[NoQuestion]

This is kind of a complicated question, so bear with me here people.

My old guitar book taught me how to read notes on all six strings all the way up to the 3rd fret. My new guitar book is now teaching me the notes on the first and second string all the way up to the 13th fret. The first string notes up to the 13th fret are really easy to understand. But I'm having a problem with the second string notes. There's also a little diagram for the second string notes, but some of the notes are placed exactly the same as the first string notes (but that is obviously going to happen). For example, the first string notes are from the open E string to the F note on the 13th fret. Ok, that was easy. But for the second string most of the notes are places exactly the same on the music measure as the first string notes are with the little numbers "1," "3," etc. below indicating which fret to play the note on. Well, what I want to know is how do I know when to play those certain notes that are for both the first and second string? I mean, for the little example diagram there is a little (2) sign indicating that you play the notes on the second string, but I don't think most songs will have that.

Hope that wasn't ridiculously unclear!

[allthumbs]

Wow. I have read that 3 times and still don't get it. Ok, I just got it. Your saying that in standard notation, how do you know which string to play a particular note on when the same note can be played on different strings.
Nelsonite and a couple of the other theory guys can help with that.
I would think it would be economy of motion and experience. You would have to look at the piece and get a feel of where the music is going and what would logically fit. Sorry I can't be of mor help. I know there is a ball park way of knowing what the likely string range will be for a particular note but, it has been years since I have thought in standard.

[BigG]

That is the beauty of the guitar.

All the notes above the 5th fret starting on the 6th string (the thickest one) are repeated on the next string every 5th fret until you get to the 1st string ( the thinnest one) where only notes (pitch) above the 12th fret are not repeated. You can play the same note (pitch) on several strings.

For example, the open E of the first string can be played at the 5th fret of the the second string or the 9th fret of the 3rd string or 14th fret of the 4th string and finally the 19th fret of the 5th string. But, you get different tones as you move from the smaller 1st string to the thicker 5th string. Try playing a melody on the first few frets of the 1st, 2nd and third strings. Then try playing the same melody on higher frets using the 3rd, 4th and 5th strings. The tone is thicker. Some guitarists I know only play on the thick strings to get that particular tone.

The guitar covers about 3 octaves , 24 notes (pitch) from the lowest E on the open sixth string to the highest E on on the 12th fret of the 1st string. But if you count the frets (12 frets by 6 strings) you get 72 notes. So most of the notes are repeated more than once.

OK. I said my piece. So call me big mouth. BigG.

[NoQuestion]

Originally Posted by BigG

That is the beauty of the guitar.

All the notes above the 5th fret starting on the 6th string (the thickest one) are repeated on the next string every 5th fret until you get to the 1st string ( the thinnest one) where only notes (pitch) above the 12th fret are not repeated. You can play the same note (pitch) on several strings.

For example, the open E of the first string can be played at the 5th fret of the the second string or the 9th fret of the 3rd string or 14th fret of the 4th string and finally the 19th fret of the 5th string. But, you get different tones as you move from the smaller 1st string to the thicker 5th string. Try playing a melody on the first few frets of the 1st, 2nd and third strings. Then try playing the same melody on higher frets using the 3rd, 4th and 5th strings. The tone is thicker. Some guitarists I know only play on the thick strings to get that particular tone.

The guitar covers about 3 octaves , 24 notes (pitch) from the lowest E on the open sixth string to the highest E on on the 12th fret of the 1st string. But if you count the frets (12 frets by 6 strings) you get 72 notes. So most of the notes are repeated more than once.

OK. I said my piece. So call me big mouth. BigG.

Ok, so basicly you are saying that I should just play whatever sounds best or whatever I'm most comfortable with? There's no real rule to what string I should play a certain note on?

[Kirk Lorange]

Originally Posted by NoQuestion

Ok, so basicly you are saying that I should just play whatever sounds best or whatever I'm most comfortable with? There's no real rule to what string I should play a certain note on?

There are no rules really, it's just that some positions are easier in the context of the piece you're playing. Keep in mind that music revolves around chords and on a guitar, chord notes need to be clustered together in order to play them all. That's the main reason you would need to choose between this string or that string.

As for learning notes on each string, just remember that notes come in alphabetical order: ABCDEFG, and that there are 'in between' (#/b) notes between all of them except E>F and B>C.

So for the B string, start at B (obviously), then just go alphabetically up from there: C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B ... that's your 12th fret.

[NoQuestion]

Originally Posted by Kirk

There are no rules really, it's just that some positions are easier in the context of the piece you're playing. Keep in mind that music revolves around chords and on a guitar, chord notes need to be clustered together in order to play them all. That's the main reason you would need to choose between this string or that string.

Right, that makes sense. Whew, guitar is getting a little more complicated to play now (not that it wasn't complicated before ) Before when I only learned the notes up to the third fret, it was like, this note goes on this string and this note goes on this string, and that was that. But this is way cooler!

As for learning notes on each string, just remember that notes come in alphabetical order: ABCDEFG, and that there are 'in between' (#/b) notes between all of them except E>F and B>C.

So for the B string, start at B (obviously), then just go alphabetically up from there: C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B ... that's your 12th fret.

Awesome! Thanks a lot, that really helps.