Free online tool
Guitar Fretboard Notes: Chart, Trainer and Printable Sheet
Fretboard notes for guitar, bass and ukulele: a labelled note chart, a fretboard trainer to memorise every fret, and a blank fretboard sheet to print.
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Both sheets print black on white. The chart uses the tuning, number of frets and note names chosen above.
Sound is the real pitch: a standard guitar's open low E sounds E2, an octave below where guitar music is written.
About the Guitar Fretboard Notes
The Guitar Fretboard Notes tool shows the name of every note on a guitar neck, so you can see exactly which note sits at each fret on each string. It runs in your web browser, is free, and needs no sign-up. You can switch between guitar, bass, and ukulele tunings, choose how many frets to show, and pick sharp or flat names. It works as a fretboard map, a note-finding trainer, and a printable chart for practice. Click any fret to hear its note at real pitch, highlight one note everywhere on the neck, or print a labelled chart and blank fretboard sheets to fill in.
How to use the Guitar Fretboard Notes tool
- Open the Instrument and tuning control and pick a tuning: Guitar standard E A D G B E, drop D, DADGAD, open G D G D G B D, Bass 4-string, Bass 5-string, or Ukulele standard G C E A.
- Set Frets shown to 0 to 12 (the default), 15, 22, or 24.
- Choose Note names: Sharps (C#), Flats (Db), or Both (C#/Db).
- Tick Left-handed if you play left-handed.
- Select Note chart. Every fret is labelled with its note.
- Click one of the 12 note buttons, C to B, to light up every position of that note and dim the rest. Click any fret to hear it and light that note everywhere.
- Tick Natural notes only to hide sharps and flats, and press Clear highlight to reset.
- Select Trainer to test yourself. Pick “Find the note” or “Name the note,” set your strings, frets, and timer under the neck, then press Start. Press Stop when you finish.
- Select Print to get a labelled chart or four blank fretboards per page.
With a keyboard, press Tab to reach the neck, use the arrow keys to move, and press Enter to play a fret. The settings appear in the page address, so you can return to the same view later.
Guitar fretboard explained#
A guitar fretboard is a grid of strings and frets. Each fret you move up raises the pitch by one semitone, which is the smallest step in Western music. There are 12 semitones before the note names repeat, so the names run C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B and then start again at C.
Sharps and flats name the same notes two ways: C# and Db are the same fret. The Sharps, Flats and Both options in the tool only change the label. The 12th fret is an octave above the open string, which is why the note names repeat there.
Guitar string names#
In standard tuning, the open strings are E, A, D, G, B, and E, from the thickest string to the thinnest. Guitar music is written one octave higher than it sounds, so the written pitch and the real pitch of a string differ by an octave.
Bass guitars use E, A, D, and G, with a fifth string tuned to B below the low E on a 5-string bass. Ukulele uses a re-entrant tuning, G, C, E, and A, where the fourth string is a high G rather than a low one.
How to memorize the fretboard notes#
Start with the low E string. The high E string has the same note names at the same frets, so you learn two strings at once. Its open note is E, fret 1 is F, fret 3 is G, and fret 5 is A. Learn these few landmarks before the rest of the string.
Use the fifth-fret rule to move between strings. On any string except the G string, fret 5 gives the open note of the next string up. For example, fret 5 on the A string is D, and fret 5 on the D string is G. The one exception is the G string, where fret 4 gives B, because the G to B interval is a major third instead of a fourth.
Once you know the landmarks, practise with the Trainer. Start with one string, set the fret range small, and turn on “Find the note.” Add more strings and frets as your answers become quicker.