Concierge - Learn the Fretboard 2.
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Week 1
Welcome to Concierge, your weekly practice program for mastering each of the courses
in the JazzGuitarLessons.net curriculum!
Congratulations on taking your first steps to mastering the guitar neck in Learn the
Fretboard 2.0! This is the first of six weeks guiding you step-by-step through the course. In each
week, you’ll cover a portion of the course. As the weeks progress, you’ll illuminate areas of the
fretboard that were previously mysteriously!
Practice each lesson in the following outline until you’re confident in it. Generally, this
means being able to play with Marc in the lesson video in time. At the end of the week, you’ll
receive an email asking if you’re ready to move on or if you’d like to repeat the week again. Do
your best and practice consistently!
This week’s program
Getting started with Learn the Fretboard 2.0 should take you less than 20 minutes. Here are
your instructions:
● Download the exercise sheet PDF and be sure to take notes along the way to help
yourself.
● Watch the introductory Lessons 0 through 3 to orient yourself with Learn the Fretboard
2.0. There are three key principles throughout this course:
○ internalizing the shape of the Major Scale, and applying it to the fretboard;
○ playing melodic lines on a single string at a time (a “horizontal” approach to
scales);
○ and improvising melodic fragments with your instructor, making use of the first
two principles!
Here’s your workout for the week:
● Before each of the following lessons, spend 2 minutes familiarizing yourself with the
notes on the string practiced in that lesson.
● Practice call and response with your instructor on Lessons 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10.
● Watch Lesson 7 at least twice this week in between practicing Lesson 6 and Lesson 8.
This lesson will help give you some context, urging you to focus on the musical
significance of the half-steps found in the major scale.
What you need for each workout
● Your equipment - guitar, amp, instrument cable, plectrum, etc.;
● A metronome;
● Your computer, and the backing tracks and demo videos from this course;
● A practice journal and pencil - to log your practice, your metronome tempos, and any
thoughts you had about what you did well and what you can improve;
● And a quiet space with no distractions, just for guitar practice - your chops need your full
attention!
Scheduling your practice
Planning ahead is the key to success, so it’s always a good idea to schedule your
practice sessions. Everyone has a different schedule, so find at least 3 moments every week in
which you can schedule a solid hour of practice. Think of it like a gym workout - it can be in the
morning before work, right when you come home, or even right before bed if you’re so inclined!
While it’s true that the more hours you practice for, the better you get, don’t try to cram
all your practice into one sitting! It’s better to play 1 hour a day for 5 days than it is to play for 5
hours in one practice session. Remember: consistent practice will take you the farthest!
Using a journal
Many students and professionals have found that journaling their practice sessions helps
them get the most out of their practicing. Use a journal to record your thoughts about the
workout - what you did well, what you struggled with, how you achieved breakthroughs, etc.
This will help you understand your headspace from week to week, and it will also show how far
you’ve come. You can then celebrate your victories, and focus your efforts on the areas that
need the most work.
You should also record what kinds of exercises you did as well as the highest
metronome tempo you achieved on each. This will help you make more effective use of your
time when you return to an exercise, so that you spend as little time as possible repeating what
you’ve already achieved. Always reach higher!
Using your metronome
Although most of the exercises in this course will be making use of backing tracks or the
demo videos from the lessons themselves, you can make the most headway on some exercises
by using your metronome. When you find the demo videos or backing tracks are too fast for you
to play along with right away, use your metronome to gradually increase your skill!
Your metronome is a helpful tool - but you have to use it right to get the most out of it.
One way we can use the metronome is through a process called “notching”. This is an approach
to using a metronome in order to train yourself to increase the speed at which you can play an
exercise. It requires that you set a “starting” tempo and a “goal” tempo.
Play the exercise at your starting tempo until you are comfortable with it. Increase your
tempo by 10 bpm and practice until you can play it perfectly and consistently. Then, decrease
the tempo by 5 bpm and practice until you can play it consistently. Repeat this process,
increasing by 10 bpm and decreasing by 5 bpm once you get comfortable, until you reach your
target tempo.
You can think of this as a “two steps forward, one step back” approach to learning to
play faster. Every time you increase your speed, you’ll find yourself pushing your ability to play
the exercise. However, when you decrease your speed, you’ll find tempos you played previously
are much easier than before. This is a much more consistent and far less frustrating approach
to increasing your speed than jumping straight into a challenging tempo.
