Really Learn Guitar - Fretboard Free Tutorial

Really Learn Guitar™ -
Fretboard Free Tutorial

The fretboard is the top surface part of the guitar neck. The thin metal bars embossed on the fretboard are the frets themselves. These frets are counted starting with fret one, being the furthest away from the body, fret two (being closer to the body than fret one), fret three (closer to the body than fret two), fret four, five, and so forth. The end of the neck where the strings attach is called the "headstock".

The dots found on your fretboard are referred to as position markers. These position markers are typically found on frets 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 15, 17, 19, 21, and sometimes fret 24. Frets 12 and 24 have 2 dots on them. Some guitars are made without these position markers, and some are made with the position markers on the side of the neck so you can see them while you're playing.

Nonetheless, the position markers are always positioned in the same place so that you can pick up any guitar and play it with ease. The frets are usually numbered using Roman Numerals as shown on the diagram. Remember in school when they taught you Roman numerals and you were wondering when you would ever use them? Well, now is your chance.

Guitars are usually made and played in a 6-string version, although some guitars have more than 6 strings. For now, we'll focus on the most common 6-string guitar. The sixth string is the thickest string on the guitar and the first string is the thinnest one. In standard tuning, each string has a letter name.

The sixth string is tuned to E, five is tuned to A, four - D, three - G, two - B, and one - E. These open string notes are shown on the headstock on the fretboard diagram. On the diagram each fret's note is indicated, along with what is called it's "enharmonic equivilent". The enharmonic equivilent is the alternate name for the note, depending on what key you're playing in. The Really Learn Guitar™ course covers this fully.

There are, nevertheless, many different approaches to tuning guitars and probably many of your favorite players employ their own special tunings. However, that's a topic for a different day. Please refer to the fretboard diagram below for more information. Don't forget to check out the lesson content that is included in the course.