1-4 · Memorize the Fretboard: E

Lock in every E on the neck. Using the guitar's tuning and the octave shapes from the last lesson, you'll find all the E notes up to the 12th fret and beyond, then drill them several different ways — one string at a time, the nearest E in each direction, and every E within a five-fret span — until an E lights up instantly wherever your hand happens to land.

In this module, one important goal is to memorize the positions of all the E notes on the fretboard. This will enable you to play the E minor pentatonic scale across the entire fretboard without memorizing scale patterns. Here are all the E notes on a 22-fret guitar:

You can find all of these locations (except for the open high E string) by starting from another E note and using the octave shape you learned in 1-3.

Exercise 1: Practice using octave shapes to find E notes. Start at the open or 12th fret of the low E string or the 7th or 19th fret of the A string.

Exercise 2: Practice using octave shapes to find E notes in reverse. Start at the 12th fret of the high E string or the 5th or 17th fret of the B string.

Exercise 3: Practice finding the E notes one string at a time. There are two Es on every string, one 12 frets higher than the other.

Exercise 4: Try choosing a random fret and find the nearest E notes toward the bridge and toward the nut.

Exercise 5: Try placing your hand in playing position at a random spot on the fretboard and identify all of the E notes that are under your fingers.

We’ll make these exercises a bit more interesting in the next section.