Learn the Names of the Guitar Notes

In order to learn how to play guitar, you need to learn how to play chords, riffs, and songs, and first and foremost, you will have to first know the names of the notes of the guitar.  Learning the notes of the guitar is an annoyance to most beginners, and so many people never learn this, but it is something that every guitar player must eventually do in order to become very proficient with their instrument.




A sharp/B flat
B
C
C sharp / D flat
D
D sharp / E flat
E
F
F sharp / G flat
G
G sharp / A flat
And repeat.


And repeat.




A – 5th
D – 4th
G – 3rd
B – 2nd
E – 1st

The fingerboard of the guitar and the names of the notes of the guitar are not so mysterious, once you learn to recognize the patterns.  Essentially, the notes move upward, in alphabetical order, from the head of the guitar toward the body, until you arrive at G, then they start over again with the letter A. Easy enough, right?  Not so fast.  There are a couple of wrinkles in this otherwise straight forward pattern.

For example, some of the letter notes or 'naturals' as they are sometimes called, have other notes in between them called 'sharps' or 'flats.'  For example, the notes named 'A' and 'B' have a note in between them called 'A sharp or B flat.'  'Sharp' just means 'one half step higher', and 'flat' just means 'one half step lower.'   So A sharp and B flat are actually two names for the same note.  A half step is just one fret on the guitar.  Thus the note 'A sharp' is one fret higher than the 'A' note, and/or one note lower than the note ‘B flat’.

Because only some of the note shave sharps and flats in between them, you’ll have to memorize which ones do and which ones don’t.  All the notes in ascending 'chromatic' order (From lowest to highest) starting from A, look like this:

A

Notice that the notes are in alphabetical order, but some (not all) notes have sharps and flats between them.

Once you know this information, all you need to know in order to figure out every note of the fretboard is the names of the open string notes of your guitar.  Then you can use this information to count upward to figure out all of the rest.

The string that is closest to your mouth when you play is called the low E string.  It is called the low E string because it is the lowest string and because the note that you play when you play it is an 'E.'   Below are the names of each of the open strings:

E – the low E string, also known as the 6th string

To have all of this information really sink in, study the guitar notes chart located on this page.  One image is that of a guitar, which has the names of the notes printed on stickers placed on the frets. The other is simply a helpful diagram. Read over the information, above, and compare it with what you see in the picture until it all starts to make sense. If you like, you can purchase stickers that have all of the names of the notes printed right on them.  This is a very useful tool for beginners and intermediate or advanced students who never bothered to learn the names of the notes. Fret daddy manufactures removable fret stickers for guitar and bass and have the guitar notes as one of their sticker sets.  I’ve included a link below.