The neck of the guitar is the central component by which we, as musicians derive our musical vocabulary. The better we understand that, the better we can be at communication, or expressing ideas, or applying things that we learn.
A natural progression, for example, in our Academy, we see with students, is:
They learn the notes on the neck.
They learn how to solo in any direction on the guitar, and using that knowledge they can tell the notes in that scale, as well as choose where on the neck they want to solo from, and to.
They learn about intervals and can sight and identify them in their playing.
They learn all the notes which make up a chord or triad and they can then go straight to those notes and play them in many ways, none of which need to be memorized
With every advanced scale they can relate it to the way a note changes here or there, and that allows them to make more immediate use of the scale and their options for playing chords with that scale.
In short, knowing the notes on the neck is really the most logical step that can and should be taken if anyone wants to learn their guitar and study music theory as applied to the guitar.
There are proponents of theory that say, learn from a piano, learn from a book, and while they are right that both approaches can work, they miss the other side of the coin, and that is we are learning theory, because ultimately we want to use it to better understand and apply it to our own guitar playing. Filling your head with the information from a book may teach you all you need to know about music theory, but if it takes you a while to find those notes on different strings of the guitar, then as a guitarist, you haven’t really achieved what you set out to do.
This is why we believe in a straightforward honest look at learning the notes. We honestly could not envision any serious claims to helping a guitarist to learn music theory in a way that would make it immediately applicable to their guitar, without encouraging them to learn their notes on the neck first.
If you are contemplating taking your playing to the next level, whether you enroll with us or not, we believe that all roads should begin with learning the notes on the neck.
If you’d like to start that journey, we can have you there in a few short weeks, using our acclaimed teaching approach.
Our Notes on the Neck Course has a 100% Money Back Guarantee. If you are not happy with the course content and instruction, simply let us know and we’ll refund your investment, no questions asked.