Training paths · 4 weeks · 5 sessions/week · 10-15 min
Learn the Guitar Fretboard in 4 Weeks
Four weeks of short daily drills that teach you to find any note on any string of the guitar in under two seconds.
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This path is for guitarists who play chords and maybe a few scales but still count frets to find a note. It fits beside any other practice: each session takes only 10 to 15 minutes. Do five sessions a week; on the other days, simply name the notes of whatever you are playing.
At the end of four weeks you will name any note on any string up to fret 12 within two seconds, find every position of a given note on the neck, use octave shapes to move between strings, and connect notes on the staff to their places on the fretboard.
What you need: your guitar, the fretboard trainer, the metronome, and printouts of the guitar fretboard notes chart and a few blank fretboard diagrams. Read the guitar fretboard notes lesson first.
Week 1 — Natural notes on strings 6 and 5
Session 1 — The musical alphabet on one string
Session 2 — String 6 at random
Session 3 — String 5
Session 4 — Both low strings
Session 5 — Sharps and flats
Week 2 — Octave shapes and strings 4 and 1
Session 1 — Octave shape 1: two strings, two frets
Session 2 — String 4
Session 3 — String 1 is string 6
Session 4 — Octave shape 2: strings 4/3 to 2/1
Session 5 — Week 2 check
Week 3 — Strings 3 and 2 and one note everywhere
Session 1 — String 3
Session 2 — String 2
Session 3 — One note, every string
Session 4 — All strings
Session 5 — Week 3 check
Week 4 — Speed, chords and the staff
Session 1 — Position play
Session 2 — Chord tones on the neck
Session 3 — From staff to fretboard
Session 4 — Speed drill
Session 5 — Final test
After this path
Knowing the notes is the base of everything else on guitar. Keep it alive by naming the notes of every riff and chord you play. Next: