The notes on a guitar exist in a simple pattern

You can always find someone to argue with about whether or not it’s important for a guitar player to learn the notes on a guitar fretboard. Personally, I used to think it wasn’t that important. Sure, I needed to know some of the notes across the guitar fretboard, but all of them? Nah…I played for years without worrying too much about that.

How good can you really get without mastering the notes on a guitar?

But my inability to quickly name the notes haunted me. How is it possible for a person to play guitar for years without knowing all of the notes on the guitar fretboard? It’s actually quite possible, honestly. But it’s a question of degree. You can get by knowing just a handful of important notes, as it turns out.

In fact, you could argue that you don’t need to know any of the notes by name so long as you know chord shapes. That’s actually true. But the question is, how far can one go as a guitar player without taking the time to learn the notes on a guitar.

Lots of great players probably didn’t know the notes on a guitar fretboard

I’m thinking of old country guitar players, delta blues guitarists, folk guitarists, and so on. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that a lot of very successful and/or respected guitarists really didn’t have the ability to instantly name any note on the fretboard.

They didn’t need to, so maybe you don’t need to either. That could be true. But I’d argue that if you really want to accomplish great things on the instrument, you will be better off knowing the fretboard as thoroughly as possible.

OK then, how do you learn the notes on a guitar?

There are many different techniques that people have devised to help you learn the notes on a guitar. I’ve used some of them. I’ve tried this and that. And I still don’t know the notes instantly. But at least I can finally work out the notes at any fret on any string quickly now that I recognize a simple pattern.

I eventually discovered a technique for doing this that, once I finally saw it, was so obvious that I’m almost embarrassed to say I didn’t know it–and use it–all these years. But I’ll share it here so that you might get the benefit of it sooner in your guitar-playing journey than I did.

The guitar is full of relationships

When you first look at the guitar neck…in fact, maybe for years of looking at the guitar neck, it looks pretty intimidating. There are so many frets and six strings. How can you possibly learn what note lies at each fret for each string?

Well, it turns out that the guitar is full of relationships, and you can use these relationships to understand the instrument and to learn the notes on a guitar. From these relationships you can form patterns.

There’s one pattern in particular that I finally recognized (after years of playing) that has helped me be able to identify the note at any fret on any string relatively quickly. And with practice (and finally some intention to learn) I’ve begun to memorize notes and can recognize them instantly. I’m not all the way there even yet, but I’m getting better.

The pattern that unlocked the guitar fretboard

The pattern is so simple, I don’t know why I didn’t see it years ago. I can only chalk it up to laziness and bad observational skills. It does require you to know (or be able to work out) the notes on the Low E string and the A string (and we’re talking about a six-string guitar in standard tuning now). But once you can do that, this pattern unlocks the rest for you.

The Pattern from Low E

Start with the low E string. Take any note on that string. The guitar fretboard is full of that same note in different positions, and we can use this pattern to nearly instantly find two more notes of the same name as our start note.

Here’s the pattern:

1. Start at any fret on the E string
2. Skip over the A string to the D string
3. Move up two frets. This is the same note (only an octave higher) as the note you started on
4. Skip over the G string to the B string
5. Move up three frets. This is the same note (only two octaves higher) as the note you started on

And that’s it! Brilliantly simple. Let’s try a specific example to drive it home.

1. Fret the A note at the fifth fret of the low E string
2. Skip over the A string to the D string
3. Move up two frets. You’ve now found another A note at the seventh fret of the D string
4. Now, skip over the G string to the B string
5. Move up three frets. You’ve now found an A note at the 10th fret of the B string

And just like that you’ve identified three of the A notes on your guitar. And since you know that the high E string is the same as the low E sting (as far as note names goes), you already know where four A notes are.

Use the pattern starting from the A string too

That pattern is cool enough starting on the low E string. With it you can identify tons of notes on the guitar neck already. But it gets better, because the exact same pattern works when you start anywhere on the A string too.

Let’s try it starting on the C note that you find at the third fret of the A string.

1. Start at the third fret of the A string. This is the note C
2. Skip over the D string to the G string
3. Move up two frets to the fifth fret of the G string. This is another C note
4. From there, skip the B string to the high E string
5. Move up three frets to the eighth fret. This is another C note

It works backwards for the notes on a guitar too

So, what if you want to know what note sits at a specific fret on any string? No problem, because the pattern works starting on any string and moving in either direction. Just remember that if you’re moving the direction we’ve been going so far (low notes to higher notes), if your next note is on the B string or the high E string, you have to move up three frets instead of two.

Conversely, if you’re moving the other direction (high notes to low), then if the note you’re starting on sits on the high E or the B string, you need to move down three frets. If that starting note sits on any other string, move down two frets.

Let’s try some examples

Say you want to know what note sits at the ninth fret of the B string. You can work your way backwards to the E string (whose notes you hopefully are starting to memorize already) to figure the note out.

1. Start at the ninth fret of the B string
2. Move three frets down to the sixth fret
3. Skip the G string to the D string
4. Move two frets down to the fourth fret
5. Skip the A string to the low E string

You now find yourself at the fourth fret of the low E string which you hopefully have memorized is the note G sharp (or A flat). So, the note you started with at the ninth fret of the B string is G sharp (A flat).

Try another one.

1. Start at the 15th fret of the G string
2. Since you’re already on the G string, move only two frets down to the 13th fret
3. Skip the D string to the A string

The note at the 13th fret of the A string you have hopefully memorized as A# (B flat).

You have a little initial memorization to do first

By now you’ve noticed that one key to using this pattern is that you have to know the notes on the Low E and the A strings. At first you might have to work them out, but eventually you will come to know them by heart.

Once you have those notes memorized, you can use this pattern to identify any note at any fret on the guitar. And I’ve found this to be a fast way to learn the notes on a guitar!

It took me far too long to recognize this simple pattern. Hopefully now you can skip years of confusion and fumbling around and use this pattern to start mastering the guitar!