Do you look at your fretboard when you play?

[Chasplaya]

suziko wrote:

Taylor? What Taylor?.......Oh, yeah that one. GC3. Sorry, thought you meant my Martin 00-28VS.......mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..............

In Aussie parlance you skite!!

[Chasplaya]

AS I have a tendency to forget the actual music I try not to look at the Fretboard much at all as I need to look at the sheetmusic instead.

[Lavallee]

blindshine wrote:

Nope.....I don't look..LOL.....wish I could sometimes. But seriously, as I began playing guitar after losing my sight, I needed to come up with a plan to know where I am on the fretboard once I move out of first position. So I now use bump dots. These are small rubberized raised dots that stick to things that most blind people use to identify positions of controls and the like with tactile feedback. I have a pattern of dots along the back of the neck of my guitar that quickly tells me where I am. I don't know if other blind guitarists do the same but it works well for me. I've often thought that this method would work for anyone needing to quickly identify a fret position. I wonder if Matt B does the same.

Michael

Thanks Michael this was part of my original question, I was wondering about that. Are they individual dots (one per 3-5-7-9-12) or a different settings?

Would be interesting to hear from Matt om this , as you said. It could be a tool for everybody since we are mainly looking at the fret position rather than the chord itself

Marc

[RicksPick]

I sometimes play in the dark or near dark and at those times never look
Always with tunes i know fairly well,the tempo turned down a bit for the feel and sound

RicksPick

[michelew]

Yes - most of the time. But, as Suzi says less so when the muscle memory kicks in.

I find I look to ensure I have my finger placement right too (i.e. as close the to the fret as possible), as well as the right fret for each finger.

I think it will be a while before I don't need to look at all.

Michele

[dekotaj]

haoli25 wrote:

Glasses on.....YES. Glasses off....what fretboard?

Yea sound about right.When I can find them darn glasses. :laugh: :laugh:

Kevin

[neverfoundthetime]

I had to check my own videos to answer this. Yep, I'm fixated on my left hand and the fretboard. Keeps me anchored in the performance.

[blindshine]

Hi Mark
Bump dots come on a small sheet of individual dots. They come in different sizes and shapes, from about one eighth of an inch wide to one half inch wide. The pattern I came up with was one..two..three..one..two..three. The frets are identified with this number of bump dots placed at subsequent frets down the fret board. I use slightly larger dots at frets three, six, nine, and twelve. For example, to find C#m when playing Layla, I find the fourth fret with one dot. I mainly only play solo fingerstyle pieces and must spend a lot of time down the guitar neck, especially with jazz arrangements and I'm not sure how I would do it otherwise. I've never spoken to other blind guitarists.....that would be an interesting chat. The main hurdle I must come up with on a daily basis is how to gain enough audio instruction to learn new pieces. My ear is developing though, and I can more and more figure out what's going on in the arrangement.


Michael

[Catman]

I usually look at the fretboard while learning a technique or a tricky fingering, otherwise, not much.

-David

[audiobravo2403]

I know I watch the fretboard a lot more than I should, especially when I'm working on difficult and/or new stuff but I too have been making a determined effort to look up more. Once I'm familiar with the material it's a lot easier to let muscle memory work. I've also found that I look up much more when I'm playing with other people. It just seems natural to look around at what everyone else is doing.