If you have ever tried learning all the notes on the guitar fretboard, you may well have found it a harder task than expected! Unlike on the piano keyboard, there is no obvious repeating pattern to the notes on a guitar. In order to learn chords, riffs, and songs, you will have to first know the names of the notes of the fretboard. This is an annoyance, but it is something that every guitar player must eventually do. The article below will take you through a tried and tested step by step systematic approach. How far you follow the instructions may depend on your current level of experience as a guitar player, but I am confident that anyone wanting to master the guitar fretboard will find all the help they need from this article.
1Start by memorising the open string names.Ad
2Learn the basic manual tuning method for the guitar. To do this:
- Play the 6th (Lowest sounding string) at fret 5, tune the open 5th(Next lowest sounding string) string to that.
- Play the 5th at fret 5, tune the open 4th string to that.
- Play the 4th at fret 5, tune the open 3rd string to that.
- Play the 3rd at fret 4, tune the open 2nd string to that.
- Play the 2nd at fret 5, tune the open 1st string to that.
3This method of tuning helps you gain a better understanding of how notes relate to each other on different strings.
4Memorise the notes at the fifth fret. From understanding the tuning method in the previous step it is easy to work out the note names at the FIFTH fret like this:
- The note at the fifth fret on the 6th string is A, because that is the note you tune the A string to.
- The note at the fifth fret on the 5th string is D, because that is the note you tune the D string to.
- The note at the fifth fret on the 4th string is G, because that is the note you tune the G string to.
- But the note at the fifth fret on the 3rd string is C, because that is one step higher than the note you tune the B string to!
- The note at the fifth fret on the 2nd string is E, because that is the note you tune the top E string to.
- The note at the fifth fret on the 1st (top) string is A, because it's going to be the same as the note at the fifth fret on the bottom E string isn't it?!.
5If you like you can use this extra mnemonic for notes at the FIFTH fret:
- Actually Donkeys Grow Colossal Ears Apparently!
6Memorise the notes at the TWELFTH fret. This is dead easy if you have followed the earlier steps. The notes at the TWELFTH fret are the same as the open string names: EADGBE so you can use Elephants And Donkeys Grow Big Ears again.Note Map Image (above) courtesy of Fret Daddy
7Learn about the chromatic scale. This is the scale of all the notes used in the Western Musical System. Here are the names of the notes:
8Ascending: E F F# G G# A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# E…
9Descending: E Eb D Db C B Bb A Ab G Gb F E Eb D Db C B Bb A Ab E...
10If you have any experience of keyboard playing then this will be quite easy, but if not, you may find it confusing! In this case please watch this video and all will be explained!
11Use knowledge learned in the above steps to work out all the other notes. For example:
- fret 10 on the fourth (D) string? Find D at twelfth fret and work two steps down the descending chromatic scale: D, Db C -- the answer is C.
- Fret 7 on fifth (A) string? Work from the fifth fret (D note) and work two steps up the ascending chromatic scale: D, D#, E .. the answer is E.
12Memorise the natural notes (E,F,G,A,B,C,D,E) on the sixth (Low E ) string. Some people find it helps to use word association for example the 10th fret can be associated with the letter D by the word ‘Detention’ (D – TEN – SHUN).
13F can be related to fret one by thinking of ‘Formula One Racing’.
14Memorise the natural notes on the fifth string in a similar manner.
- Learning these notes will greatly assist with learning the names of power chord and barre chord shapes as well as common scale and arpeggio patterns.
15To attain total mastery of the fretboard learn about octave patterns and the Caged system. Once you have mastered this you will never ever have any problems finding any note on the fretboard almost instantly. These videos explain all about this:
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- Beginners may find it useful to use instructional guitar stickers to learn guitar notes. They are available here: http://www.guitarnotes.info
- If you are learning guitar,comprehensive information to back up this article is available free from here: http://www.secretguitarteacher
- If you are a guitar teacher, comprehensive information to back up this article is available free from here: http://www.teachguitar.com
Sources and Citations
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