Learn The Guitar Fretboard – Part 1
Today we are looking at the first step in learning the guitar fretboard. To do that we need to understand what intervals are.
Intervals are the distance between two notes. Knowing this, we can start with the smallest interval which is called a “half step.” A half step is when 2 notes are 1 fret apart (counting the 1st note as zero). A “whole step” is the next largest interval and it is when two notes are 2 frets apart.
If we understand this we can find any natural note (a note with 1 name) on the guitar.
Half steps will be known as ‘H,’ and whole steps will be known as ‘W.’
If we have all the natural notes in music starting from A and their intervals, we will have this:
Now we do an exercise, starting with the big E string, where we name all the natural notes on that string to fret 15 (or as high as you can go if you want) and back. If we start from E then we go up just a half step to F which is found on fret 1. Continue this process on all strings and you are now on your way to learning the notes on the fretboard.
Happy note naming, video is below.