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Learning the fretboard note names


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I started by learning the names of the open strings (which automatically teaches you the names of the 12th fret notes) - and then I learned the fifth fret names, because except on string 3, the 5th fret names are the same as the next string down.

 

6 open or 12th = E.....6 fret 5 = A

5 open or 12th = A.....5 fret 5 = D

4 open or 12th = D.....4 fret 5 = G

3 open or 12th = G.....3 fret 4 = B

2 open or 12th = B.....2 fret 5 = B

1 open or 12th = E.....1 fret 5 = A

 

Once you learn those, it's a case of:

E + 1 fret is always F..............F - 1 fret is always E

E + 2 frets is always F#/Gb....F# - 2 frets is always E

 

F + 1 fret is always F#/Gb.....F# - 1 fret is always F

F + 2 frets is always G...........G - 2 frets is always F

 

G + 1 fret is always G#/Ab....G# - 1 fret is always G

G + 2 frets is always A...........A - 2 frets is always G

 

ETC.

 

A to B, C to D, D to E, F to G, and G to A = always a 2 fret distance.

 

E to F, B to C = always a 1 fret distance

 

There's no E#/Fb between E and F....and there's no B#/Cb between B and C.

 

Otherwise there's anote between F and G with two names: F# and Gb.

There's a note between G and A with two names: G# and Ab

between A and B = A#/Bb

between C and D = C#/Db

 

ETC.

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Posted

I teach it this way, or at least this is what I recommend. BTW learning the notes is essential to playing.

First, you should learn the chromatic scale by itself:
C-C#-D-D#-E-F-F#-G-G#-A-A#-B-C
I say, all notes have a sharp except for B (next note C) and E (next note F). Write this down or whatever it takes to learn this.

Next, I also say to learn the open strings (Note that it's only 5 notes, the E's repeat).

Next, I say start every practice session by taking one of the strings, and picking/naming the notes from the open string to the octave fret. Like today, I'm using the D string. So I pick the open D and say "D", then fret the first note, "D#", fret the second note, "E", etc.

The next exercise to work into this routine, is finding and naming all E's or D's or G's, etc, all over the fretboard. Like today, I will find all A's, including the open string. Don't forget to go past the octave fret. I usually only do this for the natural notes (not the sharps/flats) since I can find them if I know the natural notes.

Learning it is not that hard because:
1. There's only 12 notes
2. The E strings are identical.
3. The patterns repeat past the octave.

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