Learn the Guitar notes
To learn how to play guitar, you will need to learn how to play chords, riffs, and songs, and first and foremost, you will have to first learn the names of the notes of the guitar. Learning the names of the guitar notes can be an annoyance to most beginners, and so many people never learn this, but it is something that every guitar player must eventually do in order to become proficient with their guitar.
The names of the guitar notes are not so mysterious, once you learn to recognize the patterns. Essentially, the notes move upward, in alphabetical order, from the head of the guitar (the small part where the tuners are) toward the body (the big part with the sound hole), until you arrive at G, then they start over again with the letter A. Easy enough, right? Well, not quite. There are a couple of wrinkles to be aware of in this otherwise straight forward pattern.
Some of the letter notes or 'naturals' as they are often called, have other notes in between them called flats or sharps. For example, the notes named 'A' and 'B' have a note in between them called 'A sharp or B flat.' ‘Flat’ just means 'one half step lower’ and 'Sharp' just means 'one half step higher', Accordingly, ‘A sharp’ and ‘B flat’ are actually two names for the same note. A half step is just one fret on the guitar. Thus the note 'D sharp' is one fret higher than the 'D' note, and/or one note lower than the note E.
Since only some of the notes have sharps and flats in between them, you’ll have to memorize which ones do and which ones don’t. There’s no other way around it. All the notes in ascending 'chromatic' order (From lowest to highest) starting from A, look like this:
- A
- A sharp/B flat
- B
- C
- C sharp / D flat
- D
- D sharp / E flat
- E
- F
- F sharp / G flat
- G
- G sharp / A flat
And repeat.
Observe that the notes are in alphabetical order, but some (not all) notes have sharps and flats between them.
Once you’ve learned this, all you need to know in order to figure out every note of the fretboard is the names of the open string notes of your guitar. Then you will be able to use this information to count upward to figure out all of the rest of the notes.
The string closest to your mouth when you play is called the low E string. It is called the low ‘E string’ because it is the lowest string and because the note that you play when you play it is an 'E' note. (All the notes have names in music). Below are the names of each of the open strings:
E – the low E string, also known as the 6th string
A – 5th
D – 4th
G – 3rd
B – 2nd
E – 1st
And that’s it!
If you like, you can purchase stickers that have all of the names of the notes printed right on them. This is a very useful tool for beginners and intermediate or advanced students who never bothered to learn the names of the notes. Fret daddy manufactures removable fret stickers for guitar and bass and have the guitar notes as one of their sticker sets. See links below:
Learn the names of the guitar notes
Similar article about learning the notes
The names of the guitar notes are not so mysterious, once you learn to recognize the patterns. Essentially, the notes move upward, in alphabetical order, from the head of the guitar (the small part where the tuners are) toward the body (the big part with the sound hole), until you arrive at G, then they start over again with the letter A. Easy enough, right? Well, not quite. There are a couple of wrinkles to be aware of in this otherwise straight forward pattern.
Some of the letter notes or 'naturals' as they are often called, have other notes in between them called flats or sharps. For example, the notes named 'A' and 'B' have a note in between them called 'A sharp or B flat.' ‘Flat’ just means 'one half step lower’ and 'Sharp' just means 'one half step higher', Accordingly, ‘A sharp’ and ‘B flat’ are actually two names for the same note. A half step is just one fret on the guitar. Thus the note 'D sharp' is one fret higher than the 'D' note, and/or one note lower than the note E.
Since only some of the notes have sharps and flats in between them, you’ll have to memorize which ones do and which ones don’t. There’s no other way around it. All the notes in ascending 'chromatic' order (From lowest to highest) starting from A, look like this:
- A
- A sharp/B flat
- B
- C
- C sharp / D flat
- D
- D sharp / E flat
- E
- F
- F sharp / G flat
- G
- G sharp / A flat
And repeat.
Observe that the notes are in alphabetical order, but some (not all) notes have sharps and flats between them.
Once you’ve learned this, all you need to know in order to figure out every note of the fretboard is the names of the open string notes of your guitar. Then you will be able to use this information to count upward to figure out all of the rest of the notes.
The string closest to your mouth when you play is called the low E string. It is called the low ‘E string’ because it is the lowest string and because the note that you play when you play it is an 'E' note. (All the notes have names in music). Below are the names of each of the open strings:
E – the low E string, also known as the 6th string
A – 5th
D – 4th
G – 3rd
B – 2nd
E – 1st
And that’s it!
If you like, you can purchase stickers that have all of the names of the notes printed right on them. This is a very useful tool for beginners and intermediate or advanced students who never bothered to learn the names of the notes. Fret daddy manufactures removable fret stickers for guitar and bass and have the guitar notes as one of their sticker sets. See links below:
Learn the names of the guitar notes
Similar article about learning the notes