Getting to Know the Notes on Your Guitar's Fretboard

[This is one in a series of lesson on music theory. Click here to subscribe to these free music theory lessons.]

Unlike the piano, on the guitar there are often several ways of playing the same note.

A good exercise is to pick a different note each day and find as many different ways as you can of playing that note (in different octaves).

Let's start with E. You probably know that the 6th string is E and the first string is also E. But can you find all of the E's on your fretboard? What do these E's look like in musical notation? How about the E on the 4th string, 2nd fret? Can you find two other ways of playing that same E? (These other ways may come in handy in certain musical passages.)

The link below will take you to short "movie" which will show all of the E's on your fretboard and give you practice in playing them. The movie will play like on a VCR. Please use the PAUSE button on the player when necessary to pause the movie so you have time to find all of your E's!

Click here for a guitar lesson on finding all the E's on your fretboard.

Have fun, but don't stop here. Tomorrow, pick a different note and find all the different ways of playing it in different octaves. Keep going until you master all of the notes on your fretboard!