Learning the fretboard

Learning where to find notes on the fret-board of the guitar is very important to becoming a capable guitarist. Even the "anti-technique" guitarists understand this, although they are often just aware of the relationship between notes, and ignore the names of them. Let's start by learning both, and if you decide to be "against", then you can forget the names...

The first step is to learn the notes of the E-string. The bonus here is that the guitar has two E-strings, so you will learn 1/3 of the notes on the guitar in one step!For those of you who are just beginning, you need to know that the guitar has six strings, and the standard tuning of these strings is - from the lowest (thickest string and lowest note) to the highest (thinnest string and highest note) – E – A – D – G – B – E. We will examine other methods of tuning the guitar in a later chapter.

Many of the chords played on the guitar tuner have their bass note (lowest note, and the note after which the chord is named) on the low E-string, so learning the notes of this string is extremely important.

By picking the low E-string without placing a finger on the fret-board, you will sound an "E" note.

By placing a finger of your left hand on the first fret of the low E-string and picking the string, you will sound an "F" note, and so on as labeled.

[Hint: Unfortunately, the frets marked with a black square (with dots on a Telecaster or Strat, mother of pearl inlays on a Les Paul, etc.) do not line up with any particular type of note. These markers are just there to give you a bit of visual orientation. They are usually at frets 3, 5, 7, 9 and 12.] The notes marked with a "#" are read as "sharp". For example "F#" is read as "F sharp".

Any note which is marked with a "#" (sharp) can also be called the "flat" (symbol "b") of the note above it. Huh? Ok, look....

The point is that some notes have two names. An "F#" is the same as a "Gb". A "G#" is the same as an "Ab". This is important to know when you look at a chord progression and would like to play along!Moving up the string is considered from the headstock of the guitar towards the body of the guitar. This is true even though when you sit with the guitar, the headstock points upward! This is a point of confusion for many beginning guitarists, and it is important to clear this up now.

The guitar is a bit complicated in terms of how the notes are laid out, and maybe that is why many guitarists choose to be ignorant of note names...

Pianists have it a lot easier. Just look at how neatly the notes are laid out on a piano! The white keys are natural notes (no sharp or flat) and the black key in between are the accidentals (sharp/flat names).

Notice how the notes repeat after the seventh note:

The way in which the notes repeat after 12 little steps helps us with learning the notes of the guitar! Starting at the 12th fret of the guitar, all the notes REPEAT EXACTLY.

Don't underestimate this information! Anything and everything you learn on the guitar tuner below the 12th fret can be repeated exactly 12 frets higher. This is like having half of your homework done for free.

Combine this with the fact that you have TWO E-strings, and there isn't too much left to memorize.

You already know 1/3 of the notes on the guitar tuner. Not a bad start. Let's get a few tuning tip under our belts, and you will see that you have conquered another 1/3 of the notes in no time.