Learning the Notes on each String of Your Guitar

Most beginner guitar players are ultra focussed on learning how to play chords. After all songs are made up of chords and most of use wanted to learn to play guitar so we could learn songs. Few beginners think about the concept that chords are made from individual notes, and learning those individual notes on each string can strengthen your ability to play more chords and be a more advanced guitar player.

In this lesson I'm going to share the patterns you can use on the guitar neck to learn the notes on each string all the way up the neck. This process does take some memorizing but you can start by choosing one string and learning the notes up to the fifth fret then move onto the next.

At the end of this lesson I've created a video that goes over this same technique and I provide an example. I walk you through the notes on each of the first 4 strings. Watch this video and then go grab your guitar and give it a try for yourself.

The Pattern: Half Steps and Whole Steps

A bit of musical theory for you. When we're talking about learning the notes on the guitar neck the notes in question are A through G. There are no H, J or Q notes, only A through G. There are sharps and flats between each note but we'll worry about those in another lesson.

Each musical note is separated by either a half step or a whole step. There's an easy way to remember this, how ever you will have to memorize this.

Every musical note has a full step separating it from the next except for B to C and E to F. The exceptions each have only a half step between them.

Half and Whole Steps on the Neck

With this new information we can now transcribe it over to the guitar neck. The neck, as you've noticed no dobht, is separated into frets. Each fret is one half step. By understanding the spacing between notes as explained above you can begin to find different notes on the guitar neck.

Start with the open strings and work your way up.

Example: Let's take the open low E or 6th string. When we play this string open (without pressing any frets) we're playing an E note. What comes after E? It's an F note, which is one half step above the E (it's one of the exceptions). So moving up from the open string a half step brings us only one fret, which is the first fret. So pressing on the first fret and playing that same 6th string creates an F note.

Let's move up one more note in this example, after F comes G. There is a full step between F and G so that means we have to combine two half steps to make a whole. We move up two frets to the third fret and we have a G note.

Can you see how the pattern is working? For beginning these exercises I suggest you start from each open string and work your way up to the 5th fret learning and memorizing the notes on the way up. The video below will explain this concept in more detail and also give you more examples.

Grab your guitar after you watch it and give this exercise a try. It will pay big dividends later on when you've memorized the note son the neck.



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By Guest Blogger: Ian Fraser