Featured Article By Guest Blogger Ian Fraser:

“Learning the Guitar Fretboard Notes“

Knowing the guitar fretboard notes is the most important foundational thing you can learn as a beginner guitar player. Chords and scales are both of course made up of many notes so knowing your way around the fret board will allow you to understand where different chords are located, how to start different scales and more.

In this article I’ll be covering what exactly a half and whole step is and how to measure them on the guitar neck, how half and whole steps tie into spacing between musical notes and lastly how to use this information to find the different notes on the guitar neck. After reading this article and watching the video at the end of the post you’ll be able to find different notes on any string of the guitar and begin memorizing what notes are where.

Steps Between Notes

The concept of half and whole steps between notes originates on the piano, but since we’re playing the guitar we need to understand what denotes a half step and what denotes a full step on the guitar neck. Thankfully this is very easy. The guitar neck is divided up into many half steps. Each fret is actually one half step, so two frets equals on whole step.

With this new concept of whole and half steps we can understand the spacing between all 7 musical notes in terms of frets. Most notes have one whole step between them although there are two exceptions. Between the B and C notes there is only a half step as well as between the E and F notes. Below is an explanation of the spacing in terms of steps and frets between each note.

A to B : Full Step or Two Frets
B to C : Half step or One Fret
C to D : Full Step or Two Frets
D to E : Full Step or Two Frets
E to F : Half Step or One Fret
F to G : Full Step or Two Frets

Now that we know the spacing between each note on the guitar neck we can begin to locate the different notes at different positions one each string.

Starting from Open Strings.

The easiest way to start when you’re a beginner is to first learn all 6 string names. I’m going to assume you know those already, a quick refresher starting at the top: E, A, D, G, B and E. Since we know when we pluck each string it plays the corresponding note of it’s name we can use the spacing and step information listed above to find different notes.

Let’s look at a quick example: Starting with the D string what note comes after D? That’s right it’s an E and there is one full step from D (the open string) to an E or two frets. So the 2nd fret of the D string is an E. What note comes next? It’s an F, and from the information above we know that E to F is one of the exceptions where there is only one half step. So if the 2nd fret is an E the one half step up (only one fret remember) is an F. Finally if we look at what comes next it’s a G, we move up one full step, or two frets, to the 5th fret on the D string and that note is a G.

Starting from the open string and working your way up is the easiest method to being with. Once you feel comfortable about each note up to the 5th fret on each string (the 4th fret on the G string) you can start picking out notes other places on the guitar neck.

Below is a short video that explains the concept of steps, spacing between notes and the notes on the top three strings. Take some time to watch it and then grab your own guitar and give this exercise a try.

Want to learn some more great beginner information like this? Why not try some guitar lessons dvd programs? You get access to the same great beginner guitar information a private teacher would share with the benefit of watching and learning from home on your own time.

The Legendary Guitar of James Burton James Burton is highly regarded in the industry with a roll call of famous names who have sought his contribution to their music: Randy Newman, Gram Parsons, and Emmylou Harris among them. On this DVD he covers vibrato, stringbending, pick & finger techniques, solo construction, slides steel effects and his trademark “chicken pickin’” style.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars James Burton Style Guitar
James plays over chords and his chording style is different, which gives him a pretty unique sound. If you want some rockabilly licks, this is probably the best place to get them… and he’s got everything in slow motion at the end of the DVD. I’m having a ball picking up on this stuff.

Great!

5 Stars Insight into an Original
This guy developed a style and technique that not only has been a foundation for generations of guitar slingers that followed but is still an inspiration today. The cat can just play! The next best thing to a few private lessons. Highly recommended.

4 Stars James Burton – DVD Review
This one is for musicians and I enjoyed every minute of it. James demonstrates some of his more famous riffs and, for many of them, it was interesting (depressing)that for all these years, I have not been playing them properly.

What a great sound from the guitar and his style is unmistakable – there are some really great licks to be had from this if you like country rock.

One dissapointment – he did not demonstrate Johnny B Goode, which is one my all time favorites.

4 Stars Good
I remember Burton playing for Ricky Nelson and always liked his style.

This DVD does a good job.

3 Stars Fun to watch, not really an instructional video
This is really more of a demonstration video than an instructional video. Like many great players, Mr. Burton is not a guitar teacher, so you have to be ready to capture what you can from what he shows on the video. This DVD was originally released as VHS. The hot licks people added sections that slow down the examples so you’ll have a chance to figure out what James is doing. I consider it a good resource that I will go back to over time, but not really a how-to guide. I recommend viewing this in a player or on a computer that will allow you to do your own slow-down and repeats.

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Nathan East, Eric Claptons longtime bassist, is one the most respected musicians and sought-after sidemen in the industry. In addition to working with Eric Clapton, Nathan has performed and recorded with a Hall of Fame roster of artists including El…

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Adrian Legg takes an in-depth look at some of the more intriguing open tunings for acoustic guitar plus a variety of trailblazing effects. “Frailing” for guitar, Celtic-style playing, DADGAD tuning, open G tuning, dynamics, attack, advanced hammer and pull techniques, and even Scottish bagpipe effects-all these techniques and much more make this instructional DVD an exceptionally rewarding guitar lesson from a British guitar master.

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This classic instructional DVD covers a wide variety of Stuart Hamm’s bass guitar playing styles and techniques including left hand stretching exercises, slapping and popping, funk, major and minor arpeggios, right hand flamenco strums, two-handed polyphonic tapping, contrapuntal playing, percussive tapping, and much more.

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The Blue Side of Jazz is the follow-up to Joe Pass’s best-selling “Solo Jazz Guitar” that explores the blues elements of jazz guitar. Joe covers bebop blues, new chord substitutions, pedal tones, jazz/blues improvisation, and much more. As usual, Joe’s instruction is full of wit and style. His invaluable guitar lessons take you straight to the heart of the “blue” side of jazz guitar.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars “Great Resource!”
This DVD will give some insight to guitarists about how Joe plays his “chord grips” as he calls them and how he solos over any particular chord or progression.A useful companion DVD would be the “Solo Jazz” DVD by Joe.With careful study,both DVDs will help to give a basic explanation of Joe’s style and how he plays.After watching these DVDs,listen to Joe’s Cds with Ella Fitzgerald and Zoot Sims and you’ll get another lesson on how to comp for a soloist.Highly recommended.

5 Stars Joe Pass the Blues side of Jazz
This is a great tool for the guitar player who’s struggling with the transition from blues/rock style to jazz. Joe really helps guide us down the path we need to follow with this instructional and entertaining dvd.

5 Stars The next step up . . .
I rented this at NetFlix and liked it so much I went to Amazon and bought it.

If you are an intermediate level guitar player and you are starting to get bored with the same old blues changes, this dvd is for you. Joe shows you those rich sounding jazz/blues chords that will make your music more interesting, for you, and anyone playing with you. The good news is, they sound more complicated to play than they are. It is also interlaced with Joe’s dry, tongue in cheek, humor.

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This DVD offers six essential guitar lessons from the masters of Southern rock guitar.Lesson 1: James Burton demonstrates “Suzie Q,” pick and finger technique, and string bending. Lesson 2: Lonnie Mack demonstrates rhythm guitar, whammy bar tricks, and plays his hits “Wham” and “Memphis.” Lesson 3: Greg Martin teaches Eric Clapton, Chuck Berry, and Keith Richards styles. Lesson 4: David Grissom demonstrates vibrato, attack, Billy Gibbons style and pedal tones. Lesson 5: Lee Roy Parnell demonstrates slide guitar in open G tuning, Lowell George style and Dixie Chicken. Lesson 6: Warren Haynes brings a touch of the Allman Bros. band to string bending, plus Albert King style.Hot Licks classic video titles have been made available on DVD, making it even easier to learn with the world’s top players . . . right in your own home! These new transfers make them look better than ever while DVD technology makes navigating each guitar lesson even easier!

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Here’s your chance to get a one-on-one lesson with Brian Setzer of Stray Cats! Brian shows you a whole range of Rockabilly, Blues, Jazz, and Country licks and tricks including wild stringbending techniques, slap-echo effects, Jazz and Swing Guitar styles and some really hot solos that he breaks right down for you. Brian makes learning fun, so you?ll really enjoy this session!

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars Howd ya do that?
First off,this is vhs conversion to dvd item and the quality of course is not that good.In this video brian shows his virtuoso skills very niceley but you must keep in mind this dvd is not aimed at the beginner.only a good intermediate player can make good use of watching the split window examples.The demonstrations can be very intimidating for the beginner and the quality of the booklet included is very shoddy.Brian should really come out with his own.He would make a mint.This was shot in 92 so i think a second dvd would be much better thought out.This dvd is staying with me until i am a better player though.I would have bought it even if i wasnt a student just to watch brian noodle around!Great fun!Oh yeah,the looping on the slow mo is very helpful but on screen tabs are barely readable.

2 Stars Not Very Good
I have owned this video lesson for about 3 years now and have gone back to it many times. First of all, Brian is entertaining in the video and plays awesome, however, he never provides the detail as an instructor to analyze his playing. You can learn some cool licks from this video, but not understand how or why they were constructed.

Definitely not a beginners’ video and I would not recommend it. There really are some better rockabilly instruction videos out there that would serve you better.

5 Stars There is no problem
Because the commodity arrives early, it satisfies it very much though it was an order from Japan. The commodity is good and the content is the highest. Thank you.

4 Stars Better than expected
I bought this with low expectations for guitar instruction. I just knew it would be entertaining to watch Brian jam up close and personal. Well, from a performance perspective this was great. From a guitar instruction perspective, it was better than expected. He spends a lot of time breaking down “Too Hip, Gotta Go” with detailed descriptions of his unique picking style. He doesn’t go into too much detail about theory, such as how to substitute jazz chords. The only thing that bugged me was that this was obviously filmed during the swing revival of the early 90’s, and Brian goes a little overboard with the “swing” and “bop” references. Also, this is a video that was recorded to VHS in the early 90’s and has been converted to DVD. I’ve read some reviews that indicate the conversion quality isn’t very good, but in my opinion the quality was excellent. I highly recommend this if you are a fan of rockabilly, early rock, swing, or just entertaining guitar playing. Even if you aren’t a guitar player, this is entertaining enough for Brian Setzer fans to own anyway.

5 Stars Excellent video!
This video is awesome for any guitar player. Whenever I feel like learning some thing new I always pop this in. Brian Setzer is one of the best guitar players of all time and it shows in this video!

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A unique chance to learn from the greatest Chicago Blues guitarist of them all! Buddy reveals what he learned from Jimmy Reed, T-Bone Walker, and Lightnin’ Hopkins in a DVD lesson of exceptional quality. Buddy shows you a whole bunch of licks, techniques and styles including 9th chord licks, country blues finger-pickin’, double-stop licks, turnarounds-plus some exciting jamming with Junior Wells and Arlen Roth. A supreme lesson in The Blues from the man Eric Clapton once called “by far and without doubt, the best guitar player alive!”

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars The Bluest of the Blues
The is a fantastic DVD a must have for all guitarists. It gives you the nuts and bolts to play authentic vintage blues. Buddy lays it in your lap. The slow motion section (which does not alter pitch) is outstanding. How anyone can say anything else is beyond me, do not delay, if you want to play the blues, GET THIS DVD NOW!

4 Stars licks like the pros
I have this Hot Licks video on VHS, and I really like it. It’s true he isn’t playing his licks from his records, but he’s teaching the blues, going back to Muddy Waters and Lightning Hopkins all the way to the I guess the 90s, by way of Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn. It’s like blues music appreciation lessons… aren’t you supposed to slow down records to learn licks like the pros?

It does repeat itself, maybe Arlen Roth could of fixed the continuity, and it could put you into a trance with it’s slow pace, but that’s what you want music to do anyways, isn’t it?

5 Stars Excellent way to expand your blues vocabulary!
If you’re expecting a “how to get started on the blues” video, looks elsewhere. You should at least know the basics of blues soloing and rhythm to be able to play the stuff in this DVD. I would recommend this for mid-level players who want to expand their blues vocabulary in a way similar to the raw, pure sound of Buddy Guy.

As Buddy himself says on the video, you learn other people’s stuff and eventually put in your own things, making them unique. This DVD is great for sparking ideas. It also has a lot of fingerpicking blues, something I’d like to get into.

The slow-motion section of the examples are very helpful, and Buddy’s comments are spot-on and even inspiring.

Buy it!

1 Star Not for Beginners
This is Buddy Guy doing a Master Class in blues guitar playing. While I found it fascinating to watch his technique (right hand, especially -he plays with his fingernails like a Flamenco guitarist)I am years away from being able to reap any reasonable benefits. Unfortunately, this is marketed as if it were suitable for anybody, and it clearly is only for somewhat accomplished players. The picture quality was not good, with the color balance way off: everything was purple.

5 Stars Wow! I’m Glad I got this!
Review is about Buddy Guy: Teachin’ the Blues

I almost didn’t get this DVD because of the negative review on this site.

Man! I am SO glad I didn’t listen to that review and bought it anyway!

I figured it would be worth the price to watch Buddy Guy, even if it wasn’t such a good teaching tool, so I ordered it. I was very pleasantly surprised.

First, It DOES come with a booklet of tablature that’s tucked right in the clips of the front half of the case.

Now about the DVD; It has a “play” function that lets you just watch it like any other DVD, which may be all that some do. AND, it has a lesson function that lets you play each lesson individually – in either real time or slow motion and still have the right tone and sound to the notes played. In this mode there is also a box on the upper right of the lesson screen that says “loop” for repeating the lessons.

It also has a “tuning” function for getting your guitar tuned properly.

There is more that I haven’t explored yet (some of the “special features”) But I’ve seen enough already to know that this will be a very useful learning tool, as well as being good for watching Buddy play.

If you will listen to what he is doing and follow his instruction, there is a ton of useful stuff in this DVD to learn. You just need to stay with it like you would any lesson material. And Buddy tries to encourage you all through the video. He leaves a very good impression.

If I could contact him somehow, I’d say great job Buddy!!

Of course, if you just want to watch it and not take the time to learn, then you can do that too with the “play” function.

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House of Blues and The Rock House Method join together to offer this unique and comprehensive beginner program that will have you playing blues guitar in no time! Through 90+ minutes of one-on-one lessons with instructor and guitarist John McCarthy, you’ll develop a solid understanding of general guitar basics, a foundation for playing blues guitar, and a historical perspective. The program features essential blues chords and scales, the B.B. box, and lead techniques like string bending, vibrato, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and other techniques made famous by countless blues legends. There are complete blues rhythms, including the 12-bar blues and much more! The full band backing tracks let you feel the excitement and energy of playing in your own band. Also includes lesson book and online web membership to www.rockhousemethod.com for 24-hour lesson support with Ask the Teacher, interactive tools, sheet music, student forums, downloadable backing tracks, tuner, metronome, and much more!

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Easy to understand…
My 74 year-old husband was longing to learn how to play the Blues on his guitar….it’s pretty easy for him now.

5 Stars SIMPLY THE BEST!
I have been playing guitar since 1983. For many years, I have been looking for an instructional device that will help me get to another level. Once I got past the firt couple of chapters that did not teach me anything new, the whole rest of it was EXACTLY what I have been looking for. For a beginner, the entire DVD is going to be a must. McCarthy is an excellent guitarist, who plays with a pleasant variety and doesn’t sound at all generic. The overall architecture of these lessons has been so well planned, that the end-user is taken on an easy and enjoyable learning path. It’s not exactly “the blues,” but it IS the BEST instructions for learning rock guitar, which is founded from the blues anyway. Definitely buy this series, it’s well worth every penny!

2 Stars Good instructur, really awful tabs
Positive: Good instructor, relevant material, good pacing, access to additional web material.

Negative: Somewhat peculiar choice of riffs, oddball example blues leads, nearly useless tabs with frequent errors and no indication of timing or rythm.

5 Stars Great Beginner Blues Lessons
This is a great starting off point for those who want to learn the blues.

4 Stars Can be a usefull tool.
The content of the DVD has a lot of excellent and usefull information. The problem was the resources they referenced such as the support/member websites made it very hard to navigate, which made it hard to register and find the supporting information.

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