Notes on the guitar fretboard

Seven letters, twelve frets

Music uses seven letters, A B C D E F G, and then starts again. On the guitar most of them are two frets apart, with a sharp or flat in the fret between. Two pairs have nothing between them: B to C and E to F are one fret apart (the glowing notes). Learn that, and you can walk to any note from the open string. Here is the low E string from open to the 12th fret, where it starts again.

▶ The natural notes up the string▶ Every fret

Next: On the neck →

The notes on the neck

Start with the two lowest strings, low E and A: the roots of most barre chords and power chords sit on them, so these are the notes you will use first. Then add the rest.

The landmarks

The frets with dots on the neck, plus the 8th and 10th, on the two low strings. Learn these ten and every other note is a fret or two away.

Three things that make it smaller

• The 12th fret is the open string again. Everything from the 12th fret up repeats the neck from the nut, an octave higher. Learn frets 0 to 11 and you know them all.
• The two E strings are the same. The high E string has the same notes on the same frets as the low E, two octaves up. Learn one and you have two.
• The 5th fret is the next open string. The 5th fret of each string is the note of the open string above it (the 4th fret on the G string, because the B string is tuned a fret lower). That is how you tune by ear, and how you check a note on the next string.
• Sharps and flats have two names. The fret between F and G is F♯ or G♭; which name you use depends on the key. A sharp is one fret up, a flat one fret down.

Next: Octave shapes →

Octave shapes: any note, anywhere

Every note appears five or six times between the nut and the 12th fret. You don’t need to remember them all: from any one of them, an octave shape takes you to the next. Pick a note and see it everywhere, then the shapes that join them up.

▶ Every G, low to high

The same shapes move a barre chord or a scale to its key: find the root on the low E or A string, and the shape tells you where it is again higher up. These are the octave shapes the other systems hang on.

Next: The game →

Find the note

One minute. A note and a string come up; press the fret where it is (on the neck, or the fret number below it). Start with the low E and A strings and the natural notes, and add the rest when you can find twenty in a minute. Your best for each setting is kept in this browser, so you can see it climb.