Finding any note on the neck – free guitar course

The neck looks huge, but it follows simple rules. With three tools you will find any note in seconds.

1. Notes on strings 6 and 5

Memorise the natural notes on the two bass strings: they are the roots of every barre chord.

Fret	0	1	3	5	7	8	10	12
String 6	E	F	G	A	B	C	D	E
String 5	A	—	C	D	E	F	G	A

2. Fret 12 = the octave

Everything repeats from fret 12: the neck really has only 12 frets to learn.

3. Octave shapes

String 6 or 5 → two strings up, two frets further (e.g. G on string 6 fret 3 → G on string 4 fret 5).
String 4 or 3 → two strings up, three frets further (the B string shifts things by one fret).

M:4/4
L:1/2
Q:1/4=72
K:C clef=treble-8
G, G | A, A | C c | D d |]

A daily 2-minute drill on the interactive fretboard: pick a note and find it on all six strings, from 6 to 1, saying the fret out loud.

Note: the tab in our scores always picks the lowest position; when a melody is played higher up the neck, mentally move the note to another string using these octave and unison shapes (same note: fret 5 of one string = next open string, except the G string: fret 4).