Guitar Notes, Guitar string notes or Guitar fretboard notes – the first stumbling block for everyone who holds a guitar in his or her hand. Think of Guitar notes as an written language for Guitarists. Basically people get confused between guitar notes and chords. We will break down all this in this blog so that this serves as a guide for everyone starting his or her Guitar journey.
Learning Guitar notes will help you to become a better musician and also communicate musically with fellow musicians.
Difference between Guitar Notes & Guitar Chords
Assume learning guitar notes like that of a language.
- A Guitar note is a equivalent to an alphabet.
- A Guitar chord is combination of 2 or more notes. So we can say it like a word.
So each single note has a different sound. Then we combine these notes (alphabets) in different permutation and combination to make different sounds called as Chords (Words).
So when you play one string or use single finger in the Guitar fretboard and play any one string then it is called as a note. As explained earlier if you play anything with 2 or more notes either open , fret using finger or combination it is called as a chord.
Guitar Notes – Standard Tuning
In a typical standard guitar you will see 6 strings. These strings are generally arranged in Standard Tuning. Check the article Standard Tuning to understand how to tune a guitar and more details of Guitar string names. The strings are tuned as EBGDAE , from bottom (thinnest string) to top string (thickest string). You can use our Guitar Tuner to tune the exact guitar notes in your Guitar.
Understanding Guitar Fretboard – Natural, Sharp & Flat notes
Before understanding guitar notes in fretboard let us understand the notes in music. The language of music is just 12 notes. It can be written in two formats. So if we start from A it is
Format 1 using Sharps : A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#
Format 2 using Flats : A, Bb, B, C, Db, D, Eb, E, F, Gb, G, Ab, A
# is called as Sharp and b is called as Flat. Please note that B and E does not have Sharps, while C and F does not have flats. This means there is no note between B and C and E and F. What is the reason for this? It is a complex topic, you can put it on hold for the time being. A note with any sharp or flat is called as Natural note.
So when you read for example A# it is be pronounced as A#, and when you read, say for example Db it is to be pronounced as D flat. Simply put sharps and flats are half note away from the natural notes.
Sharps ascend or increase, while flats descend or decrease in notes. So a single note can have two names F# or Gb. When you move by a higher note from F, the next higher note is called as F#, while if you move to a lower note from G it is called as Gb, however effectively both are same notes. All you have to remember is when you go higher you refer it as sharp, while when you go down you refer it as flat.
Guitar Notes on E String (Thinnest String)
The open string is E and the next set of higher notes moving one fret at a time, the respective notes are F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D# and once again E.
- Open String – E
- 1st Fret – F
- 2nd Fret – F#
- 3rd Fret – G
- 4th Fret – G#
- 5th Fret – A
- 6th Fret – A#
- 7th Fret – B
- 8th Fret – C
- 9th Fret – C#
- 10th Fret – D
- 11the Fret – D#
- 12th Fret – E (You have now come to the next octave. All notes once again repeat from E from here. So you need 24 frets to have two full octaves to play in a Guitar).
Similarly when you move down from higher E to lower E note one fret at a time in the E string, the respective notes are Eb, D, Db, C, B, Bb, A, Ab, G, Gb, F and open note E.
- 12th Fret – E
- 11th Fret – Eb
- 10th Fret – D
- 9th Fret – Db
- 8th fret – C
- 7th Fret – B
- 6th Fret – Bb
- 5th Fret – A
- 4th Fret – Ab
- 3rd Fret – G
- 2nd Fret – Gb
- 1st Fret – F
- Open String – E
You can construct the notes similarly for the rest of the strings.
12th Fret Octave
All the notes Guitars on the 12th Fret are same as open strings and from here the next octave starts. So for example the thinnest open string is E and the 12th fret note on thinnest string (E string) is also E note. This note is an higher E note compared to open E note.
Word of advise
Please do not try to memorise all the notes in the initial days, as long as you understand the open strings. Start to play few chords or notes of some nice songs so that you enjoy playing Guitar rather than getting lost in world of notes or music language.
