Root Notes And Scales

Ok everyone should know the basic notes such as A Bflat B C Dflat D and so on. It's all pretty much the same on the guitar. Here is a chart of notes.

1st string    2nd string  3rd string  4th string  5th string  6th string
0    E             A           D           G           B           e
1    F             Bb          Eb          Ab          C           F
2    F#            B           E           A           Db          F#
3    G             C           F           Bb          D           G 
4    Ab            Db          F#          B           Eb          Ab
5    A             D           G           C           E           A
6    Bb            Eb          Ab          Db          F           Bb
7    B             E           A           D           F#          B
8    C             F           Bb          Eb          G           C
9    Db            F#          B           E           Ab          Db
10   D             G           C           F           A           D
11   Eb            Ab          Db          F#          Bb          Eb
12   E             A           D           G           B           E

The numbers at the top represent the string you are on and the numbers on the left represent which fret you are on. If you notice, When you strum an open string it is the same note as the 12th fret. For Ex. If you play a song such as "Come As You Are" it would look like this.

e--------------------------------------------------------------------------
B--------------------------------------------------------------------------
G--------------------------------------------------------------------------
D--------------------------------------------------------------------------
A--------------------0-------0---------------------2-----2-----------------
E--0---0---1----2--------2-------2---1---0--0--0------0--------------------

That is what the tabs look like on a normal scale. But if you move it up to the 12th fret it is the same song just higher pitch.

e--------------------------------------------------------------------------
B--------------------------------------------------------------------------
F--------------------------------------------------------------------------
D--------------------------------------------------------------------------
A------------------12-----12----------------------14----14-----------------
E--12--12--13--14-----14------14--13--12--12--12-----12----12--------------

After you have learned the notes on your guitar you can start learning about root notes. A Root note is The root note is the note that the music is centered on or built from. For EX. If you make a C Chord on your guitar the root note(s) would be your first finger on the B string 1st fret and your third finger on the 2nd string 3rd fret. If you check the chart those are both C notes.

e|------|-------|-------|-------|
B|--1R--|-------|-------|-------|
G|------|-------|-------|-------|
D|------|---2---|-------|-------|
A|------|-------|---3R--|-------|
E|------|-------|-------|-------|

The numbers on this char represent which finger is most comonley used to make the chord and the R represents the root note.

A Scale is a group of notes that work well together. The easiest scales come from walking down the alphabet. Refer to your scale chart above in the article. Start at A and make it to G in the easiest path possible. In a scale it doesn't matter how many strings you use. it's all up to the kind of scale you want to make it. Here is a basic scale I made up going from A-G A-G and back again.

e|------------------------------0--1--3--1--0------------------------------|
B|-----------------------0-1--3---------------3--1--0----------------------|
G|------------------0--2-------------------------------2--0----------------|
D|----------0--2--3-----------------------------------------3--2--0--------|
A|--0--2--3---------------------------------------------------------3--2--0|
E|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|

I hope this lesson has Helped you. If not comment and tell me if I missed anything. This is my first lesson so I hope it's been helpful.

Comments

[Spykle14]

thanx alot man. i know how to play a bunch of songs on my guitar i just don't know anything about it, so after 2 years im starting online lessons so i can understand everything ppl talk about

[don02]

this is so helpful.tnx for this

[ImmortalSoul]

Thanks a lot!.. It is really really helpful

[UG-Dalton]

thx guys im going to try and post more lessons since this helped out

[BackDoorEntry]

so you have to be able to recall all the notes on the fretboard instantly?

[totti48]

thanks

[thunderhorse09]

thanx man ur awsum!

[WhiteTempest]

BackDoorEntry wrote:

so you have to be able to recall all the notes on the fretboard instantly?

Yea pretty much.. you can probably do it by ear but then your guessing and improvising your whole scale.

[peterk]

Nice practical stuff. Probably the most useful bit is the chart naming the notes on each fret of each string.

For those who have trouble learning the note names, remember that the same note cycle applies on every string. So use the tuning on each string to build up the notes that you know.

eg, string 1 starts with these notes: E, F, F#, G... Now string 2 is tuned to string 1 at the 5th fret. So if you start at fret 5 on the 2nd string, those notes will be the same: E at fret 5, F at fret 6, F# at fret 7 and so on.

A minor correction - the root notes in the C chord are on the 2nd and 5th string.