GUITAR BASICS TO REMEMBER
There are only 7 letters used to define notes. These are: ABCDEFG There are 5 other notes called sharps and flats, for instance A sharp or B flat which are both the same note but as a rule, if you are going up in pitch you call it A sharp or if you are counting down you call it B flat. Back to this in a minute.
The guitar strings have to be tuned to something that makes sense and all you really need to remember is how these are tuned and how to work out where each note is and that's easy, just follow the simple rules listed below.
The normal tuning for a guitar is follows:
The thickest string is called the 6 th string and is tuned to E. The 5 th string is tuned to A. The 4 th string is D, 3 rd is a G, the 2 nd is B and the 1 st which is the thinnest is again to E. So looking at the guitar from the front and reading left to right its E A D G B E which you remember by making a sentence out of it that you can remember easily like for instance: Even A Duck Get Better Eventually.
The next thing to remember means going back to the sharps and flats bit. Because the 5 th string is an A I'll refer to that one to explain but the same applies to every string. Assuming you know what a fret is, (the bits of metal going across the neck of the guitar are called frets) there are 2 frets between each note except for between B and C and E and F because there is no B sharp or C flat and no E sharp or F flat. Keep reading it will all become clear in a minute. Looking at the front of the guitar if you put your finger just above the second fret on the 5 th string it then becomes a B (on the first fret, it would be A sharp/B flat) and if you move your finger down to the 3 rd fret it becomes a C because as I said there is no sharp or flat between them. Now if you move your finger down 2 frets it becomes a D (or 1 fret, it would be C sharp/D flat and so on). Another 2 frets and it becomes an E but as there is not a sharp or flat between E and F the next time you move up a fret it becomes F. Move up 2 more and it's a G and then 2 more brings you back to A but an Octave higher than the open string you started with.Therefore every string becomes itself an Octave higher on the 12 th fret and if you carry on going you get a B then C and so on.
All you need to remember is, between each note there is 2 frets apart from BC and EF so to remember this you make something up like Be Cool for the BC and Elaine Farts for the EF.
If you haven't realised already, the 5 th fret on the A string was a D which is what the 4 th string is tuned to so by holding down the 5 th string on the 5 th fret it should make the same note as the 4 th string with no finger on it (otherwise known as an open string) This applies to all the strings except for the 3 rd as you will find out if you experiment and that is because the 2 nd string is a B which is on the 4 th fret of the 3 rd string so to tune the 2 nd string you need to hold down the 3 rd string on the the 4 th fret instead of the 5 th . Don't worry about digesting all that at once, just print it out and keep it at hand to refer to as you go along.
Next, try the Jingle Bells chorus and see how easy it is.