needed solved…
With a dry erase marker in hand, the lecture was written (READ: Layered) on that transparency.
I want you to think of music in the same way. In terms of layers.
The very first layer you have your rhythm and you have your bass.
What the bass allows you to do is follow the ROOT of the chords being played.
LAYER 1: ROOTS
Here is where your muscle memory training begins.
Take a look at the picture below:
If we pick any note, say E.
And Stamp Out where every single E is laid out across the fretboard from open string to the 24th fret they would be arranged in the picture that you see above.
Don’t worry about the zones… I’ll get to those in just a bit.
The arrangement of these black blocks (as the orange dots above) form a pattern.
The key is to now internalize this pattern.
Once you do, you will see the fretboard in a whole new way.
Why do I say that?
Well because this pattern is laid out infinitely across the fretboard. (More on that later)
So learning it (READ: learning how you can use it) is the key to mastering the fretboard. . .
tinylesson: Follow the Blue Dot
Set a 20 minute timer. Tune your guitar.
The key to this exercise is to internalize the [FG] pattern.
The easiest way to internalize the [FG] pattern is to break it up in to small bite sized chunks.
Namely, 5 Zones - each of these 5 zones are meant to be printed, trimmed, and taped onto an index card.
Work through the 5 zones by mimicking the progression of the moving blue dot in the picture above..
Start slow.