Learning the Fretboard from Barre chords.

[MusicLaw]

I had a revealing and insightful ah-ha moment years ago, when I discovered something that I wish someone had pointed out to me many years earlier!

The open E Major chord and open A Major chord formats, and the respective Barre Chords using those formats ascending the neck (using the index finger to play Barre Chords) correlate to the fretboard notes on three strings up the neck!

For instance, the open E Chord format played w/ index finger as a Barre Chord at the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th frets are: F, G, A, and B chords. Those are also the fretboard notes at those frets on, both, the low and high E-Strings (different only by octaves)! Similarly, the open A Chord format played with index finger as a Barre Chord in the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th frets are B-flat, C, D and E Chords, as are the fretboard notes on the A-String at those positions.

With this, it was a cinch to easily remember the: "2+2" tip. Two Plus Two Equals The Same Note (an octave higher). Two Frets Up (higher), and Two Strings Over (higher). Relative to any note on the low E-string and on the A-string, the same note - an octave higher - is always 2+2! Thus, a G note at the 3rd fret on the low E-string, has an octave higher G note at the 5th fret on the D-string. And, the C note at the 3rd fret on the A-String has an octave higher C note on the 5th fret on the G-string. Just remember 2 Frets Up, 2 strings Over!

With that in mind, expanding the memory tip to "2+2+3" gets you to the next same note another octave higher. However, here the "+3" refers to the number of Frets Up while still moving Two Strings Over (higher). Thus, continuing with the above examples, a G note is also at the 8th Fret on the B-string: 3 Frets up and 2 strings over from the G note at the 5th Fret of D-string! And, similarly, there's a C note at the 8th Fret on the high E-string: 3 Frets up and 2 Strings over from the C note at the 3rd Fret of the A-string!

I also realized that these created easy to visualize diagonal patterns on the fretboard, and these helped me better find my way around.

Hope some find this useful. It was for me.

 

[JonR]

Welcome to the CAGED system. (The movable C G and D shapes will help fill in those gaps.)

 

[HogmanA]

Something that helped me and so might help others is to use this idea to break the fretboard down into a a more manageable instrument.

ie. consider the main playing space to be the strings 4, 3 and 2. by using three of the CAGED shapes, just on these strings, gives you triads in root, first and second inversion.

The 6, 5 and 1 strings can be thought of for adding bass fills, extensions to the chord, etc, and left hand muting of these strings enables strumming as well as picking. It also provides a good 'base' range for your instrument, or 'restricted basic starting range', which I found helped get me a good place in the overall mix in a band setting - leaving space for the other instruments, aiding songwriting and general mix of sound in a live band setting (at least it did for me - the beginnings of me really thinking about my role in a band , rather than to just make a racket!)

Later, the same concept can be moved to the 5, 4 and 3rd strings for a lower range, though they are definitely less convenient because of their intervals and greater difficulty in damping unwanted strings; or the strings 1, 2 and 3 for a higher range.