Guitar Grammar 2: Notes, Frets, and Scales

The first concept that any guitarist must do if they want to actually understand the guitar and become a self-instructor is the note.

A note is the specific sound emitted by the strings of a guitar.  In order to symbolize those sounds we use an alphabetical sequence.

The notes of the open strings, from largest string to smallest is:

E A D G B E

At the start of each lesson, it is imperative to tune your guitar to be sure that your strings match the standard sounds.
A great resource for tuning is HowToTuneAGuitar: http://www.howtotuneaguitar.org/

Once your ear is experienced enough, you should be able to tune your strings without the help of a tuner.

Notes & The Fretboard

Now that your guitar is in tune, let's see how the fretboard works.

Every fret is a half step up alphabetically.  The sequence, or scale, repeats itself all the way up the fretboard.
A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#

A sharp note, indicated by the symbol: # (ex. G#) means a half step up in pitch.
It's opposite, is the flat note which is interchangeable the sharp, denoted by the symbol: ♭

A half step up from one note is always a half step back from the next note in the scale.

• A# = B♭
• E# = F
• C# = D♭
• D# = F♭
• and so on...

ONLY TWO NOTES; B and E have no sharps.

Memorize & Exercise

This exercise will strengthen both your fingers and your understanding of where each note is found on the guitar, but first a note for beginner guitarists: 

Instead of pinching firmly, many beginning guitar players simply push the strings down. Or they pinch in the wrong position. This will give an unclear buzzing sound because the string lacks the strong foundation of the fret.  Be sure to pinch the frets!

Video coming soon.

Sheet Music

Being able to understand musical notes on sheet music is of equal importance to understanding the fretboard.
. 

To help memorize these notes, two mnemonic devices are available.
For the notes on the lines:
Every
Good
Boy

Does

Fine

And the notes on the spaces spell the word:
FACE

As you can see above, the same notes are used as on the fretboard, but without the sharps & flats.
That is because on a scale, there is no room to move the notes for half-steps up or down.  Notes are found on both the lines and spaces of the staff. Instead of moving the note, there will merely be a sharp (#) or flat (♭) next to the note being modified:

I'll explain key signatures later, but for now it is most important to get a good understanding of how notes look on sheet music. 

Memorize & Exercise

In order to get the feel for how these notes work, it is useful to go through basic sheet music and pencil in the note names next to the symbols yourself.  This will get your mind used to working with these types of concepts.
After you're done, compare them with the scale above.  Bonus points if you can name the tune!

If you need more practice then google: guitar sheet music.
Thanks for learning, please continue on to the next lesson.

Guitar Grammar 1: The Basics

Grammar -> Logic -> Rhetoric

There are three metaphorical steps that we all take when learning about anything.  Language itself is perhaps the analogy.  How do we learn that a cat is a cat or a chair is a chair?  We, of course, point at the object itself and utter a name.  All learning requires this small amount of memorization upon which the next two steps: Logic, or how the concepts learned can be used together, and Rhetoric, the application of all that you've learned throughout the first two stages in practice.

These are the key objects & terms that I will be showing you and defining for you so that we can move forward toward making music.

Key terms: Note, key, chord, tempo, ect.

Objects: String, fret, tuning knob, finger, ect.

Throughout the next few lessons you will be learning the meanings and shapes of each term and object respectively and how they pertain to the guitar.  

Please continue on to Guitar Grammar 2: Notes

Introduction to Beginner's Guitar

Greetings! My name is Michael Huttner and let me begin by saying thank you for choosing Free Start Guitar as your resource for learning and practicing that great string instrument- the guitar.

If you are a beginner with no formal training whatsoever, then this is the course for you.

This course will teach you everything you need to know to play basic and intermediate songs; from chords to keys to rhythm.

The goal is to keep each lesson simple and engaging so that you can have the tools to figure out what you need to on your own.  I won't be walking you through each lesson, but rather, handing you the tools, providing you the outline, and with your own hard work you can internalize your guitar skills and become a self-instructor.