Earlier in the year I started having music lessons as a way of trying to understand why I was playing the notes and chords that are in the tuition manuals that I've been using. I started taking lessons with Stan Gee (see links) and it's really helped my understanding of the fretboard.
Starting out from the chromatic scale, which is basically all 12 notes, we've moved onto the looking at the major scales and their structure. Understanding the pattern that each mode/scale has means you don't have to know all the notes in the scale to play in it. You can just follow the shape of the scale on the fretboard. Also knowing that a scale may be present at several different places and shapes on the neck has clarified why I've been playing notes in particular songs.
In the last lesson we started to look at harmonising the scale, understanding which notes harmonise with each other and which chords relate to notes in the scale. Although I haven't got my head round it completely it has made a lot of sense of chord progressions in songs and I think it will lead on to how to construct chords.
This might all seem very theoretical and has had to go hand in hand with practicing technique but what it has done is make more sense of the banjo and made it easier to start playing other instruments. Got myself a very cheap and nasty ukulele yesterday and although it won't stay in tune - think it needs some proper strings - I didn't have that feeling of total bewilderment that I had when I first picked up the banjo.
It all begins to make sense doesn`t it. You can take these fundamental understanding, and apply them to any instrument. Then it just takes a lot of practice and patience.
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