Up until now we’ve been focusing on notes that are called natural notes—notes that don’t have a sharp or flat. Don’t know what sharps or flats are? That’s ok—read on! Before we go further here are a couple of important things to memorise…
Here’s a silly but effective way of remembering this…
- Remembering Sharps: What would happen if you stood on something SHARP (like a nail?). If you’re like most people, you’d jump UP in the air!
- Remembering Flats: What would happen if your car got a FLAT tyre? Chances are, the car would sink DOWN towards the ground.
Here’s a table showing you what you’ve just learned. Notice in the first column I’ve given you the symbols that musicians use to indicate a flat or sharp…
Let’s look at an example to make things 100% clear…
Example: If G is at the 3rd fret then …
- G# would be at the 4th fret.
- Gb would be at the 2nd fret.
Let’s now look at the musical alphabet with sharps and flats added. Check out the diagram below..
Important: Although B#, Cb, E# and Fb do exist in certain music theory situations. I’ve left them out of the diagram to keep things simple for now.
To finish off this lesson, here are a few fretboard diagrams that you can use for future reference…
Musical Alphabet Diagram 1: No Sharps or Flats
Musical Alphabet Diagram 2: Sharps Included
Musical Alphabet Diagram 3: Flats Included
