Notation for the fretboard

[lemarin]

I am trying to learn to read notation for the fretboard and am fine at the top of the neck. But how do you transpose or move the notation down the neck, ie: at the 9th or 12th for 15th fret??

Just joined, like the site.

[JoLa]

Hi lemarin and welcome to the site and the forum!

I’m not sure what you mean by “trying to learn to read notation”. Do you mean reading the tabs? Memorizing notes or learning chords on the fretboard? Give us a specific example of what you’re trying to figure out so we can help.

🎸JoLa

[sunjamr]

Welcome Lemarin. By the “top of the neck”, I think you are meaning the end of the neck closest to the tuning pegs. But actually, most guitar players would call that the bottom or lower end of the neck, since that’s where the notes sound lower. When people play “way up high on the neck”, that means where the neck is closest to the hole (on an acoustic guitar).

As for transposing, hardly anyone would bother to actually write new tablature notes to transpose a song to a different key. Instead, the method is to just learn the note sequence as it is written, then move the entire sequence up or down the fretboard as needed. Take a lesson like EP149, which is in G. I learned it in G, but I usually move it up 2 frets and play it in A. Easy peazy.

Sunjamr Steve

[Billy]

Lemarin, from the 12th fret everything starts to repeat itself. If like me you dont know or are unsure of the note names you are looking for on the fretboard then your digital headstalk tuner(if you have one) can be of help here as it will tell you the notes of the frets, just fret a note, strike it and up it shows on the display..

..Billy..

[Robert V]

WTH IS WRONG WITH ME? Use the “digital headstalk tuner(if you have one) can be of help here as it will tell you the notes of the frets, just fret a note, strike it and up it shows on the display..”

Now WHY in the WORLD didn’t I think of this a long time ago???

THANKS!

[Ralph B]

I went a long time without learning the entire fretboard. I’ve recently been able to learn it fairly easily based on the following approach:

– 1st through 4th frets should be fairly well known since it’s where most people initially learn to play;

– 5th fret should also be easily known since it’s often used to help tune up strings (6th string, 5th fret is same as 5th string open position, 5th string 5th fret is same as 4th string open position, etc. with exception of 3rd string 4th fret is same as 2nd string open position).

– The notes on the 7th fret, going from 6th string down to 2nd string are B-E-A-D-F#. This is easy to remember (BEAD-F#). The 1st string is also easy to remember since of course it’s the same as the 6th.

– As Billy mentions above, at the 12th fret everything repeats itself. 12th fret is same as open position, 13th is same as 1st, and so on. Also, knowing the 12th fret makes it pretty easily to understand the 10th, since it’s simply a whole step lower.

Once you know these 4 points, it becomes pretty easy to quickly identify the notes on the other frets. The key for me was when I understood how easy it is to remember the 7th fret. That opened up everything between frets 6-9 which was the area I was struggling to learn. Hope this helps.

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