How To MEMORIZE Your Guitar FRETBOARD: The No-Nonsense Exercise That Actually Works

Do you have questions about the exercises in the videos?
Do you want all the details explained?
Do you want to see me performing the exercises, so you know that you are doing the right thing?

The eBook will do all that (and contains videos with me practicing every single exercises, with tips and tricks to make your learning easier and faster)

Hey, it's free

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My first guitar teacher was positively great at destroying my motivation to practice.

That was not an easy task. I was young and playing guitar was such a new thing for me and I was brimming with enthusiasm and I was putting together my first few simple songs...

... but every time he mentioned one specific thing... my spirits went underground, and I didn't even want to see my guitar.

What was sinking my heart at the mere mention of it? What sapped my motivation more than anything else?

This simple sentence:

"You need to memorize all the notes on your fretboard!"

"S-word that, I'd rather learn another song" I thought to myself every time.

(But I never said it out loud. The guy was big and scary. He was also a hell of a player.)

See, there are two things you need to know about me...

1. I have a horrible memory. It's like a seashore: every few seconds a wave hits and deletes everything.

Or as my wife says: I have a Teflon brain. Nothing sticks to it ;-)

So memorizing notes on the fretboard is precisely the 'worst case guitar scenario' for me.

2. I can be incredibly stubborn. (I-grew-my-beard-because-a-former-girlfriend-told-me-to-shave stubborn)

So I spent year after years and years refusing to learn the notes. Just to make a point.

I did not want my teacher to "win" that conversation! I'd find another way! I'd show him!

So I put my time and energy into inventing all possible workarounds to not learn the notes of the fretboard...

(most of these workarounds were frankly ridiculous)

... until I finally had to bite the bullet. Not knowing the notes was holding me back, hard.

Now, I wish I could tell you that my teacher gave me some magic exercises or some transcendental wisdom to learn the fretboard in minutes...

He didn't.

So I had to find them out for myself.

I spare you the long trial-end-error story and cut to the chase:

- Learning the notes on the fretboard is one of the most useful things you can practice
- With the right exercises, it's not even hard. Literally 5 minutes a day for a few weeks to learn them permanently. And when I say 'learn' I mean 'effortless recall'. You just know there they are without thinking, period.
- If I had any kind of business sense I would have packaged these exercises in a nice and tidy "guitar fretboard for dummies" course and sold it to you. Instead, you are going to get them for free in this video. And you are going to like them!

Note 1: This is not another "learn your notes in 3 minutes" or "that's the magic pattern that will help you learn the notes". There is no magic pattern - I know because I tried them all. My method may not be not as sexy as some of the videos out there that promise you eternal fame and fortune through note learning, but has one feature that beats all other methods to I've seen so far: it actually works.

Note 2: Yes, I already had a video on my channel about learning the notes... but in the years I perfected the method. So this is the updated, expanded, "director's cut" version.

0:00 Intro
0:50 Why you should learn your fretboard
3:00 Fretboard Diagram
3:14 Exercise 1
5:00 Play, don't memorize!
6:04 Exercise 2
7:20 Exercise 3
8:11 Exercise 4
9:10 Exercise 5
9:47 Exercise 6
11:21 Why you should do the exercises in this order
12:03 "This is too much work"

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[julesdarulesTM]

In principle it is like a computer keyboard. Nobody could write the keys down by heart in the right order, but you intuitively know where the keys you want to press are.

[conor]

I know you said you weren't a motivational speaker, but tI actually found the whole " if you don't wanna do it, don't do it" part super motivating

[jeremiahis]

“I teach music theory. I’m not a motivational speaker.” Excellent.

[jasonwhitaker]

Ok so i have been doing this for 5 weeks 5 days a week for about 10 mins every day . ... and it works . For those who are skeptical this is the single most thing that has improved my playing . I can now see triads allover the fret board and improvising lead guitar is a lot easier...amazing thank you.

[imabuddha]

Thanks! The only thing missing is a summary of the steps. Here's my attempt:

1. Frets 1-12, no open strings. Pick 1 natural note. Play this note on each string from low to high, then from high to low. Once you can play it without mistakes 3 times then do a different note. When you have done all 7 natural notes twice go to step 2.

2. Set metronome to 40 bpm. Play 1 note per beat as in step 1. Once you can do all 7 notes without mistakes go to step 3.

3. Do the sharps & flats for all notes as in step 2.

4. Pick 2 different notes. Play the first note going up & second note going down without stopping. Once this feels easy go to step 5.

5. Arrange the 7 natural notes in a random order (e.g. D F C E A G B). Play each of these notes (with the metronome) in order moving to the next note each time you reach the last string (e.g. D up, F down, C up, etc.) without stopping. When you can do it without mistakes go to step 6.

6. Repeat steps 2-5 gradually increasing the bpm. The goal is to reach 80 bpm.

[todwilliams]

For those wanting the steps written out, here's how I wrote them:

1) Pick a natural note, then play it on each string (down and up) on frets 1 through 12. Do this 3 times, and move to another note. Then do this for frets 12 through 20. Once you have done all the natural notes twice, go to ex #2.
2) Use a metronome at 40 BPM. Play one note per beat, and repeat ex #1.
3) Repeat ex #2, but do it for the accidentals.
4) Choose any two notes. Play UP in one note (across each of the six strings) and DOWN on the other note (without stopping). Use the metronome @ 40 BPM. When it feels easy, go to ex #5.
5) Write seven 7 notes in random order. With the metronome @ 40 BPM, play the first note going up, and the next note going down, etc. etc. for all 7 notes. (without stopping). When it feels easy, go to Ex #6
6) Repeat the exercises 2 through 5 at BPM speeds 50 / 60 / 70 / and 80. When you can do Exercise #5 at 80 BPM you are finished.

[actualzafra]

The thick accent just makes him more believable

[SimonHolcroft]

1. Not knowing the fretboard is absolutely a roadblock to your progression as a guitarist, and 2. this may seem absurdly simple, but it definitely works. Easily this is worth more than all the scale or chord books I've bought. Do this !

[ParkerBuhrman]

I've played guitar here and there for about 18 years in total, and unfortunately have always skipped the basics. This little exercise has helped me so much and I've literally just now only tried it for 5 minutes. I'm extremely excited to have found this and wanted to say thank you!

[douglasmason]

If you’re on the fence about putting in the work for this exercise, don’t be. Do it. I was extremely skeptical at first, and often thought “hmmm I don’t know, this seems so orthogonal to my other music practice, what if it’s a waste of time?” It isn’t.

About a month now after first coming across this video, I can now do any note at 80 bpm without reference to a diagram. I’ll outline how it came about for anyone giving this a shot:

First few days were about just grokking the problem, getting any note. It was slow, it took me many seconds to find each note. I did not use a metronome.

After I could reliably find a note within 2 seconds, I could start the metronome at 40 bpm. For the next week or so, I improved my speed up to 80 bpm, using the diagram. However, at this point I couldn’t say I “knew” the fretboard. Actually, I knew the first and last string well, and could vaguely aim at the right direction to get the other strings, but that was it. I thought it was a failure and gave up for a day, but I was totally wrong! There’s just a little more to it.

To focus on randomly accessing the middle strings, I first created notecards for three skills. (1) given a string and a note name, what is the fret? (2) given a string and a fret number, what is the note name? (3) given a general region of the guitar (5 zones from head to 12th fret) and a note name, what chord shape would I use?

This got me up to being able to find a note in a couple seconds cold turkey. Close! But not quite there!


Using these fellas I was able to get dead reckoning down to about a second. Then I went BACK to this exercise, and asked if I could do it WITHOUT the diagram. Yes, I could. I started off without a metronome, then started the metronome at 40, and moved up to 80 bpm within about a day. I couldn’t believe it.

Was it worth it? Absolutely! After learning a lot patterns, to discover that you can get lost and find your way back by seeing what roots you’re playing and knowing where the rest are... the psychological experience is like having a eureka moment every second. It’s a new exciting world when your perception of your instrument is expanded this much! I’m excited to reinforce this knowledge and connect it to the repertoire of shapes and patterns I’ve already memorized.

As for what’s next, I now have very fast recognition when I’m in the zone, but pulling back into the zone still takes a couple seconds (like booting up a laptop), so I’m thinking about exercises where you do something unrelated then suddenly name a note on the fretboard. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks again for the wonderful video series, you’ve really helped a lot of people!

[yukine_it]

Let's start the journey! 🔥
11.06.2021 - Starting date.
13.06.2021 - Exercise 2 done.
15.06.2021 - Exercise 3 done.
20.06.2021 - Exercise 4 done.
02.07.2021 - Exercise 5 done.
15.07.2021 - Exercise 6 begins!
It's working pretty good :3 I skipped 3-4 days but nothing bad happened. I see most of the fretboard now :)
Practice makes perfect 💫

[ezequasians]

exercise 1: natural notes up and down
exercise 2: use metronome at 40 bpm
exercise 3: add accidentals
exercise 4: 2 notes
exercise 5: 7 notes in random order
exercise 6 : increase speed exercises 2-5

[starreyes]

I wanted to say THANK YOU! I’ve struggled for over 20 years to see the fretboard without hesitation. I had already started doing a version of this exercise on my own but this was much more methodical and thorough. It took me about 6 weeks but now I can see the board clearly and my playing has completely transformed. I wish I had something like this when I was 15, things would have been a lot different. THANK YOU

[awolosik]

Longtime noodler here. Began the process right before Christmas, currently up to 60 bpm. Doesn't feel like you're absorbing anything at first, but oh so gratifying once it starts sticking and you don't even realize it! Great exercise.

[marshalfrancis]

Journey started on Dec 6th 2022. 🚀

Exercise 1: done on Dec 5
Exercise 2: done on Dec 6
Exercise 3: done on Dec 6 and 7
Exercise 4: done on Dec 7
Exercise 5: done on Dec 8

Dec 23rd: I have down most of the patterns. I know where most notes are. some are still tricky but it gets better.

January 3rd: woke up picked up the guitar immediately and was able to play all naturals at around 120 BPM. I don't "see"the fretboard but for most notes I do know what fret they are on and the pattern stuck with me. Occasionally I have to think about a spot for a note and look at the diagram. I didn't play the exercise with the accidentals though except a few times, because it confused me in the beginning..

[DannyVardy]

I first discovered this video on Jan 11 and decided to give it a shot and I can 100% attest to it working. Not only does it work but it is BY FAR the most important thing I've ever done to improve at playing guitar in 32 years! I can't put into words how valuable doing this is. And since it turns out to be so easy, I now believe if you're reading this and want to improve and don't do it, sell your guitar!

This opens the door to EVERYTHING!

I rip through all the natural notes at 100 BPM EASILY!

I can make a couple of suggestions tho. Learn them in this order - F, A, C, E, G, B, D F#, A#, C#, D#, G#, ...

Stay with one note for 4 days at a time. Start with finding F and ONLY add A in 4 days. Don't rush it (you don't need too - it works) then add C on day 8 etc. Doing it in this order (since you need one anyway) you learn the triads as you go.

Next, I found it didn't translate to above the 12th fret for me so I used this format:

3 times UP from Low E to High E below the 12th, followed by...
3 times DOWN from above the 12th, then,
3 times DOWN below the 12th and,
3 times UP above the 12...

(This idea ensured I wasn't picking up on a pattern and forced my brain to truly learn where the notes were above the 12.)

Start again with the next note...

This should be MANDATORY for all beginner guitarists.

If you give this a shot, lemme know. HTH.

[oldmanandthesea]

What a great idea! Many educational videos try to show beginners the “hidden pattern “ on the fretboard, like a number theory mathematician do with their numbers. This is good for the math students. But your method takes a completely different approach, building the muscle memory of the left hand to”traverse “ on the fretboard! It’s like telling the muscles to “memorize” the path to each note on the fretboard, forget the “note distance” all together. This way the “logical mind” is bypassed. You don’t “think” of the “pattern” before you move, you just move as naturally as breathing.👏👏👏🎸🎸🎸

[Paeddyful]

I've been playing the guitar for roughly over 10 years now and never bothered to master the basics. The older I got, the more I realised how badly I shot myself in the foot with that. After a short phase of regret I decided I'm going to sit my ass down and learn note placements, scales, modes, time signatures, always with a metronome, for at least an hour a day. The best part is that I know I'm gonna make more progress in half a year going forward with this than I have in the last 5 years.
If you're a beginner at the guitar HEED MY WORDS: DO NOT SKIP THE BASICS. They're boring, they're tedious, and they'll ultimately enable you to shred like a God, learn songs easily, adapt and improvise, write your own songs and put all of your soul into you music.

[lacojanco]

I started to play guitar one year ago in my 43 years. I always wanted to play guitar but never got to it. I started because my 3 years old son likes rock music very much and he wants to play guitar - so I decided to learn so I could teach him later. I started with accoustic, after 6 months moved to electric, after 10 months built first electric guitar for my son (3 strings - looking like Brian Mays Red special). Now I can play many rock songs and my kids recognize what I play. I have learnt much more about music theory from youtube than during my whole previous life. Thanks for people who put work into videos and share knowledge in much simpler way than in school.

[YEM_]

I came back to say this ABSOLUTELY works!

I found this video mid-November 2020. By Thanksgiving I was ok at it, the progress was obvious. I stayed at 40 bpm for maybe 3 weeks before moving on.

By mid December I was quite comfortable... But...I forgot to practice this for a bit and I caught myself saying "what note is that?" It took like 2 or 3 seconds which is too long! (Better than before, but not instant!) So, back to the exercise I went.

I've been at it for 2 weeks again and I'm nearing instantaneous recall. This works 💯.

Don't stop at "good enough"! It's only 5 minutes a day! Keep going until you reach perfection. It will be worth it.