Guitar Tuning
Almost all guitars, whether acoustic or electric, have six strings. They are numbered from 6-1, with the lowest (thickest) string being ‘6’ and the highest (thinnest) being ‘1’.
A vast majority of guitar music is played in what’s known as standard tuning. Standard tuning is, from thickest to thinnest: E-A-D-G-B-E (6th-5th-4th-3rd-2nd-1st). These notes are unique in that they are what’s called open notes because they can be played without actually fretting your guitar.
The notes on the open strings (E-A-D-G-B-E) are repeated 12th frets higher. There is one half-step or one fret separating notes E-F and B-C.
Naturals, Sharps, and Flats
There are seven natural notes in music (A-B-C-D-E-F-G), and then there are the “un-natural” notes, or as they’re properly known, sharps ( # ) and flats (♭). There are five sharp notes (F#-C#-G#-D#-A#) and five flat notes (B♭-E♭-A♭-D♭-G♭). An easy way to remember this is that the natural notes are the white keys on a piano, and the sharps-and-flats are the black keys.
There is a sharp or flat between all the natural notes except for B-C and E-F. Those are the pairs of notes on a keyboard that have no black key in between.
A sharp sign (#) raises a note by one half step, i.e. an F to F# is the fret (or black key) between F and G.
A flat sign (♭) lowers a note by one half step, i.e. a D to D♭ is the fret (or black key) between C and D
You may be thinking “what’s the difference between C# and D♭?” And that’s a great question! They actually sound like the exact same note and are what’s called enharmonic. That’s just a fancy music theory word which means they sound the same but are called different things. This will be explored more later.
In total there are 12 notes:
A – A#/B♭– B – C – C#/D♭– D – D#/E♭– E – F – F#/G♭– G – G#/A♭
*Natural Notes in Bold
Check out our mobile app “Fretboard Notes” within the series “Guitar Intervals Unleashed” on Google Play and Appstore to help you learn the notes of the fretboard
The app provides the option to practice identifying notes on the fretboard as naturals, sharps/ flats or a combination of all three types. You can isolate your practice to just one string by choosing one of the 5 string choices (E-A-D-G-B). You have the option to practice with a metronome in training mode or challenge yourself with metronome and timer in game mode.
Intervals and Qualities
The distance between two notes is called an interval. There are 12 intervals (equal to the total number of notes). Intervals are the building blocks of harmony (notes played simultaneously) and melody (notes played in sequence).
Each interval has two characteristics: A number and a quality.
There are eight numbers: unison (1), second (2), third (3), fourth (4), fifth (5), sixth (6), seventh (7), and octave (8).
There are five qualities: minor (Min), major (Maj), perfect (P), augmented (Aug), and diminished (Dim).
There are four perfect intervals: Unison (P1), Fourth (P4), Fifth (P5), and Octave (P8). When these are raised or lowered by one half step they become augmented or diminished, respectively. For example, C to G is a perfect fifth, but C to G# is an augmented fifth and C to G♭ is a diminished fifth.
A diminished fifth is also known as a tritone and has unique applications.
The remaining intervals (second, third, sixth, and seventh) are either major or minor depending where they fall in the scale. A rule of thumb is that all of these intervals in C major (the white keys on a piano) are major, and if you were to lower them one half step (to a black key) they would become minor. For example, C to E is a major third, while C to E♭ is a minor third.
Unisons are unique in that it is the distance from one note to itself (in other words, no movement at all). If you play the same note twice in a row you are playing a unison, or if you fret an A on your guitar and pluck the open A string you will have two strings playing the same note, which means you’re playing a unison.
Octaves are similar to unisons in that they are the same note as the starting pitch, but played at least twelve half-steps higher (i.e. plucking your open E string and then fretting at the 12th fret).
The chart below examines each interval relative to C:
| Interval Name | Interval Quality | Interval Number | Half-step Distance | Interval Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unison (P1) | Perfect | 1 | 0 | C |
| Minor Second (min2) | Minor | ♭2 | 1 | C to D♭ |
| Major Second (maj2) | Major | 2 | 2 | C to D |
| Minor Third (min3) | Minor | ♭3 | 3 | C to E♭ |
| Major Third (min3) | Major | 3 | 4 | C to E |
| Perfect Fourth (P4) | Perfect | 4 | 5 | C to F |
| Diminished Fifth (dim5) - Tritone | Diminished | ♭5 | 6 | C to G♭ |
| Perfect Fifth (P5) | Perfect | 5 | 7 | C to G |
| Minor Sixth (min6) | Minor | ♭6 | 8 | C to A♭ |
| Major Sixth (maj6) | Major | 6 | 9 | C to A |
| Minor Seventh (min7) | Minor | ♭7 | 10 | C to B♭ |
| Major Seventh (maj7) | Major | 7 | 11 | C to B |
| Octave (P8) | Perfect | 8 (1) | 12 | C to C |
Chromatic Scale
From intervals we can build scales. A scale is a series of notes that eventually reaches back to the starting note. Scales are built, or made up of, scale degrees.
If you were to play all twelve notes between C and its octave, you would be playing the chromatic scale. In other words, the chromatic scale is made up of twelve scale degrees each separated by one half step each.
In any scale, the starting pitch is known as the root. Let’s take a look at a chromatic scale in C with the scale degrees listed as well:
As you will notice above, the seconds, thirds, fifths, sixths and sevenths share the same music letter, except 1 and 4.
You can see that flat scale degrees correspond to the flat notes in C. This won’t always be the case, but the key of C helps us visualize this easier because the flats correspond to the black keys on a piano.
We can look at the same scale on the B-string of a guitar:
As you can see, you play every single fret without skipping. That’s because the chromatic scale is made up entirely of half-steps. You can repeat this for all the open strings and have a chromatic scale for each. For example, starting on the open A and working your way up to the A at the 12th fret will give you an A chromatic scale.