NEED HELP LEARNING FRET BOARD

[CannibisZombie]

I have been playing for a while, and my skill is pretty good. But I do have trouble creating my own riffs sometimes. I feel like i get stuck in certain scale patters and cant go outside the bar.

I play death metal. I have been trying to learn the fretboard in standard but i dont play in standard all to often, in fact there isnt really a single tuning i stay in...i play alot of cover which has be re-tunning quite often. Is it necessary to learn all the notes? Or would I just be better off learning octave patters? They wouldnt change with tuning correct? I really dont no any theory so please bear with me lol.

 

[Essen]

They way I learned the notes on the fretboard was playing with with a friend who played piano. He wrote down all the chords on a piece of paper and started playing. I had no choice but to figure it out. You'll learn it eventually, wether you decide to force it out or not.

When it comes to creating riffs or basslines, I prefer to think of chord notes rather than scales. Figure out what chords you want, and then create a bassline or riff that connects them.

http://www.studybass.com/ Has been very helpful to me in the past.

 

[CannibisZombie]

yeah study bass is good. But when playing death metal i dont really have to many chord shaped to take notes from. Power chords, but playing roots and fifths get old.

My real question is wont learning octave patters able me to connect scales and roots and ect ect all over the fretboard in any tuning without having to memorize each note.

Or do i really have to memorize wear each note is for each tuning i play in?

 

[DiabolusInMusic]

Learn to play the bass, your learning shapes and patterns, learn the notes the fretboard will become clear.

Go learn your chromatic scale, then start learning intervals and chord tones.

That should give you a good start.

Just because you guitarist doesn't play 3rds and 7ths does not mean there are no chords involved, you just don't know what they are and how they are working.

 

[CannibisZombie]

I have learned chromatic scale. and i know my root, fifth, flat 7th, 6th notes are. I learned wear all the octaves are. Im not quick enough with it yet but that will come.

 

[dbd1963]

If you are wanting to learn the notes on your fretboard, someone had a thread here with a pointer to a website and video that works very well -- unfortunately, I didn't save it. But it's pretty easy and I'm sure could be adapted to your situation.

Here it is for standard tuning as I remember it:

Because many of us tend to think in patterns, and referencing notes by how close one is to a note we have memorized, we have to break that habit somehow. One way to do that is to learn the fretboard by going circle of 5ths (or was it 4ths?) on each string, but one string at a time until you have that string down.

So let's say you start with the E string in standard tuning. You will play only the first 11 frets plus the open E. Find C. Now move to F. Now Bb.

Because you are finding each note pretty far away from the others, you are actually going to memorize where that note is by itself, rather than in relationship to some other note. It may seem like a small thing, but it turns out to be huge -- you have to trick your brain into forgetting about its crutches.

The whole pattern is C F Bb Eb Ab Db Gb B E A D G then back to C. The method said if you spend a week on each string, you will memorize the whole neck in a month's time. You can go back through and memorize using the sharps afterward for I guess another month of practice (but I doubt it would take that long).

It's a little boring, maybe, but I decided I'd spend the first part of every day's practice using this method for a few minutes. It doesn't take long, and it is already working. I'm just finishing my first week now and I know the E string pretty well. So I believe the method works as advertised.

NOW, in your case - you are going to have to do this in a bunch of different tunings. I don't know how many tunings are standard, but I guess it's still going to take about a month per tuning, at least at first, and then some things might get easier as you think of the whole string shifting up or down. I can't say for sure as I don't use alternate tunings.

But you can do this in such a short time at the beginning of practice, that I don't think it will take much of your attention and you'll get each tuning down to where you don't have to think about it, which is where you want to be.

From there, now you can use the chord voicing to help you figure out what riffs you want to play and be able to play them on the fly.

But if it were me, I wouldn't ever change my tuning, I'd use a 5 string.. Learn it all once.

I apologize if this isn't helpful. It looks like there are issues in metal I might not realize.

 

[pedroims]

What worked for me was learn how notes are placed: A_BC_D_EF_G_A , tunning wont matter, if you tunning on C G C F you will know what notes are on the open , first fret and 12th , you take it from there.

 

[MalcolmAmos]

yeah study bass is good. But when playing death metal i dont really have to many chord shaped to take notes from. Power chords, but playing roots and fifths get old.

My real question is wont learning octave patters able me to connect scales and roots and ect ect all over the fretboard in any tuning without having to memorize each note.

Or do i really have to memorize wear each note is for each tuning i play in?

Well yes every time you deviate from standard tuning you move the notes around on your fretboard, sorry, fact of life. What other tunings do you use? If not a lot, figure out how the Root, five, eight and six fit into your tuning. The Root, five, eight and six are "kinda" generic and work with most chords.

Have you looked at the major scale box in the tunings you use? Yes you will have to make your own box for each tuning. May not be that big a deal, or depending on the tuning it may be a zoo.....

Major Scale Box in standard tuning. 

G|---2---|-------|---3---|---4---| 1st string
D|---6---|-------|---7---|---8---|
A|---3---|---4---|-------|---5---|
E|-------|---R---|-------|---2---|4th string

Have fun.

 

[mambo4]

some alt tunings can change fingering patterns, if the strings are shifted by the same amount. If you are a beginner, you can learn the notes on your neck or mess with different tuning but not at the same time.

Tune to EADG and learn the notes, otherwise you'll chase amoving target.. If you want to work out the tab for some alt tuned death metal song, just ignore the note names and learn the pattern for starters. Eventually your knowledge will reach the point where you can name the notes even in alt tunings.

 

[Jordan S.]

If you are wanting to learn the notes on your fretboard, someone had a thread here with a pointer to a website and video that works very well -- unfortunately, I didn't save it. But it's pretty easy and I'm sure could be adapted to your situation.

Here it is for standard tuning as I remember it:

Because many of us tend to think in patterns, and referencing notes by how close one is to a note we have memorized, we have to break that habit somehow. One way to do that is to learn the fretboard by going circle of 5ths (or was it 4ths?) on each string, but one string at a time until you have that string down.

So let's say you start with the E string in standard tuning. You will play only the first 11 frets plus the open E. Find C. Now move to F. Now Bb.

Because you are finding each note pretty far away from the others, you are actually going to memorize where that note is by itself, rather than in relationship to some other note. It may seem like a small thing, but it turns out to be huge -- you have to trick your brain into forgetting about its crutches.

The whole pattern is C F Bb Eb Ab Db Gb B E A D G then back to C. The method said if you spend a week on each string, you will memorize the whole neck in a month's time. You can go back through and memorize using the sharps afterward for I guess another month of practice (but I doubt it would take that long).

It's a little boring, maybe, but I decided I'd spend the first part of every day's practice using this method for a few minutes. It doesn't take long, and it is already working. I'm just finishing my first week now and I know the E string pretty well. So I believe the method works as advertised.

NOW, in your case - you are going to have to do this in a bunch of different tunings. I don't know how many tunings are standard, but I guess it's still going to take about a month per tuning, at least at first, and then some things might get easier as you think of the whole string shifting up or down. I can't say for sure as I don't use alternate tunings.

But you can do this in such a short time at the beginning of practice, that I don't think it will take much of your attention and you'll get each tuning down to where you don't have to think about it, which is where you want to be.

From there, now you can use the chord voicing to help you figure out what riffs you want to play and be able to play them on the fly.

But if it were me, I wouldn't ever change my tuning, I'd use a 5 string.. Learn it all once.

I apologize if this isn't helpful. It looks like there are issues in metal I might not realize.

Perfect, I've never been told this before. I was told to sit down with a printout of a bass neck with the notes on it, not fun. Anyway, I'm off to practice!

 

[Low_Ryder]

Yeah going in fourths like that is from studybass.com. I tried it for a while and it was working well. Then I just ... Stopped. And about a month later I realized I lost much of the progress I had made. Gotta keep up!!

Anthony Wellington has a video of a method he uses. Start with your highest note on your highest string. Then find all those notes on all your strings. Then go to your next highest note and repeat. Haven't tried it but I like the way you target all of your D notes (for example) at once.

Must. Practice. More.