If you are in any way serious about learning to play guitar you are probably wondering if you should memorize every note on the fretboard. Memorizing all the notes on the fretboard was by far the best thing I did when I was learning to play. It is a must if you are considering to become a professional guitar player, but will also be very helpful for any serious beginner.
Memorizing every note on the fretboard is the best way to improve your fretboard knowledge and to set yourself up for a long term success in learning to play guitar. You can play guitar without knowing where all the notes are. But the better you know the fretboard the more versatile and nuanced your playing can become.
If you are happy about this answer you can jump straight into learning the notes on the fretboard. But if you’d like to know more about why you should memorize every note on the fretboard, please continue reading.
What does it mean to know every note on the fretboard?
Before we get into all the benefits of memorizing the notes on the fretboard, let’s define what it actually means to know the notes on the fretboard. First of all, it means knowing which musical note can be played on on a particular fret and string. For example, you can play a note G on the 8th fret of the 2nd string:
You can also play a note G on the 3rd string without pressing down the string on any fret. That is to play it in an open position.
The thing to note is even though those are both Gs, they are not the same. They are actually one octave apart. If you want to know your fretboard well you will need to remember that.
What makes learning notes on the guitar challenging is the fact that you can play exactly the same note in different places of the fretboard. For example, these are all the same Gs you can play across the neck:
Theoretically they are all the same Gs, but practically you will notice that they don’t sound exactly the same. That is because each string differs in thickness, so the timber of the notes is similar but not quite the same.
(Notes of the same octave are connected with ties)
This complexity actually opens up many opportunities to play all over the fretboard. And this is true for any kind of music style, and any kind of playing you might be interested in, be it lead or rhythm guitar. When you know your fretboard you can learn to play blazing multi-octave runs and solo all over the guitar neck. You can also play unusual chords and chord progressions changing color and tone as needed. In other words, you can unlock the full guitar potential.
Of course, if your goal is to play simple songs with just a few chords you don’t need to know much of the fretboard at all. Some singers-songwriters made very successful careers playing the same few chords. If you do want to go this route you don’t need to know all the notes. However I’d still recommend memorizing the notes at least for first 5 frets of the 6th and 5th strings. This will allow you to learn and play common barre chords.
It is a good idea to memorize the notes in this part of the fretboard very well regardless of your goals.
Of course, if you are more or less serious about learning to play the guitar I’d recommend jumping in and learning all the notes at once. It is not that hard after all. Just remember that knowing the fretboard means you don’t just know the names of the notes on each string and each fret but also which octave they belong to.
Why do I need to know the notes on the fretboard?
Aside from helping with bar chords there are at least 3 more reasons to memorize all the notes on the fretboard:
Reason 1: Know what you are playing
It is very common to learn to play guitar scales and chords as patterns. This is how I learned and practiced the guitar for many years. I could play my scales up and down the neck very quickly, but I didn’t really know the exact notes I was playing.
It might not seem like a big deal, but it is, especially if you’d like to be musical and intentional about your playing. This is absolutely critical if you’d like to learn to improvise.
Reason 2: Build and figure out chords
Knowing every note on the fretboard would allow you to easily build any chord you’d like to play anywhere on the neck. Of course you will need to know some music theory for that, but you are planning to were learn it anyways, right?
You would also be able to figure out unusual chords you might encounter while playing around with different chord shapes. Sure, there are apps out there that can tell you what the chord is by looking at the fingering, but it is so much more liberating to be able to figure out just by looking at the notes you are playing.
Reason 3: First step toward learning to read music
Knowing how to read music comes handy in certain situations. It doesn’t come easy for guitarists for the same reasons that make guitar so versatile: you can play the same note in different places. This is definitely not an endeavour for the faint in heart.
Should memorizing the notes be the first thing you do?
Memorizing all the notes on the fretboard as soon as possible will be very helpful to any serious guitar student but it is not necessarily the first thing you have to do. You can get away by learning certain “key” notes and learn common chords and scales, and then fill in the gaps in your fretboard knowledge. But like I said before it is not that hard to learn all the notes all across the fretboard, so I’d highly recommend doing it sooner rather than later.
Check out my guide to learning to play a guitar in 3 months. I cover what to expect in your first 3 months and how to make the best of your practice time and what to focus on!
