Fretboard Freedom: The Musical Alphabet is the first lesson in a course that will help you unlock the fretboard, enabling you to find any note, double stop, chord, scale, arpeggio in any position. It will give you the freedom to find your way in any key and have the ability to transpose/reposition breaks, melodies & chord progressions and improve your ability to improvise.

1. Understanding The Music Alphabet

By having a basic understanding of the sequence of the notes that construct the chromatic scale (12 pitches, each a semitone (1 fret) above or below its adjacent pitches), it can be an easy process to find any note cycling through the scale.

Let’s begin with the 7 natural notes: A B C D E F G

Some of these notes have sharp’s (#) and/or flat’s (b). Let’s first look at the notes that do not generally have a sharp (#) or flat (b).***

B is one semitone lower than C: therefore there is no B# or Cb.

E is one semitone lower than F: therefore there is no E# or Fb.

(***It is possible that the above notes eg. B# appear in music notation, but for our example and learning the fretboard, we won’t go there!!!***)

• That then means we have the following sharp’s: A# C# D# F# G#;
• Also meaning the following notes have flat’s: Ab Bb Db Eb Gb.

If we take a look at the fretboard diagram below, you’ll see the pattern that we have, not including #’s or b’s:

Mandolin Fretboard (Example Also Applies to the Guitar & Banjo)

(Bottom line represents the 4th string – G, the top line represents the 1st string – E).

To find a #, for example F#, locate F and move one semitone higher and you will now be at F#.

To find a b, for example Bb, locate B and move one semitone lower and you will have Bb.

2. Strategies For Memorising The Notes & Gaining Fretboard Freedom

1. Begin with one string, let’s use the open G string on each instrument in this example. Mandolin String 4, Banjo String 3 & Guitar String 3.
2. Learn the position of the natural notes as shown in the diagram above, up to fret 12. Notice how the fret marker dots line up with some of these notes as you move higher along the string. Eg. C (fret 5), D (fret 7) and the octave G (fret 12).  (The notes repeat in the same pattern beyond fret 12).
3. After a short time studying these notes and their position, you will find locating them a much easier task.
4. Once you are able to find a natural note relatively quickly, try to locate a # or b. Eg. Db: D is at fret 7, lower that by one semitone and you’ll now have a Db.
5. Finally, repeat this process on another string. Knowledge of two strings makes the process we will cover in the next lesson much easier. The strings I would begin with are:
   • Mandolin: String 4 (G) & String 3 (D) OR if you are also a guitar player begin with String 1 (E) & String 2 (A) as it will double up with your guitar fretboard knowledge easily;
   • Banjo: String 4 (D – Low) & String 3 (G);
   • Guitar: String 6 (E – Low) & String 5 (A).

With a little bit of effort, you will be rewarded with a great foundation to build on as you explore the fretboard. Once you can find the notes comfortably one or two strings, there are many strategies that can then be used to quickly find notes on the remaining strings. Given time, these strategies will lead to fretboard freedom over the entire neck and the ability to locate any note in any position!

Happy pickin’!

Heath