Learn ALL Notes on Guitar Fretboard Fast – Beginner Theory Lesson (No More Guessing!)

[00:00:00]Hey, what's up, you guys? Marty Schwartz here from guitariams.com.

[00:00:04]What I'm going to do, this is kind of like my basic beginner theory lesson, kind of give you a foundation. Uh so, this is more for the beginner out there.

[00:00:12]And I put some you know, I put a question up on Facebook, what theory stuff's driving you the most mad? And I made one video that was kind of more intermediate, and this one's for the more beginners out there cuz there were a lot of questions of you know, how do how do I find the notes on the guitar comfortably? Is there an easy way to do that? It seems kind of like a daunting task. And not only should you know the notes on the guitar, but it unlocks so many things that are important as you'll see like on your guitar journey. So, we're going to zoom in, I'm just going to kind of break down the easiest way that I found as a guitar teacher to show people how to you know, get the notes, learn the notes, find the notes on the neck. So, we'll zoom in and do that. Let's do it. All right, here's the best way I've been able to figure out how to learn the notes on the strings of the guitar. First thing we want to know is the open strings of the guitar. It's very, very helpful in the very beginning of guitar especially. And we use the saying Eddie ate dynamite, goodbye Eddie. Each of those letters is the notes as you go down. Eddie ate dynamite, goodbye Eddie.

[00:01:18]E A D G B. Eddie ate dynamite, goodbye Eddie. The other thing, the next step is just knowing the two starting distances in music. Uh one's called a half step, and that's just going from one note to the next.

[00:01:36]>> [music] >> So, that's a half step. Now, the open string, if I say go a half step up from that, it's the first fret.

[00:01:45]>> [music] >> So, if I said if I was playing that note and I said go a half step down, you go like that. So, you've got half steps, one fret next to the you know, right next to each other. The other one is a whole step, which is skipping a fret.

[00:02:00]So, like any note I pick anywhere, I say go a whole step up, skip a fret and you go that way. If I said go a whole step down, go like that. Half step down.

[00:02:08]Half step down. Whole step down.

[00:02:11]>> [music] >> Half step. Whole step down.

[00:02:14]So, you actually can't go a whole step down from the first fret.

[00:02:17]>> [music] >> Cuz it the lowest note is only a half step lower, okay? So, we've got Eddie 8 Dynamite, goodbye Eddie, and then we've got these things called half steps and whole steps. All right, next thing is to just say to go from one letter in music to the next letter is a whole step. So, if I'm on an A note and I want to go up to a B note, the next letter in the alphabet, it's a whole step up. There's two exceptions to that rule, but let's just start with the basic concept. Eddie 8 Dynamite, goodbye Eddie.

[00:02:46]Half steps and whole steps. Uh to go from one note to another note is a whole step. So, what I'm going to do actually is I'm going to start on the A string cuz there are like I said there's exceptions. But, if I just start with the open A and I want to go to the next letter up in the alphabet, which is B, and I said that it's a whole step up, we got to go a whole step up from the open string.

[00:03:06]So, a half step is the next possible note and a whole step is skipping one.

[00:03:09]So, A whole step to B.

[00:03:11]>> [music] >> A B. I just pick a random note right here and I'm telling you that that note right there is C, but I want to go to the next letter up in the alphabet, which is D, I go a whole step up.

[00:03:23]>> [music] >> It's D now.

[00:03:25]Now, if I want to go to the next letter up, which is an E, it's a whole step from there.

[00:03:30]>> [music] >> So, now that's an E. E whole step down to D. Whole step down to C.

[00:03:34]>> [music] >> Okay? So, the basic rule is a whole step between letters. Like I said, there's an exception to the rule and this is just one thing you're going to have to memorize. The two spots and if you looked on a piano, you would see there's two spots in the row where there's no black key in between.

[00:03:51]It's the same thing in all instruments that there's two spots where it's only a half step between the letters. One is B to C.

[00:04:00]B to C is only a half step. B to C is only a half step. And then the other one is E to F. So, to go from one note to another note is a whole step except for B to C and E to F. Now, if I just kind of get you know, it's not going to happen overnight, but I'm going to try and memorize that a little bit. Eddie 8 Dynamite, goodbye Eddie. Whole steps and half steps. One note to another note is a whole step except B to C and E to F. So, if we just I'm going to say those rules out loud as we kind of see if we can find some notes.

[00:04:34]For instance, if I said, "Let's find an A note on this high E string." Eddie 8 Dynamite, goodbye Eddie. So, our starting point is E.

[00:04:45]And we want to find an A on that string.

[00:04:48]We're just going to count up those rules till we get to an A note. High E.

[00:04:51]Remember I said E to F and B to C or B to C and E to F are half steps. So, if this is an E, it's only a half step to F. So, there's our F note. F to G, it's not one of those exceptions, so it should be a whole step. So, F to G. Oh, hey, there's a G note.

[00:05:06]And G is our last note in the musical alphabet before it starts over on A again. So, we've got E, half step to F, whole step to G, whole step to A. Let's just keep going up those rules. A to B is a whole step, so A to B. Here's our other exception, B to C. So, C is only a half step. E, half step to F, whole step to G, whole step to A, whole step to B.

[00:05:27]The other exception, B to C is a half step. So, that's a C. C to D is a whole step. D to E is a whole step. The other exception, E to F is a half step. So, E whole step to G whole step to A whole step to B, half step to C.

[00:05:43]Whole step to D.

[00:05:45]And now I've run out of room. So, a D note right there.

[00:05:48]So, let's take this B string. And I said, let's find a D note on the B string. We would say, "Okay, well, I'm going to start with open B.

[00:05:56]B to C is only a half step, so that means C is a half step up from open. So, there's C, but we're looking for D. D to D is a whole step.

[00:06:05]So, there is our D note, a whole step up from C. Let's do one more on the D string.

[00:06:13]I want to find a C note on the D string.

[00:06:18]I recommend you to pause this video right now and see if you can do it.

[00:06:21]All right. So, open D.

[00:06:24]Oops, I was playing a G. Sorry. We're trying to find a C note on the D string.

[00:06:31]So, open D. D to E is a whole step, so we have to skip a fret and go to the second fret right there. So, we have D E.

[00:06:38]There's the exception. E to F is a half step. F.

[00:06:42]>> [music] >> Whole step to G.

[00:06:46]Now, it starts over to A. Whole step to A.

[00:06:49]Whole step to B.

[00:06:52]Half step to C. There's our C note on the D string.

[00:06:55]>> [music] >> It's going to come in really handy because if you want to, you know, let's say you want to play the C blue scale from that note, well, it is going to be important. Or a let's say a C minor 7 chord from that note.

[00:07:11]See that? So, it's really, really the the the foundation to get you going.

[00:07:16]Now, there's one other thing I didn't address. This note's an F.

[00:07:20]Whole step to G. G. What the heck is that thing in between? Cuz that's a note. Well, it's one of the black keys on the piano.

[00:07:28]>> [music] >> But, what the heck is it? F uh F and G, but there's something in between. Well, it's got two names. It can be considered a G something or an F something, but it's the same thing. And I'm not going to tell you why there's two names for it, but it's down the road, you'll probably figure that out. Has to do with keys and and the other notes that are involved in the song and reading music. There's a lot of reasons, but we got F here, we got G there. A lot of reasons, but we got F here, we got G there. So, we can call it sharp or we can call it G. And those were the sharps and flats. So, to find the sharps and flats, ultimately the most the quickest way to find sharps and flats is just find the natural note, the regular letter, and then flat means it's going down a half step, and sharp means it's going up a half step. Now, think about it. When you when you drive over a banana peel, when you drive over it, it's behind you. You've left it behind, and it's flat. A knife is pointing forward, and it's sharp. So, you always think sharp is is when the notes are pointing forward, going up.

[00:08:38]>> [music] >> And flat is when you've left something behind, it's getting lower. It's behind you, it's going down.

[00:08:44]Okay? So, the last step, let's say, let's find a B flat on the E string. So, E to F is a half step.

[00:08:51]>> [music] >> F to G is a whole step. G to A is a whole step.

[00:08:56]>> [music] >> A to B is a whole step. What did I say?

[00:08:59]I said, let's find B. I found a B note, and if it's flat, it's a little bit lower. It's It's been left behind.

[00:09:07]So, B flat is a half step lower than a B.

[00:09:10]>> [music] >> But, what would be the other name for that be?

[00:09:13]Whatever note that is, it's sharp. So, A sharp or B flat. B A. So, A sharp and B are the same note. So, if I said, play me a B flat power chord, you find B or flat, and plug in the power chord.

[00:09:29]If I said, play the B flat pentatonic scale. Okay, there's B flat.

[00:09:36]>> [music] >> I said, play a B flat minor chord.

[00:09:40]If I said uh play a B flat major 7 chord, you know, it's all related to plugging in those roots, okay? So, you can, you know, obviously watch this video as many times as as you need, but you really want this as your foundation to kind of get going. It'll really help you excel faster and take away some of the guessing game. Um so, start with that. Eddie ate dynamite. Goodbye, Eddie. Whole steps and half steps. One note to another note is a whole step except for two spots, which is B to C and E to F. And that's how you plug them in. And then to get a flat or a sharp, you find the natural note and go half step down to make it flat or a half step up to make it sharp. All right, that was it. Hope you got something out of that.