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Guitar String Notes for Standard Tuning

Before you go any further, you need to familiarize yourself with guitar string notes. Without
knowing the string names and notes, we won’t be able to learn any other guitar notes!

Most guitars have 6 strings, each with a different note. In standard tuning, and from low to
high, the guitar string notes are: E, A, D, G, B, E. This is constant across different brands
and guitar types.
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The Best Way to Remember Guitar String Notes

The best way to remember the guitar string notes and their names is to create a mnemonic
device. Think of it as a way to help you remember which letters go where.

●​ Eddie
●​ Ate
●​ Dynamite
●​ Good
●​ Bye
●​ Eddie

Note: The guitar notes for the strings are the same whether you play electric, acoustic, rock,
bluegrass, or metal — rock on!

Guitar Notes vs. Guitar Chords

To put it as simply as possible, let’s think about music as a language.

●​ A note is a single letter. It’s the smallest part of musical language.

Guitar Notes

Just as a single letter on its own sounds different from a word, notes sound different from
chords. Guitar notes are individual pitches. For example, when you play one string at a time,
you’re playing one note. Here’s a quick picture of all guitar notes:
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Chords

As we said earlier, chords are like words: you create a chord when you take notes and play
many of them at once. There are also different types of chords; for example, ordinary
chords and power chords.

Try playing this D chord.

You strum all of the strings at once when you play the D chord. Every note is played at the
same time to create the chord. Chords have a richer, fuller sound than guitar notes.

Why Chords Help You

Guitar notes can help you understand the fretboard and the music in general, but it is
difficult to play songs just with guitar notes. There are thousands of songs that use just
three chords. There are only a few songs where the single-note melody has just three
notes.

Additionally, playing chords helps build your finger strength. As you play along with songs or
in a group, you’ll build up your strength and be able to play for longer periods.
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After you feel comfortable playing chords and understand time, rhythm, and musical
structure, you can start dabbling in more theory and scales. However, until you get to that
point, playing chords is a great way to start playing the guitar.

Guitar Notes and Musical Alphabet

Let me clarify: guitars use the same musical alphabet as violins, flutes, basses, and
saxophones. The one difference is in looking at tablature, but that’s more of a musical
notation style.

All instruments rely on a musical alphabet that creates a common language for all
musicians. The good news is that the musical alphabet only uses 12 notes.

Here’s one way we can write the musical alphabet:

A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A

We can also write the musical alphabet this way:

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

But what do the “#” and “b” signs mean?

First off, the “#” represents a ‘sharp.’ When you see, A#, you pronounce it as A sharp.

When you see the “b” sign after a note, the “b” represents a ‘flat’. It is pronounced, “A flat.”
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Knowing the Fretboard and the Guitar Notes

As I’ve explained in other lessons, every fret on your guitar represents a guitar note. As
each fret goes up by one number, you move up the musical alphabet by one space.
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WHAT ARE GUITAR TABS?

Guitar tablature is the visual representation of the notes in a song. Standard guitar tab
consists of six horizontal lines, with each line representing the six strings on the guitar.
When looking at guitar tab from top to bottom, the top line represents the high E string
(the thinnest string) followed by lines that represent the B, G, D, A and low E strings (the
thickest string).

This also reflects the view of the strings as you look down while holding your guitar. For
this reason, think of guitar tablature as your roadmap, for it will provide you with the
fastest route to learning songs.
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On each line of the tab you will also see numbers. These numbers represent the frets
on your guitar, which are the metal strips found on the fretboard. The frets are
numbered 0-24, and start at the nut (the piece closest to the head), and run the entire
length of the guitar neck.

For example, if the string has a 0, that means you play that string “open,” or without
using your fretting hand. If the string has a 1, then that means you must play using the
first fret. When learning how to read guitar tabs, it’s important to understand that 1
represents the first fret, 2 the second fret, 3 the third fret, and so on.

HOW TO READ GUITAR TABS

Guitar tab is read left to right, and all notes indicated are in chronological order. When
the numbers are in line with each other vertically, they represent a chord. A chord is
played by strumming all the indicated strings at the same time. Guitar tab notation is
better for the beginner than standard notation, for it tells you what notes to play to make
the chord and where you can find them on your guitar.

WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW TO READ GUITAR TABS?

For beginners to read guitar tab successfully, they must familiarize themselves with the
6 strings and the locations of the various frets. This will allow them to locate the proper
notes to play while using the guitar tab as a guide.

UNDERSTANDING THE GUITAR TAB STAFF

The guitar tab staff looks similar to the staff used in standard notation. One major
difference is that the staff lines in guitar tab represent the 6 strings, not the actual notes.

The top line represents the high E string and the bottom line represents the low E string.
This makes playing guitar tab easy for beginners, and the staff will also be labeled
“TAB” so it’s not confused with standard notation.
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UNDERSTANDING GUITAR FRETS

The guitar frets are the metal strips that run across the fretboard. Most guitars will have
19-24 frets. Each fret is one note or a half step from the other (which can also be
referred to as a semitone). There are 12 notes (or frets) in each octave, and most
guitars have fret markers on the side of the neck or on the fretboard. These markers are
typically at the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 12 frets, and can help you easily recognize the fret
positions when playing. Remember: when looking at guitar strings, fretted strings are
indicated by numbers, and open strings are indicated by the number “0”. This shows
you to play the string “open” without using your fretting hand. You simply pick or pluck
the string and let it sound.

UNDERSTANDING GUITAR TAB CHORDS

While chords do not have any special symbols in guitar tab, they can be identified easily
by their position. When several notes are shown to line up vertically, they are played
together making a chord. If a chord is arpeggiated, it will appear as single notes even
though you are fretting a chord.
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UNDERSTANDING GUITAR TAB RIFFS

Many Rock songs consist of “riffs”. Riffs are usually a combination of single notes and
partial chords (such as power chords). For riffs, the general rules of guitar tab apply:
when two or more notes line up vertically, play them at the same time.

UNDERSTANDING GUITAR TABS VS CHORD CHARTS

Guitar tab differs from a standard chord chart in a few ways. A chord chart is a diagram
showing where to fret each string to make a chord, and it also tells you which finger to
use. A chord chart can be included in guitar tab, and is usually positioned over the lyrics
of the song to indicate when the chords are changed.

Chord charts only show the 3 to 4 unique notes that make up the specific chord. But an
accurate version of the song may require single notes, notes not in the root chord, or
arpeggios (the pattern used to play the individual notes within a chord) that are not
indicated. For this reason, chord charts are often featured along with guitar tab to help
beginning guitarists understand how to move beyond the basic chords to play a song.

UNDERSTANDING FINGERS AND NUMBERS

Tablature is linear, but chord charts are like a snapshot of your fretboard. As such, chord
charts use a numbering system that indicates which fingers to use when playing. The
fingers of the “fretting” hand (the hand that pushes the strings down on the fretboard)
are numbered. For example, the index finger is 1, the middle finger is 2, the ring finger
is 3, and the pinky is 4.

This differs from tab, as the numbers used in guitar tab will indicate which fret to play,
and not which finger to use. For this reason, chord charts can be included in guitar tabs
to show beginners how to position their hands while playing.