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In this week's and next week's columns I will show you how to find every note on your guitar neck, even if you presently don't know one single note. This is really not as complicated as it may sound, especially for those of you who have tried to memorize a few notes and may not have seen a pattern to this madness. Actually, once I show you a few tricks, you will find it quite easy, and in no time you will know how to find every note on your guitar neck.

To accomplish this task, we need to know the names of all six strings. Diagram 1 shows you the names of these six strings, starting from String 6. Remember that String 6 is your thickest string and is the one which is closest to your face as you look down towards the strings.

The next phase to this process are the following theoretical music facts:

1) Musical notes range from A to G, therefore: A, B, C, D, E, F, G.

2) A semitone equals the distance of one fret on the guitar neck, when traveling from either B to C, or E to F, including their reversal of C to B, or F to E. You will soon understand how this relates to what I am going to show you.

3) Between all other notes, whether going to or from these, you will travel a distance of two frets.

4) Start with the name of each string, as it is called when plucked without any finger applied to any fret, commonly referred to as open.

5) Follow this formula for every string.

Now that you have the basic steps, I will demonstrate how we apply this to our guitar neck to produce all the note names on each string.

Diagram 2 shows String 1, which by the way is identical to String 6. In this diagram we start with an E note open, then followed by the F note (remember the one-fret rule between E and F). Now from F to G is two frets, G to A is two frets, A to B is two frets, B to C is one fret, C to D is two frets and D to E is two frets. At this point you now have covered one complete octave, from E open to E at the 12th fret. To keep going, simply follow the same procedure all the way up the guitar neck.

Diagram 3 is another example, and this time using String 4. Notice how we start with the open D note and then proceed to an E note on Fret 2, because of rule No. 3 as stated previously. Now follow the same procedure as you did for String 1 and you will have all your note names as they relate to String 4.

To apply this with all the other strings, simply refer to the name of the open string associated with that individual string and apply my five simple steps, and presto! You will find all your notes.

Next week I will show you how to find all the remaining notes by applying a further couple of rules to the ones you now know.

Good luck and have fun.

Norman Learo is a musician, teacher and composer who has released several compilations of original guitar music.