Page 6 - Fretband Vol.1
P. 6

Learn Your                                              “Open notes” means
                                                                            playing a string without
                   Open Notes                                               holding down any of the
                                                                            frets. We use these note
                                                                            names to tune our guitar.




          First things first, in order to tune and play our guitar it is important to know the name of each
          string. First let’s set up our guitar with the fretBand labeled 12. Wrap the FretBand around the
          12th fret of our guitar as shown in the diagram below. If you are using an acoustic guitar then it
          will be best to apply your FretBand on the 10th fret to avoid the heel that connects the neck to the
          body that may prevent a proper wrap with your FretBand.
                                                                                             Acoustic Guitar  Electric Guitar






                                                                                                E            E
                                                                                                B            B
                                                                                                G            G
                                                                                                D            D
                                                                                                A            A
                                                                                                E            E



          Now that we have our FretBand attached to our guitar let’s take a closer look. Hold you guitar
          straight out in front of you with the fretboard facing you. The letters on your FretBand tells you
          what note will be played if you were to pluck each string without pressing down any of the strings
          with your fretting hand. These are referred to as your open notes. Keep your guitar held out in
          front of you for one minute.


          *FretBand Visualization Exercise
          FretBands add a visual learning element that is proven to accelerate your understanding and progress of
          this great instrument. Before the start of each daily practice you will hold your guitar facing towards you
          for one minute. Look closely at the FretBand labels attached to the fretboard. Focus on what your looking
          at. For example; if your learning a scale look at its shape, if its a chord learn what notes make up that
          chord and study its shape. The point of this exercise is to add in a visual connection to the materials that



          While holding the guitar in its proper positioning, the string closest to the ground is called the e
          string. The next strings in ascending order are: the B string, the G string, the D string, the A string,
          and the E string. It is important to remember that when a string is referred to as either high or low
          it is in reference to their pitch; not their height. When a lesson tells you to do something on the
          high e string it is actually referring to the small string closest to the ground.
                 While you are learning the letter names of the strings, you will also learn a different desig-
          nation for them called string numbering. This classification system will be used a lot in the lessons
          and is also very simple. The high e string is called the 1st string and each ascending string goes up
          one number. The B string is the 2nd string, the G string is the 3rd string and so on. In lessons if
          you are told to go to the 2nd string third fret you would know to place your finger on the third fret
          of the B string. A common mistake with this numbering system is to assume that the 1st string
          is the low E string. Just remember that the 1st string is closest to the floor and the 6th
          string is all the way at the top.
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