When you take a look at the guitar fretboard you may ask yourself if it is possible to learn the notes there! Can you find the notes you want to find? Let’s start to conquer the fretboard by taking the first step!
When you are playing your first melodies on your guitar your teacher will probably let you begin by learning the notes in the first position on your guitar.
We will begin this guitar lesson by taking a look at three notes on the first string. The first open string is an E, the first fret an F and the third fret a G.
The second string open string is B. On the first fret you’ll find C and on the third fret a D.
Now we will make up an exercise with the before mentioned notes. Play the notes slowly and with concentration and with the purpose to learn the notes:
E G F E D F D G C B D G E
You will also learn the names of the notes if you play them on your guitar as you try to say the note names aloud or in your mind.
When you know these notes by heart you can try to play a melody as a test. Let’s try to play Mary Had A Little Lamb with the use of these notes:
E D C D E E E D D D E G G E D C D E E E E D D E D C
I guess you recognized the melody, right!
We will proceed with this guitar lesson by learning some notes on the third string.
The third open string is G and the second fret is A. Now, let’s play the notes we have learned in consecutive order from the third string!
G A B C D E F G
Starting with the G on the third string and the other notes we have learned we will try to play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star:
G G D D E E D C C B B A A G
D D C C B B A D D C C B B A
G G D D E E D C C B B A A G
I hope you’ll recognize this melody as you play. The important thing when learning to play the notes on the guitar is to make a conscious effort to learn the notes and not to work on to many notes at the same time.
My father was a guitar teacher and he taught mostly classical guitar playing. I was one of his students and I learned my first guitar pieces in a short time due to a system he often used that is similar to tablature.
His system showed the frets and strings to play along with the sheet music. He said that his system didn’t prevent children from learning to read guitar sheet music and that if somebody really wants to learn the notes they will anyway.
In my guitar teaching experiences I have found out the same thing. If you are not motivated to learn sheet music notation for guitar you will not learn it even if you only use sheet music.
If you learn the notes on your guitar fretboard first you will find it much easier reading guitar sheet music notation and I hope that this first step will help you!
Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and learn to play guitar resources at capotastomusicdotcom