Notes at the Fifth Fret

If you look closely at the cheat sheet (pdf) you may notice a few patterns which you can use to more easily find higher notes.

The first obvious pattern is that the notes on fifth fret have the same name as the open note of the next thinner string. This means that the note at the fifth-fret sixth-string will be the same as the open fifth string ‘A’. Similarly, the fifth fret fifth string will be the same as the open fourth string, ‘D’, and so on.

Do be aware though, that due to the tuning of the guitar, the third string does not keep to the pattern. Rather than being at the fifth fret the ‘B’ is at the fourth fret (as in the figure above).

Notes at the Seventh Fret

Here is a similar pattern at the seventh fret. This pattern works with the next thicker string, so the seventh fret fifth string is the same as the open sixth string, ‘E’. The seventh fret fourth string, is the same as the open fifth string, ‘A’, and so on.

Again, because of the way the guitar is tuned, there is one note which does not fit the pattern properly. In this case the second string note which corresponds with an open string the ‘G’ at the eighth fret.

Notes at the Twelfth Fret

The notes at the twelfth fret are the exactly the same as the open strings, so this one is dead easy!

The notes at the Other Frets

By remembering these patterns at the fifth, seventh and twelfth frets, you are never more than two frets away from a note that you know. And since you (should) know your musical alphabet forwards as well as backwards its only a simple matter to work out the notes in between.

P.S. And of course, don’t forget the one other pattern touched on in Part 2: that is; since both of the outermost strings are E’s they also share the same letter names.

The Names of the Strings

Each of the strings has a letter name from our musical alphabet. Starting from the thickest string and moving to the thinnest string the names of the strings are: E A D G B and E. A useful mnemonic for remembering this is Elephants And Donkeys Grow Big Ears.

Lets start by learning the notes on the thin ‘e’ string.

Each fret is one step in the musical alphabet. Looking at the alphabet we can see that the note immediately after ‘E’ is ‘F’.

A, A♯/B♭, B, C, C♯/D♭, D, D♯/E♭, E, F, F♯/G♭, G, G♯/A♭

This means that the first fret must be the note ‘F’, because it is one fret higher than the open ‘E’ string.

We can find the note in the second fret using the same method. Since we know that the note in the first fret is ‘F’ and each fret is one step in the musical alphabet, the note in the second fret must be the note ‘F♯’ or ‘G♭’ (remember ‘F♯’ and ‘G♭’ are enharmonically equivalent, which means that there is two names for the one note).

A, A♯/B♭, B, C, C♯/D♭, D, D♯/E♭, E, F, F♯/G♭, G, G♯/A♭

What about the note in the third fret? Well, since the note in the second fret is the note ‘F♯’ or ‘G♭’ we can look at the alphabet again and see that the next note will be a ‘G’

A, A♯/B♭, B, C, C♯/D♭, D, D♯/E𘁓, E, F, F♯/G♭, G, G♯/A♭

But, if you wanted to know the note on the tenth fret, it could become tedious working out every single note along the fretboard. Instead, you can just think that the tenth fret must be ten steps higher than the open ‘E’ string. Then you can quickly work out that the note at the tenth fret is the letter ‘D’.

C, C♯/D♭, D, D♯/E♭, E, F, F♯/G♭, G, G♯/A♭, A, A♯/B♭, B, C, C♯/D♭, D D♯/E♭, E, F, F♯/G♭,

Here is a diagram of the fretboard with the entire ‘e’ string worked out.

The Notes on the Thick ‘E’ String

Since the thick ‘E’ string and the thin ‘e’ string have the same letter name they share the same notes (just in different octaves). So we can just copy those notes over onto the low ‘E’ string.

The Rest of the Notes

This pdf is a simple cheat sheet, which shows the note name of every fret on every string. Of course, if you can resist using the cheat sheet, and work out all of the notes by yourself, you’ll learn the fretboard more thoroughly. But for the lazy folks out there I’ve included the cheat sheet anyway

Why Learn the Notes Anyway?

It is always helpful to be able to find the names of the notes on the guitar. Knowing the note names helps with reading standard notation, and helps with finding root notes for barre chords and other movable chords. Learning scales, chords and mastering your theory are also much easier if you can identify the notes on the neck.

The Alphabet

The musical alphabet is only seven letters long. So, ascending (getting higher in pitch) through the musical alphabet, we have: A, B, C, D, E, F and G. After the note G the alphabet simply starts again.

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C…. etc

It’s also good to know the musical alphabet in descending order (getting lower). As before, if you get all the way through the alphabet, then it simply starts again. So the alphabet in descending order is:

G, F, E, D, C, B, A, G, F, E, D, C, B, A, G, F, E… etc

On a piano or keyboard these seven letters correspond to the white keys.

Looking at the piano diagram we can see that there are also black keys, which fall between most of the white keys. These ‘in-between’ notes are known as sharps and flats.

Sharps

A sharp is a note that is one semitone/half-step higher than a ‘white note’ and is indicated by putting a hash symbol (#) after the letter name. For instance, the black key immediately higher than the note ‘A’ would be ‘A sharp’ or ‘A#’ for short.

Note that there are no black keys between the notes B and C, or E and F. This means that a ‘B#’ is really the same pitch as a ‘C’, and ‘E#’ is the same pitch as ‘F’, so although the notes B# and F# do technically/theoretically exist, they rarely occur in actuality, since it’s often easiest just to ‘re-spell’ them as ‘C’ and ‘F’ (see enharmonic equivalence, below, for a more detailed explanation).

Flats

A flat is the opposite of a sharp. Flats are notes that are one semitone/half-step lower than a ‘white note’ and are indicated by putting a lowercase ‘b’ after the letter name. For instance, the black key immediately lower than the note ‘A’ would be ‘A flat’ or ‘Ab’.

Wait a minute! Didn’t we just name all of those black keys as sharped notes!? Well, yes we did, but they can also be ‘spelt’ as ‘flats’ too. This is known as enharmonic equivalence.

Also remember that there are no black keys between the notes B and C, or E and F, which means that a ‘Cb’ has the same pitch as a ‘B’, and ‘Fb’ has the same pitch as ‘E’. Again, this ‘respelling’ of notes is known as – yep, you guessed it – enharmonic equivalence.

So maybe it’s about time we learned about enharmonic equivalence?

Enharmonic Equivalence

The term enharmonic equivalence sounds technical but is actually very simple. It means that single pitches can have multiple names.

Enharmonic equivalence is most important when learning sharps and flats, because there are many sharp notes which are enharmonically equivalent to flat notes. This means that A# and Bb are the same pitch but with two different names. Unfortunately, many students have trouble accepting these seemingly redundant ‘extra names’, and this makes future learning all the more difficult. If you can manage to ignore this ‘redundancy’, and instead just accept that notes can have two names then you’ll do fine. (By the way, I promise that there is a reason for this seemingly bizarre system, but for now please just take my word for it).

The most common enharmonic equivalent notes are:

• A# / Bb
• C# / Db
• D# / Eb
• F# / Gb
• G# / Ab

And of course some less common enharmonic equivalents:

• B# / C
• Cb / B
• E# / F
• Fb / E

Putting it All Together

Here is our basic scale with only natural notes:

A B C D E F G

We know that sharps and flats exist between each note, except for B and C, and E and F. We also know that sharps are higher than their natural note, and that flats are lower than their natural note. And finally we know that A# and Bb are the same pitch because of enharmonic equivalence. Similarly C# and Db are the same pitch, D# and Eb are the same pitch, and F# and Gb are the same pitch.

So our basic scale, with the ‘black notes’ included, becomes:

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

So we can see that although we only have seven letter-name notes in the scale, we actually have twelve pitches in the scale because of the extra sharps and flats.

Generally speaking, when we arrange the notes in ascending order, we should use the sharp names for the notes, not the flat names.

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

And when we have the notes in descending order we should use the flat names.

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

The reason we generally use flats for the descending scales is because flats are lower in pitch than the notes, which logically suits a descending scale because a descending scale gets lower in pitch. Similarly, sharps imply rising pitch which suits the ascending scale.

Sorry to drag on so long… it really was all necessary, I promise. In the next post I will apply it to the guitar fretboard.