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Musical Notes

There are a very few people who can pick up a guitar and begin to make music without knowing the theory behind it. The rest of us need to learn the basics, at the very least. So let’s get started!

There are 7 core notes in a musical scale, from A to G. Those seven notes make up an Octave, or a set of tones at a certain pitch. An E note is the same as the E one or two octaves higher; the pitch just varies. These seven basic notes also have flats and sharps—a half note lower (flat) or higher (sharp). These semi-tones add color and flavor to music and form the basis of many exotic scales. You may have seen musical notation and noticed a “#” sign; this indicates that a note is sharp, or a half tone higher than the core note. On guitar, an E# is made by simply moving your finger up (toward the body of the guitar) one fret. A flat is half a tone lower so you would sound the note one fret lower, or toward the headstock. The “b” indicates a flattened note. Sharps and flats are are located between notes; a Db is the note between and C and D, a semitone lower than D.

The exceptions are E and B. They have no sharps because the notes F and C are directly “beside” them with no semi-tones in between. In other words, an E# is actually an F and B# is a C.

All these tones and semi-tones, a total of 13, are used for every piece of music written. Using different octaves, intervals and rhythm gives the music variety and distinguishes one song from another.

Finding the Notes on the Guitar

Now that you have a better understanding of notes, it’s time to learn where they are on the guitar. Since each of the six strings is tuned to a different note there are many places on your fretboard for each note aside from the open string played without fretting a note; by depressing the sixth, or thickest string, at the third fret you would be playing a G note. Further up the neck, toward the body, you can also find the G on the same string at the fifteenth fret but it would be an octave higher.

In standard tuning, the strings from lowest (thickest) to highest are E, B, G, D, A and E. The thinnest string is also called the first, the thickest is the sixth. Each fret represents a semi-tone, or interval as they are sometimes called. Remember the sharps and flats? By fretting a G on the third fret of the sixth string then moving your fretting finger one fret higher, you’ll be playing a G and a G# (or Ab, if you prefer).

By familiarizing yourself with the order of the notes and their locations on the fretboard, you’ll be able to quickly find your way around the guitar and it will be much easier to play.

Here is a diagram of all the notes on the fretboard:

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