Learning guitar fretboard

[neoncortex]

I've just recently taken up guitar practise... Trying to learn a bit theory starting from the basics, for example location of notes on the fretboard. There's this wonderful interactive fretboard online that shows the name of every note when you put your cursor over it, but it doesn't state which octave the note is.
http://www.stanwilliamsmusic.com/Learnguitar.html

Do you know if there's a visual chart just like this one on the internets that shows all notes' names with octave included? As in F3, C4 etc.? That would be so helpful. TYVM

[codec_spurt]

I've just recently taken up guitar practise... Trying to learn a bit theory starting from the basics, for example location of notes on the fretboard. There's this wonderful interactive fretboard online that shows the name of every note when you put your cursor over it, but it doesn't state which octave the note is.
http://www.stanwilliamsmusic.com/Learnguitar.html

Do you know if there's a visual chart just like this one on the internets that shows all notes' names with octave included? As in F3, C4 etc.? That would be so helpful. TYVM

http://jguitar.com/

This was put up at another sticky somewhere on Kvr. But easy to miss.
You can choose your tuning. It will give all chords in relation to that.
If you have a chord you don't know what it is - it will tell you.
It will tell you the best scale to play with that chord.

Everything you want to do, can be done here - take some time to navigate around.
It will even give you inversions of chords where you get to choose the root note.
If you want positions from fifth fret it will do that.
If you are playing on five or seven strings - it will do that.

There is a lot it does not do, and a whole lot more it could do. But for a beginner, unless I got you wrong, this site should sort you out.

It will give you the basic chords - it will tell you what scales go with those chords. If you make a chord up yourself it will tell you what it's technical name is. But as any advanced musical theoretician will tell you - you will end up chasing your own tail. You will ultimately need a real human being to give you some lessons on what is what.

Anyway, you are not at that point yet.


Chord Namer allows you see what chord you just made up:
http://jguitar.com/chordname

It gives you all the alternative tunings..

There is too much to go into.
I bet it will solve your problem.

And the best Tab guitar site on the net is generally accepted to be:
http://www.songsterr.com/

Very easy to use tabs - very complete repertoire.
For example, if you choose to learn Metallica One - it will give you not just the two guitar parts, but the bass as well. Website lets you turn each one off.
Magic. The best site on the net. And a thousand guitarists were born...


These two sites, a little natural talent, a whole bunch of commitment and in two years, you will be flying.......


If you just want one scale to play along to any track once you find the root note then check this out:
http://jguitar.com/scale?root=E&scale=M ... tes=sharps

Just transpose the E root note up or down.....

It is the most important scale in not just rock music, but all western music.
If you learn how to play this scale it will stand as a bedrock for learning jazz and classical etc... It gives excellent ear training too. You need to be able to hear 'root'...


It is the scale that Black Sabbath and Ritchie Blackmore use, but they also use modes of it - to come later... Learn this Minor Pentatonic and you will be able to learn anything... In fact, if you like AC/DC, and Angus Young, this scale is your man. Angus is rated in the top 10 of guitarists in the world. Ever. He hardly ever ventures from this scale. If it is good enough for him..

[tapper mike]

The best investment you can make is ....Guitar Pro.

The fretboard headsup display can be used to view the notes being played.
Tab is the most common form of reading sheet music for guitar players and gpro is the most popular tab transcription tool. So when it's time to start learning songs accurately and quickly gpro delivers.

[codec_spurt]

The best investment you can make is ....Guitar Pro.

The fretboard headsup display can be used to view the notes being played.
Tab is the most common form of reading sheet music for guitar players and gpro is the most popular tab transcription tool. So when it's time to start learning songs accurately and quickly gpro delivers.

Sorry tapper. What is 'Guitar Pro' exactly? Is it a website or program or book?Your post doesn't really make it clear.

I'd really like to know .
Could you give a link to it somewhere?


Cheers.

[tapper mike]

http://www.guitar-pro.com/en/index.php? ... /interface

[codec_spurt]

http://www.guitar-pro.com/en/index.php? ... /interface

Thanks for that tapper mike.

Do you think it will help me to play like Antoine Dufour:


j/k.
Of course I will never be able to play like him.
And probably neither will you.

Keep practising kids, you never know...

Seriously, mike, that looks like a great system.
Thanks for the link.

Cheers.

[neoncortex]

Thanks for the bucketload of advice
After days of no reply I though maybe this is wrong forum to ask.

The links you gave codec are definitely going to my favorites. JGuitar seems to be an all-in-one solution for theory goodness, and Songsterr what a site. The song selection might be a tad narrower than on some user-submitted tab sites but you can set it to play tabs in rhythm for you, what a lovely feature. These are going to keep me busy for a long time.

About Guitar Pro, I think at this point is a too advanced tool to actually pay for, but if and when I'll dry out the freeware domain I might take a closer look at it.

[tapper mike]

There is a free alternative called tux. As well as power tab editor.

Though they are both much harder to work with then guitar pro.

[codec_spurt]

Thanks for the bucketload of advice
After days of no reply I though maybe this is wrong forum to ask.

The links you gave codec are definitely going to my favorites. JGuitar seems to be an all-in-one solution for theory goodness, and Songsterr what a site. The song selection might be a tad narrower than on some user-submitted tab sites but you can set it to play tabs in rhythm for you, what a lovely feature. These are going to keep me busy for a long time.

About Guitar Pro, I think at this point is a too advanced tool to actually pay for, but if and when I'll dry out the freeware domain I might take a closer look at it.

Big bubbles, no troubles. Er, I mean, no worries.
Yep, Jguitar and Songsterr should keep you going for a while.
I wish I had that when I started playing (might not have ended up so crap ).

To be honest. It all balances out. I had to learn by ear. And that was very good for me, because my 'ear' was crap. When people talk about 'ear', they don't mean one of those things that sticks out from either side of your head, they actually mean, how the brain perceives sound (through the ears) and processes it according to the consciousness of the individual. But still, it would have been good to know all the tunings that Black Sabbath had when making their albums.

http://www.black-sabbath.com/vb/showthr ... uning-Down

Sometimes it is not about different tunings, i.e. DADGAD etc... that many guitarists know, it is actually about knowing wft they were playing in, in the first place.

I drop all my strings by one and a half tones (three semi-tones) when I write songs - coz that fits my voice. It took me nearly twenty years to figure this out. This means you can use thicker strings because the tension is less....

As for Black Sabbath:
Now, if I had had that information when starting out.
I'm rambling. So I'll shut up.

But god bless Tony Iommi. I hear he is doing well.
http://www.iommi.com/

What a geezer.


JGuitar is a boon. I wrote a small little Java program for learning guitar, about, oohh, over ten years ago. It was a lot of lines of code. I know how much work this guy has put in. And all for free.

But it has it's limitations, and that is why you will need a real flesh and blood teacher, when you advance past a certain point.

I had a BSeventhSuspendedFourth chord that resolved to an ASuspendedSecond, But it gave the same name for the two different chords, whilst, demonstrably the two chords are disparate and have different notes making up their structure.

But to err is human. You would have to be a pretty far advanced guitarist to pick up on these errors. I am not. I just got lucky/unlucky.
But even the errors show the logic underlying the system....

http://jguitar.com/chordname?string5=0& ... &string0=0

And:
http://jguitar.com/chordname?string5=0& ... &string0=0

Not only are they clearly different chords, but they actually have different notes - the first example has an F# in it - the second does not.

Yet they are both named as possible inversions of the same chord:
B7sus4/E B/E 7th Suspended 4th


Theory breaks down. But it holds good for a long while.

I'm not nit-picking. This is the best site on the net for learning guitar.
Just keep an open mind.

I use it all the time for finding the names of chords I just made up.
And then I find twenty three different ways to play it.


Lots more to say, but, hopefully I made my point (whatever it was).

[jancivil]

To be honest. It all balances out. I had to learn by ear. And that was very good for me, because my 'ear' was crap.

- you will need a real flesh and blood teacher, when you advance past a certain point.

I had a BSeventhSuspendedFourth chord that resolved to an ASuspendedSecond, But it gave the same name for the two different chords, whilst, demonstrably the two chords are disparate and have different notes making up their structure.

But to err is human. You would have to be a pretty far advanced guitarist to pick up on these errors.

After having enough years to reflect on this, and compared with my observations of others, I think it is best to start out sorting things by watching and by pure hearing before getting hold of a terrific amount of theory lingo. The information as abstract is confusing and it's hard to tell a person what's happening if it's just some words on a screen.

So there are two things going on when we see something that's said to be, EG: "ASus2". One, have we encountered this in the context of a song; and Two, what information do we bring to bear.

To me, a '2 chord' or 'sus 2' means replacing the third with the second. As a Sus 4 means the third is replaced by the P 4. In classical jargon, these suspensions are held notes from the previous harmony and tend to resolve, here to the third of the chord. But in rock music or something pop, they have these labels outside of that.

So, concretely, you have Bsus4, it should mean simply that E replaces D or D#. B F# E. ESus2 has the same notes. Unless of course someone meant something other than my definition!

This difference may or may not be meaningful. Depending on context and depending on voicing. If the latter uses an open sixth string E, it's an E type of chord for instance. If the former's obvious bass is E chances are the latter label is best. Could be ambiguous.

For an instance of a lot of definitely '2 chords', hear Uncle Meat - Frank Zappa. That was my interest, a sound that was idiomatic, 'what is that?'. The first time a theory teacher planed P4ths, then ran a series of P4ths past the octave, here is something I could tell from, that has a sound, to go with a concept which on paper is kind of 'meh'.

I knew this sus4 from seeing Pinball Wizard played, I knew here was a sound I liked... aha!

These sus chords have this kind of open sound, contrasts some with the thirds triadic structure, leavens the tedium a bit. Note the fourths stacking as food for thought.

[neoncortex]

One thing I like about piano/keyboard is that all chords are so logically laid out. Just learn the intervals between notes and you can form any chord anywhere without having to think much about it. Guitar brings its own limitations physically and though the chords can be a bit different in terms of notes played they still are the same chords. It's a little confusing, but at this point I think learning to use basic major, minor, sevenths, will keep me busy for months to come.

[Hink]

The best investment you can make is ....Guitar Pro.

The fretboard headsup display can be used to view the notes being played.
Tab is the most common form of reading sheet music for guitar players and gpro is the most popular tab transcription tool. So when it's time to start learning songs accurately and quickly gpro delivers.

Sorry tapper. What is 'Guitar Pro' exactly? Is it a website or program or book?Your post doesn't really make it clear.

I'd really like to know .
Could you give a link to it somewhere?


Cheers.

I use a lot of tunings and I find Chord Wizard Gold 2.5 to be awesome...all the scales, modes, chords and relationships between chords and scales you could ask for in any tuning you want. It also works with many other instruments. I get over 9000 chord shapes alone with different tunings, it plays all the notes via midi and a lot more (you can print everything as well)...A little pricey at aroun 80 doallars but I bought mine in 03 and imho it was worth every penny

[codec_spurt]

Thanks Hink and jancivil.

I learned something.

Nice one.


cheers.