A Simple Method for Finding and Naming the Notes on Your Guitar
A Simple Method for Finding and Naming the Notes on Your Guitar
Whether you're an advancing guitar player who wants to improvise and create complex solos by 'playing the changes' or a beginning rock guitar player who wants to transpose your first minor pentatonic scale pattern from E to A then you'll need a way to find the notes on your guitar. Here's a simple 3-step method for finding notes on your guitar in standard tuning.
Step 1 - Tune your guitar
In standard tuning, the open strings of the guitar are tuned from the 1st (thin) string to the 6th (thick) string in the following way:
1st string = E
2nd string = B
3rd string = G
4th string = D
5th string = A
6th string = E
Step 2 - Learn a little music theory
There are only seven natural notes in Western Music-A -> B -> C -> D -> E -> F -> G -> (A). All notes in this sequence are separated by a 2-step interval except of B -> C and E -> F which are separated by a 1-step interval. This sequence can be summarized as:
A -> B = 2 steps
B -> C = 1 step
C -> D = 2 steps
D -> E = 2 steps
E -> F = 1 step
F -> G = 2 steps
G -> (A) = 2 steps.
Step 3 - Find the notes!
Now you're ready to find the natural notes on each string of the guitar. Simply start from each open string and then proceed sequentially up the fretboard to find the other natural notes. For example, in standard tuning the 1st string of the guitar is tuned to an E. Following the sequence of natural notes shown above, the next note will be an F located 1 step away at the 1st fret. From there, the next note G will be 2 steps away at the 3rd fret; the next note will be an A located 2 steps away at the 5th fret and so on.
To locate sharps, simply move the natural notes you discover 1 step towards the next note in the sequence. For example, an A Note that is moved 1 step forward towards a B Note becomes an A Sharp (#). To locate flats, simply move the natural notes you discover 1 step towards the note that comes before it. For example, a B Note that is moved 1 step backward towards an A Note is called a B Flat (b). When playing these examples you'll notice that A# and Bb share the same fret position on the guitar and are therefore called 'enharmonic equivalents'.
If you're hesitant finding notes on the guitar I recommend you spend 5 minutes finding the natural notes on each string all the way to the 12th fret before commencing your daily practice. Just use the your left hand index finger to locate each note and say each note name aloud as you locate it. Once you can easily find all the notes on the guitar you're ready to memorize and play every scale you need to create interesting guitar solos in any key.