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How To Use The Chromatic Scale To Learn Notes On The Guitar

By Mike Hayes | March 3, 2010

Is there anything more mysterious than the guitar fingerboard,
thousands of players have tried to crack the code most have
failed? We all know what the fretboard looks like from the
audience’s viewpoint, but how does the fingerboard look from the
professional guitarist viewpoint?

If we think of each string on the guitar as a piano keyboard it
will make it easier to understand how the fretboard works. The
key of unlocking the fingerboard is understanding how the
chromatic scale works and how it applies to (a) the piano
keyboard and then (b) transferring the visual patterns of the
keyboard to each string on the guitar.

The piano keyboard model and the chromatic scale:

Almost every modern piano has 88 keys, 36 black keys and 52 white
keys if you were to start in the centre of the keyboard and play
every note (black and white notes) until you reached a note of
the same name as you started on you would have played a chromatic
scale.

If you played your scale moving up to the higher notes on the
keyboard (to the right) you would have played an ascending
chromatic scale; similarly if you played your scale by moving
down to the lower notes on the keyboard (to the left) you would
have played a descending chromatic scale.

Which chromatic scale did we play … the scale would take it’s
name from whichever note you began on; if you started on a ‘C’
and played all the notes on the keyboard until you reached the
next ‘C’ you would have played a ‘C’ chromatic scale.

If you started on a ‘Eb’ and played all the notes on the keyboard
until you reached the next ‘Eb’ you would have played a ‘Eb’
chromatic scale.

Beginning on a ‘F’ playing all the notes on the keyboard until
you reached the next ‘F’ would create an ‘F’ chromatic scale.

Simple isn’t it?

Well it certainly is on the piano … but we’re supposed to be
playing the guitar aren’t we?

Now that we know how the chromatic scale works on the keyboard
it’s a simple matter to transfer our newfound knowledge to the
guitar fretboard.

Rotating fingerboard concept:

If we view each string of the guitar in a linear fashion and
think of each string as being a chromatic scale learning the
guitar is a breeze.

Imagine for a moment that we were in a piano factory where five
piano technicians were each busy at work building a piano, the
factory was noisy and each of the technicians were a little bit
hard of hearing so when forman called out the instructions each
piano builder accidentally started building their keyboard on a
different note.

Here’s what happened …

Piano builder #1 started his piano keyboard on the note ‘E’.

Piano builder #2 started his piano keyboard on the note ‘B’.

Piano builder #3 started his piano keyboard on the note ‘G’.

Piano builder #4 started his piano keyboard on the note ‘D’.

Piano builder #5 started his piano keyboard on the note ‘A’.

Now let us say that they were designing a seven octave piano
keyboard, actually most keyboards are seven octaves plus a minor
third but we’ll modify things slightly for our guitar fretboard
project.

If each builder began on their respective notes and continued
building the keyboards here is how it might turn out …

Builder #1:

E – F – F# – G – G# – A – A# – B – C – C# – D – D# – E

(an ‘E’ chromatic scale repeated seven times)

Builder #2:

B – C – C# – D – D# – E – F – F# – G – G# – A – A# – B

(an ‘B’ chromatic scale repeated seven times)

Builder #3:

G – G# – A – A# – B – C – C# – D – D# – E – F – F# – G

Builder #4:

D – D# – E – F – F# – G – G# – A – A# – B – C – C# – D

Builder #5:

A – A# – B – C – C# – D – D# – E – F – F# – G – G# – A

Of course this result would be a disaster for the piano building
company however this concept would be an excellent way to learn
the guitar, think of each keyboard as the strings on the guitar:

Builder #1 = string 1

Builder #2 = string 2

Builder #3 = string 3

Builder #4 = string 4

Builder #5 = string 5

String 6 is the same as string 1

Using string one as an example

E – F – F# – G – G# – A – A# – B – C – C# – D – D# – E

The first ‘E’ would be the open string, the last ‘E’ would be
played on the twelfth fret, after the twelfth fret the guitar
fretboard simply starts again, fret thirteen is the same as fret
one, fret fourteen is the same as fret two etc.

E = open

F = first fret

F# = second fret

G = third fret

G# = fourth fret

A = fifth fret etc

Each note is represented by a fret on the guitar.

Topics: Beginner Guitar Lesson, Chromatic scale, guitar scales | No Comments »

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