Subject: Memorize the fingerboard (Part 3)
You are getting this e-mail because you subscribed to it on www.learn-to-play-rock-guitar.com. If you don't want to receive these e-mails any longer, go to the bottom of this message and click on "unsubscribe." Yo Friend, Hope you all had a very happy holiday season (for those that celebrate) and had at least a brief moment to relax and enjoy family and friends. We're a little over two weeks into the new year, with all the promise of new beginnings and hope for the future.Personally I tend to find myself reflecting on the past year and reviewing everything I want to achieve. Inevitably, I have a down day (or two) where I allow myself to bum out because of the things I didn't get to over the past 12 months. But then I slap myself around a bit and pick myself up, resolve to do a much better job of not only managing my expectations, but also to push myself harder to make a major dent in my goals list (crossing off goals that I have reached). I definitely hit a milestone in my life this past year, recording and releasing my first song. It's surprising that the song is a departure from the style music I typically listen to and enjoy playing, but that just goes to show you that if you let your creative mind go, it will take you in interesting directions. Something I have been conceptualizing for quite some time is a new web site or blog focused on helping you clarify your purpose here on earth and achieve your goals, primarily through sharing my thoughts and stories as I work towards re-inventing myself. What I'm coming to realize is that regardless of what goals and aspirations you have, the same principles for attaining them work. You don't have to be pursuing music as your life's work, although the fact that you're here receiving this email tells me you at least have the desire to make music in some form. Success principles are universal - it doesn't matter what you are pursuing. I can look at other examples in my life and the lives of others and see how true this is. It comes down to figuring out what you want and going through the process of change that is necessary to bring what you want into your life. It's about finding something you truly love - what excites you beyond imagination and consumes your thoughts - and then doing everything you can to bring more of that into your life. As I've mentioned in the past, I've not been a professional musician - it was a dream when I was younger, back in the days before the internet. The funny thing about dreams - they tend to be fairly constant in your life. If you had them as a kid, you will most likely still desire them as an adult, despite 'growing up' and getting a 'real job'. They're kind of like problems, but in a good way - if you don't deal with them up front, they will come back to get you! That in itself is another topic, one that deserves its own discussion, so I won't dig into that today (I've already delayed getting you this email far too long!). So let's get back to our discussion of memorizing the fingerboard. As promised, here is the fingerboard laid out with all the notes for each string so you can check your homework.  Now right off the bat you'll notice that not all the frets have a note listed. Additionally, when you play those empty spaces, they DO have a pitch slightly higher than the note below and slightly lower than the note above. I guess now is a good time to introduce you to some new terms. The notes shown on the fingerboard above are commonly known as natural notes. These are the straight-up pitches of the notes of the diatonic scale (a seven note scale that repeats at the octave) at their accepted frequencies (remember, frequencies are the number of vibrations per second of a sound wave). These notes make up the scales used in Western music (versus Indian, Arabic, Middle Eastern, Eastern and Klingon music). SIDENOTE: Traditional music theorists would likely argue that this is not a true representation of what natural notes are - that ALL notes are called accidentals and that a natural note is merely the name of the note cancelling out the effect of the previous accidental note. For our purposes though (and generally accepted by musicians), we'll stick with the idea that natural notes are the our A, B C… notes and the accidental notes are our sharp and flat notes (the notes in between). It would be nice to have note frequencies be an exact equal number between the notes above and below, but alas, that's not how it works, and we wouldn't have the Western scales we know and love. There is a nice formula to calculate the exact frequency of any note in relation to any other note, but you really don't need to know it. If you're interested in how that works, you can 'cipher' to your hearts content with the sound wave frequency equation here. I did test it, and it does work, and no guitar students or small rodents were harmed in the testing process (although I felt like I had a hangover when it was all said and done!). Just trust me, the calculation works… SIDENOTE: If you are a fan of world music, or you want to delve more into the frequencies in between each semi-tone, you can investigate microtones. Basically, a microtone is any interval other than the typical tone or semi-tone. I found an interesting video series showing a microtonal guitar. My ear is too set in Western tunings to truly appreciate microtonal music - I keep hearing the guitar as out of tune, but that's just my personal limitation. Another interesting composer to check out is Harry Partch (thanks, Derk!). The pitches that fall in between each natural note are commonly referred to as accidentals. Again, technically all notes are accidentals, but the habit has been formed to call the main notes naturals and the notes in between accidentals. Sharp Notes When you are working on an ascending scale pattern (going up in pitch), notes in between are known as sharp notes. Basically, a sharp note is an increase in pitch by one semi-tone, or one fret in the case of guitar. Below I've shown the entire fingerboard with the sharps included.  Flat Notes So when you are working on a descending scale, lowering the pitch of a note by a semi-tone (half-step or one guitar fret), that note becomes a flat note. If you compare the fingerboard above to the fingerboard below, you'll notice that the sharp pitches are to the right of the note (the above diagram) while flat pitches are to the left of the note (the diagram below).  Admittedly, there's a lot of technical information here. In fact, I'm only glossing the surface in the explanations I've given. Frankly though, you don't have to dig into the details unless there's a real interest in the physics of sound - and you should probably enjoy math if you want to go that route! I find it a bit fascinating and could lose myself down the proverbial rabbit hole if I didn't have so many other things screaming for my attention. So let's just have a quick review to make sure you have gotten the basics.
Other than the tricks I've laid out for you, sometimes it just comes down to 'biting the bullet' and memorizing the notes where they fall on the finger board. Use the patterns that work for you, and for everything else, just take some time every day to memorize one note - find it on each string and memorize where that is. I'll expand on this in the next email. Until then, have a great one, and as always, ROCK ON! Peace~ Dave Dave "Eddie" Vance is a rock guitar enthusiast and gear nut. He has been playing guitar for over 30 years and enjoys tormenting the neighbors every chance he gets. When he's not slaving for the man, you can find him rocking out with his B.C. Rich Bich guitar, a cold beer and some sweet tunes. He also runs Learn-To-Play-Rock-Guitar.com, but you knew that already! Follow Learn To Play Rock Guitar:I welcome your feedback! Did you like today's message? What other topics would you like to see covered in my e-mails? Please let me know at: dave@learn-to-play-rock-guitar.com As always, please feel free to forward this email to a friend! I review products before recommending them. If you buy a product based on my recommendation, I will receive a commission. However, my emails also contain links that don’t require any investment on your part and are jam-packed with "juicy, guitar learnin' tastiness". We don't rent or share your name with anybody. Feel free to forward this issue to any friends you think would enjoy its contents. They will thank you. So will I.
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