Learning Note Names

Benjamin Franz · From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

I'm curious. Do you seasoned pros know all the individual note names on all strings in your preferred tuning? Now, I've been playing in C6 for about 6 years on and off, but still don't know my note names. I play purely by visual cues and patterns, but I find that I get lost easily in the jazzier changes, even though I'm pretty familiar with patterns to get around standard jazz progressions and turnarounds. I figure if I can learn the note names it will come much quicker, but no matter how hard I try, they just won't stick.
I've been playing bass professionally for 20 years, studied jazz for 4 years at university. I know my theory inside out. I can look at the bass and just 'see' the notes instantly, but just can't seem to do this on steel.
What have you guys done to learn note names? Learnt them by rote? Sight reading? I can kind of read on steel, but I realize that I'm not actually thinking of the notes on the steel, but rather reading the music and using my ear and internal sol fa method to find my way around.

Danny Bates · From: Fresno, CA. USA

Benjamin,

On the C6th neck, I look at groups of strings and memorize the name of the triads by thinking of the notes in a major seventh chord.

For example, if I'm on the 7th fret, I think of the notes of a Cmaj7 chord.... C,E,G and B.

My first group of strings (9,8,7) is the C. The second set (8,7,6) is Em, The third set is G and the 4th set is Bm(with the seventh pedal)

The 1st and 3rd sets are always major and the 2nd and 4th sets are always minor chords. When you want extensions of the chords, you just pick more of the higher strings. In other words, The C becomes Cmaj7 then Cmaj9, the Em becomes Em7, the G (with pedal 7) becomes Gmaj7 etc.

BTW, These chords are in another octave 7 frets up or 5 frets down if you also skip 2 groups of strings (with the use of pedal 7)

I hope this helps you... It works for me.

Danny Bates · From: Fresno, CA. USA

Sorry Benjamin... I just noticed this was in the non-pedal section.... Nevermind. Embarassed

Benjamin Franz · From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

No worries Danny. Your trick of memorizing the Maj7 chords on the 7th fret is good though.

James Mayer · Posted 29 Dec 2009 8:36 am

http://www.absolutefretboard.com/

If you can get past the cheesy sales pitch, it's a great piece of software. You can set up different profiles for multiple tunings.

Mike Neer · From: NJ

Coming from a standard guitar background, I first learned to play steel with E based tunings. This made it easier for me to know which notes I was playing at all times, so I didn't have to be a position player--besides, I think one of the steel's allures is the playing up and down on the strings.

Anyway, when it came to moving to other tunings, like C6, I decided to try a different approach. I do know the names of the notes all over the neck, but I tend to think triadically now. To give an example, for a GMaj chord, I might think of Em or Bm, and even F#m for a Lydian sound. For Gm, I might think of Gm and Dm, and maybe even Bbm or D+ or C7, depending on what I'm going for. With dominant chords, it gets really exciting, as you can really focus on the upper extensions of the chord. I really like to fool around with altered dominant chords, as there are so many options.

I think the important thing to really focus on is the intervallic relationship of the strings. I think a book could be written on this alone for the C6 tuning.
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Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

It's very helpful, but not absolutely necessary to know all of the notes on your fretboard. I think it's important to know the intervals of the strings (root, 3rd, 5th. etc) and the chord positions, majors, minors, etc, in all positions on your fretboard.
The more you learn about theory and harmony, the more you will want to know what the notes are on your instrument. For example, if you want to find a Dm chord, it would be very helpful to know where the D (root) note is all over the neck and to know what other notes are needed for that chord and where they are on the fretboard.
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Bob Hoffnar · From: Austin, Tx

Try saying the names of the notes while you slowly practice scales.
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Mike Bonnice · From: Arizona, USA

I'l give you my trick, maybe it will help. I'm still memorizing all the notes on all the frets, but it's mostly a matter of following through on the method.

First, the high E string is the same as regular guitar, and I've already memorized the "white key" notes on that string. And the fifth string is also E, so that's the same.

The second and sixth strings are C, and I needed to memorize those. I use the second string to give me the position of a major chord, so I call open string C, bar 2 is D, bar 4 is E, and so on. I almost always play in F and G and C, so I'm always at the fifth and seventh and 12th frets; at first, I calculated A and D and E as deviations from F and G and C, but now I've memorized the positions of all the white key notes on the second string (as well as Bflat).

The fourth string is the fifth degree of the major chord that is rooted at string six (and two). So, if you have memorized your major chord spellings, (like Fmaj is F-A-C), then when in the F position (fret five), the fourth string is a C.

String three is the linkage to the sixth of the scale and to the minor chords. I have already memorized (from music theory) most of the relative minors for the majors (not all, yet). So when I'm in the F position (fret five), I know that Dm is relative minor of Fmaj, so string three is D.

Denny Turner · From: Oahu, Hawaii USA

Benjamin,

Just in case you might not have found / used it before: With a good background in theory, the link below should be a piece of cake with nominal exploration. Although it's based upon thinking in number system; It provides a full armature for translating numbers to notes and why:

http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum8/HTML/002238.html

Hope it might help with your question. Other suggestions said in this discussion are also good; The more ways to look at it the clearer the picture.
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AJ Azure · From: Massachusetts, USA * R.I.P.

This is so dead easy it's worth spending one week on it. Walk away from the instrument for one week. start quizzing yourself by saying 5th string, 4th fret, etc. on every string and visualize the neck. after that week you will know pretty much every note. the reason you walk away for that week is to break the pattern dependency.

Benjamin Franz · From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Thanks all. Everyone has offered sage advice here, and given me food for thought. I had a minor revelation tonight. I was playing through the head of Honey Suckle Rose, which I would normally just do by ear/number system/visual pattern, and forced myself to think of each note name and visualize on the staff as I played it, and the note names started to stick. I'll see if I can remember the note names in the morning... and Mike, I come from a standard guitar background as well, except that I tune with a high G on an eight string, so having that high E string reference doesn't work for me, though again I appreciate the advice!

I guess the crux of my problem is this: If I'm playing in, say, the key of F, and my main position is around the 5th fret, and the "secondary" position around the 10th and 12th frets (or what I call 'cross' position in my mind,) I'm fine, but once I get into the positions in between, I get lost. I can hear in my mind what I want to play, and I know by my theory background what scale degree the note should be, but, I can't find them. If I knew the note names better, I could equate what scale degree I need to the notes on the board.
In the example of F above, around the 5th fret and 10th and 12th frets, the notes fall easily under the bar, so no problem. But if I play a lick that leads me into unchartered territory, and I'm improvising, the whole train of thought of a solo comes crashing down.

James Mayer · Posted 30 Dec 2009 1:25 pm

Here's a free one: LINK

You can isolate strings or frets. For example, you can set it to quiz you on the first 3 strings up to fret 7. Should take about a week if you give it several 10 minute sessions while taking a break at work. That's pretty much how I did it. [/url]

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

George Piburn · From: The Land of Enchantment New Mexico

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

edit
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Bill Leff · From: Santa Cruz, CA, USA

The Bb scale shown has a #4...

George Piburn · From: The Land of Enchantment New Mexico

Les Anderson · From: The Great White North

This site may be of help. It has all the chord placements for most steel guitars.

http://www.mightyfinemusic.com/Chord_Finder.asp

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