You don't need to memorise note for note, but memorising a few shapes is useful, as it speeds up learning of positions, chords, scales etc.
So for example, you will probably learn E, C, D, F, A and G fairly early on, along with (probably) Em, Am and Dm.
You'll also learn the simple power chord versions of E and A, and probably a couple of major scales and blues scales. I used to teach an E blues scale and an A blues scale in open position fairly early on.
So a next step would be to realise that to go from E to A is 5 semitones, which equals 5 frets, so if you wanted to play an A blues scale, rather than play it in the open position, you could play the same fingering as the E but 5 frets higher up.
From there you start to get a feel for where the adjacent string relationships are (5, 5, 5, 4 and 5 frets) and at the same time understand the octave positions.
Once comfortable with that, understanding where to move to go from an A shape barre chord to a D shape, or from a G shape to an E shape barre chord becomes useful.
In my head, though, I have never really bothered with learning note by note, but much more by visualising the shapes (at least in the early years) and nowadays I can feel where the next notes might be in muscle memory - although I haven't fully sorted this for my oddly tuned 7 string...I need to consciously convert for the AD at the bottom. I know much more experienced players who can shift tunings at the drop of a hat without worrying where the notes have moved to... some day I hope I will be able to do that.
manpreet
Best Answer
2 years ago
The title says it all. Is there no escaping memorizing the neck note by note, or is there a nice technique for this?