The fretboard of your guitar is where the action occurs. Notice that your garden-variety Strat boasts a fretboard divided up into 22 frets.
I know, it looks as if there are 23 when you count that last little piece at the top, but we exclude that one because any note you play there will be dampened. Try it out.
Your average electric guitar usually has 22 frets, but there are some models with longer necks that reach up to 24 frets. Those extra two frets aren’t really important unless your style of music lends to hitting super-high notes.
For example, you may want a longer neck some day if you intend to play a lot of hard rock solos, and want those high, ‘stinging’ notes for dramatic effect. Otherwise, don’t worry too much about it right now.
Also, notice the ‘Dot Markers’ beginning on the 3rdrd fret? Those are there as a visual aid to help you see the divisions of the fretboard:
The first thing to understand here is that your fretboard is divided into two full octaves from bottom to top. An octave, in case you aren’t familiar with the term, is a musical scale that runs between a root note and its octave or “unison.
For example, if you were to start on the A below middle C and play all of the notes in between until you reach the A above middle C, you will have gone up one, full octave:
A – B – C – C# – D – D# – E – F – F# – G – G# – A
”How is this useful? First, consider the notes sounded by each string when the guitar is played in the open position.
The “open position” means that you are simply striking the string without holding down the string against any of the frets. Go ahead and try this right now. Just hit any string you want to by strumming it with your pick or plucking it with your thumb.
If you want, you can rake your pick or thumb across all six strings. So far, so good? O.K. Let’s talk about the notes that you just played.
For a guitar in standard tuning, each of the open notes is as follows:
6th String: Low E
5th String: A
4th String: D
3rd String: G
2nd String: B
1st String: High E
If you want a handy ‘mnemonic’ for memorizing these notes, you can think of this phrase: “Each Additional Day Guitar Becomes Easier.” E-A-D-G-B-E. Got it?
Now, notice that I referred to the E on the 6thth string as the “low E”, while the note on the 1st string is the “high E”? One thing we need to clear up really quick is which one is which. Many beginner guitar players get confused as to which E string is considered the “top/high” one.
When you have your guitar in your lap, and you are looking down on it, the string closest to you is the LOW ‘E’, while the one furthest away is the HIGH ‘E’. So, your 6thth string is your “low E”, and your 1stst string is your “high E.”
I know it is counter-intuitive, but the “low” and “high” terms in this instance, refer to the the “register” of the note, and not to its relative position.
Now that we have that cleared up, it will be easier to understand the way your fretboard is laid out. Take a look at those positioning dots again.
Do you notice the fret that has two dots instead of just one?
These markers indicate the 12thth Fret, which also happens to be where the octave completes for each string. So, for example, if you were to strike the high E (1st string) in open position, then make your way up the fretboard by sounding each note up to the 12thth fret, you will complete an octave from E to E:
This pattern holds for every string.
Let’s say you move over to the 3rdrd or ‘G’ string. If you played all the way up the fretboard to the 12thth fret, you would have the following scale:
G-G#-A-A#-B-C-C#-D-D#-E-F-F#-G
The benefit to this is that the notes actually repeat starting at the 12thth fret. It’s just like being back in the open position.
When you reach ‘E’ at the 12thth fret, for example, you know exactly which note comes at the next fret: an F! Then ‘F-sharp’, then ‘G’ and so on until you run out of fretboard.
Just for the sake of clarity, here is one more visual illustration:
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