Fretboard visualization: notes or intervals?
Hi Visitor,
If you’re anything like my students (or better yet, if you are one of my students), then you have probably heard me go on and on and on about how valuable it is to know all of the notes on the guitar fretboard.
Needless to say, not everybody thinks in this way.
Recently, a few people on YouTube commented on my videos to make me notice that many other notable guitar instructors, such as Tom Hess (*), prefer to see the fretboard in terms of intervals and note relationships, rather than focusing on the notes themselves.
Now, this battle between schools of thought has been raging for centuries (cue epic music), and thousands of innocent guitar students have been caught up in the middle of the fray, condemned to eternally asking themselves which method is better.
(Dramatic description provided entirely for entertainment purposes, though the flame wars about this on social media have been epic…)
So, is there a best way?
Well, let’s find out!
The way I see it, there is one main benefit to each method. And while I could go on and on and on about every tiny little intricacy of what makes each method different and all of the little pros and cons of both…
… and indeed I do, in this video right here:
https://musictheoryforguitar.com/notes-vs-intervals-guitar.html
In this video we also talk about:
- What to call the Lydian Dominant scale (besides… Lydian Dominant)
- Great advice by Ornette Coleman
- Why you should practice finger dexterity/agility
- And more…
(*) Just to be clear, Tom Hess has been my guitar teacher for the longest time, and even today, I consider him one of the most knowledgeable guitar instructors alive. Not to mention a close friend of mine. I mention all this since people are surprised that, on this specific point of fretboard visualization, we teach different things.
Enjoy!
Tommaso Zillio
Music Theory Education Expert
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