Fretboard Note Locations

[Konfyouzd]

Thinking a scale is a series of intervals, they just happen to be all 2nds. As long as you're aware of the notes, not just blasting a boxed fingering you should be pretty adaptable to intervals when you need them.

Try playing scalar stuff with the notes moved to other octaves and look at what intervals this forms. Putting every other note up or down the octave will give you 7ths or 9ths and 3rds. Try playing a scale but with every other note above the octave i.e. tonic, 2nd above octave, 3rd, 4th above octave, 5th, 6th above octave, 7th, double octave. Work out the intervals between each of those. Between each note in pitch order you'll have 3rds. Move every other one of those down an octave i.e. tonic, 3rd down octave, 5th, 7th down octave, 9th, 11th down octave, 13th. What intervals do you have in between?

It's a bit of an excessive exercise but you could stumble across some cool ways of splitting an idea into a couple of voices.

Now THIS I need to try...

 

[JustMac]

Thinking a scale is a series of intervals, they just happen to be all 2nds. As long as you're aware of the notes, not just blasting a boxed fingering you should be pretty adaptable to intervals when you need them.

Try playing scalar stuff with the notes moved to other octaves and look at what intervals this forms. Putting every other note up or down the octave will give you 7ths or 9ths and 3rds. Try playing a scale but with every other note above the octave i.e. tonic, 2nd above octave, 3rd, 4th above octave, 5th, 6th above octave, 7th, double octave. Work out the intervals between each of those. Between each note in pitch order you'll have 3rds. Move every other one of those down an octave i.e. tonic, 3rd down octave, 5th, 7th down octave, 9th, 11th down octave, 13th. What intervals do you have in between?

If you jump from a root to second, but play it up an octave, is it not still really a second instead of a ninth, due to no third being played somewhere in between? I'm just thinking this because of how, say, an add9 chord requires a third to distinguish it from being a sus2...i think

That's a really cool idea, I just had a go at that suggestion, I can already see how shifting octaves really helps with dynamics in sound, as well as encouraging adventurous use of the fretboard, with string skipping and less reliance on following shapes and all that. Cheers Sol!

 

[Solodini]

If a 2nd is extended over the octave it's a 9th, in terms of the raw interval. You're correct in the context of chords though, yes.

You're welcome.

 

[Given To Fly]

012478...that "pitch class set" takes care of the intervals and makes playing the guitar much much harder....

 

[InfinityCollision]

Why memorize note locations when you can understand interval relationships?

If I absolutely insisted on learning the fretboard via memorization (which to be fair can be a good approach for a beginner), I'd use something like this that lets you drill on the material in different ways (and helps you learn the staff at the same time), or the equivalent exercise on musictheory.net (which allows you to edit tunings and supports 7-strings). Even then, ideally it's paired with interval training so that you're getting the full package and have the best possible understanding of the fretboard. Straight memorization from a chart is a poor teaching method in my experience, especially if the material is subject to change.

I wonder why base 10 is so nice with 0-9.

Because you've been counting that way your whole life, and to an extent because you have ten fingers. If you counted in base 60 for a while it wouldn't be that bad. I do a decent amount of work with hexadecimal and it was tricky at first, but I've gotten used to it now.

It's kind of like reading sheet music in a different clef. The first time I had to read tenor clef was a pain in the ass, but now it's just as easy as reading bass clef (what I started out on). The same happened when I learned to read treble clef. I never read alto clef but it's just up a third from tenor clef so it's not so bad.

Is it a bad idea to think a lot in scales, rather than intervals? I understand intervallic relationships just as well but I think it's mostly habit at this point. I don't feel that it's a hindrance but is this a dangerous path?

To expand on what SW said I'd caution against thinking in this manner to the exclusion or near-exclusion of thinking in intervals, because scalar thinking tends to (surprise surprise) limit your thinking to notes in that scale. Keys and scales give you a structural framework, intervals are your building blocks.

 

[Syrinx]

First of all, I never said the "American" school system by itself. Memorization is a system of learning that has been practiced through-out the centuries. You wouldn't be able to read without it.

I don't need to memorize every word in order to read something.

 

[Ravvij]

I don't need to memorize every word in order to read something.

Actually you do, but it's not the same. You do memorize words but not because you read them. You learn to speak before you read and your mind stores the series of sounds to be recalled at a moment's notice. Once you're reading you begin to memorize all over again but it's reenforcing your vocabulary in a much more structured way. You wouldn't be able to write if you didn't memorize at least 1000 words. You also wouldn't even be able to guess what a new word is unless you have some prior knowledge of the sounds of that word or a similar one.
The same could be said of playing music. Music is a language of sounds as well, but requires much more skill to "speak". (possibly be cause it has so many more sounds than we are capable of fully understanding.)
Anyone can write music, just like anyone can transliterate another language. It's being able to carry on a conversation in that language that requires lots of different kinds of memorization and stimulation.