Fretboard anatomy & standard tuning

The pieces

Looking at your guitar held in playing position:

• The nut is the white strip at the headstock end of the fretboard. Notes played on an “open” string are notes at the nut, before any fret.
• Frets are the metal bars dividing the neck. We refer to spaces between frets by the higher number — “play fret 3” means in the space between frets 2 and 3.
• Inlay dots mark frets 3, 5, 7, 9, and a double dot at 12 (the octave). They exist purely so your eyes can find your way. Every guitar uses these.
• Strings are numbered 1 to 6, where 1 is the thinnest (highest pitch) and 6 is the thickest (lowest pitch). Yes, this feels backwards. You’ll get used to it.

Standard tuning

The six strings, from thickest (6th) to thinnest (1st), are tuned:

6 (low E)

E — the lowest, thickest string

5 (A)

A — five semitones above low E

4 (D)

D — a fourth above A

3 (G)

G — a fourth above D

2 (B)

B — a third above G (the odd one)

1 (high E)

E — a fourth above B, two octaves above the low E

Five of the six gaps are a perfect fourth (5 frets). The one exception is between the G and B strings, where it’s a major third (4 frets). This is why some shapes look different on those two strings — we’ll come back to that.

Diagrams in this site

When we draw a fretboard horizontally, the top string is the highest-pitched (1st) and the bottom is the lowest (6th). This matches what you see looking down at your own guitar.

Take a moment to find every E on the diagram. There are six: open 6th, fret 7 on the A string, fret 2 on the D string, fret 9 on the G string, fret 5 on the B string, and open 1st. That’s not a coincidence — it’s the octave shapes we’ll learn next chapter.

Try this

1. Pluck every open string and call out its name out loud: “E, A, D, G, B, E.”
2. Press fret 5 on the low E string. That’s A — the same note as your open A string. Pluck both and listen — they’re identical pitches (one octave apart? no — same octave, same pitch).
3. Press fret 5 on the A string. That’s D — same as your open D. This is the trick behind the most common method of tuning: each string at fret 5 equals the next open string. Except the B string, which equals the G string at fret 4, because of that one major-third gap.