Hey guys I am hoping you can help. I am a new player and when I play I tend to ONLY play the strings where the stupid dot inlays are on the fretboard. I will even slide... like from 5-7 or 7-9, just so I don't play non-inlay dot notes(see I am even making up new terminology for something that does not exist). It is becoming a VERY bad habit. Any advice on how to stop this madness. point me in the right direction for reprogramming my brain and fingers to use other notes.

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Stratmancometh Fouryou
'08 MIM HSS Standard

Play in the dark.

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The time has gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say.

You obviously have something psychosomatic going on there. Notwithstanding, we all have our quirks. Your best bet is to start learning and practicing scales in each key. Concurrent to this, learn some basic chords in different positions along the neck. Once you have formed a given chord, pick the notes in the chord, one string at a time. Remember, only the person who has the habit can break it and the longer they indulge it, the harder it is to break it. Will power my man, will power!

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You dig?

OCD ???
Seriously, like Martian said, learn some scales. Also, just start playing some licks to hear what sounds right. Both barre chords and some simple arpeggios will get you out of the rut.

Scales, music theory, blah blah.

Learning the notes on the neck will show you that inlayed frets are no more special than frets without inlays. The inlays are only there to tell you what fret you're playing. Play 6-8, etc. Convince yourself they're ok.

He stated that he slides into, 5 - 7 - 9 - etc. and cannot play 6-8-10 - etc. out of compulsion. The scales will force him to conform to certain frets as will the positioned chords. Besides, if he learns some theory in the process, how can these structured processes be a negative, especially with his dilemma?

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You dig?

'Agree, Toronado.

There are a (bleep) of a lot of useful notes on 'non-dot' frets.

Just dig in and play a lot. Especially on some movable chords and riffs, as suggested earlier.

Go buy some "post it " dots and stick on all of the frets... Learn the scales, and as my instucter told me... stop thinking about it so much
Good luck, Im sure it ill fall into place for you soon

Bill

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Hey, Boy Blue is back!

Take whatever marker closely resembles your fretboard color (on the side) and cover the dots. I also like the playing in the dark responce. You have to remember that the dots are there as reference markers while you are playing. I do not even notice them anymore, but I do not look at my neck too often when I play.

RK

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

Jam to some chuck berry records. Their all in Bb or F or C. No dots on them except on the 3rd fret.

Seriously just force yourself to do it. As a new player you should be practicing finger excersizes that get you to use 1 finger per fret so you dont have to make big movements with your hands. Look at some of them, that will get you playing unmarked frets.

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No no and no

Tune down a half step or so. The "dot" frets want sound right to ya any longer... that will shake ya up a bit.

Get some stickers the same size and shape as your dot markers and put them on every fret, if you have a genuine compulsion to "join the dots".

* Oops... just noticed that this has already been mentioned above

It's natural to gravitate towards markers if you don't know where you're going yet, so the most sensible option is to do as others suggest and learn some scales. If you start out with the first "shape" of the pentatonic scale you'll find that a lot of it follows the dots anyway (depending which fret you start it on, of course).

On the other hand... you may be onto something... the guitar equivalent of playing the black notes on a piano, perhaps! You can play just about every gospel song ever with just the black notes... "Amazing Grace" is a good one to try. Eddie Van Halen started out with symmetrical patterns of notes based on how they looked on the fretboard (consequently easier to remember and play), rather than whether or not they conformed to any particular scale. Sure didn't do him any harm, although I'd hazard a guess that he may not have progressed quite so far if he'd only played the notes at the fret markers. OK, I'm joking, but there's nothing wrong with patterns in music and visual patterns can be just as valid as aural ones.

Once you've got a few chords under your belt and a couple of simple scales you'll be over this particular hump. It's got to be one of the best cries for help I've heard, though... heh. Welcome aboard.

You dont mention your level of playing.Do you play scales? I am trying to figure out in my head how you would be able to play even a 12 bar blues on rhythm outside of G and A and B on the low E and not land on a fret without a marker or even run a scale.So if your playing E-A-B you have to go 12-5-7 and cant go open -open-2 is that right? Is it a mental block or do you feel lost and not sure of unmarked notes.If it is the latter just start playing an hour a day out of your routine on only unfretted keys and soon it will all fall into place.As F-F#-C and D are all guitar friendly keys. I know a lot of good players who dont like plaing in Ad-Bd-Ed HORN KEYS as there not as sure but you have to work through this.I for one would not buy a guitar I dont care how great it is that does not have fret markers and I see a lot of them today but I am not comfortable on them and I know a lot of people feel the same .I wish you would go into a bit more detail and maybe we can get you through this.

If all else really does fail, you could get a neck without any inlays at all & see how that grows on you.

Look at this and repeat after me I will ignore the dots when I need to but they are still my friend. I will ignore the dots when I need to but they are still my friend. I will ignore the dots when I need to but they are still my friend.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson