3 Easy Chromatic Fretboard Exercises (And Why They Open Up the Fretboard) - 482

Three chromatic fretboard exercises

0:00Lee here from Play Guitar Academy. Here are three easy chromatic exercises that can help you open up the fretboard. Let's take a look at number one here. Number one is going to go, starting from the first fret, we're going to go straight across the strings. What you should notice with this one is that it's five notes per string, all except the B string. Every single one of these is going to be different on the B string, but this is basically a five note per string chromatic.

0:30exercise, and it goes straight across.

0:42Now we're going to go through it again, but this time I'm going to say the names of the notes out loud. This is how we're going to get the most benefit from this exercise. F, F sharp G, G sharp A, A sharp B, C, C sharp D, D sharp E, F, F sharp G, G sharp D, D sharp E, F, F sharp G, G sharp A. This exercise is best practice at a slow tempo. You want enough time to actually think about and say the name of each note as you play it. And that's what makes this more than just a technique exercise. It's also an ear training and fretboard mastery one as well. You're connecting the note you're playing with its name and its sound.

1:24Exercise number two. This is a four notes per string exercise. Take a look at that. This is probably the easiest of all of the three we're going to see today, but it's also the least intuitive. Moving from high up on the low string and climbing to low on the high string is not something most guitar players do very often. But look how organized this pattern is across the fretboard. We're going to start this one at the fifth fret. This is an A.

1:49Down up picking.

1:53Very easy. Very simple. But now let's take a look at it and play it again, but this time say the names of each note. A, A sharp, B, C, C sharp, D, D sharp, E, F, F sharp, G, G sharp, A, A sharp, B, C, C sharp, D, D sharp, E, F, F sharp, G, G sharp, A. Okay, let's check out our last exercise. This one uses the most common type of movement on the guitar, but it also has the most sliding. On every string, both the first finger and the fourth finger are going to slide.

2:25There's something really useful about the way this one lays out across the neck. The entire exercise spans the two octaves like the other ones, but this one reminds me a little bit of three note per string scales. So what we're going to do is we're going to start down here on the F, and we're going to make a slide right away with our first finger. So F to F sharp. Next, we're going to put the rest of our fingers down in position. Second finger on the G, third finger on the G sharp, fourth finger on the A, but then we're going to take this pinky that's on the A and slide again.

3:05Now when we go to the next string, we're going to do one fret up from where we started before. So now it's going to be on the second fret. So start at the beginning.

3:16Then we start here at the second fret on the A string. Slide, two, three, four, slide. Now the third fret. Slide, two, three, four, slide. Fourth fret. Slide, two, three, four, slide. Now when we get to the B string, we're going to go up two frets here. So we're going to start on the F.

3:38And then, bang, right on the F right there. Now let's go through it again, saying the name of every note as we play it. F, F sharp G, G sharp A, A sharp B, C, C sharp D, B sharp E. F, F sharp G, G sharp A, A sharp B, C, C sharp D, E sharp E, F.

4:10F sharp G, G sharp A, A sharp B, C, C sharp D, D sharp E, and F. Now these exercises might seem simple, but there's a reason working with a chromatic scale like this can have such a big effect on how you see the guitar. That's what we're going to talk about today in the podcast. Yes, I'm combining the lesson with the podcast now. This is the second week I've done it, and hang out. We're going to talk a little bit about chromatic scales and why you should add these to your practice, okay?

How the chromatic scale works

4:40The chromatic scale shows you how the fretboard actually works. Take a look at these. I find a lot of peace looking at these. Usually when you're looking for a note and you're in an area of the guitar that's unfamiliar, things seem a little out of place. Well, looking here, seeing how all the chromatic notes go across together, all of the notes, when you do a five-finger exercise here, they go straight across the neck of the guitar. That's what I like to do when I play what's called playing in position.

5:11I think they used to call it playing in a grip, right? It's four fingers across, plus I can reach back one or reach forward for one and get everything in that position that I need. But now look at this. Moving up the guitar, climbing back a fret, each string going across is going to give you a very organized one, two, three, four system here. The guitar is built on systems. Sometimes it's not as easy to see as when you look at these. And now with this sliding up, this six-fret span going up a fret, up a fret, up a fret, up two frets, up a fret,

5:47now we get the traditional three notes per string look. So if you don't know about these things, basically we're doing every half step. So the chromatic scale is just all of the half steps. You most likely know this on the low E string. Most people learn this, especially right before they do bar chords. E, F, F sharp, G, G sharp, A, A sharp, B, C, C sharp, D, D sharp, E. Then it starts over again. E, F, F sharp, G, G sharp, A, A sharp, B, C, C sharp, D, and then I ran out of frets on this one.

6:21But the formula to that is every note has a sharp or a flat in between it except for two places. E and F and B and C.

6:33There's another E and F. And let's see here, B and C. And those are the places on the piano where you have two white keys without a black key in the middle. On the piano you go white key, black key, white key, black, until you get to these two places, right? So we haven't skipped anything. That's what the chromatic scale is. All of the notes. The same system exists on every single string. And what we did with the exercise in the beginning of here is we moved that system across the fretboard. It removes some of the mystery of note locations.

7:04Most of you, if I'm not mistaken, have a problem knowing what note you're playing, especially between the seventh and the twelfth fret. It's kind of a no man's land there. So we have natural notes. That's what the A, B, C, D, E, F, G are called. And then the sharps and the flats, they're separate. They're right out. They're called accidentals. And you could have between A and B. That can be called an A sharp, but it's also called a B flat. So knowing this, the fretboard becomes organized.

7:35And then seeing it in these exercises really can let you visualize what you're playing. We're picking notes out of those systems. You begin to see things better. See sequences instead of just an isolated note or a scale pattern. These same note relationships repeat everywhere. You notice when I was going up on the sixth fret, each time I started, it was an F. And then on the next string, it was a B. So why are we doing this?

8:10Why are we learning how to connect all of the notes? It's like learning your letters. Well, we know all of the letters of the alphabet, but we don't use words that contain all of them all the time. We have to pick and choose which one. But we need to know what we're working with. This is also going to connect your ear to these notes and your eyes to these notes and your hands to these notes. Three different ways of organizing how things are played on the guitar. And what we do is we say the notes and that changes the exercise completely.

8:41You're not just moving your fingers. You're identifying what you're playing. You do it on a repeating basis. You're going to start to remember what that note was at the seventh fret on the G string, D, by the way. You're connecting a location to a note name, trying to get that on autopilot. That way, when you're playing in an area that you may not be familiar with, you'll be able to know what notes are under your fingers. You'll know if they'll go with the chords that you're playing over at the time. But we do this slow.

9:11Slow practice gives your brain time to think, make the connection. We're not just dumping everything. We're allowing some processing time. Speed is not the goal with these things. You want to hear the note. Say the note while you play it and think of the system that you're going across the guitar neck with. These are things that are going to help you when you're in the middle of a song. Think about it. You're at home. You've got a backing track on. You get lost. What do you do? You pause the backing track.

9:42Or you just stop for a while and get your bearings. When you're playing out in front of people, when you're jamming with your buddies, the song is going. It doesn't care whether you are in there or not. And to keep up with that, we have to make very quick decisions, split-second decisions. It gets very difficult. Having an exercise like this where you're knowing where your notes are and you're saying them out loud is going to allow you to recognize them in that split second of a time when you need to make a decision using those notes. Your fingers are going to move through your pattern as a technique exercise, but what mastery is, is knowing what notes you're playing at any time.

10:21And the ear training part of it lets you hear the chromatic movement as you go. You might want to put a drone note on so you can hear what the difference is, what the interval is of each of the notes. Some of them will be very tense and other ones will sound very nice. So another thing that we're going to talk about in doing these exercises is it's getting you to move across the fretboard differently. Tell me if this is true for you. You get kind of used to doing what you're doing. You play pattern one of the minor pentatonic.

10:53Most people get used to that. It becomes second nature. And it's kind of where you start when you go to play single notes on the guitar. You go to your chords. You get used to open position chords. But then, when it's time to do bar chords, it was a struggle. Now you're doing something completely different. We get used to doing things over and over and over again. This is going to get you out of that rut. These shapes going across the guitar in different ways, especially that one that climbs from the low string and then up a fret on the high string.

11:26These are going to get rid of those default routines. You're going to be able to hear familiar notes and familiar intervals in a place that you may not be playing all the time. The more you do it, it will become familiar. And you'll be able to crawl up the guitar in different ways than you could before. It's not going to feel like you have separate sections of the neck. And a lot of people feel that. Well, I've heard a lot of people with modes. They'll say, well, you know, my mode, my Dorian mode is at the 10th fret.

11:56Or my Mixolydian mode is at the 3rd fret. And that's not the truth. The truth is those modes are everywhere. No matter where your hand is, you have all of the modes underneath your fingers. That's going to be, you know, a good reason why, if you understand what the notes are under your fingers, then you can decide which scales, which modes to use. These three exercises force different routes. And that five notes per string, four notes per string, and then the six notes with the slides.

12:30These are kind of familiar movements we have with our scales. But this is going to get us access to all the notes, not just certain ones. The destination that we're trying to have here is opening up the fretboard and being able to go forward, backwards, across, up, down, get freedom of movement across the fretboard. And this is one of the things that's going to help you with that. When I do these, the neck starts feeling like one connected fretboard instead of just different places on the fretboard.

13:00And I think that's really the point of all three of these exercises. You're not trying to become a great chromatic player playing the chromatic scale all the time. That's not what we use in music. But you're using this chromatic scale to start seeing the guitar differently. It's not just a technique exercise. There's better things that you can get from this. You're learning how the notes are organized across the guitar. You're connecting the notes that you play with their names and their sounds. And then you're finding new ways to move across the neck of the guitar.

13:32And the more those things start to connect, the less the fretboard is going to feel like a bunch of separate patterns and positions. And the more it starts to feel like one instrument. Remember, no matter where your hand is on the guitar, you have every chord and every scale you need right there. You just need to know your fretboard better. So pick one of these three exercises and work with it this week. Go slowly, say the notes out loud, and see what you start noticing.

New practice toolkits

13:56Before you go, I just want to share a little bit here on the podcast about what I've been doing. You notice this is the new format. That's a big, big thing for me, combining everything into one video and audio podcast. But what I've been doing here on my time is toolkits. I've been working on toolkits. I've got a lot of students who are very disjointed. They have a lot of lessons. They have everything that they could use. They know what they want to do. But everything is scattered and they're not moving forward.

14:27And what I've done is I've found a way to put together everything that they're going to need in a system. You're going to be able to progress. You're going to have your training together with your resources. You're going to get lessons to make sure that you're doing it correctly. And a vault. The vault is awesome. This is a place where all the things you're going to need as you start to learn chord progressions and solo over chord progressions. Say one day you're in the key of D. You've been practicing in another key. You just click one button and there are all your scale patterns and the chord progression that you're playing.

15:01So in lots of different styles of music. I have a vault for every one of the different toolkits. So if you're trying to move up and you're playing, these are something I put together for you that kind of combats the problem that just learning everything on the internet and overwhelming yourself creates. So check out the toolkits. They're right on my main page. So if you go to Play Guitar Academy, it'll tell you all about them right there. Okay, another fun episode this week. I'm happy to spend time with you and I look forward to seeing you next Wednesday. Bye-bye, everybody.