Musical Notes & the Note Circle

In this video, I just want to quickly introduce the notes that exist in music and a method to try and find them on the guitar. Now at this point, we're not wanting to memorise all of this, I just want you to be aware of it. I want you to be aware that there are 12 notes in Western music. And that many of those notes are called naturals, so they don't have sharps and flats, and they just go in alphabetical order. A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Many of those have a sharp version of that note, for example, A sharp. That note can also be called B flat, for example. A harp and B flat are enharmonic equivalents. They're the same pitch, they're the same note. You only need to know the word enharmonic equivalent if you're in a pub quiz or a music theory exam, but that's the deal, that's what's happening, and this exists in the same musical notes that you sing, that an orchestra can play, that you can play on a piano, and on the guitar neck. On the guitar neck, the best place to start learning this is just. On the A string, because then it goes in alphabetical order. And we're just gonna have a go at that now using something called the note circle. Why is it a circle? It's because we have 12 notes in an octave, and then that octave can just keep going. So the next time we get to A and we've gone round a full octave. The notes just keep going higher and lower relative to the note circle. Some people can sing very low, some people can sing very high. They're still singing these exact same notes. Where are they on a guitar? Well, we know where they are in the tuner notes because we've just tuned our guitar to standard tuning, E A D G B E. Those notes actually exist. At the 12th fret as well, E A D G B E, that 12th fret can be found by the two dots indicated on the top of the guitar and often on the inlays as well. That is a huge amount of knowledge already, but all I want to add to that is just being able to count around this note circle on one string, on the A string. So starting off at the top of the note circle and then going higher, we would go A. And then if we fret the first finger at the 1st fret of string 5 of the A string, and we're gonna press it right up against the fret just here. Against that fret wire, we are playing the note A sharp, which can also be called B flat, but let's just stick to the sharps for now, seeing as we're counting up. The next note is a B. Second fret on the A string is a B. The third fret, which has a dot or an inlay, a dot inlay on my guitar. Is a C note that fretting this string makes the pitch of this note a C from there. We have C, AKA D flat. 5th flat next inlay is a D. Fret 6 is D, or it can also be called E flat. Next up is an E. And that is also at a dotted fret at fret 7. Fret 8 is an F. The next dotted fret on my guitar is F. 10th fret, which is a space. Is a G We then have G. And then finally A. And we've gone all the way around the note circle, and playing that A completes something called an octave, which is the distance between the same letter note at the next highest pitch. In this case, one octave between the open string and the 12th fret. For some of you that will be a recap of what you've covered in music classes before, but for some people that might be something that they'd totally forgotten and you needed a reminder of it. Be aware of this going forward because it really helps answer the questions that might come up at a higher level. Solidifying this now means that there's no mystery later on. I'll see you in the next video.