My Love/Hate relationship with the Fretboard

[Jed]

As an example of what I hate and what I love about the fretboard is outlined in the attached pdf.

Take any simple melodic phrase and sort out all of the possible fingerings (all of which we would ideally be able to play at will) and the sheer number of possibilities might drive you nuts.

The example is a simple II-7 V7 I line, in one octave, in the key of A major, shown in 10 different fingerings over a 19 fret range. There are no positional shifts within any one fingering although other fingerings that utilize positional shifts are also available and legitimate.

I have to believe stringed instruments are among the most complicated to master given the sheer number of alternate fingering possibilities. As if learning every key weren't challenging enough, learning everything in every key and every possible position / fingering is at least an order of magnitude more complicated.

cheers,

[forgottenking2]

When I first saw the pdf I was like WOW 251 lines!!! It took me a bit to realize they were ONE ii-V-I line lol. (sorry I AM slow). Ted Greene does a lot of this. Have you seen his "Single Note Soloing" books? They are good stuff.

I do the same thing with my lines. Just a couple of days ago I was practicing a Maj7 type run except I don't quite use ALL of the fretboard. I just center my lines in the 7 positions I seem to play most and then run that through a cycle (the cycle of 5ths most of the time). It's a good mind and finger exercise and it seems to help my improvisation with tunes as well.

I supose I should be more through with my practicing but I have found that there were things I was practicing and not really using so I figured I'd strip those things away so I would have more time to practice other things. (my groove/rhythm guitar type stuff had been very much neglected)

Anyways just rambling as usual.

[chrismatson]

I've always believed that strings instruments are among one of the easiest instruments to play, but one of the most difficult to play well.

And especially guitar. And especially electric guitar, in my opinion.

There are so many factors that could completely go wrong, even without you doing anything, depending on hardware, or just the most subtle things could cause obnoxious noises, when plugged in. By its nature, I think guitars are extremely repetative; which is kind of a good thing, since it opens up a lot of different fingerings, and you could play them depending on which is easier, and what kind of tonality you're looking for.

I have a decent :confused: idea of where all the notes on the fretboard, so I don't worry too much about fingerings, but I think it really is intriguing!!

How can you not love such an instrument?!?!?! Its like an overwhealming urge to tame the beast for most decent guitar players, I guess. Whatever floats your boat. :D

[DuB]

Nah, I think that physically guitar is totally hard to play, well or not. I taught my 21 year old cousin to play Happy Birthday on guitar... it took over an hour, and it was still very far from being in time. On the other hand, any child could learn to play Happy Birthday on a piano, in perfect time, in a matter of minutes.

Regarding the fretboard... having been a guitarist for years before I ever picked up another instrument, I tend to take for granted just how confusing and redundant the fretboard really is. I guess that's a good thing though :).

[greenwizard]

DuB you're right that learning the piano is easier but that doesn't necessarily make the guitar a difficult instrument. It might take ten minutes to learn Happy Birthday on the piano, and it will be in perfect time and sound great. Likewise it might take two hours to play happy birthday on the guitar, again with perfect timing and passable tone. On the other hand it takes weeks of practice (at least) to learn happy birthday on a wind instrument (say, the flute), a brass instrument (say the trumpet), or an unfretted string instrument (like the violin). While someone could learn the fingerings quickly, learning to produce a good tone would be much harder. Overall the guitar is one of the easier instruments to play decently. To play well, and here I agree with christmason, is another story.