Welcome, and glad you asked! This is a web-based tool to help you learn the individual
notes on the guitar.
Will this teach me how to be a great guitar player?
Easy there, tiger. Being a “great guitar player” involves a lot of things (chords,
strumming, ear training, etc). Memorizing the notes on the guitar fretboard is just one part of unlocking your
full potential as a guitar player.
Do I need to learn all of the fretboard notes?
If you only want to strum around a campfire, you’re probably fine learning just a handful
of chords. But if you want to truly improve your playing and not grope around the neck blindly, you need to
know all the notes on the guitar neck.
Wait, learn all these notes?...Seriously??
Yes, but it’s easier than you think. And, yes, you can do it!
But how?
Check this out: All of the frets past the 12th fret are repeats of the previous 12 frets, so we can ignore
those entirely:
You also don’t need to learn any of the accidentals directly (aka the sharps and flats). If you know where all
the Gs are, for example, you can play any G# just by moving up one fret. So let’s remove all
the accidentals:
As far as note names go, the high E string is a duplicate of the low E string, so we can get rid of that entire
string:
Not so bad now, right?
If that still feels like a lot, considered just one string:
Memorizing the notes of the fretboard is literally just five versions of this!
That looks doable!
Heck yeah it's doable. It just takes some practice, and this site can help you do that.
How can this site help me?
First, understand that there are two main methods of learning the guitar fretboard notes. Let's look at both...
One note at a time
This is the default mode of GuitarSim -- it will prompt you to find each instance of a random note
across all active strings, and then tell you whether you selected the correct fret or not.
By default, GuitarSim will only prompt you to find the “natural” notes. When you’re ready for a bigger
challenge, click the icon in the upper right and enable the “Include sharps & flats” option.
One string at a time
In the settings, disable all strings except for one to focus on mastering the notes of a single string.
Like with the previous method, GuitarSim will only prompt you for the natural notes by default. Click
the icon in the upper right and enable the “Include sharps & flats” option when you’re ready for a bigger
challenge.
Suggested “two strings” version: Click the gear icon and enable only the low E and A strings to learn
all of the notes on these strings. The low E and A strings contain the root notes for all common barre
chords, so if you learn the notes for these strings, you’ll also know every barre chord!
Each method reinforces the other, so I recommend you regularly alternate between the "One note at a time" and
"One string at a time" methods.
There’s also an Explore mode
Click the Explore link in the upper left to see the note names of any fret you select.
FAQs
Why are only the first 12 frets “playable”?
As mentioned above, the frets above the 12th fret are repeats of the first 12 frets, so we just need to
focus on learning the first 12 frets.
Why can’t I select any open strings?
This tool focuses on learning the fretted notes, and you probably already know the open strings just
fine. If not, the open string notes are the same as the 12th fret notes.
Why is there no sound?
Memorizing the notes of the fretboard is pure rote memorization — no sound required. You can practice
here any time in blissful silence.
What about chords and scales?
Maybe in a future version. For now, this tool is laser-focused on helping you learn the notes of the
fretboard.
