Your first guitar lesson – Part 3

<—— See Part 2

Here is the Chromatic Scale with Flats added.

Learning the Flats and Sharps on Guitar Neck

Why are there Sharps and Flats on the same notes of the scale?

On a higher music theory level, there are several reasons for this.

But generally speaking, when traveling from a low note to a higher note, guitar players use the term Sharp, or ♯

And Generally speaking, when traveling from a higher note to a lower note, guitar players use the term Flat, or ♭

TIP 1: Think of a sharp as mountain peak = climbing up ♯

TIP 2: Think of a flat, like a flat tire = going down ♭

Below you can see how notes relate to each other on Guitar and Piano when it comes to the Chromatic scale, Octaves and Sharps and Flats.

Piano-Octave-Sharps-Flats

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT OCTAVES
In the piano image above, the diagram refers to the note names C & C as being an octave apart. On guitar, an “Octave” is the the same note played either 12 frets higher or lower than any given note. It also can be found on other strings… but that’s a different lesson.

eg.

  • The octave of G would be 12 frets higher and would also be called G.
  • The Octave is the same note, and is where the whole chromatic scale starts over again.

Guitar Lessons Questions and AnswersQUIZ TIME:

  • If I asked you to play the first fret on the Low E string, what Note name would that be?
  • If I asked you to play the seventh fret on the G string, what Note name would that be?
  • If I asked you to play the first fret on the High e string, what Note name would that be?

    So, now that you understand the string names (Elephants and Dogs Got Big Ears), and you know the Chromatic Scale, it should be easy to figure out the name of any note on the guitar. Therefore there is no need to memorize all of the notes on your guitar. With the knowledge you’ve learned in these first three lessons, this will come automatically with time.

    Here’s the order of the notes on each string just for reference.
    E/F/F#/G/G#/A/A#/B/C/C#/D/D#
    A/A#/B/C/C#/D/D#/E/F/F#/G/G#/
    D/D#/E/F/F#/G/G#/A/A#/B/C/C#/
    G/G#/A/A#/B/C/C#/D/D#/E/F/F#/
    B/C/C#/D/D#/E/F/F#/G/G#/A/A#/
    e/F/F#/G/G#/A/A#/B/C/C#/D/D#

    HOMEWORK FUNWORK:
    Work on memorizing

    • String Names E, A, D, G, B, E.
    • The Chromatic Scale
    • Point to a random fret on guitar, and see how long it takes you to name the note

    EXTRA INFO:

    TIP:
    Because of webpage formatting, you’ll often see Flats written as a lower letter “b”.
    Example: D♭ = Db
    Same thing with Sharp
    Example: D♯ = D#

    Great work!
    Next you should learn to hold a pick and try out some basic guitar chords.