Lead Guitar Tactics. Learning The Notes On The Guitar. By Bob Murnahan

Lead Guitar Tactics Learning The Notes On The Guitar By Bob Murnahan In this report I want to outline a process that will enable you to learn the n...
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Lead Guitar Tactics Learning The Notes On The Guitar

By Bob Murnahan

In this report I want to outline a process that will enable you to learn the names of all the notes on the guitar in a short period of time. While is may seem like a giant task, there are a couple of tricks that you can use to make it a lot easier. If fact, it only requires a bit of memorization and the use of 2 simple shapes so lets get right to it.

Learn The Fifth And Sixth String First To get the ball rolling lets start by memorizing the notes on the sixth string. We will use a simple mnemonic device to help with the process. This is actually based on a old advertising campaign for E. F. Hutton. There uses to be commercials with the catch phrase, “ When E.F. Hutton talks, everybody listens.” So, I came up with E.F. GAB to help my students learn the names of the notes on the sixth string. Take a look at the picture below.

E

F

G

A

B

Here you can see E.F. GAB in action. The sixth string open is the note E. The first fret is F and the third, fifth and seventh frets are G, A and B respectively. Now these last three just happen to coincide with the dots or position markers on the fretboard. As you can see, this makes this set of notes very easy to memorize. To round out the notes on the sixth string is also a no brainer. Once again take a look at the picture below.

C

D

E

The C is located in the eighth fret, one fret up from the B and is in a fret with no dot or marker. Likewise, the D is in the tenth fret which is also without a position marker. We then arrive back at E (up one octave) at the twelfth fret and this fret is always marked with two dots or position marker of some kind.

So there you have it, all of the natural notes laid out for you on the sixth string. Now all we have to do is go back and fill in the sharps and flats. We will do that in a moment, but first let me talk for a second about the chromatic scale. The chromatic scale is simply all of the notes that we have available to us in western music. To play the chromatic scale all you have to do is play up or down the neck one fret at a time on the same string. Here are the notes of the chromatic scale laid out for you starting on A. 1 A

2 A# Bb

3 B

4 C

5 C# Db

6 D

7 D# Eb

8 E

9 F

10 F# Gb

11 G

12 G# Ab

There a couple of key points here: 1. There are no sharp or flat notes between B and C or E and F. 2. The notes with the sharps and flats have two names. For example, A# and Bb are the same note with different names. When a note has two different names for the same pitch it is called...enharmonic. There are several factors that determine if the note should be called a sharp or a flat that have to do with music theory and is beyond the scope of this report. For our purposes now we will stick with the following guidelines. When moving up the fretboard use sharp and when moving down use flat. Here is the fretboard diagram with the sharps and flats filled in.

E

F

F# Gb

G

G# Ab

A

A# Bb

B

C

C# Db

D

D# Eb

Notice that the notes are the chromatic scale starting on E. By now you should have the notes on the sixth string memorized. Let’s move onto the fifth string now.

E

I don’t have any tricky mnemonic devices for the fifth string but it’s pretty easy to nail down too. If fact, it’s the same as the chromatic scale starting on A. Actually, all of the strings follow the chromatic scale starting from the appropriate note. But you don’t have to use the chromatic scale. I want to point out a couple of things now to help you memorize the notes on the fifth string. Take a look at the following diagram.

A

B

C

D

E

To start off, all you need is the alphabet as A is the open string. The second fret is B and the third, fifth and seventh frets are C, D and E respectively. Again, these notes are located on the dots or the position markers. Easy... Now let’s finish up the fifth string by using the picture below.

F

G

A

Once again we move onto the frets without dots or position markers. The F is in the eighth fret, one up from the E in the seventh fret. If you recall from earlier, there are no notes between E and F. This also fits the pattern from the sixth string where the B and C are located. The G is at the tenth fret, again without a dot or marker and the A is at the twelfth fret with the two dots or position markers. That rounds out the fifth string for the natural notes. Take a look at the diagram on the next page to see all of the notes laid out on the fifth string.

A

A# Bb

B

C

C# Db

D

D# Eb

E

F

F# Gb

G

G# Ab

A

Ok, there you have it. Using this info you should easily be able to memorize all of the notes on the fifth and sixth strings of your guitar. This is a crucial first step in being able to go on and learn the rest of the notes on the guitar. But, before we move on I want to mention...

The Mini Guitar Well, it’s not really a mini guitar but kind of, sort of. Once you hit the twelfth fret the notes start to repeat themselves as well as the dots or position markers. Most guitar have dots or markers at the third, fifth, seventh and ninth frets and then double dots or markers at the twelfth. If you count up from the open string that puts the first marker in the third fret as I mentioned above. If you count up 3 from the twelfth fret you will find a dot at the fifteenth fret. You will also find them at the seventeenth, nineteenth and twenty first frets, or the same relative positions as the dots or markers lower the fretboard. If you can begin to see the frets above twelve as a mini guitar, learning the notes up there should not be a problem either. If fact, it will be a repeat of the process we just went through to name the notes in the lower frets. Simple... In the next section I want to look at 2 simple shapes that you acn use to learn the rest of the notes on the guitar...

Using Octaves To Learn The Rest Of The Notes In the second half of this report I want to show you two simple shapes to help you learn the rest of the notes on the guitar (strings four, three, two and one). Let me lay them out for you by string sets starting with the following diagram.

Here’s the first shape. It occurs on the following string sets...Six and Four...Five and Three. It’s a simple shape to use as a guide. Whatever fret the lowest sounding note is on, just move up two frets to get the higher note and skip a string. In other words, if I am playing the third fret, sixth string, the octave is going to be on the fifth fret, fourth string. In this example both of these notes are G. Here’s one for you using the fifth and third strings.

Now the notes are at the third fret, fifth string and the fifth fret third string. If you recall the note on the third fret fifth string is a C, hence, the octave C at the fifth fret third string. These shapes can be played anywhere on the guitar as long as you stay on the string sets mentioned above. Now do you see the value in knowing the notes on the sixth and fifth strings. We can use that info along with the octave shapes to find and name the same notes on the fifth and third strings respectively. I mentioned that there are two shapes. Let’s look at the remaining shape at the top of the next page.

Here’s the remaining octave shape. It occurs on string sets Four and Two...Three and One. We have to make a slight alteration in the fingering because of the tuning of the guitar. We now have to move up three frets instead of two. If you recall from a couple of examples back we used the first octave shape to locate a G at the fifth fret, fourth string. Counting up three frets from there and using the octave shape we can find another G located at the eighth fret, second string. Not let’s move the shape over to the third and first strings.

Same shape, different string set. Once again if you recall,using the octave shapes from the previous page we discovered the note C at the fifth fret, third string. Starting from that note and using the new ocatve shape we now find another C at the eighth fret, first string. Now I want to tie all of this together and show you how to find all of the F’s on the fretboard using the knowledge we have gained in this report. Step 1...start with F on the sixth string.

Step 2...use the first octave shape to find the F on the fourth string.

Step 3...use the second octave shape to find the F on the second string.

That gives you the F’s on the sixth, fourth and second strings

Step 4...find the F on the fifth string.

Step 5...use the first octave shape to find the F on the third string.

Step 6...use the second octave shape to find the F on the first string.

Unfortunately I ran out of fretboard space but you get the idea. Here’s what they look like altogether.

Neat huh? You could repeat this process starting with the F on the thirteenth fret, sixth string to find the F’s higher up on the fretboard. I recommend that you repeat this process daily. Just pick a couple of different notes each day, practice finding them all over the guitar and pretty soon you will have the whole fretboard memorized. You will find this to be very valuable as you progress as a guitarist. I hope you enjoyed this report. If you have any questions be sure to ask. I will see you the next time. Until then... Best Wishes, Bob