lesson 3: some important notes (pitches on the guitar)

the guitar has many frets and if you’re new to the guitar, it’s probably a little mystifying,

so let’s break it down…

you should have some dots on your guitar,

STRAT-o-caster fretboard

you may notice that for the most part these dots are on the odd numbered frets….3, 5, 7, 9, 15, 17, 19, 21

some guitars also have a dot on the 1st fret.  and some in other spots as well.  some, like acoustics, in less places

you will probably also see a double dotted fret at the 12th fret (and if you have a heavy metal looking guitar) on the 24th fret as well.

notice this ^ guitar has fret markings on 1,3,5,7,12, 15, 17,19,21,24

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so the big commonality, at least, is that most guitars have dots on 3,5,7,9,and a double dot on the 12th…then the spacing starts over, back to odd numbered frets: 15,17,19,21.

when you reach the double dotted fret, the notes start over…

lemme show you what i mean, on the E string, we’ve got

G on the 3rd fret, A on the 5th fret, B on the 7th fret, C# on the 9th,

then the double dotted fret is the same as the open string (that’d be E),

then

G on the 15th fret, A on the 17th fret, B on the 19th fret, C# on the 21st

refer to the musical alphabet to know what all the notes in between are.

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so, you can use these acronyms to remember the names of notes on the dotted 3,5,7 frets

for E string: GAB (like someone talking a lot)

for A string: Corn Dog Express (think of it as a train that you take to get to Wienerschnitzel)

for the D string: Field Goal Alright! (for you sports fans)

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you can use the musical alphabet and octave double stops to find notes on the G and B strings.  and then the high E string, is just like the low E string.

http://leadguitarworkshop.ws/

put your fingers where the little dot/star markings are in the above 8 diagrams to get the same note in different places (they will be an octave apart, but they will have the same name, and they should sound quite pleasant when played together).

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QUICK REVIEW:

dotted frets on most guitars are found on the 3,5,7,9 frets, double dotted on the 12, then that pattern starts over and the dots are found on the same notes.  for the E string, those notes are: G, A, B, C#, the double dotted is E.

memorize: GAB, CornDogExpress, Field Goal Alright

to know the names of the notes on the E, A, D strings

MOVE ON TO LESSON 3.9: POWER CHORDS!

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