Where am I? Locating myself on the fingerboard

[Sam Briger]

Heyo-
So I've been watching some videos, some by Paul Franklin, some by Rich Hinman, showing various harmonized scales. Some of them start in obvious places - they're clearly connected to a parent chord and so I see "oh, that's the tonic of that chord." But some, for instance this one Hinman was showing - a C major harmonized scale started at the first fret, Es lowered, strings 5 and 8. The C is on the 5th string but that one seems to have no obvious parent chord connection. I'm sure these are all over the place and my question is I guess do I need to know where all the notes are in order to use the ones that aren't as easily found?

[Richard Sinkler]

There is a C chord at fret 1. Strings 5,7, and 8 lowered (or string 6 if you lower it to F# on a lever). String 5 is the C note. String 7 is the G note. String 8 is the E note.

[Sam Briger]

Ah yes, thank you so much! I guess I didn't remember chord that because the b pedal wasn't mentioned in the video. But that brings up another question. When you're playing something out of a chord that has a pedal and lever down but you're not playing the note that corresponds to that pedal, do you press it down anyway?Or do you just press it down only when you're playing the note. I guess I would be prone to pressing it down to stay in the chord so to speak but maybe not everyone thinks that way.

[J Fletcher]

Well the B pedal would raise the 6th string to a Bb at the first fret . You want a C7th chord ?

[Fred Treece]

When you're playing something out of a chord that has a pedal and lever down but you're not playing the note that corresponds to that pedal, do you press it down anyway?Or do you just press it down only when you're playing the note. I guess I would be prone to pressing it down to stay in the chord so to speak but maybe not everyone thinks that way.

You kinda answered your own question with a pretty good gut instinct.

Not every note on every string in a given pedal/lever configuration at a particular fret is a chord tone of the chord you are playing. But, if you are playing a note “outside” the chord, chances are good that the next note you want to play is going to be a chord tone. So, keeping the pedals and/or levers engaged for the current chord in the song is a pretty good way to avoid clinkers, and provides a good option for playing a note that works well with the chord.

When you get to know the neck positions better and how the pedals and levers change the way you look at the strings “note-wise”, you will find useable single notes and harmonies far outside what you might normally think of as chord positions. But the first step, I would say, is learning the basic major and minor chord positions up and down the fretboard, with and without pedals and levers.

[Sam Briger]

Thanks Fred. I'm spending a lot of time moving around the three major and minor chords I know and seeing how they interact with each other. Throwing in the occasional 7th chord. This is one of those experiences where I can almost feel a new neural pathway being built in my brain. Like the Panama canal.

[Fred Treece]

This is one of those experiences where I can almost feel a new neural pathway being built in my brain.

Right! That’s exactly what it is. And creating the the corresponding muscle memory.