The official 'Fretboard Workbook' Q&A thread

[db3266]

There are quite a few posts in this forum all pointing towards the 'Fretboard Workbook'. I jumped on the band wagon and having worked through the first few chapters today I am very impressed with the simplicity of how the book is presented and how the theory is taught.

I am a complete newbie to music theory and I can now play a major scale up and down any string and I now know the 5 root note positions and my knowledge of where individual notes are is growing thanks to this book. So all in all, the book is doing a very nice job of expanding my music theory knowledge and understanding of the fretboard.

I thought it would be a good idea if we could collectively contribute to this thread during our education using this book. there will no doubt be questions / observations etc. so considering there are quite a few of us using the same book.........

If there is sufficient interest, maybe we can get a sticky

[campbellj]

I'm down, it's a great book! I picked it up a few weeks ago, flipped through it but haven't really had time to get into it, or even play my guitar much lately because of all of the "getting ready" at home for the new baby, but now that he's here I'm really excited about getting into this book and back to the basics of guitar.

It would definitely be nice to see everyone's perspective of it as we all go through it and try to answer each others questions as they come up.

[TheAlphaNerd]

Mine should be here early next week. Should be a good thread.

[57VOS]

The five root shapes helped me learn the notes on the fretboard. Anyone that knows the five root shapes can also quickly find all the A's, all the B's, all the C's etc.

On page 8 the author explains that these shapes are "the Rosetta Stone, the Holy Grail, and the Magna Carta of guitar comprehension."

[db3266]

Agreed, the first few chapters really helped me understand the major scale and now I know the 5 root note positions, I am doing as the books says and spending five minutes a day concentrating on the positions of single notes up and down the fretboard.

It really is helping me become more familiar with note postitions.

I think this book is teaching the CAGED theory?

I'm hoping that this method will help me play scales a lot more proficiently, to me, it seems a better way to learn the scales that simply to learn the box's.

[SexyGibson]

I have owned the book for several months now. I spent a good bit of time with it when I first received it but then went back to work and got away from it. I am now out of work again and going to get back to it.

[Ascan]

Working through this book now. Best advice I can give is to go through it slowly because the early chapters build the foundation necessary to get through the later chapters. I am not starting from scratch with my knowledge of the fretboard, scales, etc and I am still feel like I went through the first 10 chapters a bit too fast so I've decided to go back through the book from the beginning, so I really know the stuff instead of burning through a chapter and forgetting about its contents when I go on to the next chapter a few days later.

Overall, I really like the book -- the logical way it is presented and the numbering of the scale and note patterns is great. Makes me kick myself for not thinking of it on my own after playing for all these years!