GUITAR
HOW TO ACE YOUR FRETBOARD WITH OCTAVES | David Harsh
If you ’ re looking for a game-changing strategy for claiming the fretboard quickly and effectively – that most people don ’ t know about – this is the place to start .
Take a look at this legend for a moment .
Now before we continue , I ’ m going to let you in on a little secret that will reveal how the fretboard works in this situation , through a mathematical sequence of numbers . You ready ?
I highly recommend watching the accompanying instructional video , while it ’ s available , because it will literally unlock these concepts for your eyes and ears in a way that my typed words and diagrams won ’ t be able to .
So first , what ’ s an octave ? It ’ s a perfect interval comprised of 12 half steps , where the low note and the high note share the same name , but are located in different registers .
I ’ ve got yellow lines to indicate octaves where I skip one string . Note that I need to make an accommodation for the tuning , as I traverse the Major 3 rd in the tuning on the way to strings 2 and 1 .
Then I have a blue line that shows where I can play an octave as I skip two strings – and still play the notes simultaneously with my fretting hand . I ’ ll do this only from strings 5 to 2 today .
Lastly , I have a green line to indicate a double octave from strings 6 to 1 , as I skip four strings .
All of these lines will come into play with the three diagrams I ’ m about to walk you through . Remember , I ’ m working with octaves that can be played simultaneously with my fretting hand .
Think of the three lowest single-digit odd numbers in decreasing order . What are they ? 5 , 3 , 1 .
Now , how about the three lowest single-digit even numbers in decreasing order ? They are : 6 , 4 , 2 .
Try saying those sequences back to back a couple times , starting with the odds .
5 , 3 , 1 , 6 , 4 , 2 , 5 , 3 , 1 , 6 , 4 , 2 .
As you will soon see , these numbers tell us which string to use as we map out the octaves from low to high on the frets .
We have a 6-string instrument . Between frets 0 and 11 , a single note appears only once per string , so how many instances of that note will we find on the fretboard inside that frontier ? Six instances .
58 January 2023
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