The Magic of the 5th Fret……….
Ok so it’s not really magic but it is helpful to know!!
This is a very brief follow up lesson. you may have noticed in my previous lesson “How Musical Notes Relate to the Guitar” that my examples stopped at the 5th fret. There was a slight meaning to this.
If you work your way up to the 5th fret on the bottom E string you have an……………………
A
If you work your way up to the 5th note on the A string you have a…………………………….
D
The reason I am mentioning this in case you hadn’t noticed is the fact that when you get to the 5th fret you are actually playing the same note as the next string up. Go ahead and try it. If you put your finger on the 5th fret on bottom E it will sound exactly like the next string along as they are both the A note.
This works for all the strings with one exception, the G string. The next string along from G is B. If we count the notes up :
G (open) - G# (1st fret) - A (2nd fret) - A# (3rd fret) - B (4th fret)
So on this one string alone, because of how the sharps and flats work, if we put our finger on 4th fret it will sound like the next note.
The great thing about this is can help you easily identify and tune up out of tune notes. This also means that you can reach any note without having to jump up he fretboard, more on that later!
