In this guitar lesson we look at a great way to test your note knowledge of the guitar fretboard. But before we look at that, why even bother learning the notes?

Knowing the notes on your guitar fretboard is an essential skill. Here are a FEW of the benefits that you'll gain if you have fantastic guitar fretboard knowledge…

1. You'll learn how to apply music theory to the guitar much more quickly. In my opinion there's no point learning music theory if you can't PLAY it!

2. Your creativity will increase. You'll be able to think of new and unique ways of playing chords and scales. If you don't know the notes on the guitar fretboard, you'll be stuck playing the same chord and scale fingerings that everyone uses.

3. You'll become a better musician. Great musicians don't just think in terms of chord shapes or scale fingerings. They think in terms of NOTES.

4. You'll save yourself hundreds (if not thousands!) of hours of frustration. By knowing the notes on the fretboard you'll be able to understand, learn and memorize things faster.

Pretty powerful benefits right?

So…how do we know if our note knowledge is good enough? Here's a great way of finding out…

Note Knowledge Test:

Step 1: Please turn on your metronome and set it to 120 beats-per-minute.

Step 2: Decide on a note that you will work on.

Step 3: Find that note on the thickest string in all possible locations. (One note location per click of the metronome).

Step 4: Without pausing, repeat the process on all the other strings.

Step 5: Repeat steps 2-4 for all the other notes.

How did you go? Did you find it hard or easy?

If you couldn't do it easily, then you have some work to do. I would recommend setting aside 10 minutes a day to work on memorizing the notes of the fretboard. Within a few short weeks, you should have it nailed. Good luck!