Guitar Notes

The guitar is probably the instrument most people start music with. And it has a big advantage for learning where each note is: unlike the violin, it has frets, so each note sits in a definite place and does not depend on your ear. Here is the complete chart of the six strings across the first twelve frets, how frets work, why the same note appears in several places, and how tablature works. It helps whether you read standard notation or not.

The six strings: E, A, D, G, B, E

A guitar has six strings, and these six "open" notes (with no fret pressed) are the basis of everything else. They are numbered the opposite way from what you might expect: the 1st string is the thinnest and highest (the one nearest the floor as you play), and the 6th is the thickest and lowest (nearest your face).

Notice that the 6th and 1st strings are both E, two octaves apart. Between one string and the next there is a perfect 4th, with one exception: between the 3rd (G) and the 2nd (B) there is a major 3rd. That odd "jump" is not a whim: it makes the most common chords fall comfortably under the hand.

A classic way to remember the strings from the 6th to the 1st is the phrase "Eddie Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Eddie" (E-A-D-G-B-E). To tune it, the easiest way is a guitar tuner that gives you each string. By ear, pressing the 5th fret of a string should sound the same as the next string open (except between the 3rd and 2nd strings, where the reference is the 4th fret, because of that major 3rd).

How frets work: one half step each

Here is the big difference from the violin. On the guitar the neck is divided by frets (the metal bars). When you press a string just behind a fret, you shorten the part that vibrates and the note goes up. It goes up in a very orderly way: each fret is one half step.

That turns the neck into a kind of ruler of notes. If the open 6th string is E2:

• Fret 1 → F2 (one half step higher)
• Fret 2 → F♯2
• Fret 3 → G2
• … and so on, one half step per fret.

Since an octave is twelve half steps, at fret 12 you hear the same note as the open string, an octave higher. That is why fret 12 usually has a double marker: it is the point where the neck "repeats". After it, everything starts again.

Read it as the guitar in playing position: the 6th string (the thickest and lowest) on top and the 1st at the bottom. Each fret raises the pitch by a half step, so at fret 12 the open-string note returns an octave higher, which is why that column is marked. The frets with a dot (3, 5, 7, 9 and 12) are the ones with markers on the neck; they help you find your place without looking. Sharp notes show their flat equivalent below: F♯ and G♭ are the same key, only the spelling changes. The numbers are the octave: the E2 of the 6th string sounds two octaves below the E4 of the 1st. Careful: this is what sounds; on the score the guitar is written an octave higher.

Try it: the guitar diagram

Pick a note and the diagram marks it on a real photo of the neck and on a drawn fretboard, writes it in tablature and on the staff, and plays it. It runs from the open 6th string (E2) to fret 12 of the 1st string (E5). Because one note lives in several places on the guitar, the diagram lights up all of them at once, so you see every way to play it at a glance. To tune, use the guitar tuner.

Printable worksheet (PDF)

The same map on paper, landscape on one side of A4, to hang on the music stand or hand out in class. And a second sheet to fill in: the same grid left empty, with the open strings given, to fill in the notes one by one. The map sheet works as the answer key.

Download the fretboard map (PDF) Download the fill-in sheet (PDF)

Tablature: playing the guitar without reading standard notation

The guitar has its own notation system that needs no music reading: tablature (or "tab"). It is a direct drawing of the neck. There are six lines, one per string, but upside down compared with the staff: the top line is the 1st string (high E) and the bottom line is the 6th (low E).

e │──0──│   ← 1st string (high E)
B │──1──│
G │──0──│
D │──2──│
A │──3──│
E │─────│   ← 6th string (low E, not played)

The number written on a line says which fret to press on that string; a 0 means play it open. The example above is a C major chord. Tab tells you where to put your fingers but not the rhythm, so it is best read together with standard notation, which does show the note values.

Why the same note is on several strings

If you look at the chart you will see that almost any note appears in more than one place. E4, for example, can be played in three ways:

• The 1st string open (fret 0).
• The 5th fret of the 2nd string.
• The 9th fret of the 3rd string.

It is the same pitch, the same note, and yet it does not sound exactly the same: open, the string vibrates freely and sounds brighter (but cannot take vibrato); pressed on a thicker string it sounds rounder and warmer and does allow vibrato. This happens because the six strings overlap: each starts on a different note, so their ranges cross again and again.

So which one does a guitarist use? There is no fixed answer. It depends on:

• The chord or hand position: you choose the spot that is closest to what you play before and after.
• The phrasing: to connect a smooth melody it helps to stay on the same string; for a fast leap, change strings.
• The tone color: an open string "sings" differently from a fretted note, and sometimes that color is wanted (or avoided).
• Comfort: in a fast passage the nearest fingering wins.

That is why choosing where to play a note is not a whim: it is a musical and fingering decision. It is one of the things that confuses beginners most, and one of the reasons the guitar, though easy to start, has so much depth.

Why the guitar "sounds lower" than it reads

The guitar is an octave-transposing instrument. It is written in treble clef, but it sounds an octave lower than it appears on the page. That is why its clef often carries a small 8 below (octave treble clef).

Why is it done this way? Because the guitar is a fairly low instrument: if it were written at its real pitch, a good part of its notes would fall far below the staff (UK: stave), full of awkward ledger lines. Writing everything an octave higher fits the music comfortably on the staff. It is the same reason why the open 1st string, which sounds E4, is written as E5.

The guitar and the plucked-string family

The guitar belongs to the plucked strings: instruments whose strings are not rubbed with a bow (as on the violin) but plucked with the fingers or a pick. It is a huge family spread all over the world: the electric bass (four strings tuned like the four lowest strings of the guitar, but an octave lower), the electric guitar, the harp, the bandurria and the lute of Spanish folk ensembles, or the ukulele. They all share the idea of frets or open strings, each with its own tuning.

What about the electric guitar?

Good news: the notes are exactly the same. The electric guitar has six strings with the same standard tuning (E2-A2-D3-G3-B3-E4), the same half-step frets and the same tablature. Everything on this page (where each note falls, why it repeats on several strings, the octave transposition) applies just the same to the electric. What changes is not where the notes are but how they sound: instead of a resonating body, pickups sense the string's vibration and send it to an amplifier.

The few differences that do affect the notes are about reach, not about the system:

• More frets. Many electric guitars have 22 or 24 frets (against about 19 on a classical guitar), so they reach higher notes on each string.
• Alternate tunings. In rock and metal it is very common to lower the tuning: Drop D (the 6th string from E down to D), a half step down, a whole step down… They change the pitch of the open strings, but the logic of the neck stays the same.

In other words: if you learn the notes on an acoustic or classical guitar, you already know the electric. The sound and the style change, not the map of the fretboard.

Common mistakes when learning guitar notes

• Numbering the strings backwards. The 1st is the thinnest (highest), not the thickest. The 6th is the thick (low) one.
• Believing the guitar sounds as it reads. It sounds an octave below what is written; it is an octave-transposing instrument.
• Thinking each note is in only one place. Almost all are in several, and they do not sound the same: the color and the comfort change.
• Forgetting the "jump" between the 3rd and 2nd strings. There the tuning is a major 3rd, not a 4th; that is why when tuning by ear you use the 4th fret and not the 5th.

Summary

• The guitar has six strings (E2, A2, D3, G3, B3, E4) tuned in 4ths, with a major 3rd between the 3rd and 2nd strings.
• It has frets: each fret raises the pitch a half step, and at fret 12 the open-string note repeats an octave higher.
• You can read it in tablature (six lines, one number per fret) with no need for standard notation, or in standard notation.
• The same note appears in several places, and each one has its own color and fingering.
• It transposes: it is written in treble clef but sounds an octave lower.