Connecting Fretboard Positions

Connecting Fretboard Positions:

In this lesson I address a question from one of my viewers who is trying to work out how to better connect the different positions on the fretboard.

Despite knowing many different patterns it was still difficult for them to fluently move across the neck.

This is an interesting problem, and one that many other people encounter as well. So I thought about it quite a bit with my guitar in my hands.

I noticed that while improvising, my thinking gravitated towards one particular approach. This approach, I realized, is what allows me to play in any position over any chord.

This approach is what I chose to focus on for this video.

Root Note Approach For Connecting Fretboard Positions

The way I think of the neck is by using an “interval-based-approach”.

Essentially what I mean is that I am always thinking of the notes I am playing in relation to a specific root note.

This means that my scale is just a collections of intervals that relate to a specific note, which is the root note of whatever chord I’m playing over.

I find this approach to be very powerful. It demands two things of you. First, that you have a good sense of how to find a specific note on every string. Second, that you understand how to navigate the intervals surrounding those root notes.

If you can do these two things successfully, then you can use this approach to play over anything you might find.

There are indeed other approaches, and all approaches should be entertained to see what works best for you.

If you are interested specifically in the chord-focused approach for moving between positions on the neck, check out this video from earlier this year. In this lesson I dive into some ideas for using chords as a basis for understanding scale patterns.