Question About Reading.

The high E on the music staff (the space between the first two lines of the staff)
is played with the 1st (thinnest) string open (not fretted).
The E one octave below that is the E on the first line of the music staff and is played by 2nd fret of the 4th string.
The 6th string open E is 4 spaces below the staff.

Is that what you mean?

I'll pass on this, and let somehow who can read standard notation help you. But it's my understanding that every E note is an octave apart from every other E note, and will show up that way on the staff. To take an example - if you play an ascending run from E to F to G to A on one string, you won't expect to find the G note higher than the F note on the stave....that's the great thing about notation as opposed to tab, if you really understand it, you can play ANYTHING.....in the right key, with the right time signature, exactly as the artist wrote it. Whereas with tab, you have to know the song inside out....

:D :D :D

Vic

Yes! Thank you, sorry if it was a stupd question...

No such thing as a stupid guitar question.
Feel free to ask.
I like questions I can answer. The others I don't like.

The guitar has many multiples of the same note and so most notes can be played in many places on the guitar. When playing from written music you will often play in a position though you can switch between positions. The basic position that beginners start off with is called first position. That is when the first finger (index) is generally used for notes on the first fret, the second finger (middle) is used for notes on the second fret, etc. This isn't absolute but it's a general rule that can be broken for easier / better fingering.

Second position is where the first finger (index) plays notes on the second fret and the other fingers follow from there. Other positions are similar so eighth position is where the first finger plays notes on the eighth fret etc..

So, you can find those E notes in many positions up and down the neck. However, if you are in first position then the E note in the fourth space on the staff (just below the top line) is played as the open high E string. The low E on the first line of the staff is played on the 2nd fret of the D (4th) string.

Edit: Hyperborea got in first - I must try harder :D

I think what you're asking is "which of the many E's on the fretboard should you play when you see either of those two E's on the staff".
To expand on Wabbit and Vic's answers:
The E on the bottom line can be found in several places on the fretboard. The first (i.e., closest to the nut) is, as Wabbit mentioned, on string 4 fret 2, and as a beginning reader, this is probably where you'll be playing it most of the time. But if you play string 5 fret 7, or string 6 fret 12, you'll hear exactly the same note. That gives you a choice of three locations where you can play that note.
The E on the top space sounds an octave higher than the one on the bottom line, and that note can be found in even more locations:
String 1 open
string 2 fret 5
string 3 fret 9
string 4 fret 14
string 5 fret 19
string 6 fret 24 (if you have such a fret on your guitar - I don't)

As far as the sound of the music is concerned, it doesn't matter which one you play, as long as the pitch is correct. However there are other factors to consider when choosing where to play it, such as: which one is most easily reached (normally that's the one closest to the note you've just played), which one has the most suitable 'tone' (different strings - different tone, even though the pitch is identical) or whether you have to bend the note, apply vibrato, or pull off to a lower note (in which case you don't want an open string). You learn these things with experience.
There are other E's too apart from the two staff positions you mentioned. When needed, they appear above or below the staff.

Whewweeee!
You certainly get more than what you pay for on this forum!

Hi Agewizard,

Hyperborea nailed it with his decription of playing in various positions on the neck.

The guitar is a very versatile instrument in that it has a number of different places in which you play play the same note. Not only does it span between three and four octaves, but some of the same notes can also be played in more than one place. Compare this to a piano:

PIANO:

A full keyboard covers a bit over seven octaves, but each note is different. For instance, there is only one place on the keyboard that you can find the note that matches the high E string on the guitar. Piano notation needs a much bigger staff - it uses a treble clef and a bass clef, and if you want to show all 88 notes of the keyboard it takes many extra ledger lines above and below as well.

GUITAR:

More possible positions, but some are repeats of the same note. They're not all not just octave jumps. The guitar next to me now can play 23 different notes on each string - that's 138 in total. But it covers a couple of semitones short of four octaves, so it can really only play 46 different notes.

If you play the low E, and then the E on the second fret of the D string, they're an octave apart (different place on the staff). Play the high E and it's another octave up again (further up the staff). Go to fret 12 on the high E and you're now 3 octaves away from where you started.

By contrast, if you play the note at the fifth fret of the B string then it's the same note as the high E, and will look exactly the same on the staff. If you go all the way up to the 21st fret on the G string you''ll find another E that will also look the same on the notation. So you have a choice depending on what's comfortable and sounds best. These choices are nominally the 'same' note (not octave jumps) but they will still sound slightly different in timbre because they are being played on strings of different length and thickness.

I hope this wasn't too confusing. But what it boils down to in practice is that if you're playing at one end of the neck you don't necessarily have to go all the way to the other end to find a particular note - there's usually a choice of spots.

EDIT: OOPS :oops: I'm clearly the slowest typist of all.... well I did stop half way through to have a rather nice boiled egg for and toast for breakfast... :)

Cheers,

Chris

The guitar next to me now can play 23 different notes on each string - that's 138 in total. But it covers a couple of semitones short of four octaves, so it can really only play 46 different notes.

I think you missed one :)

You're talking about a 22 fret guitar. One octave has 12 different semitones, but you only reach the octave with the 13th note. So 4 octaves is really 49 semitones, and you're short two... so you've got 47.

To put some numbers to the choices, only the five lowest notes and five highest notes on a guitar are found in only one place. So on your 47 note guitar, 37 of them can be played in at least two places. Nine of them (B, C, C#, D, Eb, E, F, F#, G) can be played in five different places!

Most of those notes can be played with any of four fingers... one of the things I love about the guitar is how many different options we have for playing the same notes!

I think you missed one :)

:D

Nah, it's a custom model - the dog's partial to eating the odd semitone when I'm not looking...

I actually did think of deliberately putting a small error in, just to see if anybody really reads all this stuff and, if so, who would be the first theory dude to pick it up. For instance, I did consider giving my guitar 22 frets and 142 notes, for instance. As it happens, I managed a wee error anyway. Darn! Just a lousy semitone away from knowing what I'm talking about... :mrgreen: It's all my wife's fault for luring me way at the checking stage, with promises of boiled eggs and coffee...
(Couldn't be me could it??)

He's dead right of course - do have 47 notes, and a whole heap of spares for most of them too, exactly as he spells out...

Cheers,

Chris

I'm new at guitar and I was wondering, when reading music I know that E shows up twice on a G Clef music staff, and that there is an octave between them (I think..), what I don't get is which of the many E's to play. Does it have anything to do with the key?Well do you know any scales?

Think like this, If the both of the G's is played on the high e at the 9th fret your going to play one of those e's around those fret markers.

Derek,

There are no G notes in the original post. The G is in reference to the type of musical staff. The one that is most common is commonly called the "G clef" because the clef symbol curls around the G note line on the staff. So this is what the G was referring to.

Actuall, it's called the "G clef" because whatever line it curls around is named G. The same is true of the other clefs - the F clef names the line between the two dots F, and the C clef names the line passing through its center C.

That makes every clef moveable... so we've got other names for them too. "Treble" clef is a G clef wrapped around the second line from the bottom, "Bass" clef is an F clef marking the second line from the top. But you can also have a "violin" clef (G on the bottom line), "Baritone" (F on the middle line), and other variations. In fact, older music has LOTS of variations, and even some letters we don't use anymore... like the gamma clef :)