Improving Fretboard Knowledge

Improve your fretboard knowledge by harmonizing scales.

Here's an exercise that is very useful for finding chord voicings. What I'm talking about is called harmonization. You start with a mode or scale that you know well. Likely you will have 7 notes to work with, or 5 if you use the pentatonic.

Let's assume you know this scale on one string, so now we will add a 2nd string. For example, we are working on E Natural Minor (Aeolian) on D and G strings, playing 4ths.

When I say a 4th, I'm talking about the interval a 4th, which is what you get when you play the open D and open G strings together. You also get a 4th, by barring both those strings on (2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th and 9th frets with your index finger).

But what happens next, as you go up the neck? Which fret(s) do you use for the next available notes from this E Natural Minor scale?

The answer is the D string on 10th fret, and G string on 11th. Try it. That is a Tritone by the way (composed of three adjacent whole tones).

This is a simple approach for working on a scale horizontally as opposed to vertically, which is staying in one position on the neck, but moving across strings.

You can use this same approach for 3rd, 5ths, and whatever interval you like. 6ths are very common as well.

By moving 2 notes at a time, using one note per string, you are making your brain work a little harder, which is a good thing! It becomes second nature pretty quick. Add a 3rd and 4th string as you get better at this - then you have instant chords, that all fit the scale you have chosen!

Now, take on just a few patterns at the time, and practice them in different ways, play the notes in different order, etc. Just make sure you play them slow and focus on learning them. In fact, I think it's a bad idea to try and play them fast at this point - it will make it harder to memorize them.

Go back and forth between new patterns you are learning, and the previous ones you think you already know. It's amazing how quickly we forget some times... but it's normal. I'm the same. Just take it slow and easy and take your time. After all, we want to enjoy playing guitar for a life time, don't we? So take your time and play slowly and accurately.

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Robert Renman is a guitar player and guitar teacher in Canada. His website http://www.dolphinstreet.com has a large selection of free video lessons, as well as articles and videos about guitar equipment, and much more.

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