1. How To Figure Out Where Frets Go Back

Can we just be honest with each other for a minute? There are a TON of notes on the guitar fretboard, and trying to learn them all can be kind of a headache.

For me, I don't - they feel like railroad ties under my fingers, and get in the way. Of course, much of the music I like was made on guitars from the 50s and 60s that had smaller frets, so go figure. Play what you like, man, but do you really need to describe folks who have different tastes as you do as 'twats'?

Now, I know it's easy enough to just pull up a note chart of your fretboard when you need one, but what if you didn't have to? What if you just knew where every note was without having to look them up anymore?

1. I'm not going to go into the deeper realms of music theory, I'm just going to give you a simple and very effective tool. So let's say you have to figure out which one of the three scale tools you can use to play a solo. Here are the two things you must figure out: 1. What key you're in.
2. I will finish this month’s installment with a quick thought regarding frets. Many years ago, I was getting one of my Stratocasters worked on by a really great repairman. He was watching me play for more than a few minutes. I couldn’t figure out why until he asked me if I could hand him my guitar.

Well, what if I also told you it's really not that hard to learn all those notes, and you could probably even do it in under an hour when I show you how?

Sound good? Well then, let's get started.

More..

Whoa! Hold up!

This post is super long, and very detailed! If you're not quite ready to commit to all that, I can always send you the 'condensed version'. Just tell me where to send it, and it's all yours.

The biggest things that got 'cut out' for the condensed version are:

• String names
• Enharmonic equivalents (F#=Gb)
• The best method to remembering the notes

How To Figure Out Where Frets Go Back

• What and octave is and how to play them
• And a whole lot of detail every step of the way

If you're not worried about any of those things, then feel free to just grab the condensed version of this post.

Otherwise, keep reading because you're going to be really surprised at how easily you're going to learn all the notes on your guitar fretboard!

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'Starting Points' is a short guide designed to help you go deeper into the art and smarts of music and guitar playing. You'll learn things like how to start learning to play by ear, how to level up your playing ability quickly and efficiently, and how to play faster than you are currently.

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First, before we get started, I just want to say a couple things.

1. Even though there is kind of a 'magic formula', or 'secret' behind learning all the notes on your guitar (as we'll see here shortly), you still have to put in the work. That means, taking what you learn here and actually practicing it on your own. But I'm sure you already knew that.
2. This is a long post, guys. Like, seriously.

Depending on your experience, you may even have to refer to it a couple of times to get it all, and that's simply because there is a TON of information in this post.

I tried really hard cut down the word count while still keeping it interesting for everyone, but the truth is, everyone reading this post is at different experience levels. So if you find a section in here you already know about, feel free to skip ahead.

This post is meant to help EVERYONE learn EVERY NOTE on their guitar so they don't ever have to refer back to one of those annoying fretboard charts again.

I want you to be done with fretboard charts forever! But that takes some prep work on your part that, depending on your experience, you may or may not have already done. This post makes sure everyone is on the same page.

Alright, so anyway, let's get started by taking a look at one of those super overwhelming fretboard chart things..

That just screams, 'give up,' right?

Well, part of the problem with guitar is the layout of notes are nothing like any other instrument. For example, on piano, the notes are laid out left to right.

But not guitar!

On the guitar, they are not only laid out left to right, but also up and down. There are even repeat notes all over the place! In fact, with 6 strings and 24 frets, the guitar has 144 notes to learn!

No wonder it seems so hard to learn all those notes!

In fact, guitarists are one of the only groups of musicians who usually never 'get around' to learning all the notes they have! But really, Can you blame them? I mean, look at all those notes!

But for real, can you imagine someone who plays piano not knowing where like a D note is? Or an F or G? What about someone who plays flute, or trumpet, or any other instrument?

Thinking about it like that makes it seem kind of silly that most of us guitarists don't know our own notes, right? Maybe left behind, or held back a little bit?

I'd say it's time we open up that fretboard for you!

To make learning easier, faster, and more efficient, we're only going to learn 'natural' notes in this post. That means we won't be looking at sharp (#) or flat (b) notes. Just A B C D E F and G. Instead, I'll let you fill in the gaps for notes like F# (F sharp) and Ab (A flat).

Don't worry, it's not hard and I'll show you how. But for now, I'll just give you the quick crash course on them in case you need it. If not, feel free to skip ahead to the next section.

'Sharp' simply means to raise by one. So F# just means you find any F note, and raise it up by one note. Pretty easy, right?

'Flat' means the opposite. To lower by one. So to make a Gb, you would simply find a G note and lower it by one. Awesome!

F# and Gb are the same note! This is what's known as an 'Enharmonic Spelling.'

It's a super important concept to understand because, well, why isn't it just always called F#? Why is it also called Gb?!

That's kind of a bigger subject than we can get into right now and really a topic for another day. Just know that it has something to do with the 'key' the song is in, which is another way of saying the context of notes being used for the song.

Let's just leave it at that for now so we can get on to your fretboard notes.

So for now, just know that when you need to find something like an F# or Bb on your guitar, just look for the 'natural' note first (F and B respectively), and move up or down one fret (..respectively).

Okay, I'm not going to spend a ton of time here, especially since you probably already know your guitar string names at this point in your playing. However, if you don't, I have a post right here that teaches you an easy way to learn them all.

Go check that out if you need to, and then come back when you're ready.

The first real step in learning all your notes is to learn the first five frets of each string. This is the foundation of everything else we will cover here shortly.

Remember me saying you would need to put in some work? Well, this is it right here.

Once you make it past these first steps, it's pretty smooth sailing. But, just a heads up, this part will definitely take you the longest.

Let's take a look at our now-simplified fretboard chart down below. I've taken away all the distractions of notes that don't matter for our current step so we can focus only on the first 5 frets of the Low E String (the 6th, or thickest string).

The first thing I want you to do is play your open E String, let it ring out and think to yourself, or even better yet, say the name out loud, 'E.'

Then play your first fret, let it ring out and say, 'F.'

Play your 3rd fret, let it ring out and say, 'G.'

Then play your 5th fret, let it ring out and say, 'A.'

Make sure you go slowly on these. Don't try to rush through this just so you can get done with it faster. Patience will absolutely pay off here.

We'll call this our 'Note Learning Round' for future reference, and because it's just such a fancy name.

Now do that 'Note Learning Round' one more time. Twice should be enough, but always feel free to slow the pace down, soak it in, and do it 3 or more times. You'll only be benefiting yourself by not rushing through it.

Next, we want to solidify what we just taught ourselves by doing a little 'pop-quiz'.

I'll admit, it's kind of hard to do this by yourself, but just try asking yourself in random order where each of those notes are. Then answer yourself by playing the note, and checking your answer.

Like this:

1. Ask yourself, 'Where is the G note?' .. you think about it for a second then play the 3rd fret, and look at the chart above to see if you got it right. Hey! You did! Great job!
2. Then ask for a different note, play it, and check your answer. Simple as that. ​
3. Repeat this process until you've gone through all 4 notes on this string several times. Usually after about 3 full cycles you'll have it memorized.

Checking yourself is going to be the hardest part. Just try not to cheat by looking at the other notes while you check your answer .

THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT!

If you get an answer wrong, don't just fly past it! Take the time to actually correct it. I'll explain how.

Let's say you ask yourself where an F is and you play a G note.

When you check your answer and see that it's actually a G and not an F, correct yourself by:

1. Saying the right name for the note you got wrong, 'G.'
2. Then move down to the F (the note you asked yourself to find), play the F, and say, 'This is F.'
3. Move back to G (the one you got wrong), play it, and say, 'This is G.'

You always want to correct your wrong answer by going back, playing what you thought it was,acknowledging you got it wrong, playing and saying what it really is, then going back to the question and getting it right.

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This technique of correcting yourself in this way is so powerful!

So for the quiz part, go through about 3 cycles (or until you feel like you got it) of these 4 notes in random order. You'll know when you got it.

Just don't move on until you feel confident because as we add more and more notes, it's going to get harder and harder to remember what you've learned unless you have it down solid.

Next, we're going to do the exact same thing for the A String.

You have an Open String A

2nd fret B

3rd fret C

and 5th fret D

Oh, and by the way, that 5th fret A note you were learning on the Low E string, that's the same A you have now as an open string here. Let the duplicate note games begin!

Also a quick side note here. The 'C' note that you just played is 'technically' known 'by it's sound' as 'Middle C'.

Now that's a lot of qoutation marks, but I'll explain why haha.

Middle C (a very popular and well known reference point/note in the music world) is known as the pitch 'C4' in the technical and scientific world of music. That simply means it's the 4th C that we can play on a full range piano.

Anyway, if you were to play 'Middle C' on a piano, it would sound like this 3rd fret on the A string.

However, and this is where it can get a bit confusing, the guitar is a 'transposed' instrument, meaning it sounds different than it's written. An entire octave to be exact.

So if you ever see a 'Middle C' on some sheet music, most people will play that as a 1st fret on the B string, and not how it sounds compared to a piano, which is this 3rd fret on A.

Confused? Yeah, me too. haha

Anyway, do a couple of 'note learning rounds' playing each note on your A string, including playing the open string, while saying each note out loud. This really helps connect the note to the fret for your brain.

Once you do that, give yourself another mini quiz, going through all 4 notes in random order until you feel comfortable moving on.

Remember, this is the worst part of learning your strings. once you get past these 5 frets of each string, you will learn a tool that will help you instantly know the rest of the fretboard!

The Low E and A strings are such a fundamental set of strings to learn the notes on. Like, if you just gave up here, (don't do that) you would actually be in a pretty decent place believe it or not.

When you get to 'Bar Chords' and even 'Power Chords', you're using the information you just learned to place your chord structure on the right note.

But that's confusing to talk about if you're not there yet, so let's move on!

He is a past recipient of the ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Achievement Award. He was elected as a Fellow of the Association for Computing (ACM) in 1997, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2001, and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) in 2015. Readings in information visualization: using vision to think pdf converter. In computer science from Stanford University and is a member of the editorial board of ACM Transactions on Computer Human Interaction.Ben Shneiderman is a professor in the Department of Computer Science and founding director of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory at the University of Maryland. He received a Ph.D. Mackinlayis a member of the User Interface Research Group at Xerox PARC, where he has been developing 3D user interfaces for information visualization for over a decade.

Since these two strings are so important, let's really make sure you have them down 100%

Go ahead and do another mini quiz, but this time, check both the Low E and A String together. Also, don't forget to check for both A notes (the 5th fret on E, and the open string!)

Okay, so this is where things are going to start getting a little more interesting.

If you know anything about octaves, then you're one step ahead of the game already. If not, check out this post about octaves on guitar if you want. If not, here's the crash course version of how to make an octave on guitar.

Basically an octave is a jump of 8 (oct) scale notes, or 12 half steps (frets).

So, like in the picture above, to get to the next higher E note from Low E, move up two strings, and up 2 frets.

Using this knowledge, we're going to figure out the next set of notes on our D string.

See how the 5th fret G is 2 strings and 2 frets higher than the G we learned on the Low E? The same is also true of the F note and E note.

So now let's do a couple 'note learning rounds' for the D string.

Open String D (same D note as 5th fret on your A string, btw.)

2nd fret E

3rd fret F

and 5th fret G.

When you're feeling confident in those 4 new notes, do a little mini quiz and move on only when your ready.

We're starting to get quite the list of notes going, so don't rush yourself! If you need to take a break at any point and come back later, do it. There's nothing worse than brain overload!

Alright. Just like last time, were going to use octaves to learn the A, B, and C notes on your G string.

And you guessed it, more rounds and mini quizzes.

Open string G (same G note as the 5th fret on your D string)

2nd fret A

4th fret B

5th fret C.

The good news is that were almost done with the worst part. Just a few more steps and you will know every note on your guitar!

Sadly, there is no fancy trick to learning the B string. You just have to learn it for what it is, kind of like the Low E and A strings. But we're almost done now, I promise!

Open B string (same B note as 4th fret on your G string)

1st fret C

3rd fret D

5th fret E.

Rounds and mini quiz. Hit it.

By the way, the C note on this string is the real Middle C on guitar.

We finally made it to the last string and now I have some good news for you!

Did you notice how we have two E strings? A High E, and a Low E?

Well, I'm happy to say that you already know all the notes on your High E string because they are all in the exact same place as the notes on your Low E string. #BOOM

The next step to unlocking your fretboard is to expand up to the 12th fret on the bottom two strings, the Low E and A strings. These are the only 2 strings we'll be doing this for, btw.

This shouldn't be too hard because they are basically just copies of the next higher string, just moved up by 5 frets. What I mean by that is this:

Remember how the 5th fret, A, on your Low E string was the same A that you get by playing your A string open? Well, check this out..

The pattern of notes is the same no matter what string you're on.

A 'B' note will always be 2 frets higher than an 'A' note. 'C' will always be one fret higher than 'B'. Check out the B and C note pattern on the A, G, and B string to see what I mean.

This should really help you in learning the pattern of note flow. So whether you want to just learn it for what it is with no crutches, or if you want to think of your 5th fret Low E like as basically a copy of an open string A and count up that way, it's totally up to you.

Also check out that 12th fret. Remember those octaves from before? We finally made it to our 12 half steps/frets cycle. No matter what string you're on, the 12th fret is an octave of the open note. Finally, an easy one, right?!

I would suggest one last 'note learning round' of the notes on your Low E and A strings from the 5th to 12 frets, and a mini quiz.

And, believe it or not, in theory you already know all the notes on your guitar fretboard now. You just don't know how to unlock them yet, which is exactly what we're going to talk about next, so make sure you know everything we've discussed so far before moving on!

Remember, it's all about building foundations to stack new knowledge on. If your understanding up to this point is weak, it's really going to show through in this last step.

Man, it feels good to be on this step, doesn't it? Our last step!

Ok, so I said earlier that if you've made it this far, you already know all the notes on your guitar, you just don't know how to unlock them yet. To prove my point, I'll give you a couple examples..and the key to unlocking them.

• What note is your 7th fret on your G string? Can you figure it out?

The secret is to use the tool you've already been using. Octaves!

So far, we've only been going up by octaves, but now we need to go down by octaves in order to reverse engineer and get back to a point we already know.

So, how do you figure out this note? Move down 2 frets, and down 2 strings! What note was it?

It's a D! Let's do a few more before I give you the slightly bad news about this method.

Okay. How about this one? 10th fret on your D string?

Well, moving down 2 frets and down 2 strings, we land on.. C!

Let's try one that's a little bit more tricky..

11th fret on your G string.

First, let's do what we know best and move down 2 frets, and down 2 strings to.. a blank spot!

Ok, don't panic! We knew we would get to a note like this eventually!

Do you remember what we said about these, 'non-natural' notes? The notes that had. sharps and flats on them?

Well, if we did our little octave move, it should have put us on the 9th fret of the A string, right in between the F and the G.

If you remember, sharp meant to move up by one, and flat meant to go down by one. So that means this question actually has two answers. It could be an F# (F sharp) because it's one step higher than F, or a Gb (G flat) because it's one step lower than G.

And again, the name that you would go with depends on the song and context of the other notes you're playing in that song. So for us right now, we can call it either 'F# or Gb' because we have no context.

A really quick side note here is that because of the way your guitar is tuned, meaning the EADGBE (or 'Standard') way of tuning your strings, the octave pattern of up 2, over 2, doesn't work on every string.

If you look again at the fretboard chart...

You'll see that up 2 over 2 works for the lowest two strings, Low E and A.

The 1st fret F note on Low E is an octave higher on the 3rd fret D string. Exactly like we learned.

2nd fret B on the A string is also on the 4th fret G string. Same thing. However..

2nd fret E on the D string IS NOT 4th fret B. It's on the 5th fret. Why?

Because of the way guitars are tuned. It's just a part of the instrument. The same is true for the G and High E string octave pattern. You'll have to do an up 2 strings, up 3 frets jump in order to get your octaves on these strings. Not a big deal, just remembering it will be the hardest part.

Ok! One last tricky example and then we'll wrap up!

10th fret, B string.

First step: We're on the B string so our 2 down 2 back pattern is not going to work. We need 2 strings down, 3 frets back. Where does that put us?

7th fret, D string. A blank spot.

This example is going to need a double octave move!

Ok, 7th fret, D string? D string is safe for our 2 by 2 move, so let's do that.

Down 2 strings, back 2 frets.

It's an A! Whew!

Sometimes, we will actually need a double octave jump like this. The cool thing is that the more you are consciously learning your notes like this, the less you will need these octaves as a crutch and you will just start learning them for what they are.

The very last thing I want to talk about is beyond the 12th fret. Like, what note is your 13th fret on the Low E?

Well, funny thing. We're still going to be using octaves here.

You see, music notes are nothing but loops and loops of the same 12 notes.

Speaking of 12 notes, remember how the 12th fret was an octave of your open string? So, if the 12th fret of your Low E string is an an E note, wouldn't that make your 13th fret (1 fret higher) be just like your 1st fret? And isn't your 1st fret an F? I believe it was

So to break it down, anytime you have a note beyond your 12th fret, just imagine that your 12th fret is like your open string.

The 19th fret on your D string is like the 7th fret, right? Minus the 12 fret octave? And using the reversed octave pattern to move 2 strings lower and 2 frets lower would put you at a 5th fret on Low E, which was an A note.

See? It all just works its way back down to lower strings. That's why it's so important to learn the Low E and A strings. The idea is to keep breaking unknown notes down by octaves until it lands in a spot you do know.

Guys, that was a long post. Believe me, I know. But I truly hope it has given you everything you need to know to be able to fully unlock your guitar fretboard and access every note on your guitar.

Learning anything is tough. It takes time, patience and practice. But even the biggest challenges can be broken down into smaller bite sized chunks so that they are easier to digest and learn.

Don't forget to try the quiz down below to see how much you learned from this post! Your results are only visible to you, so take it as many times as you want until you feel like you get it.

And thanks for reading guys, it means the world to me that you came here.