This video lesson shows you the universal note pattern as well as one of the exercise from my free e-book “How To Learn All The Notes On The Guitar Fretboard”. This video can be viewed in HD. If you like this video please spread the word by pressing the ‘Like’ button at the top of the post. Thank you!
To download the accompanying e-book go here: How To Learn All The Notes On The Guitar Fretboard.
Download the accompanying e-book for this lesson here.
I admit that when I first started playing guitar I was intimidated by the amount of notes on the guitar fretboard. I thought I would never be able to remember them all. After all, a guitar with 24 frets will have 144 different note locations to remember. Luckily I found out that there are really simple ways to to memorize all the notes on a guitar fretboard within a couple of days… if you know the right way to go about it.
First of all we can cut the number of positions that need to be remembered in half because the guitar fretboard repeats after the 12th fret (the first 12 frets are an octave, the next 12 are the octave above it). The notes appear in the exact same order from the 12th to the 24th fret as they do from the 1st to the 12th. This means there are now only 72 note locations to remember.
In total there are 12 different notes in western music, these are: C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, G#/, A, A#/Bb and B. As you can see the #’s and b’s (sharps and flats) lie between the notes C and D, D and E, F and G, G and A, A and B. So we can now cut the number of notes we need to learn down to just 42 because we will automatically see the sharps and flats appear between the other notes once we’ve memorized the positions of C, D, E, F, G and A.
Now find an image of all the notes on the fretboard (you can find one in the free e-book that you get when you join the Guitar Theory Revolution newsletter) and find the universal note pattern that every note follows. Between the 1st and 12th fret each note appears once on each of the six strings. If you take the start of the pattern to be the notes appearing on the low and high E string then you’ll see the pattern repeat over and over for each note.
Learning this note pattern is probably the quickest way to learn all the notes on the guitar fretboard, although there are others. For example if you know the circle of fifths and fourths then you’ll easily be able to find all the notes because the strings on the guitar are tuned in fifths. The circle of fourths and fifths will be covered in future articles and lessons.
As I mentioned earlier it is best to focus on the notes C, D, E, F, G, A and B first because that way you’ll automatically start seeing the sharps and flats between them. In addition you should always sing the notes that you are playing in order to improve your ability to recognize notes by ear.
Finally make sure you learn the locations of the notes without reference to other notes. Although it’s helpful in the beginning it’s not good to keep doing this as it will slow you down because you’ll always be checking where other notes are before you can find the one you really want.
To memorize all the notes in the proper way check out the exercises and diagrams in the free e-book How To Learn All The Notes On The Guitar Fretboard which you can download when you sign up for the Guitar Theory Revolution newsletter.
Many people put off learning all the notes on the guitar fretboard because it can seem like an overwhelming amount to memorize. This article will show you why you need to learn all the notes on a guitar. You’ll also be told about the universal note pattern that every single note shares that makes learning all the notes incredibly easy.
1. You’ll understand which notes make up a chord in a particular chord
When you can see all the note names across the fretboard you’ll instantly see which notes feature in the chords you are using. This is one of the best ways to get started with music theory for guitar because you’ll quickly memorize the notes in the standard chords that you use all the time.
2. You’ll be able to play chords all over the neck
Most people are stuck with playing the same old chords in the same old open positions. I’m talking about the the chords C, D, E, F, G and A. Some people progress a little beyond that and are able to play bar-chords. But did you know that any chord has 5 easy to play variations you can play in stead of the the standard open positions? You’ll see these chord variations appear all over the neck once you’ve memorized all the notes.
3. You’ll get better at soloing and improvising
When you know all the notes on the guitar you’ll instantly become better at soloing and improvising . You won’t ever be afraid of hitting a bum note again because you won’t be blindly flailing around on the fretboard. Don’t be one of those people that kids themselves that they can play only by ear. Don’t get me wrong, playing by ear is the essence of music but most people haven’t done any ear training and can only hear bad notes when it’s too late, after they’ve played them.
This also helps you avoid getting trapped in the dreaded ‘scale boxes’ because you see scales as a collection of notes rather than patterns.
4. Better communication with other musicians
I’ve found it much easier to communicate with other musicians while jamming and improvising now that I know all the note names on the guitar. I can tell people which notes are in my riffs and chords making it a lot less confusing than naming string and fret numbers.
5. More confidence while performing
I’ve noticed that since I’ve learned all the note positions that I’m a lot more confident while performing in front of people. I still make the occasional mistake but now I know the names of those mistakes and can investigate why it didn’t sound right (or why it sounded good, some mistakes can be positive after all) by analyzing how it fits into the overall piece of music. Doing this kind of theoretical analysis is much easier now that I know all the note names.
The Universal Note Pattern
The big trick (that not many people know about) that will make learning all the notes easy is knowing the universal note pattern. It’s a pattern that all notes share and is easy to see when you look at an image of the notes on the fretboard. It shows how within any 12 fret range a single note appears 6 times and only once on each string.
If you want to see an image of the pattern be sure to sign up for the Guitar Theory Revolution newsletter so you can download the free e-book: How To Learn All The Notes On The Guitar Fretboard.
Note: It is not strictly necessary to follow this numbering method in order to follow my other lessons. You can skip this lesson if you want and the rest of the lessons will still make sense.
One of the things that always bugged me when I first started playing the guitar was how the guitar strings are numbered. In case you don’t know the conventional order that guitar strings are counted in is: low E = 6, A = 5, D = 4, G = 3, B = 2 and high E = 1. But I can’t find any good reason for why it is done in this way. It is confusing and counter intuitive yet everyone just goes along with it since that’s always the way it has been done.
That’s just not good enough for me and that’s why here at GTR all lessons and resources count the strings in the following way:
Low E = 1, A = 2, D = 3, G = 4, B = 5 and High E = 6.
Now is a good time to memorise the note names of the strings if you don’t already know them. You can use the following sentence to remember them easily:
Elephants And Donkeys Grow Big Ears.
I know that everyone else counts in the other way but it wouldn’t be much of a guitar theory revolution if I did things in the same old ways. But I’m not doing this just to be difficult or different. There are several reason for why I think this is a better way of doing it.
First of all, in all other areas of music a lower pitch is given the lower number. This is the case with both scales and chords for example. Next, the strings that you hit first when strumming or on which scales tend to start are those closest to your face when holding the guitar. It only makes sense to start counting at strings that are closest to you.
Lastly, the fingers on both hands are usually numbered 1 to 4 from the index finger to the little finger when indicating where to place your fingers on the fretboard and when plucking strings with your strumming / plucking hand. In both cases the lower numbered fingers are touching the lower numbered strings the majority of the time.
Remember that the main inspiration behind this site is to clear away all the stupid and silly conventional ways of teaching and learning music theory for the guitar. I’ve been playing guitar for more than a decade and I can’t tell you how confused I was when I first started. I didn’t realize that some of the standard ways in which things are presented just aren’t that good. It’s no wonder so many people get confused and give up on learning music theory.
On this site I challenge some very basic assumption and question the dogma presented by so many guitar players and teachers. I encourage you to adopt this numbering method and spread it amongst your guitar playing friends so we can make learning to play the guitar easier for everyone.