Guitar Notes

This pages will show you were all the notes are at on the guitar and also what notes are in what keys. It might not makes sense right now, but once you look through the chord theory and scales it should start to make sense, and will help out if you go to figure out chord progressions and soloing.

Notes

I'll use the following notation to show the notes on the guitar. All information in with standard tuning EADGBE

E --X--
B --X--
G --X--
D --X--
A --X--
E --X--

Nut:--1--:--2--:--3--:--4--:--5--:--6--:--7--:--8--:

E :---F--:--F#-:--G--:--G#-:--A--:--A#-:--B--:--C--:
B :---C--:--C#-:--D--:--D#-:--E--:--F--:--F#-:--G--:
G :---G#-:--A--:--A#-:--B--:--C--:--C#-:--D--:--D#-:
D :---D#-:--E--:--F--:--F#-:--G--:--G#-:--A--:--A#-:
A :---A#-:--B--:--C--:--C#-:--D--:--D#-:--E--:--F--:
E :---F--:--F#-:--G--:--G#-:--A--:--A#-:--B--:--C--:

--:---9--:--10-:--11-:--12-:

E :---C#-:--D--:--D#-:--E--:
B :---G#-:--A--:--A#-:--B--:
G :---E--:--F--:--F#-:--G--:
D :---B--:--C--:--C#-:--D--:
A :---F#-:--G--:--G#-:--A--:
E :---C#-:--D--:--D#-:--E--:

At the 12th fret, the notes repeat again further up the neck.

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Notes in Different Keys I use all sharps (#) to give note names, however a D flat is the same thing as a C#, ect.... The notes follow this pattern:

A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G# A

which could also be:

A Bflat B C Dflat D Eflat E F Gflat G Aflat A

The patter for getting the notes in different keys goes like this:

WHOLE, WHOLE, HALF, WHOLE, WHOLE, WHOLE, HALF

You will also notice that these notes are used to create chord progressions. For example in the Key of G, the following chords are used:

G, Am, Bm, C, D, Em, F#diminished

If you notice from the table above those are the same notes. You might also have noticed that some are minor and the last is diminished. the following pattern is used to come up with that:

MAJOR, MINOR, MINOR, MAJOR, MAJOR, MINOR, DIMINISHED

In the key of C the chords would be:

C. Dm, Em, F, G, Am, Bdiminished

Once you start to learn scales this will make even more sense, and the notes in the keys will be used for soloing, however keep in mind that you don't have to stay in that key, you can and should have some notes that aren't in the key, however this has to be practiced over and over to get it sounding good. An example of this is 'Unforgiven' by Metallica. This song is in the Key of G, the part you hear at the beginning is an Am being arpeggiated, then you hear the lead part come in, all the notes except for 1 are in the key of G, however it sounds great and to the common person they would never know it, but someone who plays any musical instrument can pick out the note which is a G#.

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