Hey guys,

I had an inspiration a couple of years ago - I was re-reading parts of Free Hands, when I thought of a way of verifying the position of a note. So, just starting with C on the bass side (since that's in a more common tuning than the treble side):

OK - on the 6th string, you've got the open string, or the 0 fret. 0 stands for the "same fret as" or unison interval. I'll call it 6C0. 6 for String, C for pitch, and 0 for fret. Add 12 to 0 and you get 12. 12 half-steps is an octave, which is another C.

Going up a string - the C is found first on the fifth fret, or 7G5. 5 half steps is a perfect fourth, and C is the fourth of G. Add 12 to that for the octave and you get 7G17, right on the fret marker.

Next, the D string - that's 8D10. 10 half steps is a minor 7th and C is the minor 7th of D. Add 12 to that and you get 8D22 (not very playable, but who knows somebody may play that one day...)

As the A string - 9A3. 3 half steps is a minor third, and C is the minor third of A. Add 12 to that and you 9A15, which is quite playable.

Finally (on a ten-string) you get 10E8. 8 half steps is a minor 6th, and C is the minor 6th of E. Add 12 to that and you get 10E20, which is a bit high for some, but can be considered playable.

What do y'all think? Too pedantic? Too difficult? It was quite hard for me a couple years ago but the method has settled in and I find it useful to help me learn the layout.

R

Whatever helps you find notes is a good system for you. The 4ths and 5ths tunings allow for a great amount of symmetry and mobility any way you slice it.

For the bass side, I consider my favorite notes on a few strings and the octave methods of finding them on other strings. From there, I consider common chord shapes for finding other notes once I have found my root.

To put this into practice on my 12-string (so subtract a string number for 10 strings), I know:
7th string: D, E, F, G, A, B
8th string: A, B, C, D, E, F
9th string: E, F, G, A, B
10th string: B, C, D, E, F
11th string: F, G, A, B, C
12th string: almost nothing, b/c I get it by shapes from other strings

The octave method I am referring to is that 5 frets up 1 string over, or 2 frets down 2 strings over make the octave. There is a double octave shape 3 strings over that is fun, but I don't use it for navigation.

Sounds pretty practical to me.

I have this irrational and maybe unattainable goal of knowing every note on the instrument by letter name, and then visualizing chords and passages so strongly that they seem to raise up off of the fretboard.

I don't know if I'll get there, but I can do this with the piano keyboard, and I want to do it on my new home instrument, the Stick!

This month begins my fourth year of continuous practice. Everything else is sort of falling by the wayside. Keyboards, percussion, orchestration...

R

To paraphrase Steve A., the beauty of the Stick is that the chord shapes are the same wherever you play them.

On piano, the black keys make the chord shapes different depending on the root note, i.e. C major has no black keys, but A major has 1 and A minor has zero. Since the Stick has only half steps, a major triad is always the same shape and a minor triad is always the same shape. I think once you are happy knowing shapes and roots, this may be the equivalent of your piano ability. It may be easier to consider what a note is on the piano visually, as it has the distinct location based on relation to black keys and octave. On a fretboard of any type, we only have string number and dots or linears to indicate fret number.

Personally, I find the charts that show every note on the Stick to be a bit overwhelming and unwieldy. Perhaps other people can absorb 288 (12 strings x 24 frets) notes and use that to their advantage. I think it is an easier approach to know several notes and use relationals (scales, chords, and symmetry) to find other notes. This approach should get you faster results, and you will pick up other notes along the way as it becomes important to what you are doing.

Oh, but there are so many triad shapes! Close-voiced, open-voiced, doubled root, doubled fifth, doubled third, and inversion! On both sides!

I'm going to keep working on this mathematical notation and see what happens.

R