So I'm the first to admit that I have the attention span of a drunk ferret when it comes to learning music theory. I come from a time (anyone under the age of 40 is going to be rolling theirs eyes about now) pre-internet when if you wanted to learn a song on the guitar you had to save up and buy a tape of the music you wanted to learn, then play it over, and over, and over, and over, bit, by bit, by bit, by bit, trying to work it out by ear. The amount of concentration required is the main reason I now have crows feet and deep frown lines.
There was no need at all to read music unless you wanted to play classical guitar or yankee doodle dandy. Go to any music store and buy a top 40 songbook and you get basic open chords and the melody, most of the time in the wrong key. There were some TAB books available from hard core guitar shops, but were hard to come by and expeeeeensive!
All of what I'm saying here is one big excuse of why I never learned the notes of the fretboard... I know it's easy A, A#, B, C, C#, D D#, E, F, F#, G. But to really know it. To be able to say "Well that's a A# minor 7 and while I'm playing this improvised solo over this chord for one bar I should be hitting the target note of the 7th which is a 'blah blah'" (You should be reading that quote with a posh condescending tone).
As all people in IT I'm looking for a silver bullet, and I may have found one. Yes probably not.
Anyone who has ever searched on YouTube with search terms even slightly relating to 'Guitar' would have then been bombarded with adds from the app Yousician. My Son tried it a while ago when he was interested in guitar for a 3 day period. It looked dreadful.... BUT after Googling for ages looking for an app to assist in interactive fretboard learning I found a clue on reddit. You can actually change (deep in the bowels of settings) the fret numbers to notes.
This is a kind of cheat reading music type of thing where it tells you the string and the note and you have to find it. You plug your guitar in and play along and it tells you when you get the notes right or wrong.
So it's $16.99 a month which I thought was OK, but it's a yearly fee which is $199.99. I'm thinking I'll keep with the free version for a while and see if I can keep it up for month and go from there.
Wish me luck and I'll report back and let you know what the 7th of a A# Minor 7 is.