This lesson is to help teach you the notes of the fretboard.

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The guitar uses twelve notes, the same as those used on the piano. The interval between each note is called a half step (or a semitone), which equals one fret on the fingerboard. Two frets equals one a whole step (or a tone). The interval between any twelve chromatic steps on the fingerboard, e.g. the open 1st string to the 12th fret of the 1 string, is referred to as an octave.

Note: Remember that some notes are "enharmonic" - they can have two possible names, e.g. D# and Eb are the same note!
Another thing to remember is this simple misconception - "E to F is a whole step" - WRONGE!
E to F is a half step, E to F# is a whole step!
And the same goes for the interval of B to C.

One fret = 1 half step = 1 semitone.
Two frets = 1 whole step = 1 tone.

The picture, right, is of the guitar neck with the nut at the top. It is in standard tuning i.e. the strings are tuned from low to high in this order - E, A, D, G, B, E. You will begin to notice patterns, which over time will become second nature in helping to identify notes.

Examples:
Any note on any fret of the low E string is the same on the high E string. The chromatic scale repeats every twelve frets.

On the lower two strings, octaves can be found in this simple pattern below - 2 fret spread, and 2 strings apart. E.g.
E|-----------|-----------|------------|-----------|-------------|
B|-----------|-----------|------------|-----------|-------------|
G|-----------|-----------|------------|----9(=E)--|-----17(=C)--|
D|----2(=E)--|----3(=F)--|----5(=F#)--|-----------|-------------|
A|-----------|-----------|------------|--7(=E)----|--15(=C)-----|
E|--0(=E)----|--1(=F)----|--2(=F#)----|-----------|-------------|

On the middle two strings, octaves follow a similar pattern as above but it’s a 3
fret spread, and 2 strings apart. E.g.
E|-----------|------------|------------|----3(=G)--|----15(=G0--|
B|----6(=F)--|----7(=F#)--|----10(=A)--|-----------|------------|
G|-----------|------------|------------|--0(=G)----|--12(=G)----|
D|--3(=F)----|--4(=F#)----|--7(=A)-----|-----------|------------|
A|-----------|------------|------------|-----------|------------|
E|-----------|------------|------------|-----------|------------|

Hope this helps. Any questions? Just post them in the forum, and we’ll try our best to answer your queries!

Bookmark this page for quick reference while learning the notes - come back as often as you like and use it to help commit where each note is located on the neck to memory.

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