How (and why) to Learn the Notes on Guitar Video Lecture | The Ultimate Guitar Course: From Beginner to Advanced - Class 6

do you need to know the notes on a
guitar no you really don't
guitar was one of those things where you
can really be pretty good at it without
even knowing what you're doing at all
but here are a couple of reasons why you
should know at least some of the notes
on your guitar reason number one shame
guitar just seems to be one of those
things where because of the nature of
being able to get good at it without
really knowing what you're doing them
certain guitar players will collect a
lot of inner shame and will be ashamed
of themselves for not knowing some of
the basics it may have skipped over just
by kind of just screwing around and
stuff like that like not knowing the
notes or not knowing proper music theory
I feel like I'm a certain level I
creates kind of an ego which is why I
like guitar blogs and stuff like that
there's so much hate there's so much
hate it's a ridiculous amount of hate
and all that comes from an inner shame
so lord knows that there are more
important things in your life that you
should be ashamed of that don't let your
lack of guitar knowledge be one of them
now another really good reason is just
chords like if you know the notes
whenever you learn a new chord like
let's say for this uh this one right
here it's like a G major 7 voicing if
you learn one shape you actually can
multiply that by 12 so you learn one new
chord and you'll learn twelve new chords
just because I know this is G I'm going
to route it make a G major seven I know
that this note right here is an E I'm
going to have that same shape and root
and now it's an E major seven back
that's a D major 7 ah as a major sin so
it really kind of takes anything you
learn you can just multiply it by 12 so
let's kind of just review really quick
what the notes are and why 12 is an
important number in fact every guitar
usually has a fret as two dots on it and
if you didn't know that that's the 12th
rep because 12 is the total number of
notes that there are and all of music so
let's just review that really quick I'll
start with an A so the first note is a a
and it goes to a sharp B C C sharp D d
sharp e f f-sharp G g-sharp then it goes
back around to a so those are all twelve
notes now for you to play that on let's
kind of see how it works on a
so I'm going to start at the a-string
now it's called the a-string because
when you hit it open you're playing a
note so when you hit the first fret
that's an a sharp new it'll be C C sharp
d sharp e F sharp to G sharp and a so we
went all the way through the entire
musical alphabet started with an A and
ended on an A now that's called an
octave mm-hmm one question you may have
is if I just want 12 frets why is it
called an octave the acht meaning 8 well
it doesn't mean the total number of
frats actually means notes in the major
scale so major scale wise if I play the
major scale I'd go a B c-sharp D F sharp
G sharp a seven one two three four five
six seven eight
all right so right off the bat if you
just know the names of the strings EAD
GBE and then you go to the twelfth fret
this is also a PG B yeah so right there
those are 12 notes that you have
memorized the way through and using this
information you can find absolutely any
note just count it off like if you want
to know what the six fret on the a
string is going
Dasia C C sharp G sharp there you go
okay
and another trick that you can do is if
you just start to learn a couple of them
like say you just know that the third
fret on the E string is a G right like
you play a G major chord alive maybe
note that root note is a Gia you can
mirror that over the twelfth fret so if
I know the third fret is a G on this
string I know the twelfth fret and take
the third fret from there and that's
also going to be a G now I'm active up
so that's the 15th fret that you know is
the same as the third fret so you just
add 12 and Ute the exact same note at
any strength one thing that's helped me
a lot is just memorizing a couple of
them you don't have to memorize every
single fret on the guitar very few
people have that like if you ask me what
the what the eighth fret on the D string
is I couldn't tell you I have no idea
but I know that I can octave down to a
sharp or B flat so I know
that's an a-sharp now how I did that is
let's just take any now let's take the
fifth fret on the e-string and I know
that this is an a because it's the e
string so it start with open e e F
f-sharp G g-sharp a ok now I just know
that there's a kind of a pattern if I
skip two strings down and two frets down
that's going to give me the same note so
this is an a this is also that's a way
to get to an octave now the music behind
that is I did the major scale and the
hand shape for the major scale looks
like this 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 so 1 hey the
octave is the same so I know this is an
a I know that this is now this trick
still works on the a string if you were
to root a note on the a string so let's
say again you know you probably know C
major chord right so the root note there
is a seat so if you're gonna do that
thing where you skip a string go 2
strings down 2 frets down that's also a
seat so by having this one note
memorized and you're actually kind of
doubling the amount that you know now
here's where it gets a little tricky is
if you try doing that on the D string
alright so say I knew this was an A so I
know on the D string this is also an a
if I try to do that with the B string
that's actually not a hey that is an A
flat or G sharp because of the way the B
string is tuned you have to compensate
so instead of going down two frets
ah yeah just have to go down three
friends and that'll do the same thing so
again let's go back to this G no right
yeah three years I know this is a G I
can use that trick by going down and
finding out that this also is a GE and
then I can use that trick compensating
for the B string going down I know that
this is also a G and then I can mirror
over the twelfth fret I know this is
also a GU so those are four spots that I
can just figure the note relative to
just memorizing one note so I'm
memorizing one spot and then using that
trick to find the other notes all along
the fretboard and if you do just a few
of these eventually you'll be able to
figure out absolutely any note on the
entire guitar and again the reason I
knew this was
a G is because the low E string and the
high E string PI goes without saying but
they're the same note low E and high E
so anything so this is a G this is also
a G this is a this is also a name so
again you can figure out any note by
just starting at the open one so like if
I wanted to find out what the fifth fret
on the D string is I could just count it
D D d sharp F sharp G I can get it that
way or I can know that this is a G and
octave down to a G just like that
ah the same thing kind of applies
counting backwards sometimes it'll be
quicker to count backwards and forward
so let's say the 10th fret on the D
string right
let's find out what this is we could act
it down from the seat and figure that's
to see because I have the 8th fret
memorized as the C or it might be faster
to go backwards you know if this is the
D string
so the 12th fret it's also indeed you so
you just go backwards start at D go back
one which is C sharp D flat whatever
same thing and then go do a C right
so if you just memorize a few of them I
my personal thing is if you memorize the
first seven frets on the first two
strings that is an excellent base to
jump to any other note on the guitar
just using those tricks that octave
tricks kind of like going all over the
place and honestly the first seven frets
is it really too big of a deal if you
just kind of quiz yourself on it a lot
of these things you probably already
route chords on there any like like this
G alright no this is a G like a B minor
maybe an already know this is the video
so really just challenge yourself
memorize 7th fret on the E in the a
string and then just use that thing
where you can just skip to the octave
and then mirror over the 12th fret and
before you know it you'll be very you'll
be able to quickly and easily find any
note on the guitar be more confident
stop feeling ashamed of yourself and be
able to move chord voicings around your
logical stuff