Quote:
Originally Posted by jon_stggt
When i learned minor pentatonics, i gave no thought to the notes/note names, I just learned the box patterns. Improvising is great fun once you have these shapes in your mind.
However, when trying to follow players of higher levels they always refer to notes within whatever scale is in question. Often refering to notes they add or substitute for a certain sound.
This is when not knowing notes becomes a serious limitation to how you progress.
In my experience I found myslef having to step back to basics.
If I could start again! I'd not only learn notes of scales but every note on the fretboard.
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Interesting point of view. It's much how I tend to think of it, or how I was exposed to it. Before understanding much about the chord tone approach, I also had learned the box shapes. Now it's a huge joy to connect the box shapes with the chord tone approach...talk about making connections!
The biggest area of knowledge I lack in is note names of the moment. As felixdcat and Bob says, scale degrees tend to be my train of thought. Matching note names to those in the moment is a matter of back calculating (or a secondary observance) for me, and I imagine many players. There is value in being able to find particular notes on command, though.
Nothing wrong with anyone wanting to learn all the note names all over the fretboard, but I can't see for me, personally, how that helps. I'm sure it
can be a good tool in the bag, but not an end-all-must-see-TV type of learning. I tend to view it with the analogy that they've mapped the human genome. Now they know all the names of the different types of dna strands and the combinations in which they are found. So they know the alphabet, but are light years away from understanding the how and why of the sequences they are seeing.
So if we know all of the names of the notes all over the fretboard, how does that help us play the instrument?
Steve