Which frets are which notes

When you learn the fretboard, you play faster because you can instantly recall a note. Instant recall allows you to find and play any note as fast as possible.

It is a mental speed, which allows you to decide, find, and play faster. Most guitarists claim to know the fretboard because they can find any note. Many songs have a tempo of bpm, which is 2 seconds per measure. You need to recall notes in fractions of a second! This is why knowing how to find any note does not work. Without instant recall, you cannot keep up!

Learning the fretboard is not hard, but it takes practice. Most guitarists find the task boring because they learn it the wrong way. The best way to learn the fretboard is by incorporating multiple ways of remembering the note.

This is not only more interesting, it is more effective. The human brain remembers by using associations. When you play a note, you think of the note you want. You find it on the fretboard. You hear the note. You see the fretboard. All these items can be associated with each other to form multi-dimensional exercises. Later, I will give you exercises that associate what you see, hear, and feel to maximize your efficiency. Did you ever cram for an exam and forget what you learned?

When you try to cram to learn the fretboard, you will forget it. Your brain transfers your short term memory into long term memory when you sleep. I recommend practicing the fretboard for minute per day until you know it. Here is a list of inefficient or boring ways of learning the fretboard. This is my anti-recommendation list.

Strings are numbered from the thinnest string 1st string to the thickest 6th string. Notes are named using the first seven letters of the alphabet, however there are more than seven pitches, or notes, produced on the guitar.

The note names, or letters, repeat themselves. Frets are numbered from the headstock toward the body starting with 1. Sometimes the number 0 or letter O is used to denote an open string, or one that is played without fretting a note.

Fretting a note is executed by pressing the string down behind a fret on the headstock side of the fret.

Guitarists can move horizontally up or down the fretboard, or vertically across the fretboard. These are common terms used to communicate how to shift your hands when playing the guitar. This section will show you where each note on the guitar can be played. The notation is given for completeness. I have a lesson on reading standard notation and tablature if you want more information.

Feel free to try other hand shifts to change it up. Here are just a few additional exercises that you can use. It contains exercises to keep your practice sessions fresh. I still use these exercises to stay fresh. They work for beginners to pros.

All you really have to learn is octave centers and your E and A strings. You can find any note on the fretboard just by referencing octaves on these strings. References are always two strings over. You could then use the D string to find notes on the B string. In the same way, you could use your A string to find the notes on the G string, then the G string to find the notes on the high E string. Are you looking for more lead guitar lessons and relevant jam-tracks?

It has some great songs for lead guitar and it also covers many other important styles of music including rock, country, fingerstyle, metal, classical, bluegrass, jazz, and more. Best of all it includes a huge library of original jam-tracks so you can apply everything to music.

Fretboard Note Location exercise pdf On the first 12 frets you could find all of the notes on six positions, one for each string. The guitar differ from the piano, in the way notes of the same pitch can be played at several different positions. An observation to do is the comparison with notes on open string and the fifth fret. On the fifth string, each note is one position lower with the jump from second to third as an exception.

This relation depends on the fact that the guitar is tuned in 5th intervals: E to A, A to D and so on. A tip for learning fretboard by routines is to play from notes sheet music. This force you to think in terms of notes names and by reference to positions on the fretboard. An online resource with free sheet music for guitar is Traditionalsongs. If you really want to learn the fretboard, see The Guitar Fretboard ebook with graphics, playing examples and more. Between some of the frets there are inlays, most often displayed with dots.

The function of these is to help you orient in a horizontal direction and make it easier to find the right fret fast. Curious how lessons work? Sign up for more information about our private lessons. Submit Sign up successful. For many beginning guitarists, learning guitar fretboard notes is not a priority.

While many other musicians learn the note names for their instruments from the very start, new guitarists can rock out basic chords without ever learning what the notes on the guitar are.

Some even turn to guitar tabs to determine the finger positions for certain songs. Once you master guitar music notes , you can start challenging yourself and expand your musical skills. Get ready to be unstoppable when it comes to your guitar-playing skills! Follow along below and get ready to jam. Want to learn how these guitar notes work together to make guitar chords?

Check out this helpful tutorial:. If your guitar is tuned to standard tuning , these notes should be E-A-D-G-B-E , starting from the lowest pitched string and moving up to the highest. The guitar, like the piano, is based on a chromatic scale. In chromatic music, there are 12 notes in an octave, each a half step apart. Each fret on the fingerboard of the guitar raises the pitch of the string by one-half step.

If you were to hold down all strings on the 12th fret, the notes are the same as the strings played open, just an octave higher. One way to figure out what the notes on the guitar are is to think about each open string as the base note of a scale. A guitar TAB shows you where your fingers belong on each fret. If you need help reading charts like the one above, check out this article on how to read guitar tabs. Take a look at the guitar tab below to see what a scale looks like on the low E string:.

If you were playing the piano, these notes would be the white keys. Sharp and flat notes occur between the natural notes. Just as with the E string, you should notice that going up to the guitar notes on the twelfth fret takes you back to the note you started on, one octave higher.

This is true for all guitar strings: the 12th fret is always exactly one octave higher than the same string open. This means that the same patterns and shapes repeat above the 12th fret. If you learn your notes from open, up to 12th fret, you get the rest of the neck for free. Just imagine that the 12th fret is the nut, and the 13th fret is the 1st fret, etc. So what about those guitar notes in-between the natural notes? What is 1st fret on the G string, or 4th fret on the B string?

Those notes are called accidentals and can be described using either flats b or sharps. For example, if the 2nd fret on the G string is A, then the first fret on the G string is Ab. Knowing this should allow you to name the rest of the guitar notes that are not included on this tab.