Know Your Notes

[wild_axeman]

It's really not that hard.There's only 12 distinct notes between an octave.
There are 7 Naturals A B C D E F G and 5 Accidentals with their dual enharmonic names A# or Bb,C# or Db,D# or Eb,F# or Gb,G# or Ab

So putting the naturals and accidentals together you get:

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

The next thing to know about is the NATURALLY OCCURRING 1/2 steps
between B and C and between E and F.There are no naturally occurring accidentals between those notes but they do occur in a couple of odd key signatures but it's nothing to FRET about (ouch,that was lame) :)

Okay now you need to practice saying the note names on each string,one string at a time beginning from the open string and then saying each note up to the 12the fret (octave), saying only the sharp accidentals as you ascend.Then come back down saying only the flat accidentals as you descend.This is so easy it's not even funny.The notes present themselves in pairs except for the the notes B and E which have no naturally occurring sharps or flats.So using the A string as an example and using these pairs of notes to aid you,you would be saying the note names from the open A string up to the 12th fret A string,thusly:

A,A#,

B,

C,C#,

D,D#,

E,

F,F#,

G,G#,

A



Then you come back down from the 12th fret (A String) down to the open
A String saying the flats as you go:

A,Ab,

G,Gb,

F,

E,Eb,

D,Db,

C,

B,Bb,

A


SEE THE PATTERN? Easy huh? :)

Now do the same thing on the remaining 5 strings
And you'll KNOW YOUR NOTES in no time.

The note 'pairs' and the NATURALLY OCCURRING 1/2 steps are the key.
_

P.S.,

Here's some links to assist you:

http://www.cyberfret.com/first-fret/note-names/index.php

http://www.cyberfret.com/first-fret/octaves/index.php

http://www.zentao.com/guitar/theory/notes.html

http://www.daddydoodle.com/necknote.htm

http://users.thevision.net/lion1/natural.htm

http://users.thevision.net/lion1/sharpsflats.htm

._.