In scientific pitch notation, the guitar's standard tuning consists of the following notes: E 2– A 2– D 3– G 3– B 3– E 4. Standard tuning is the tuning most frequently used on a six-string guitar and musicians assume this tuning by default if a specific alternate (or scordatura) is not mentioned. In standard tuning, the C-major chord has multiple shapes because of the irregular major-third between the G- and B-strings. Communities of guitarists who share a common musical tradition often use the same or similar tuning styles. There are hundreds of these tunings, often with small variants of established tunings.

The term guitar tunings may refer to pitch sets other than standard tuning, also called nonstandard, alternative, or alternate. To aid in memorising these notes, mnemonics are used, for example, Elephants And Donkeys, Grow Big Ears. Standard tuning is used by most guitarists, and frequently used tunings can be understood as variations on standard tuning. Standard tuning defines the string pitches as E, A, D, G, B, and E, from the lowest pitch (low E 2) to the highest pitch (high E 4). This sometimes confuses beginner guitarists, since the highest-pitched string is referred to as the 1st string, and the lowest-pitched is the 6th string. By convention, the notes are ordered and arranged from the lowest-pitched string (i.e., the deepest bass-sounding note) to the highest-pitched string (i.e., the highest sounding note), or the thickest string to thinnest, or the lowest frequency to the highest. Tunings are described by the particular pitches that are made by notes in Western music. For example, C is suitable for ballads and Eb can sound a bit like Bach.Guitar tunings are the assignment of pitches to the open strings of guitars, including acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and classical guitars. Preferable is to play chords with your left hand and notes from the scale with your right ( more on improvisation).Īn interesting thing is that different major scales have their own “sounds”. To explain further: you can play chords like C, Em, F, G and Am together with the C Major Scale. See harmonizing major scales into chords.Īn easy way to start improvising on the piano is to play major scales together with the chords that use the same notes. In the key of C, for instance, the standard chords being used are: That is because you can randomly choose three different notes from a scale and you will get a triad. Scales and chordsĪs soon as you know a certain major scale, you can easier grasp the chords in the same key. This is because the notes below the diagrams are foremost thought to be easy to understand. Also, the notes in the diagrams and the notes in the overview below sometimes differ. F#) that can look peculiar, see theory for an explanation. In some cases, there are double-sharps (e.g. As an example, C#, D#, E#, F#, G#, A#, B#, C# and Db, Eb, F, Gb, Ab, Bb, C, Db (as in C# / Db scales) are the same notes but partly written differently. The notes are, however, the same on the keyboard. C# and Db), because they can be played in two different keys. Some of the scales have two names divided by a slash (e.g. The nature of the intervals labels the Major Scale as a diatonic scale. This helps you a lot until you have memorized all the scales and vice versa: you don’t need to memorize them if you know the intervals. These are always the same for scales in a specific category. The intervals and steps are important to learn. The Major scales in graphic compilation are available in the member area.Ī collection of keyboard charts can be downloaded as a PDF-file. This hi-res digital poster includes all Major scales, but also all Minor scales together with major and minor chords.

E standard notes