“Didn’t know this would trigger so many folks”: Cory Wong says you’re not an advanced guitarist unless you can ace this one test

Cory Wong has issued a hot take on Instagram, claiming that players can’t call themselves advanced guitarists unless they can ace one specific test.

“Gentle call out to the folks that consider themselves advanced guitarists,” he says in a new reel with his new Ernie Ball guitar sat on his lap. “If you can’t do this exercise, I wouldn’t consider you an advanced guitarist.”

The exercise in question? Knowing where all the notes are on an electric guitar (or any guitar, for that matter), and being able to play them instantly on demand.

“You should know where all the notes are on a guitar! Can you play me a C on every string?” he queries.

Wong then flexes his own knowledge by showing how quickly he can smash off six of the same note, each on a different string, emphasizing why guitarists should get to know the ins and outs of their fretboard.

It’s a challenging exercise, and certainly one that will get brains firing if players take on the challenge at a speed anywhere near Cory ‘Lightning Fingers’ Wong.

But it’s a great test. Especially because, unlike like the piano, the notes on the guitar are not laid out linearly, meaning finding a C note on every string takes a little more working out. So it’s a worthwhile skill to have, even more so if players jump between different tunings and keys.

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To those ends, players like Monuments’ John Browne and Clayton King have talked up the magic of open tunings for metal because there are far fewer open note variations – for instance, standard guitar tuning sees only one string repeat. In DADGAD, there are only three different strings to learn – D, A, and G.

It’s a bit of a cheat code, but it helps navigate the challenges that the standard guitar tuning provides when chasing specific notes on the fly. Either way, both players here have spoken of the value of knowing which notes are where at any given moment.

“If you can’t do that, I’m not calling you an advanced guitarist,” Wong wraps up. “That’s all there is to it; get to work.”

Of course, his post has got the punters talking, with a stream of comments all offering pointers to guitarists wanting to understand the notes of the fretboard better.

Other users have also underlined that some of the greatest guitar players earned their stripes without a solid grasp on theory, and some have pointed to the players who can play very complicated chords without knowing their technical names.

It’s certainly divided opinion, and Wong has revelled in those contrasting responses: “Didn’t know this would trigger so many folks,” he later commented. “I’m here for it.”