Learning The Basic Musical Alphabet & Intervals
Free Video Guitar Lessons
Subscribe to GuitarSchool1 on YouTube for more free lessons
The Letters
Pitch in music refers to the highness or lowness of a sound and is named by using the first seven letters of the alphabet: A, B, C, D E, F, and G. These are known as the natural notes. They will keep repeating themselves as the sound gets higher: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C etc., or lower G, F, E, D, C, B, A, G, F, E, D, C, B, A etc. until they are out of the range of the instrument or our hearing.
Memorization Guitar Trainer
- How to Memorize the Notes on the Guitar Neck
This article will show you the best method ever of how to efficiently learn and memorize the notes on a guitar neck in the shortest amount of time.
Intervals: 1/2 Steps & Whole Steps
The term interval refers to the distance between two pitches, the most basic interval being the half-step:
On the guitar and all fretted instruments, each fret is a half-step. On a piano playing every key is a half step.
and the whole-step:
On the guitar and all fretted instruments, every two frets is a whole step. On a piano playing every other key is a whole step.
Here are the intervals between the natural notes starting on C:
C -whole step- D -whole step- E -half step- F -whole step- G -whole step- A -whole step- B -half step- C
The octave is the interval of 12 half-steps.
Natural Notes On Piano
Sharps & Flats
Although there are only seven letters used, there are actually a total of 12 different sounding pitches that make up the “musical alphabet” and 21 possible names for these twelve pitches because of sharps(♯) and flats(♭).
Sharp means raise the sound of the natural (♮) note by 1/2 step (On a guitar 1 fret toward you and on a piano the very next key to the right after each white key),
Flat means lower the sound of the natural note by 1/2 step (1 fret away from you).
So we can take the natural notes: A B C D E F G, and lower them a half-step to get:
A♭ B♭ C♭ D♭ E♭ F♭ and G♭,
or raise them a half-step to get:
A♯ B♯ C♯ D♯ E♯ F♯ and G♯
for a total of 21 pitch names.
(There is also something known as the double sharp, and the double flat, which is raising or lowering the natural pitch by a whole-step)
Five of the sharps (ACDFG) can also be renamed as flats (BDEGA) or vice-versa. For example: A raised a 1/2 step (A♯) is also the same as B lowered a 1/2 step (B♭)
When 2 notes are the same pitch but written differently they are known as enharmonicpitches.
A♯ = Bb, C♯ = D♭, D♯ = E♭, F♯ = Gb, G♯ = A♭
The natural notes, E and B can be raised a half-step to become E♯ = F and B♯ = C.
The natural notes, F and C can be lowered a half-step to become F♭ = E and C♭ = B.
Notes on the Guitar
BEADGCF Exercise for the guitar
Play and say the notes BEADGCF on each string.
- The Simplified Basics of Starting to Learn to Play t...
This is the absolute bottom line of how to start playing guitar. The information given here is in small chunks, easy to digest and will give the student a solid foundation to pursue guitar mastery. - Learn The 5 Positions of the E Minor Pentatonic Scal...
The minor pentatonic scale on the guitar, and particularily the E minor pentatonic scale is a blues and rock guitar staple. There have been so many guitar driven songs in this key that one could easily make a case for E being the starting place to le - Bending the Strings in Blues Guitar
About the nuances of bending strings on the guitar - How to Memorize the Notes on the Guitar Neck
This article will show you the best method ever of how to efficiently learn and memorize the notes on a guitar neck in the shortest amount of time. - The CAGED Guitar Chord System for Beginners
There seems to be a lot of mystery and confusion surrounding the much lauded - How To Play Rhythm Piano (Why should guitarists have...
The problem with traditional piano education is that it doesn't teach you how to play in a band. - Blues Rhythm Guitar Chord Fills Lesson
One of the most recognizable cool blues rhythm riffage sounds are the alternating minor triads superimposed over a dominant 7th chord.. This article demonstrates how to use these must know patterns. - Blues Turnarounds For Guitarists
Details on how to play blues turanarounds on the guitar featuring 9 classic blues turnaround examples in tablature - Learning To Play Jazz Guitar From The Beginning
How to approach learning beginning jazz guitar - The Techniques for Learning Improvisation
An overview of concepts applied to improvisation and composition. This article gives someone a better idea of some of the elments involved in learning how to approach this.
Comments
stella vadakin from 3460NW 50 St Bell, Fl32619 on August 18, 2015:
A very useful hub for any beginner learning the guitar.
Lorne Hemmerling from Prescott on April 04, 2014:
Hi Mark. If you want to insert the right symbols for sharps and flats, find the special characters menu item (in Google Chrome it is under the edit menu). You should be able to insert musical symbols from there. Great post, my friend!
