How to Memorize All the Notes On Your Guitar | GuitarZoom.com

all right so today we're going to be talking about memorizing all of the notes on your guitar and just how important it is to be able to do this and i know people struggle with this um quite often and it doesn't really need to be the um the drudgery that it seems to memorize the notes but it really does make a difference when you stop when you when you make the move from just visualizing shapes on your fretboard to actually start seeing functionality and and how things work and interact with each other you know whether it be chords or arpeggios or whatever it might be it becomes very very important in your journey now if you don't ever see yourself getting there then i suppose it probably isn't that important but i would really love to talk to you about it anyway in case it is something that you might see yourself doing in the future so the first thing is is is how to memorize the notes it can be overwhelming all six of these strings and all of these frets and so what i've done is i've figured out a shortcut and that you may have learned this before but i am going to go through it and then i'm going to show you how to relatively learn all the other strings as well but basically what you do is you try and pick a string that you want to study and you need to make sure that you study it in full and you understand it completely before you move on to um another string because if you move too quickly the problem is it just gets messy in your head and you can't really use the information in real time anyway and really we always have to remember with guitar playing that's kind of what's most important is how quickly can we access the information it's not just do we know it or did we learn it at some point in our lives it's can we use it and can we use it quickly and efficiently is really the point so you know sitting there getting confused on all the strings doesn't really do you any good because that's might be why you're watching this video anyway right um so what i did was i created kind of a shortcut to use on each string and we're going to start with the sixth string and i'm going to explain it to you and then we'll go through all the other strings and explain a relative way that you can look at your notes and um and then an absolute way and how it can help you so the first thing is is understanding that you know obviously we need to know the tuning e a d g b and e now again you might tune differently for different reasons and things like that but for this our purposes right now that's what we're doing so what i'm going to do here is on the e string what i want to do is i want to memorize all 12 of these notes and what i figured out a long time ago is if i just had students memorize all 12 notes it tended to be overwhelming for them and they still had to count and that's what we're trying to avoid is having to count we just want to know if someone says 7 we think b or 3 we think g or 6 we think b flat or whatever it might be we want to know those absolutely so what i did was i came up with this little shortcut where what we're going to do is we're just going to learn the prime notes a b c d e f and g we're going to learn where those are on the sixth string we're not going to worry about sharps or flats or anything like that to begin with we just want to memorize those prime notes and get those embedded in our brain and once we know those then let's say those are colored blue for instance right then the ones in between are the sharps and the flats and those will start kind of surfacing and maybe those are colored yellow right and we see those a little bit differently because we're viewing them relative to the blue notes the the the prime notes so what we want to do here is we want to take and utilize the dots on the guitar okay um and and again not every guitar has the same dots some people have dots at one some people don't have dots at all it's just just under just kind of follow me here and see how this works for you so if we look at the dots basically the dots are placed on odd numbered frets now i don't have a dot in the first fret but many people do i'm looking at one of my esp guitars sitting over there and it's got one on the first fret so some people do some people don't but if it did i'd have one three five seven and nine they're located on the odd numbered frets and then there's there's two dots at the 12th fret now the 12th fret isn't an odd number but that's telling us we've got an octave this is e and this is e right so what we're going to do is we're going to memorize the notes on the odd numbered frets okay or we're going to use those as our markers so the sixth string is e we know that and we need to know that okay so the first fret of the sixth string is f and it just is so for instance if you thought about how hard is it to memorize that the first fret of the sixth string is f well it's not hard at all right so f and e okay so we've already made a dent we've got e and f well if we went to the third fret this note is g e f and g now the note in between is actually f sharp or we could call it g flat f sharp and g flat are the same note they just have two different names we refer to that as an n harmonic so f sharp and g flat okay but let's not worry about that right now let's just think about the f and the g so we have e f and g zero one and three so even if you just started with that for just five minutes and just thought about it and went zero one and three e f g f is that one g is at three you just get that straight in your head okay so you're seeing that this isn't isn't so bad right now so we have f g and then this fret fifth fret is a f g a one three five now of course i could do it this way too but i want you to see the the frets here so that's why i'm doing this over the top i don't expect you to do this okay so f g and a if we move to the next dot that's the seventh fret we now have b [Music] f g a and b one three five and seven so what i wanna memorize is not only the name of the note but the fret that it's at seven is b five is a three is g f is one and i want to see that in my head g is three i wanna see that in my head a is five b is seven okay and even if i just did that and just memorized that much for a week or whatever right just really get that in my brain because the next little part is the screw up that you're going to see on a lot of these other strings as we keep going now if i go to the ninth fret it has a dot this was b this dot right here is not c this dot right here is c sharp now what we have learned is that the guitar doesn't have dots to correlate with e f g a and b and c the dots are just there to help you visually see the odd numbered frets when you're playing maybe standing up or whatever so you don't have to keep looking at the front of your guitar there's no correlation between the notes in music and the dots no exact correlation anyway so we see f worked g worked they worked on dots a and b worked but now we're on c sharp so we have a problem there so what i tell people is think about what surrounds that c sharp which is c and d so we're still visualizing this ninth fret but what we're really looking at it for is to visualize the c and the d that's around it so what we've learned is when we're learning the notes on the guitar either the notes will line up with the dots or they're going to surround the dots f g a b c and d 1 3 5 7 8 and 10. 1 3 5 7 8 and 10 f g a b c and d and you just keep telling yourself that over and over and over and again c and d because they surround that dot don't need to be any scarier right you just you just matter of fact they learn that so f is one g is three a is five b is seven eight is c and ten is d one is f three is g five is a b is is seven is b there we go that's what i meant to say a to c and ten is d okay so you just memorize that and you think about it you put your guitar away you think about it you grab your guitar you visualize it you think about it it's not just a matter of playing it because really playing it isn't really the point it's can you see it not can you find it that's the difference that's the difference in knowing something absolutely and knowing something relatively if we have to count up we don't really know it and if we're in any situation where maybe um you know we're nervous or we don't have a lot of time or whatever the case may be that's where we're gonna run into a problem is is now we have to try and figure all this stuff out when you start talking about chords and different notes of different intervals and things like that you don't you don't necessarily have all that much time and it can be very confusing so the more we know of these notes absolutely the better off we are so f g a b c and d one three five seven eight and ten that's the premise now your first string would already be memorized because if you know the notes on your sixth string of course you know the notes on the first string because they're both e strings so anything you did here e f g a b c and d you know them on your first string as well again that's the logic but you still have to make sure that you can look down and make that make sense a b c d e right you want to be able to find those b c d a f g a b c d just think about it a little bit just spend some time with it and if you think about it even if you just took the sixth string and the first string and you spent a whole month memorizing those notes or whatever that still means in a year you'd you'd already know this in by next year at this time you'd have all these notes nailed right where how many years have you been playing now and maybe you don't know the notes right so just keep things in perspective it's not as bad as you think and maybe it wouldn't take you a month i don't know but you just it's something you get to spend time with every day so now let's input the yellow colored notes that i was talking about before so if this is f and this is g in between f and g as i said at the beginning of this we have f sharp or we can call it g flat okay that note has two different names f sharp and g flat we can call it either one of those things well any time there's a space we're going to have that g to a we're going to have g sharp sharp always moves up or a flat flat always moves back here we have a and b so a sharp b flat so it's great because if somebody says b flat and you know b you know absolutely b is seven well then b flat is six you can find it that quick it's instantaneous f sharp well where's f f is one f sharp is that two you find it that fast so that's what you're going to do with each string but let's just take a little look here so a okay a b would be on the second fret this would be a sharp or b flat right so a would be on this or excuse me b would be on the second fret so already we have an issue with our one three five seven nine and that's okay a and b surround the first fret there so that's something we have to learn now we get back on track we have c d e and then f and g surround this dot right here ooh that sounded like the red hot chili peppers right so f and g right there so we have a b c d e f and g so on the fifth string again you think a is zero b is two c three d five e seven f is eight and g is ten and you keep telling yourself that and maybe you even say it out loud maybe even find someone to help you with this right and maybe they'll say where's f and you go okay so a f is at the eighth fret okay well where's where's g oh it's at the tenth fret whereas d and it's at the fifth fret right whereas b it's at the second fret and you get used to saying it because the more you say it and the more you think it not just visualize it visualizing is huge but say it get your brain saying it so where's where's e 7 where's f 8 where's g 10 where's c 3 right you just do that over and over and over now what i like to do with students when they get to this point is you start showing them relative connection so for instance g on the sixth string is here well g on the fifth string is here and you get used to seeing those you make that relative connection which is really great when you start learning maybe some arpeggios right because you can start seeing how they all connect together off of that note wherever it is that you're finding this so g or maybe it's b right so now we see that b up here on the sixth string is at seven we actually have to go this direction to find b on the fifth string well let's say we were going to build a b minor arpeggio so we're looking for that d right there right so we build that i can even go this direction right and again that that goes into a whole other conversation but the point is is that knowing where those notes are is really important okay so there's our our notes on the sixth string and our notes on the fifth string and how they connect together okay well then we move to the fourth string the fourth string is d well then we have e which is at the second fret again it's not at the first fret d and e surround that first fret so we have to get to note now we get back on track again f g a b so this string is good to go all the way up through there b is right here and c is at the 10th fret so we have d e f g a b and c d e f g a b c 0 2 3 5 7 9 and 10. and again we get used to thinking about those well where's g and g and g right we try and find them on all strings d uh oh sorry i said d and i went to g let's do d and d and d or even here okay whatever it might be let's do f so we have f here we have f way up here we have f down here so we get used to visualizing those now because we've learned the fourth string you might start visualizing your octaves if you've ever done octaves before like when you play a power chord or a bar chord or something and this note right here on the sixth string and this note right here on the fourth string are octaves of each other this is g so is this you see so you can see them that way as well so d e f g a b and c all right and then moving to the g string again g to a we got to skip that first string so what we're noticing here is that we're skipping the first fret i should say sorry we're skipping the first fret quite a lot a to b e to f we use that first fret right but now we've got g to a and then b is actually off a dot then we get on track c d e and then f so g a b so we have two of them that are off dots there g a b c d e f and then g and again same idea let's go with g again g g g okay let's think about this string okay or let's choose a well we have a here a or octave right we have a or a or f let's try f f sorry f let's take it to something else f and in this string we got to come all the way up here you see that so you just spend a little bit of time on each one and choose any note you want and the goal is is you don't have to be in any hurry just take your time through this thing okay b string comes up i might as well do the last one since we've done all these anyway so b c is on the first fret we're finally back on that first fret and then d e now here's where we run into a problem f g and a are all off the dots f g and a but that's okay half of it is on half of it is off that's an easy way of looking at this b c d e f g a that's actually quite simple okay so again going through our i id here we have f right and then next string we have f and the next string we have f look how much we're moving around f then we've got to go to this string and find f well we have b c d e and then remember f is off the dot f g and a are all off dot so there we go okay so great way of finding all these let's try something we haven't tried let's try c so there's c there's c now we got to go to the d string here c is up there and we got to go to the next string okay and c and then the next string well if you had c right here you have c right there so that's the basic idea is that you're learning two different things you're learning to see the string as its own and you're visualizing those prime frets and then when you want a secondary uh or prime notes when you want a secondary note like f sharp or c sharp or whatever you find that in your head just tilt it off of wherever your prime note is right and then you start learning where those are relative to each string and it just makes the whole thing a lot easier when you start learning again your scales so when you're playing a scale you're not maybe just seeing the you know fret numbers or the shape or something but maybe you're actually seeing the notes that are being played which would be a pretty amazing thing so anyway take care i hope that helps you a little bit in your practice this isn't something that needs to be tackled on its own right you should still be practicing your songs and you know your theory or your licks or your solos or your technique or whatever it's just a really wonderful thing to add on top of everything else that you're doing

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Keywords: steve stine, stevestine, guitarzoom, guitar zoom, guitar, guitarist, guitar lesson, guitar tips, guitar tutorial, play guitar, learn guitar, Guitar, how to play, Lessons, Guitar for beginners, beginner guitar, learn, Free, Beginner Guitar Lessons, guitar lessons for beginners, steve stine guitar, steve stine guitar lesson, free guitar lesson steve stine, yt:quality=high, guitar lessons, memorize all the notes, memorize the fretboard, music theory, guitarzoom vip, chromatic scale

Id: lzPzLo-sxdM

Length: 18min 53sec (1133 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 01 2020