Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Learning the notes on the banjo fretboard

#1

It’s time. I need to learn the names of the notes on the fretboard. I’m not sure what the best way to do it is. I could learn them string by string. I could also start in the “down the neck” area where I already know a lot of the names of the notes. I could also play the diatonic chords up the neck in the key of G, and name the notes out loud until I learn them. I could also use some scale based method and then fill in the blanks later with the non-scale notes.

How did you guys learn the names of these notes? Did you use some particular method that was helpful?

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#2

Still learning, but the 2 lessons that really launched my knowledge of the fretboard was getting up the neck with Blackberry Blossom, and Alan Mundes fretboard geography…especially that one, and I did say them out loud as I hit the shapes.

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#3

I think I would be more inclined to take a note and find it all over the fretboard (e.g. find every fret you can play an E note on the banjo). You can do this with notes of different chords, etc. to keep it organized in your mind. For example, you could find the notes of the C chord up and down the neck and when you are playing over C, you’ll have a good knowledge of where you can find these notes.

I would probably recommend staying away from brute force memorization in the areas you can and I doubt professional players sat down and tried to memorize every note on their D string, then the G, then the B, etc. They probably do know what all those notes are, but likely not from rote memorization and more from playing out of positions and knowing their chord tones in different positions.

I definitely don’t have all the notes of the fretboard memorized, but I can name any fret’s note by means of counting.

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#4

@Brent.H I am going to revisit those lessons. I watched them a while back, but I don’t think I really tried that hard to learn the note names, and now here I am 3 years later, still don’t know them!

@Michael_Mark I like that chord approach. Maybe I could just do it with G, C, and D. That would be high yield in banjo-land!

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#5

I must be honest @Shad I don’t know the names of any of the notes on the finger board but I do know the sound of some. I learned the location and shapes of the major and minor inversions plus the flatted 7th.

Here are some lessons I would recommend
Basic Chord Shapes
https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/basic-major-banjo-chords-banjo
https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/intro-to-minor-chords-banjo

Geography Course with Alan Munde
https://banjobenclark.com/courses/fretboard-geography-with-alan-munde

Waypoint Lessons
https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/waypoints-learning-the-banjo-neck-c-chord-banjo-intermediate
https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/waypoints-learning-the-banjo-neck-g-chord-banjo-intermediate

There are a bunch of other lessons on the site that will greatly expand your knowledge but I think for now these lessons will keep you busy. As @Michael_Mark say’s don’t try to force yourself to try to learn everything. Just work through the lessons and you’ll acquire the knowledge as you go.

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