Did you know that there is only ONE single note you need to get right in order to play perfectly and accurately every time?

It’s true! I’ve been playing and teaching guitar since 1996, and I’ve discovered that you only need to master one note in order to achieve perfect accuracy! I’d like to use this lesson to show you how mastering one note can transform your playing.

I know what you’re thinking:

“This can’t possibly be true!”

“There are hundreds of notes on the fretboard, surely I need to know more than just one!”

“This guy is an idiot!”

Read on and allow me to share with you my one note strategy for improving fretboard accuracy.

Ok, forgive me for the clickbait title. But I had to get you to read this far, as what I’m about to share can genuinely transform your fretboard accuracy in performance.

But first, an example.

When practicing, how often do you find yourself stumbling through a piece of music? Perhaps you make a couple of minor slips, a buzzy note here, a duff note there, a miscalculated position shift…

Making mistakes is a part of practice. How we deal with them is what makes our practice effective, or ineffective.

Think back to your last practice session. When you encountered a slip, what was your response? I often get my guitar students to show me how they practice during their lessons. This gives me insight into their methods, and the efficiency of their approach. I’ve noticed a few typical responses to an error. See how many you recognise…

1. The Oblivious: Plough straight through the error, completely unaware of any issue, carry straight on.
2. The Mindless Hacker: Encounter an error, mindlessly hack away at the erroneous note until it sounds a little better, then carry on.
3. The Trial and Error: Encounter an error, try different hand positions, movements etc until something seems to improve, then carry on.
4. The OCD: Encounter an error, stop, think about the issue, try something to fix it, repeat as necessary until the formerly erroneous note is under control.

You might find that you adopt several of the above approaches at various points in your practice. When written down in black and white, it should be pretty obvious which is the most effective.

When we practice, we should become totally obsessive about anything that is not exactly as we want it. By becoming aware of even the tiniest erroneous detail, we have taken the first step to correcting it.

It’s worth noting that all mistakes are the result of transitioning from a note you can play, to a note you can’t play. This leads me right back to the title of this lesson:

Unless you are cataloguing your errors, it would be inefficient to continue practicing the remainder of the piece of music until you’ve taken positive steps to correct the first error you encounter.

One of my all time favourite quotes that really epitomises this is by UCLA coach, John Wooden:

When it comes to fixing technical errors, we should approach practice in the same way we approach road safety. Over here in the UK, we have a great little system for teaching children how to safely cross the road. We have to:

Stop, Look, Listen, Think!

Stop

When you encounter an error, stop! Don’t run head on into oncoming traffic!

Look

Take a look at your hands. Are your fingers in the correct position? Did you move too far, not far enough?

Listen

Admittedly, this one should actually come first! Listen to the sound as you play. If you made an error, what happened? Was the pitch too high or too low? Did you get a buzzy note or a muffled note?

Think

Think about why you didn’t get the sound you wanted. Narrow it down as far as possible. Was the error caused by the left hand or right hand? Which finger? Why? The more accurately you diagnose the problem, the more effective you can be in correcting it.

If you’re lucky enough to take guitar lessons with a teacher, they will most likely do this process for you. It’s part of their job to analyse your playing, diagnose the issues and provide tailor-made solutions. It’s for this reason I believe ‘in person’ lessons will never truly be replaced by online lessons.

If you don’t have a teacher, you’ll need to master this process yourself in order to make significant improvements. In fact, even if you do have a teacher, you can still make your practice more efficient by mastering this process yourself.

Once you’ve encountered your error, devised an effective solution and corrected the issue, it’s time to embed your new way of playing. We do this through the successful repetition of movement.

There is a key word I’d like to emphasise in that little phrase, because it’s easy to go backwards here.

Your repetitive movements must be SUCCESSFUL. Your brain needs time to process what it is like to make the same successful movements over and over again. Do this often enough and the correct movements will become embedded in your “muscle memory”.

So there you have it, there really is only one note you need to master to transform your accuracy. It’s the first erroneous note you encounter in practice. Take the time to fix it before moving onto the next!

I hope you’ve found this lesson to be useful. Be sure to check out our other lessons too for more useful tips, tricks and advice.