The first seven letters of the alphabet are used to notate music, that is, A B C D E F G. In between certain notes there are extra notes called sharps, shown by a #, and flats, shown here by a lower case b. Once the G note is reached, you start at A again.
The sharp of the lower note in an adjacent pair is exactly the same note in pitch as the flat of the upper note in the adjacent pair. Two pairs of adjacent notes do not have any sharps or flats between them - B & C, and E & F. Perhaps a little table will help enforce this information, 'cos reading that back made my brain hurt!
Note Name |
Narrative |
Example Fret on A string |
A |
Our starting note |
Open string (no note fretted) |
A# = Bb |
The 1 note between A & B |
1st fret |
B |
|
2nd fret |
C |
No # or b between B & C |
3rd fret |
C# = Db |
The 1 note between C & D |
4th fret |
D |
|
5th fret |
D# = Eb |
The 1 note between D & E |
6th fret |
E |
|
7th fret |
F |
No # or b between E & F |
8th fret |
F# = Gb |
The 1 note between F & G |
9th fret |
G |
|
10th fret |
G# = Ab |
The 1 note between G & A |
11th fret |
A |
This A note is one octave higher than the first A note |
12th fret |
The distance, or interval, between each of the notes above is called a semitone, or halfstep, or halfnote. The interval of 2 semitones is called a tone, or a whole tone, or a whole note. And yes, you may have guessed it - each fret on a guitar represents a semitone! Simple, ain't it? :-)
The standard six stringed guitar has its strings pitched (when tuned properly!) at certain notes. The top string (the thinnest one) is the E string. Its pitch is simply set at the note of E. The next thinnest string is the B string, which is pitched at 5 semitones lower than the top E. The next thinnest is usually the last unwound string, or on certain acoustic guitars it's the first wound string, and its pitch is G, which is 4 semitones lower than the pitch of the B string. Next we have the D string, 5 semitones lower than G, the A string which is 5 semitones lower than the D string, and finally the thickest string is the bottom E string, which is 5 semitones lower than the A string, and 2 octaves lower than the top E string.
Well that's about it for this lesson, below there's a table showing the six strings on the standard six stringed guitar, and the notes on the first five frets of each string. If you don't know how to tune your guitar by using relative pitch, then you will after memorizing this table as it shows the relationship between each of the six strings. I've made the common tuning notes bold and underlined them for ease of identification.
Happy tuning & I'll see you in Lesson Two!
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