All Notes on the Guitar

Click any note to hear:

There are exactly three octaves of the E chromatic scale in the first 12 frets. That means there are only 12 notes x 3 octaves + 1 (the first note) = 37 Notes! There are many reduntant notes however because the Guitar is a 2 dimensional instrument. On a one dimensional instrument ( piano, saxaphone, etc...), there is only one way to play a given note. This means there are many ways to play the same chords and scales, as well as many variations on the guitar. On a 24 fret guitar, there are only 49 notes! (That's 4 octaves) (ok, 49 notes if you count the first E. That is note one at fret zero. You could say there are 37 notes in the first 12 frets, with 36 semitones from start to finish. Semitone=half step is the space between the notes. In our system of music, we cut up each octave into 12 semitones.). When you point at a note, you will see the note name and number. The number tells you how many semitones from E-0 you are, and which fret you would be on, if you layed the notes in a straight line. Play an E chromatic scale without stopping from the lowest E to as high as you can go on your guitar on the high E string, and back down, taking a different path each time. You can go as slow as you want. Use the diagram as a road map, and the roots of E as your guide posts along the way. You have played every note your guitar can play (That is, one instance of each frequency). It's as if you layed out all the notes on one string and went 3 or 4 octaves in a straight line. This is the hidden framework of the guitar. In the green region there are 12 notes (one octave), in the blue region there are 12 notes (one octave), and in the dark blue region there are 12 notes (one octave).

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