The example below shows a fretboard of a six string guitar up the to 12th fret.  The six horizontal lines are the strings and the vertical lines are the frets

The guitar repeats the 12th and 24th frets which is where the two dots are located. The open (0) and the 12th fret is an octave apart and the distance from the 12th fret to the 24th fret is also an octave apart. I will be discussing the octave in detail in another lesson.

This means that we have actually cut learning the entire fretboard in half. Breaking the guitar neck down into manageable chunks is a very effective way to learn.

Did you notice the dots that are on the fret board? The dots are very helpful to identify what position you are playing in. There is one dot on frets 3,5,7 and 9 (THE ODD FRETS) and two dots at the 12th and 24th fret.

NOTE: Most guitars have 22 frets but there are some that have 24 frets covering two complete octaves.

The diagram below shows a full two octaves. The first octaves is from the open to the 12th fret and second octave is from the 12th fret to the 24th fret. If you do not know what an octave is, don't worry about it for this lesson. I will be discussing the octave in detail in another lesson.

These BIG and BULKY diagrams will only be used when necessary. Look for the dots to find out what section of the fretboard you are in. Remember : There is one dot on frets 3,5,7 and 9 and two dots at the 12th fret (and 24th fret when available) which represent the octave and is where the guitar repeats.

The main concept for this fretboard lesson is this. You only have to learn the notes on the six strings up the the 12th fret. The most efficient way to learn all the notes on the guitar is by learning the notes on each string separately.

Here is a video showing how the notes are transposed and mapped out to all the strings.

This video has narration and was posted because of a subscribers request. If you  have ANY questions or comments, please leave them at my YouTube channel.

Reading Guitar Tab