Master the Guitar Fretboard Using Modular Arithmetic Instead of Rote Memorization
Fretboard Memorisation with Modular Arithmetic
I found traditional fretboard memorization too labor-intensive and limited to specific tunings. Instead, I developed a system using modular arithmetic modulo 12 to map notes to fret positions. By assigning numerical values to notes and applying a simple formula, you can instantly calculate any note on any string regardless of tuning. This approach reduces memorization to just twelve key-value pairs while remaining adaptable to any instrument with frets.
It gets straight to the reasons why a fret is a certain value: simply because of the number of increments it is from the note that the string is tuned to.
- maxwells-daemon
As someone who also used to overthink memorizing the fretboard: this is a bad idea. You should strive to just plainly memorize the names of all of the notes, the relevant scale and arpeggio patterns, etc, without any kind of tricks or "system" (no, not CAGED either). This is the only path to real fluency; imagine having a neat system of remembering what each English word means and having to go through it every time you wanted to speak!
- wrs
While cellos, violins, etc. don't technically have frets, the notes are of course in the same layout as instruments that do have frets, so this same method works.
(It's funny how different instruments live in their own worlds. Once I showed a movable scale fingering diagram for guitar to a cello player and they had no idea what I was talking about, even though the cello has the same kind of patterns, as would any parallel-stringed instrument. Another cello player did know about scale patterns but called them "universal fingerings".)
- runarberg
If you are learning the guitar and are interested in music theory (or meta-learning), one resource I cannot recommend enough is Absolutely Understand Guitar by Scotty West[1]. These are old video lectures from 1999 which have since been uploaded to YouTube.
1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg1L-sBIxnY&list=PLJwa8GA7pX...