The Notes - Part One

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A while back I began work on a written project with beginner and intermediate guitarists in mind. I came to the conclusion that understanding the guitar fretboard requires an amount of dedication that can't be simplified. Instead of simplifying the concepts, I tried to present them in order of what I found most important when I began learning.

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1. CHROMATIC SCALE

The guitar has 12 different notes that are available across the fretboard. These notes are collectively called the chromatic scale.  The chromatic scale is described using the first seven letters of the alphabet (A-G.) The seven unmodified notes of A-G are called the natural notes. The remaining five of twelve are called accidentals and appear as either sharps (#) or flats (b).

Accidentals will either appear as sharps or flats, as shown in the charts below. Sometimes sharps and flats will be used consecutively in written music, but they are often separate for sake of clarity.

(# - one note above, b - one note below)

CHROMATIC SCALE IN FLATS

A / Bb / B / C / Db / D / Eb / E / F / Gb / G / Ab

CHROMATIC SCALE IN SHARPS

A / A# / B / C / C# / D / D# / E / F / F# / G / G# 

The accidental that appears between two notes is always the same sounding note (A# / Bb.) Remember, there are only five of them. Our description of these accidentals as sharp or flat changes based on the context of the music being played. (The reason isn't that important in this section since our goal is simply to find a way to access the note positions on the guitar. )

Notice that there are no accidentals between (B / C) and (E / F). These will be important markers for finding our place on the guitar fretboard and identifying keys in the future. 

The easiest way to understand the chromatic scale is to play it on the instrument. Try following the scale using either sharps or flats beginning from an open string. Think of each string as beginning the alphabet from a different letter. If you’re unfamiliar with open strings, the next section will discuss the subject further.

2. OPEN STRINGS

Each string on the guitar has a standard tuning note. The standard tuning for each string is as follows, starting with the lowest sounding string: E A D G B E 

Using these open strings along with the chromatic scale, we can identify the remaining notes on any string. The notes on the A string follow the notes of the chromatic scale from beginning to end neatly.

CHROMATIC SCALE & NOTES ON THE A STRING

A / A# / B / C / C# / D / D# / E / F / F# / G / G# 

Try to play each of these notes while saying their names. Once complete, your next task will be to find a specific note from these - C on the A string. 

To do this, first play the open A string. Play the first fret and arrive at A#. Repeat this one fret at a time until we arrive at C (Fret 3.) Reference the chromatic scale chart if you have trouble remembering which note appears next - and watchout for B / C and E / F! All the other natural notes have an accidental between them. If correct, we should have gone through A#, B, and then arrived at C on the third fret.

Many guitarists will find it useful to know the notes above the 12th fret for soloing. Since there are only 12 notes, at fret 12 the notes restart. On the A string, fret 12 would be the next highest A note. This holds true for all strings on the guitar. We can also apply this to non-open notes like the C note we just found. C was three frets above our A, so it would appear again at the 15th fret on the A string, three frets above twelve.

CHROMATIC SCALE & OPEN STRING EXERCISES

1. Select a note of the chromatic scale. Find this note on every string. Once this becomes easy, implement a metronome with the practice to gradually speed up note identifications.

2. Go in ascending order through all notes of the chromatic scale on each string. Say the notes out loud and use sharps for the accidentals.

3. Go in descending order through all notes of the chromatic scale on each string. Say the notes out loud and use flats for the accidentals.

4. Find F on every string using the chromatic scale. Keep the 12th fret octaves in mind, since open strings like G will have the F closer to the 12th fret. Once you have an idea for the positions, attempt to jump directly to the F notes without chromatics. 

5. Using the first 5 frets of each string, go through the chromatic scale starting with the open E. When you reach the note of the next open string, continue the chromatic scale from the next string.