For any serious study of the guitar fretboard you are going to need a fretboard chart. With the chart in front of you the notes can be seen, relationships can be formed in the shape of chords. Spend some time finding chords at different positions on the fretboard. You do not necessarily have to play them, just find the shapes on the fretboard chart. It is like a game - see how many C major chords you can find.

Of course the aim of studying a guitar fretboard chart is to eventually get rid of it but first you must establish your own personal relationship with it. Take some time to get a basic feel for the guitar fretboard. If you are just a beginner guitar player, you cannot expect it to mean too much to you yet, but you can begin by finding whatever chords you are learning at the moment in a couple of positions on the guitar. You can easily find the names of the notes in the chords, so you can write them down in alphabetical order and find them on the guitar in the form of scales. Do not take this exercise beyond what your fingers are comfortable with. If you find you are getting tired or your fingers ache, stop and do something less demanding.

If you fool around with the basic chords and scales on the guitar fretboard you will find that after a day or two you will know the names of the notes in a few positions. That is progress. Do not be distracted by the fact that there are still many places on the fretboard where you DO NOT know the names of the notes. As your knowledge and your interest in playing music grows, so will your knowledge of the guitar fretboard if you keep acquainting yourself with it in the simple way I have described. Do not confuse getting to know the guitar in this way with memorizing the notes. Finding interesting ways to play chords and scales gets your body working on the guitar and it gets your emotions involved, which helps your mind remember where the notes are. We can take a look now at what part learning notes off by heart plays in becoming a guitarist.

The open string sequence of E A D G B E is repeated at the twelfth fret. This means that once you know the notes up to the twelfth fret you also know all the notes above it. Good to know. Another tool to help you get to know the guitar notes is to memorize the notes at the fifth fret - A D G C E A. So without even working on chords and scales you have already somewhat simplified the layout of the guitar fretboard. You really do not need to burden yourself with too much more knowledge at this stage.

Finally, to remind ourselves that there is more than one way to skin a cat, let us think about how guitarists from different disciplines regard the guitar fretboard. If you are aiming to become a rock or jazz guitar player, learning the notes on the guitar is one of the main things you need to achieve, but did you know that classical and Flamenco guitar players approach learning the guitar in very different ways?

The traditional way of learning Flamenco is by absorbing music parrot fashion from a family member or a friend, and only trying to compose your own material after accumulating a great deal of music from other guitarists. Yet, after a few years of learning in this way Flamenco guitar players have an instinctive feel for the guitar which is as solid as that of any guitarist who has learnt to read music or tab.

Classical guitar players learn to read music first, then start their playing by learning simple pieces, and graduating to more difficult music as their knowledge and technique grows. So although they never need to work directly on learning the fretboard, and usually they never try to improvise, they eventually become guitarists through learning a large repertoire of music.

So the bottom line is, do not stress over learning the guitar fretboard, your knowledge of the notes will increase according to your own personality as your confidence as a guitar player grows.