Points of reference on the fretboard

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One word about points of reference on the fretboard: so far we have mainly dealt with relative points of reference. We have started out in a certain 6-note pattern and have moved around. This might work pretty well as long as you are staying in only one key. However, if you want to change keys (e.g. from C major to G major) you will also need an absolute point of reference. There is actually two ways of doing this:
First you can memorize the names of some reference notes within the patterns (e.g. the root note of a given major scale) and locate it on the fretboard. To do so you have to be pretty familiar with the names of notes on the fretboard (which you have to learn anyway).
The other way is to learn all these patterns relative to an absolute landmark that is key-specific. For example you will notice that in the key of C major your landmarks would be the open strings, 5th, 10th and 12th fret on all given strings (and the same one octave higher, for sure). So if you memorize these landmarks while position playing this will allow you to quickly move around the fretboard in even unfamiliar keys.









Some concluding remarks. This chapter was dealing heavily with patterns, greek mode names and visualization on the fretboard. However, the real goal is to get beyond these things. To reach a stage where you hear a melody in your brain and can easily navigate around the fretboard


and play exactly these notes. So basically the idea is to practice this pattern system to completely internalize it so that you don't even have to think about it anymore and can just play for the fun of it. It is a long way, but perfectly doable if you have the discipline to practice.....


In the nineteenth and twentieth century, additional types of scales were explored:


The chromatic scale (twelve notes)
The whole tone scale (six notes)
The pentatonic scale (five notes)
The octatonic or diminished scales (eight notes)