Guitar fretboard notes: the first five frets

One fret is one half step

The frets on a guitar are spaced so that each one raises the note by exactly one half step (a semitone), the same distance as one key to the next on a piano. Press fret 1 on the low E string and you get F. Fret 2 gives F♯, fret 3 gives G, and so on. Twelve frets later, at fret 12, you are back at E, one octave higher.

Because the note names follow the musical alphabet C, D, E, F, G, A, B, you can work out any fret by counting. The only thing to remember is where the half steps fall between natural notes: E to F and B to C are one fret apart; every other pair of natural notes is two frets apart.

The notes on every string, frets 0 to 5

Every sharp also has a flat name: F♯ is G♭, C♯ is D♭, and so on. Guitarists usually say the sharp name when climbing the neck and the flat name when descending, but they are the same fret.

Notice that the two E strings have identical notes two octaves apart, so learning string 6 gives you string 1 for free.

The fret 5 trick

Look at the fret 5 column: A, E, C, G, D, A. Apart from the G string, fret 5 of each string is the same note as the next thinner open string. Fret 5 of low E is A, the open A string; fret 5 of A is D; fret 5 of D is G; fret 5 of B is high E. The exception is the G string, where fret 4 is B, the open B string.

This is how players tune by ear, and it is a shortcut for navigation: once you know the notes on the low E string, you can find them on the A string by moving down one string and back five frets. The relationship is explained from the tuning side in guitar string names.

Octave shapes: find the same note higher up

An octave is the same note name twelve half steps higher. On guitar it has a shape you can see. From any note on the low E string (string 6) or A string (string 5), go two strings thinner and two frets higher and you land on the same note an octave up. From the D or G string, go two strings thinner and three frets higher, because of the G–B major third.

• G on string 6, fret 3 → G on string 4, fret 5
• C on string 5, fret 3 → C on string 3, fret 5
• F on string 4, fret 3 → F on string 2, fret 6

Octave shapes are how guitarists check a note name quickly: find the note on a thick string you know well, then jump.

The C major scale in first position

Using only the first three frets you can play every note of the C major scale, C D E F G A B C: string 5 fret 3 (C), string 4 open (D), string 4 fret 2 (E), string 4 fret 3 (F), string 3 open (G), string 3 fret 2 (A), string 2 open (B), string 2 fret 1 (C). This “first position” scale is the guitar equivalent of the white-key scale on piano; compare the C major scale on piano.

e|---------------------------------|
B|-----------------------------0-1-|
G|---------------------0---2-------|
D|-----------0---2---3-------------|
A|---3-----------------------------|
E|---------------------------------|

Practise the fretboard on the virtual guitar

The online guitar shows every note name on the fretboard and, when you play one, displays its key, pitch, string, and fret. In Melody mode, the arrow keys move the window along the neck from fret 0 to fret 24, so you can check any note in the table above and hear it.

Then open the guitar path and look at the String navigation and Fret navigation categories. Those beginner exercises move across the first frets with a four-beat count-in and timing feedback. A string melody is a good place to start: five notes on the B string at 60 BPM.

Common mistakes

1. Forgetting the two one-fret gaps. E–F and B–C are neighbours. Everything else is two frets apart.
2. Applying the fret 5 rule to the G string. G to B is a major third: fret 4, not 5.
3. Memorising the whole neck at once. Learn the low E and A strings up to fret 5 first. With octave shapes and the fret 5 trick, the rest follows.
4. Learning names without sounds. Play each note as you name it, and sing it if you can.