Page 16 - Fretband Vol.1
P. 16
The Musical
Alphabet
Every note in music has a letter name. To name musical notes we only use the first seven letters of
the alphabet: A,B,C,D,E,F & G. These notes are referred to as natural notes, they repeat over
and over in both directions. To visualize what this looks like it’s best to look at the keys of a piano.
F G A B C D E F G A B C D E F G A B
What about those pesky black keys?
Even though only seven letters of the alphabet are used, there are actually twelve repeating notes
in all. The five remaining notes (black keys) fall in between the natural notes. These notes are
called sharps (#) & flats (♭). It's important to know that the same note can have more than one
name. For example, the black key in between C & D can be called C# or D♭. The full musical al-
phabet looks like this: A (A#/B♭) B C (C#/D♭) D (D#/E♭) E F (F#/G♭) G (G#/A♭). For
now and for the sake of simplicity we will only use sharps (#) until further lessons.
F G A C D F G A C D F G AA
# # # # # # # # # # # # ##
G A B D E G A B D E G A B
♭ ♭ ♭ ♭ ♭ ♭ ♭ ♭ ♭ ♭ ♭ ♭ ♭
F G A B C D E F G A B C D E F G A B
The missing keys!
Notice that there are no black keys (no sharp or flat) in between the notes B & C and E & F. It
just skips to the next natural note. You will learn the reason for these two exceptions later on your
journey. For now, it is very important that you remember this fact!
The musical alphabet on guitar
Just like the keys on a piano, each fret on the guitar represents one of the 12 notes of the musical
alphabet. In the example diagram below we are using the open low E string (thickest string) to
