Lesson 10

[Russ]

(copied from Mental Brick Walls thread)

Quote
I'm working on Lesson 10. Some of the shapes are familiar, but the lesson is proving that just knowing the circle of 5ths doesn't mean you know the fretboard.  Embarrassed I'm theorizing that if I try to learn the fretboard in smaller chunks, say 4-5 frets from e-E, maybe that will help me remember the board on sight sooner. I can do the circle and can even do the letters out of order, but if I just pick a fret and ask myself what note it is, I can't just blurt it out. I have to think about it. I'm a perfectionist about things like this and have been learning to be more lenient on myself, but this learning curve is proving wider than my patients is allowing. I mean I'm getting the shapes and fret positions down, but I can't do it in good time or anything. At this point I'm going for placement not remembering at the time why each finger goes to it's position. That's frustrating me.  Undecided

 

[Russ]

I'm pretty close to perfecting the shapes. They're coming faster, but I'm still only at around 30 bpm. I need. I need. I need. I need more speed! 

Just my personal opinion, but I think these chords sound nicer with the electric.

 

[allwalk]

I have to admit that I struggled with those little chords as well. I too spent a lot of time with this lesson , but I did not perfect it before I moved on. Im glad I spent the time on them as learning the chord shapes really helps with the latter lessons.  I think my biggest issue with this particular lesson is that it is the first time that Ive been forced to use my pinkie finger. I've since discovered that my pinkie belongs in a union and it commonly thinks its not his job. I really have to work hard on training that pinkie.  Keep with it Russ it pays off!

 

[Russ]

I try to involve my pinkie in most any lesson I do, no matter what. It's the most difficult one to keep a consistant callous

 

[Silicon Valley Tom]

Russ;

Just keep at it and you will really have some fun coming up.  Not to make you hurry (please do not!) but when you complete lessons 10, 11, 12, 13, and get to lesson 14, you will be one happy camper!  Lessons 10-13 are a great foundation for what is about to come.   

Tom

 

[Russ]

I'm not getting anywhere or speeding up. My metronome goes down to 40 bpm and I can't keep up with that. I'm getting burned out. I don't know. Maybe if I liked the sound of them, I'd do better. I don't mind the electric sound, but don't like the acoustic sound of most little chords.

 

[Bill_Edge]

My advice is move on and use things you feel are incomplete as fill in or diversions when you need a pause from what you are working on.  I find that if I work on the course for an hour, I'll spend the first 45 on where I'm at, and the last 15 going back and going over just about everything.  Which turns into 30 minutes..........

 

[Stephanie-NoelDodt]

My love for Griff's music books....because I can write all over them .... has proved useful on grasping this array of chords. I also love to use fretboard stamps (Amazon, 6 and 12 frets) and index cards to help me memorize. I have a reasonable beginning grasp of the notes on the entire fretboard which is proving to be useful. I drove that into my now 70 year old brain with my homemade flash cards. I use the letters across the fret board, say at fret 5, to create sentences...such as All Dark Gray Cats Eat Anything for ADGCEA. Fortunately the musical alphabet contains the letter F, which can help you make some unforgettable combinations, especially at fret 10.

I became enamored with the idea of finding the Root note of all 12 chords on p48 of ABGU and coloring it with a red pencil to make it stand out. Then, wanting to grasp the concept of inversions, I penciled in the 3rd, 5th and b7th notes in each chord grid. Coloring in the Root notes caused me realize something helpful. Each of the four chord shapes has a root note on a different string! This was a game changer. I was able to remember each unique shape and its "Root String"! Memorize the four chord shapes and "Root Strings" and you will be able to name the chords in any position providing you can reconstruct the notes at, say the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 10th and 12th frets.

Having conceptualized the Little Chords this way, I am now free to work on the mechanics of forming them and my speed with a metronome. I realize this is a very nerdy discourse, but as I sat playing with the grids on Lesson 10, the whole concept cracked open. I hope this helps someone else! Thanks Griff, for your beautiful music books. I write all over them !

Happy New Year in 2021, and here's to everyone's Best Guitar Life!

 

[david moon]

My love for Griff's music books....because I can write all over them .... has proved useful on grasping this array of chords. I also love to use fretboard stamps (Amazon, 6 and 12 frets) and index cards to help me memorize. I have a reasonable beginning grasp of the notes on the entire fretboard which is proving to be useful. I drove that into my now 70 year old brain with my homemade flash cards. I use the letters across the fret board, say at fret 5, to create sentences...such as All Dark Gray Cats Eat Anything for ADGCEA. Fortunately the musical alphabet contains the letter F, which can help you make some unforgettable combinations, especially at fret 10.

I became enamored with the idea of finding the Root note of all 12 chords on p48 of ABGU and coloring it with a red pencil to make it stand out. Then, wanting to grasp the concept of inversions, I penciled in the 3rd, 5th and b7th notes in each chord grid. Coloring in the Root notes caused me realize something helpful. Each of the four chord shapes has a root note on a different string! This was a game changer. I was able to remember each unique shape and its "Root String"! Memorize the four chord shapes and "Root Strings" and you will be able to name the chords in any position providing you can reconstruct the notes at, say the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 10th and 12th frets.

Having conceptualized the Little Chords this way, I am now free to work on the mechanics of forming them and my speed with a metronome. I realize this is a very nerdy discourse, but as I sat playing with the grids on Lesson 10, the whole concept cracked open. I hope this helps someone else! Thanks Griff, for your beautiful music books. I write all over them !

Happy New Year in 2021, and here's to everyone's Best Guitar Life!

I don't know why this got posted as reply, but see my next post.

 

[david moon]

This is my point of view and not meant to be negative about any comments here

There's nothing wrong with learning the note names across the whole fretboard. I think it is more important to think about intervals and relations between notes. If you're in the key of G you should be able to locate the root (6th string 3rd fret) but for the 5th string 1st fret it is more important to know that it is the flat 3 and in the minor pentatonic scale and where it is relative to the root, than it is that the name is Bb.

If you change the key to A and move up 2 frets, the b3 also moves up 2 frets to C. The "spatial pattern" relative to the root remains the same.

 

[BoogieMan]

I agree for the most part with David's comment. I think memorizing every note on the fretboard is a waste of brainpower. If you know the notes on the fifth and sixth/first strings you can easily find all the other notes if you need them in a practice situation. In a real playing situation, you are playing shapes/intervals not thinking in terms of individual notes. For example, if you know a shape for playing a G major scale, you simply move it around for the other major scales. I know that some traditional instructors would have you memorize all seven notes of each of 12 major scales ( and all the other scales as well), but to me that just isn't practical. Learning shapes and patterns that can be moved around makes more sense to me.

 

[Paleo]

How do I know where to move moveable shapes and patterns to if I don't know the notes on the fretboard.

Especially if they start on one of the top 4 strings and I only "know" the bottom two.

No "trick" or mental gymnastics I may go through for referencing something else to get to a note I want to get to is gonna take less time or mental power than simply knowing where it is. (Good example of a run-on sentence? )

The cumulative amount of time I would take using the same "trick" over my lifetime would be a helluva a lot more time than it would take me to learn 7 natural notes on each of 6 strings (and their octaves from the 12th fret up).

If I know the 6th and 5th strings I also know the 1st.

How much harder could it be to learn the other 3, especially since the notes are always in the same order.

I've also never heard someone who has learned the notes on their instrument say they wished they hadn't.

I don't think Griff would advise we learn the notes if it was going to be a waste of time.


Hint: For my "modal" friends, the natural notes on each string from open to the 12th fret is a Mode of the C Major scale.

 

[Stephanie-NoelDodt]

 

[Stephanie-NoelDodt]

The above image is what I resorted to. I have been trying to distill my learning of this so that I can eventually develop some immediacy with these chords. (I turned 70 on December 20, 2020 and I don't think that was helpful, LOL). I do agree with Bill Edge that switching to another topic is a help. I have started to look at the next very short lesson on 9th Chords just for a change.

It became apparent to me that success with this will hinge on the fact that there are four unique chord "shapes", each of which has a separate "root string" followed by developing a knowledge of the location of the root notes E, A and B. I created the above memory aids by using 5"x8" cards and stamps I purchased on Amazon. The two different stamps are "Stampola Guitar Chord Stamp Large 5 Fret" ($8.49) and "Stampola Guitar Chord Rubber Stamp 12 fret ($12.49). These stamps are both still available and that price is current. Type in the exact name I gave in Amazon search. I love them and they have helped me a lot. If you think what I have done here will help you and there is a way to print my photo, please feel free to do that! That is why I posted it separately from the text so both don't print out together.

I think if you can focus on the location of the root note within each chord and become comfortable with its unique shape and then focus on the location of the Root note on the fretboard this might become easier. Notice that in the aids in the photo I give you the "chord shape number" next to the root note location. I am getting to the point where all I have to do is find the location of the root note and I can tell what the chord shape should be just from what string its on! This has helped me a lot, although I have to admit I still have to work on it. At least I see light at the end of the tunnel now because this provides a visual formula. I hope this helps other people. Happy "Better Than 2020" New Year Everyone, and here's to our best guitar life! Love ya!

 

[Paleo]

@Stephanie-NoelDodt

You're coming dangerously close to discovering the CAGED system.

 

[Stephanie-NoelDodt]

Ha,

@Stephanie-NoelDodt

You're coming dangerously close to discovering the CAGED system.

Ha, ha,ha. Wow! Really? I just got a Golden Ticket and used it on the second of Griffs acoustic solos, plus the book and DVD and CD.
I was snooping around in his online store to determine what I would invest the next Golden Ticket on at the end of February 2021. Paleo, that is exactly what I chose to the point of setting up my calendar alarm in my phone as "Get CAGED course!" Obviously my thinking is strongly drifting in that direction.

 

[Stephanie-NoelDodt]

View attachment 13399

The above is incorrect on the second card, E on the second string should be 5th fret!

 

[Stephanie-NoelDodt]

I was trying post a correction on my first hamfisted version of those cards. I was doing over a data connection with a heavy rainstorm going on using my cell phone as a Hotspot. Somehow it posted twice.

However, what l was trying to do has eventually helped me. I'm getting better. For me, remembering the little chords mostly as "chord shapes" being plugged into "root notes" by their "string association" definitely helped. I am becoming better at it. As far is speed is concerned I am just tapping my foot at a rate I can keep up with, gradually increasing the speed and seeing if I'm at 40 bpm yet so I can switch to my metronome. I will just stick with it and it will eventually happen and be well worth the effort.

Several people have mentioned doing something else along with this to prevent youself becoming fatigued with it and I agree whole heartedly.
I feel that I am at the point where the best tactic for me is to go back to Lessons 4 through 9 and review them to increase my skill level for the time when I reach Lesson 14, "Down To The Station", and continue to work on Lesson 10. I know better than to try to rush this! It will eventually "take".

 

[ChrisGSP]

I feel that I am at the point where the best tactic for me is to go back to Lessons 4 through 9 and review them to increase my skill level for the time when I reach Lesson 14,

I'm doing exactly that in BGU 2.0 - I made "Playlist"s in VLC Media Player of the Jam Tracks for Lessons 1-5, then similarly for Lessons 6-7, etc. and saved all the Playlists in a folder where they are easy to access. At the begining of the day I just double-click the Lessons 1-5 playlist and it plays the Jam Tracks one after the other and I play along. That way I review 5 lessons in about 5 minutes and I can do it as many times and for as long as I feel the need or the impulse. I'm on Lesson 11 and 12 at the moment, but I'm continually reviewing the first 10 using this method, and I figure that since it's working so well, I'll continue the same way for the whole course.

 

[Al Holloway]

As far is speed is concerned I am just tapping my foot at a rate I can keep up with, gradually increasing the speed and seeing if I'm at 40 bpm yet so I can switch to my metronome.

If you can't play at 40 bpm. Try setting the metronome at 60bpm and play on the 1 and 3 beats this will be 30bpm. Or anything slower. At 40bpm and only play the first beat in the bar you can slow down to 10bpm if needed.

Lesson 10 was as far as I got in ABGU as I couldn't get the little chords upto 60bpm. Must go back to it soon.

cheers

Al.