I know the double-dot is where you hit an octave.  What do you use the others for?  Just reference for 3rds / 6ths?

Maybe they help when improvising?

I am an intermediate banjo-player, and though banjo's have several different tunings, the dots are there to help in standard Open-G.  I just can't figure out the pattern.

What do the guitarists say?

Thanks.

For me, they're just mile markers on the fretboard; a reference that lets me know where I'm at.

I play mostly by ear & intuition, and don't know very much about theory. So for example, when I'm writing I let things fall into place where my ears tell me where they should be. But if it's something I want a solo over, I'll go to all-guitar-chords.com or break out my theory books, figure out exactly what I'm playing, and then write the solo according to what scales will work with the music it's to be played with. Then I refine it further as I record a series of rough tracks and listen to them as I go along.

Where things end up have very little to do with the fret markers. They just make it easier to figure out where the notes are, or are supposed to go.

They are indicators for fret numbers. 0 3 5 7 12 and the pattern repeated for higher frets.

In other words 0+3+2+2+2+3+0+3+2+2+2+3+0 etc.


It's just for positioning.

 

It indicates where the notes are for each string. Chords are basically a few different shapes, repeated up and down the fret board, and scales are played from the notes that make up the finger positions on in the shape, as well as other notes in that shape that you don't play when you're playing the chord ( sometimes ). if you know your chord shapes, and you know your "boxes" or where the notes of the scale fall, in that pattern, you can use it to riff, or moving up and down play a lead, or add notes when voicing a chord to add a 7th or a 9th, or another note to add flavor or expression.

The dots allow you to see what note or position you're playing.

For instance a popular Blues scale,



If you notice, there are patterns there, and not only can you make leads and arpeggios from it, you can see that there are multiple chord shapes along the path as well.

This explains it as well as anything, but it's for a bass, but can be used on the guitar as well. This would pertain to waling up and down the scale to riff a bit, but you'll see some chord shapes emerge as well. Generally, the bass doesn't play a lot of chords in unison ( all strings at once, strumming ), but takes a chord and breaks it down and walks along playing the notes that make the chord up.

Guys, you that are guitar players that are learning, or intermediate. Look at that bass lesson above, and do me a flavor.

Go to the first lesson and turn up some distortion, and play along with it, then do this second one. he starts building the box in the first one. Play it as he plays it.


Now, when you get it down. Where he plays a sexy note as he calls it, especially those flat 5ths, start down a step ( note,) or a half, and bend up to that note and hold it, bend it up and down a few times etc,. that's where you get those sexy blues bends. Take two strings and do it on the flat 5ths and listen, then, take three. Three is where that railroad train multi string bend that SRV does comes from.

If you notice, this guy is playing the same pattern ( boxes ) as in the bass video.

OK, this makes sense.  So, the dots are like an 'anchor' for a scale position as you move up the neck?, ie you want to play a C chord at a higher position, you can pretty much stay around the appropriate dot within a few frets for a solo.  (I don't know which dot you would progress to from the lowest C chord on a guitar, but I do for the banjo, it's 5 frets, and there's a dot there)

This is the same concept as shifting hand positions for violin/fiddle to get those really high notes, yet still be able to play mid-range on the lower strings.

 
They're just indicators of position. For example, if you're playing in the key of A Minor, you're going to be hanging around the 5th fret a bunch due to the E string 5th fret (2nd dot) being an A. It's a quick check for your brain. Eventually you get those positions memorized and the filler positions are much easier to remember.

They're not an anchor for anything.

 
I hate playing stuff in F...It just don't feel right...outa be a law or something.

I need an anchor for off keys

But F is the first letter of my favorite word.

What I mean by anchor is pretty much what you said earlier.  You can go to that dot and stay close to that position, within a few frets, like was mentioned 'boxes'.  Boxes around whatever dot position.

I believe on a banjo, since in most cases it's tuned to Open-G tuning (you don't fret anything and a strum plays a G-Chord), the 5 / 7 dots show where the 5th and 7th tonic are, and they also show where important I / IV / V barre chords would be.  Some of the other tunings (G-modal, Double-C, etc) render the dots useless in this theory, though.

Other than that, I suppose you just have to memorize patterns that fit when playing around a certain dot.  I'm not advanced enough to recognize those yet.

When I say anchor, I mean a mental one for me so that I know where the root and all of the other notes or positions are on the fret board for that scale and key.

The dots are just for visual reference and don't really mean anything. I don't consciously use them, but if I find myself on a guitar without them I have a hell of a time with finger positioning.

Yeah, I get that. That was directed at the OP, guess I should've clarified.

Ok. For you to delve into the world of guitars, it might be easier to start looking into what slide players like George Thorogood, Gary Rossington, and others have done over the years, because slide players usually use open tunings, such as Open G, Nashville Tuning, ect.

Then once that starts making sense, go ahead and start getting into Standard Tuning (also referred to as Straight E). And then move on to Drop and Down Tuning if you get curious about them.

 
You're better off only using the dots as positional references and memorizing one pattern and simply moving it to the root of the scale of the key you are in.

I appreciate the direction, and all that makes sense, but I don't intend to learn guitar for now.  I know this subsection of the forum is mostly guitar players, but my post was really meant to stimulate discussion of theory for any stringed instrument.  Even mandolin has fret dots, though I know nothing about those.

I played a little guitar as a teen.  I wish I still had my grandpaw's Gibson, now.

Well, it's for music in general, it just so happens that most of us play guitar.

And I get what you mean now, you're just curious about tunings of various instruments, not necessarily the markers.

About all I know about other stringed instruments is that fiddles are usually tuned so that the interval between the strings are in 5ths. IIRC, mandolins are the same way.

I play guitar and banjo.  fret markers on both instruments are the same.  They are for reference as to where you are on the neck.  Like a road sign reminding you are on Interstate X and highway Y exit is 3 miles ahead.

Man I wish I had learned more theory when I was in band/orchestra in high school.

When I played a few years in the school jazz band the teacher gave us a musical slide rule and I kick myself for not purchasing one.  You slid it to choose the key, then it had the numbered notes that you lifted up to get the notes of whatever mode/scale you chose.