Learn the Fretboard with Triads
Learn where the notes are by playing and saying the seven triads of a key up each string - notes in relation to other notes, not one at a time.
Play the triads
Key
Start on
Shape
The chords of C major
String56789
eopenAA#BCC#
BopenEFF#GG#
GopenCC#DD#E
DopenGG#AA#B
AopenDD#EFF#
EopenAA#BCC#
A
C
E
Am (A C E) - play s6f5, s6f8, s5f7, saying each note as you go.
The idea
- Learn notes in relation to other notes. Instead of memorising every spot one by one, learn three-note shapes that always sit the same way - the shapes tell you where the notes are.
- Start in C major (A minor is the same seven notes, A B C D E F G). Every chord in it is three of them, every other note: Am is A C E, C is C E G, Em is E G B, and so on round.
- Say or sing every note as you play it. That's what locks the name to the spot.
How to practise
- Start on the 6th string and play each chord's three shapes in turn. Dm and Em use the same shapes as Am, and F and G the same as C, so you're really learning three families: minor, major and diminished.
- Then do the same from the 5th string, the 4th, the 3rd and the 2nd. The shapes shift a fret when they cross the B string - the board shows it for you.
- s6f5 means string 6 (the thick low E), fret 5: the note A. Twelve frets up is the same note an octave higher.
- After about a week the seven natural notes will be obvious, and the sharps and flats fall into place between them: you know D and E, so D#/Eb is the one between.