Basics of Music Theory Part 1: The Fretboard

Music theory in and of itself is a big, daunting subject for many musicians. Guitarists are particularly not fond of theory, as they do not always see how it relates to their playing. It’s very easy for a guitarist to feel this way, as music theory is very complicated. However, it is still something that every guitarist who is serious about music must learn. That’s because music theory is basically what guides music. Without a solid grasping of music theory, many guitarists will not be able to progress past an intermediate level of playing.

To make the process of learning complicated music theory easier, guitarists should learn music theory as they go along. Since we can’t possibly cover every part of music theory in one quick lesson, we’ll just be focusing on the notes on the fretboard in this lesson.


The Basics: Notes on the Fretboard

Before we learn about the notes on the fretboard, we’ll first go over the notes in music. These are:

A – A#/Bb - B – C – C#/Db - D – D#/Eb – E – F – F#/Gb – G – G#/Ab

These notes repeat up and down the fretboard. You’re probably a bit confused by the “#”s and “b”s. Let’s go over what each means.

The “#”s stand for “sharps”. A sharp note sounds a bit higher than normal, which is why it is known as being too “sharp”.

The “b”s stand for “flats”. A flat note sounds a bit lower than normal, which is why it is known as being too “flat”.

Pretty simple stuff, right? Well, it does, unfortunately, get a bit more complicated. As you can see above, only some of the notes on the standard music notation (that’s what we call the arrangement of notes) have flats and sharps. The others don’t. We’ll go over why that is in a second.

When you move to one note to another (from A to B, for instance), you are making a whole step (on the fretboard, this is going from one fret to a fret two frets away, like from the 1st fret to the 3rd fret). When you move from a sharp note to a whole note (like from A# to B), you’re only making a half step. On a guitar, this would mean going from one fret to another (from the 1st fret to the 2nd fret).

There are only two notes in standard music notation which do not have whole steps between them. These are the B and C and E and F. Thus, they do not have any sharps/flats between them. On the fretboard, then, if you’re playing a B and wish to go to playing a C on the same string, you need only go to the next fret.

Now that we have all that out of the way, we can finally move on to the notes. Let’s look at the low E string. When you play the string open (that is, without any fingers on the fretboard), you are playing an E note. If you place your finger on the 1st fret of the E string, you’ll be playing an F note. If you place your finger on the 2nd fret of the E string, you’ll be playing an F#/Gb note.

Here it is wrapped up:

1st fret |2nd fret |3rd fret |4th fret |5th fret|6th fret|7th fret|8th fret|9th fret|10th fret|11th fret
E: F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Bb B C C#/Db D D#/Eb

As you can tell, when you get to the 12th fret, you are back to the original note (in this case, E). This concept applies to every string. The 12th fret, by the way, is indicated by double dots on the top of the neck. The notes only repeat once you get to that 12th fret. Once again, the concept applies to every string.

Let’s now go over the A string:

1st fret |2nd fret |3rd fret |4th fret |5th fret|6th fret|7th fret|8th fret|9th fret|10th fret|11th fret
A: A#/Bb B C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab

Like with the E string, this pattern of notes only repeats once you get to the 12th fret.

Here’s the D string:

1st fret |2nd fret |3rd fret |4th fret |5th fret|6th fret|7th fret|8th fret|9th fret|10th fret|11th fret
D: D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Bb B C C#/Db

Next, here’s the G string:

1st fret |2nd fret |3rd fret |4th fret |5th fret|6th fret|7th fret|8th fret|9th fret|10th fret|11th fret
G: G#/Ab A A#/Bb B C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#

Here’s the B string:

1st fret |2nd fret |3rd fret |4th fret |5th fret|6th fret|7th fret|8th fret|9th fret|10th fret|11th fret
B: C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#

Finally, here is the high E string (note that it is an exact repeat of the low E string because they have the exact same notes in the exact same order):

1st fret |2nd fret |3rd fret |4th fret |5th fret|6th fret|7th fret|8th fret|9th fret|10th fret|11th fret
E: F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Bb B C C#/Db D D#/Eb


Exercise for Memorizing the Notes

It probably seems like a whole lot of effort to memorize the exact order of all the notes on each string. You should be pleased to know that it really isn’t. All it takes is just a bit of practice to get the concept down pat.

One quick exercise is to simply write down the notes for each string on each fret (as given above) and then to play each fret of a particular string. As you play the fret, say the note (so for 1st fret of E, say “F”). Repeat this as necessary until you can immediately tell what note you are playing when you play it.

We’ve covered a lot of ground in this lesson, so you should be quite proud of yourself. After you’ve mastered everything in this lesson, move on to lesson 2 of our Basics of Music Theory series.