Guitar fretboard

The image below is a picture of your guitar fretboard. To understand how this diagram below works, you need to hold the guitar out in front of you. The strings on the guitar will be directed towards your face. This view should be the exact view that the image below depicts. Look at the image below and visualize that the picture is your guitar facing you.

Each dot on the fretboard represents the different frets on the guitar, look below. The first dot is on the 3rd fret, the second dot is on the 5th fret, the third dot is on the 7th fret and so on all the way up the fretboard. Most guitars have these dots, but some may not. The double dot on the 12th fret represents the repeat of notes. Notice that the open position notes E A D G B and E and the notes on the 12th fret are the same. All notes repeat after 12 frets.

The Numbers below the fretboard are for a quick reference for each fret and are numbered 1 through 19. Count the frets on your guitar, some guitars have as many as 24 frets. Only 19 frets have been shown on the picture above, but that's all we need for now.  Just a quick secret, every  note on a string repeats every 12 frets. Every scale pattern also repeats itself every 12 frets as well.  We'll learn more about that later.

You may have noticed  that there are 6 strings on the guitar? Each string is labeled on the image above as E A D G B E. These are the 6 strings that make up the guitar. Notice the colors, each string has its own color. These colors will be illustrated on most images to help learn the strings and with placement of notes to the particular string. Each string and color  should be memorized. 

You may have noticed that there are two E strings? One is the Low E which is the Red E and is the largest string, look above. The other is the High E which is the thinnest string, check that string out. Each string is at times referenced by number in our lessons. These numbers are standard throughout the industry and they are as follows:

High E string	1st string	Thinnest
B string	2nd string
G string	3rd string
D string	4th string
A string	5th string
Low E string	6th string	Thickest

You should now know what 6 strings make up the guitar.  E A D G B E

	These strings need to be tuned before you begin to play. Check out the tuning basics chapter. Here's an A source (which is an open A string) to get you started tuning the guitar. It is highly recommended that you get yourself a guitar tuner, everyone needs one.
	Back to lesson 1

Good Luck,

From The Jam Room