The whole note lasts for the whole measure when in standard time. In other words, the whole note gets 4 beats in 4/4 time. Most other notes divide the whole note. For example, half notes are played for one half the duration of the whole not. This is what the whole note looks like:

A half note is a note played for twice the duration of a quarter note. In time signatures with a denominator of 4, such as 4/4 or 3/4 time, the half note is two beats long. It looks like this: You can think of the half note as dividing the whole note into two. This…

A quarter note is a note that represents the duration of one beat. In other words, it gets one beat. It looks like this:  You remember that I told you that a song in standard (4/4) time gets 4 beats per measure, right? That would mean that the song would get 4 quarter notes per…

The diagram below shows you all of the primary notes on the fretboard of the guitar. You’ll use it in order to identify the name of the key signature. In order to get a sharp (#) simply go up one fret. To get a flat (b) just go down one fret. For example F# (2nd fret, low E string) would…

Frets are any of the ridges of metal set across the fingerboard of a guitar that helps the fingers to stop the strings at the correct points. A fretboard is a fingerboard that is fitted with frets. The nut of the guitar is the ledge, as of ebony, at the upper end of the fingerboard,…

This guitar pick tutorial will show you the proper use of a guitar pick. Don’t start out on the wrong foot. Learn how to use a pick the right way from the beginning. A pick is to be held with the thumb and 1st finger only. If you are right-handed, your picking hand will be…

Traditional music notation is better suited to show what happens on a piano, not a guitar. The guitar’s fretboard is drastically different than a piano’s keyboard and requires a different sort of notation called tablature (or tab for short). Unlike traditional music notation, tablature doesn’t take years to master, it only takes minutes. Tablature gives us a visual representation…

The key to learning the notes on the entire fretboard is first memorizing the 12 notes and their appropriate order. There are 12 different notes in music. Imagine them as blocks: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 7 of these are primary notes called A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. If…

The 12th Fret Memorizing the name of the notes on the entire fretboard can be a daunting task. A standard guitar has 21 or more frets. That’s 126 or more frets to memorize… or is it? Realize that the 12th fret is the same note as the open string. This is called an octave. An…