Before moving on you should know what each string is. So, if you are holding your guitar in the playing position then the string closest to you, which is the biggest, is the “low E string” this is
how I will address it from now on.
The strings in order from largest to smallest after the low E string are the A, D, G, B, and high E string. What are these random letters here for? Great question! Let’s explain that now with
learning the guitar...
So, what about those notes we learned about before? Those were 5 of the 12 different notes that make up the guitar and it’s sound. Yes, there are only 12 different notes on the guitar. Just like
there are only 12 notes on the piano and most other instruments.We will cover this later on though.
Music is written on a musical staff. The picture below is of a blank musical staff.
As you can see there are 5 lines and 4 spaces on this staff. Each line and space represent a specific note that you will play when a note is placed on it. Don’t freak out this will all come
together I promise you.
First go over to the How To Read Guitar Tabs page and first learn what guitar tabs are. Tabs are another way to read music. If you have been around this site you will notice that most of my examples are in sheet music (the staff you just learned) and tabs (the way you will learn once you
go to the guitar tabs page).
After you go to the tabs page and get a good understanding of how to read tabs then go to the
Learning Guitar Strings page. This page will show you every singe note on the fretboard of the guitar on every string. You have to know what you’re looking at though so that’s why I
recommended those pages.
Do you remember the notes of the 6 strings? E, A, D, G, B, and e? Well, now we will put those notes on our staff that we learned about earlier.
When you play any string without pressing any note on the fretboard then that is called an “open note.” So, if you were to play all the strings of the guitar from low E to high E then you are
playing all open notes.
Now that we covered what open notes are here are your 6 open notes on the musical staff.
I’m sure you noticed that there are some notes below the staff. You will have notes above and below the staff depending on how high the note your playing is or how low it is.
The lines below or above the staff like in the above example are called ledger lines. If you haven’t noticed this already, the higher the sound of the note you’re playing the higher it will be
on the staff. The lower the sound of the note you are playing the lower it will be on the staff. Right now don’t worry about the weird oval things on the staff. So, anytime you see any oval
thing (note) on the very top space of the staff then you can play the high E string. Go to the
Guitar Theory page for more on the staff and it’s notes.
Now, let’s talk about all those notes we can play. I mentioned before that there are 12 different notes you can play on the guitar. Well, there are actually 7 natural notes. Natural notes are notes
that aren’t sharped or flat. I’ll show you. The 7 notes are just the first 7 letters of the Alphabet. A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. So, where are the other notes? They are in between each of these notes. Each note has a sharp and flat note. To sharp a note simply means to raise it one half step which is one fret on the guitar. A fret is the space between each of those metal bars. To flat a note means
you will lower it a fret or move that note one space back on the neck.
This might confuse you, but remember you will understand it soon. Between the notes B, and C and E, and F there are no sharps. So the notes in order will look like this
Try this. Find your A string on your guitar. It is your second string the one right below the low E string. Play it open, this is the note “A.” If you play the first space at the very top of the A string this is the first fret and also the note “A#” or “Bb.” The symbol # means sharp and the symbol
“b” means to flat.
If you continue up another space or fret on the A string that note will be “B.” Look back at the example before about all the notes in order and try to go all the way up to A again on your A
string.
Name the notes when you do it too. So, the open string is A, the next note is A# or Bb the next note is B, the next note is C, because there is no sharp or flat between B, C and E, F. Moving on. So we covered that the frets are the spaces right? Now, when you hear the term “move up a half step” this means to move the note you are playing up a fret. Or, you can move in
down a half step by moving it back towards your open note.
If you hear the term “move up a whole note” this means move that note up 2 frets. The last one is “move up (or down) an octave.” An octave is from one note to either the same note higher or lower. So, from A to A is an octave. If you play your open A note and move up 12 frets you will reach the note A again. It will sound higher but it is the same note. An octave has the same sound
just a different pitch. It will sound higher or lower but it will be the same sounding note. This part of the beginner guitar lesson online can get a little overwhelming. I’d suggest you go
watch some tv and give your mind a break. I’m probably the only guitar teacher that suggests you watch tv. Yeah, I’m pretty cool.