Getting Started
The musical alphabet & half-steps
Music uses only 12 notes. Learn their names, why some have sharps and flats, and how they sit on the guitar.
Twelve notes, on repeat
Western music uses twelve notes. After the twelfth, the pattern repeats one octave higher. That’s the entire palette.
The notes have names that recycle the first seven letters of the alphabet:
A A♯/B♭ B C C♯/D♭ D D♯/E♭ E F F♯/G♭ G G♯/A♭ (then A again)
A few important details:
- There is no E♯ and no B♯. The distance from E to F is already small; same with B to C. Those two pairs sit next to each other with nothing between.
- Every other pair has a “black-key” note in between, named with either a sharp (♯) or flat (♭) — they’re the same pitch, different names depending on the key.
That’s it. Twelve notes. Memorise the sequence.
Plain-language version
Think of the notes like a circular alphabet. After G, the letters start again at A. Sharps and flats are the in-between notes. The guitar makes this easier because every fret moves one space around the circle.
Half-steps and whole-steps
The smallest distance in Western music is a half-step (also called a semitone). On the guitar, that’s one fret.
A whole-step (tone) is two half-steps — two frets.
Click a row to see the steps animate.
On the fretboard
The fretboard is a perfectly linear half-step grid. Each fret you move along a single string raises the pitch by exactly one half-step.
So starting on the open low E string:
| Fret | Note | Step from previous |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | E | — |
| 1 | F | half-step |
| 2 | F♯ | half |
| 3 | G | half |
| 4 | G♯ | half |
| 5 | A | half |
| 6 | A♯ | half |
| 7 | B | half |
| 8 | C | half |
| 9 | C♯ | half |
| 10 | D | half |
| 11 | D♯ | half |
| 12 | E (oct) | half |
Notice: at fret 12 you’re back on E — one octave higher. That’s the repeat point. Every string repeats at the 12th fret.
Try this
Play every fret on the low E string from open up to fret 12, naming each note out loud. Do the same on the A string (starting on A). Five minutes a day for a week and the lowest two strings are yours forever.
All notes — first twelve frets
Sharps vs flats
Why call the same pitch F♯ sometimes and G♭ other times? Because the key you're in dictates the spelling. Stay tuned — once you learn the major scale formula, this will make perfect sense.
Beginner checkpoint
You are ready for the next lesson when you can answer these without panic: What is a half-step on guitar? What is a whole-step? What note is at fret 1 on the low E string? Why does fret 12 have the same note name as the open string?