Core Location: Techniques
This session is also listed in Scales and Modes as a pre-req session. The Previous and Next navigation on this page are for the Fretting portion of the path.
When setting a string in motion, with our fingers or a pick, the string can be played open or closed.
Open = when you see a zero… 0 in tablature, play the string open. Don’t touch or press the string with the fretting hand.
Closed = pressing the string against the metal bars (the frets) on the fretboard. When you see a number other than zero...such as 7, play the string closed at that fret. Fret as close to the fret as possible without being on top of it. When we know the tone is going to work, even as we set it, this is fretting confidence. We are confident that tones will ring sweetly. We don't have to press too hard. We figure out exactly what it takes to get tones happening. A light touch must be discovered.
Fret markers are the dots or shapes on the fretboard, typically at frets 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 15, 17, 19. Know where your fret markers are located.