Cory Wong sparked discussion just over a month ago when he insisted that guitarists should not call themselves “advanced guitarists” unless they can ace one exercise: knowing where all the notes are on a guitar – and recall them on demand. It was a controversy that extended far beyond Wong's comment section, with Jack White even weighing in on the debate.
Now, Joe Satriani is giving his two cents on the matter, agreeing with Wong's statement and reasserting how essential it is for both veteran guitarists and complete rookies to know the fretboard like the back of their hand.
“I would always insist that you know every single note right from the beginning,” he tells Cory Wong on the Wong Notes podcast. “Find-the-note-everywhere exercise. I think that's what I would write on the top of the lesson book. And I'd always tell them [guitarists], ‘Look, it's gonna take maybe three weeks, and then you'll never think about this ever again.’”
Satch also mentions how kids who have just started learning the guitar need to hone in on this early so they’ll “never have to learn it again.”
“The time to learn these things is when you're that young, and your cells are being recreated every minute, and you've got a million hormones and all this energy, and it's the hardest time to focus, but it's the best time to learn. It'll just become part of who you are.”
The veteran guitarist takes the same approach when it comes to scales: learn them as early as possible. “I would always tell them, ‘This is not music – you got to learn this, form an opinion about it. That's what you're playing the scales for. What's your opinion of Mixolydian versus Phrygian dominant? When do you pull one scale out instead of the other?’ You have to make that decision. How are you going to do that if you can't play it?” he concludes.
Aside from giving his hot takes, Satriani is busy rehearsing with Steve Vai for the SatchVai Band – the first official band the two have formed together in their 50-year musical careers.
