Guitar Tab
Reform: A Better Way of Learning Your Fret
Board
by The Guitar Tab
Guru
Most guitarists agree that being able to
identify notes on the fret board is a valuable asset to
their playing.
However, being able to
identify the alphabetical locations of notes across the fret
board seems best achieved through the study of music
notation, but lacks the ease of use and instant results that
tablature gives guitar players.
While some start learning
music notation at an early stage in their playing, through
use of basic instruction books, few find this training to be
relevant to their playing.
Many guitarists have gone their entire
career using only chord charts, improvisation and standard
tabs to learn music.
The result is that many guitar
players can only identify a few notes alphabetically on
their guitar.
This can easily be remedied
with the additional study of a variation of a long forgotten
Lute Tab notation.
The difference between Lute Tab and
standard tab, is that Lute Tab uses letters rather than
numbers to denote where on the fret board to play.
There is a difference between
traditional lute tab notation and this proposed
notation.
That in the traditional style,
letters meant the same thing as the numbers used today.
(a=1, b=2, c=3, etc.)
In this new proposed style,
the letters would have a direct relation ship with what note
is being played. (First String- E=1, F=2, F#=3,
etc.)
This is helpful in a few
ways.
First, using letters instead of numbers
helps the guitarist find alphabetical note names easier
across the fret board.
If this method is used at
the beginning of a guitarist’s training, prior to
exposure to standard tab or music notation, the student
will have an easier time when chords, scales and notation
are introduced.
The student will be better
able to understand the relation ship between chord,
scale, and note names, and where they are played on the
guitar neck.
The second aspect of this notation that
is helpful to a guitarist is that this proposed tab
identifies relationships between notes within a
chord.
Using this type of
notation, the guitarist can easily understand which notes
are used to make any given chord, as well as the
differences between different chord types (such as Major
vs. Minor).
If the guitarist knows
which notes make up a chord, they would be able to create
the same chord in any position on the
neck.
Other parts of a
guitarist’s playing that learning this style of tab
include; being able to transpose melodies and chord
progressions; harmonizing melodies; writing chord
progressions and melodies; creating different and
interesting chord voicings; etc.
The difficulty comes in the method of
learning this style of notation.
The best way to learn this
is to divide the guitar into three
sections.
The first section is from
the first to the third fret, the second section from the
fourth to the eighth, and the third from the tenth to the
thirteenth.
These may seem like odd
divisions of the fret board, but learning the notes in
these sections will cover the entire fret board.
(repeating the first section at the twelfth fret, the
second at the sixteenth, etc.)
Start with learning the
natural notes, and add sharps and flats
later.
Included here is the
notation for these sections, as well as for a few
chords.
*Numbers to help
you locate the notes
-------------------------------------------------------------E--F--G----
------------------------------------------------B--C--D----------------
---------------------------------------G--A-----------------------------
---------------------------D--E--F--------------------------------------
--------------A--B--C--------------------------------------------------
--E--F--G---------------------------------------------------------------
0
1
3
0
2
3
0
2
3
0
2
0
1
3
0
1
3
------------------------------------------------------------A--B--C-----
------------------------------------------------E--F--G-----------------
-----------------------------------B--C--D-----------------------------
---------------------------G--A-----------------------------------------
---------------D--E--F--------------------------------------------------
--A--B--C---------------------------------------------------------------
5
7
8
5
7
8
5
7
4
5
7
5
6
8
5
7
8
-----------------------------------------------------------D--E--F------
-----------------------------------------------A--B--C-----------------
-----------------------------------E--F--G------------------------------
-----------------------B--C--D-----------------------------------------
--------------G--A------------------------------------------------------
--D--E--F---------------------------------------------------------------
10 12
13
10
12
9
10
12
9
10
12
10
12
13
10
12
13
G Major
C Major
E Major
E Minor
A Maj
A Min
D Maj
D Min
F
Maj
--G--------E--------E-------E--------E-----E-------F#------F-----F-
--B--------C--------B-------B-------C#----C-------D-------D----C-
--G--------G--------G#-----G-------A-----A-------A-------A----A-
--D--------E--------E-------E--------E-----E-------D-------D----F-
--B--------C--------B-------B-------A-----A-------A-------A----C-
--G------------------E-------E--------------------------------------F-
When working on each section, try
saying the note name out loud, as this will help you
memorize the notes, not just the
positions.
Take section at a
time!
Use this method in
conjunction with other notation styles in your
practicing, and you will find that your knowledge of the
fret board will have increased
dramatically.
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