Notes on the Guitar
Part Two
Let's review what you have learned so far. First we studied how to name the notes on the staff. For the lines of the staff use the sentence "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge", and for the spaces remember the word "FACE". For notes above and below the staff keep in mind that the notes are alphabetical, move up or down and you are merely moving up or down one letter "name. Second we learned how to find notes on the guitar. The open strings (from low to high) are E A D G B E, which can be remembered by the phrase "Elephants And Donkeys Grow Big Ears". Combine this with the knowledge that each fret moves up or down one spot in the musical alphabet and you can find any note name with ease.
A quick side note. Have you ever wondered why there are sharps(#) and flats(b)? It comes from our use of scales. You see most music doesn't use all notes at once, but rather usually seven that fit well together (called a key). Therefore there are only seven note names (A to G) and every scale uses some form of the seven note names. It might be the sharp or flat version but every key has just one of each note name.
What remains is to tie these two pieces of information together. To look at a note on the staff and be able to say exactly where it is on the guitar. For example, right now you know that the first string is an E. But which E? Is it the one on the top of the staff or the bottom? I put the following chart together to answer that question. Download it and print it out. Practice finding notes with our Fret Tester game. It shows a note on the staff on you click on the correct fret. Members have the additional benefit that the game learns your strengths and weaknesses and emphasizing what needs work. Plus it will produce a report showing your progress for learning the neck.
Activities
- Play Fret Tester using the chart
- Review the Note Names with Note Squish or Note Fish.
- Review the names of the notes on the guitar with Guitar Flash Cards or Birds of Fretopia.
- Play Fret Tester without the chart
- Try reading some simple guitar music with no tab!