Re: Learning the fretboard..

On May 6, 11:20�am, "h kiesel" <pls2...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'm sure this topic has been discussed before but I need help with this and
maybe there are some publications. I find it hard to find teaching pieces
that deal with learning the fretboard and would appreciate some advice.

hk

"Learning the fretboard" sometimes is not articulated beyond, or as
other than, acquisition of the ability to recognize notes and where
they are positioned on the fingerboard as isolated points. Presumably
this is to serve sightreading understood as a process of translating
the notes of a printed score into guide posts situated on a map of
potential routes to take around a known geographical terrain, by the
traveling of which is finally revealed the nature of the composition.
This is all fine and dandy, and is where we all start, but is a
methodology that can and should be transcended.

Sight reading at a higher level entails recognition of musical
structures of which individual notes are components, much as letters
are components of words that are instantaneously recognized while
reading without having to sound them out. If one can 1) discern these
structures at sight from the score, and has 2) a preconditioned
fingerboard familiarity with them, then sight reading is a much less
laborious process because much less has to be done. This "structural
recognition" can be in the horixontal mode of melodic phrases taken in
by contour of known intervals subject to diatonic adjustment depending
on where in the tonality the are placed, or verticalized triadic forms
in different voicing distribution, etc.

Ultimately, what we all strive for, and some few attain, is a reading
ability in which a full comprehension of the nature of the composition
is what comes first upon reading the score, not last, and it is this
comprehension working in concert with ones internalized rapport with
the instrument that precipitates the formulating of the route to take
around the fingerboard, not the reverse.

There is an organic quality to such overarching rapport which makes it
a bit difficult to parse out a logical organization of steps to
prescribe for its acquisition; it takes collation of a lot of seperate
skills gained in internal aural ear training, whatever one knows of
theory, and a fingerboard readiness akin to that of a jazz
improviser. These thinking processes all have a co-dependency which
renders the whole project into a very sizable "it" that one hopes
eventually to "get", and sight reading methods will consist in large
part simply of more reading material to add to basic etudes and
repertoire from which it is hoped one will "get" it.

There are, though, methods that do a pretty good job of what they set
out to do, each from their own perspective. I, too, like the Dodgson-
Quine "Progressive reading" book which has been recommended in this
thread; one might supplement it with Dodgson's "Sight Reading Tests"
for Trinity College of Music, and the Dodgson-Quine two volume set of
twenty etudes (very fingerboardly utilitarian, and written in a sort
of "attractively repellent" style). There is also a very good volume
by Oliver Hunt called "Musicianship and Sight reading for Guitarists"
which should be more well known. I'm sure there are others.

Before deferring to avail oneself of any such book, though, there much
that can be done to help the project along.

For melodic contour:

1) Learn single position scales. Any scale can be played in any one
position, making for twelve patterns each for the major and the
various minors (or seven if done as "three notes per string" rather
than in a fixed position). Figure these out on your own, extending
them above and below their tonics to the reachable range within a
position. Contrive your own method established on your own preferences
(which may change) as to how to handle reaches out of position, what
is your default handling of two whole steps along a string, augmented
seconds in harmonic minor, whether or not to reach both fore and aft
on any one string, whether you like or prefer to avoid sliding with
one finger for consecutive notes, etc.

2) Once these are learned, do more with them than just play them up
and down. Use them. Play any known melody, located differently
within a position and at different octaves. Folk tunes and nursery
rhyme melodies are good to begin with because they tend to be mostly
stepwise, diatonic and most begin and end on the tonic. Some don't- a
tune for "Mary had a little lamb" begins on the third; one of the
"Away in a Manger" tunes begins on the fifth. Be able to anticipate
that. Or just noodle- make up your own tunes.

As you play these, you will find that adhering to a fingering
allocation convenient to one position when playing the scale linearly
can become awkward in melodic skips that will ential the same finger
hopping from string to string. In such situations, allow yourself to
shift from one scale pattern to another, so that your sense of the
"fingerboard key" becomes kaleidoscopic as fingerboard territories
become linked through changing positions. As you do this you will
likely find yourself using certain scale patterns of the potential
twelve (or seven) more often than others- so the number of "for
practical use" scales becomes winnowed down from the theoretical
number.

Vertical structures; intervals and chords.

1) learn all the octave patterns across three and across four
strings. There is one "across three" pattern applicable either to
bridging the sixth and fourth, or fifth and third strings; one for
strings either four-two or three-one; one "across four " patern for
six-three, and one for either five-two or four-one.

2) Do the same with perfect fifths on adjacent strings and across
three strings, and major or minor thirds on adjacent strings.

3) learn unison patterns for adjacent strings.

4) Now build triads- use major triads as an arbitrary standard.

-Start with a major triad, in root position, with the root on the
third string.. There is only one way to play this triad.

-Move the root to the fourth string. Start with a closed position
triad, root, 3rd, and 5th on strings four, three, two.

-Subject this triad formation to a) revoicing and b) refingering of
new voicing. To revoice- using the appropriate octave pattern, move
the 3rd of this triad up an octave (changing what finger you are using
ot hold the tonic if you wish). To refinger this new voicing- use the
appropriate unison pattern to relocate the 5th of this triad from the
second to the third string. These are the only three possible
configurations for playing a triad in root position with the root on
the fourth string.

-Through similar processes of revoicing and refingering, you will find
that there are seven ways to play a root position triad with the root
on the fifth string, ten with the root on the sixth (plus, in either
case,. some eminently impractical formations)

As you discover these, maintain awareness of which upper note is the
3rd, which the 5th, and what one would do the transform the triad into
minor, diminished, or augmented.

Further developments:
- To various triad formations add an octave doubling of the root.
Lower it one half step and you have a major seventh chord. Another
half step and yu have a dominant seventh. Familiarize yourself with
different combinations of major, minor, diminished, and augmented
triads with added major, minor, and diminished sevenths. The five
combinations most usually encountered are major triad with major
seventh, major with minor seventh, minor/minor, diminished/minor, and
diminished/diminished.

- Do all the above starting with triads in first inversion, and in
second inversion.

Along with all of the above, familiarize yourself with what these
structures look like on the staff. Start with the intervals, so that
a combination of space/line note heads a certain distance apart from
each other begins to look like an octave to you, note heads both on
lines or spaces at a certain width apart look like a fifths.

Within a fifth, learn to react instantaneously to what a triad looks
like; within a sixth, one step larger than a fifth, learn to recognize
triads in first or second inversion.

Learn how diatonic triadic quality changes according to where within a
tonality it is found (i.e., major, minor,dim. according to what degree
is the root).

All of this is good for reading things like fiddle/penny whistle
tunes, or Bach, , or anything which frequently moves in arpeggiated
form. When such structures are scanned and anticipated, they can be
dealt with in whole form without negotiating in piecemeal fashion with
individual notes. Chromatics can be applied in recognition of how the
effect the structure. If one gets good at it, this may also release
one to transpose through playing by structure instead of by specific
note values. This is good for reading from scores not written for
guitar that one is contemplating for transcription, etc.

All this may seem daunting in scope, and it is a long term project,
but the long term part of it is the assimilation- the exploratory
groundwork can be laid down in just a few sessions. Its not that
hard.

Well- enough belt buckle polishing- gotta get back to what I am
avoiding doing, its been a longer detour than I anticipated.
.