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String Names & Numbers

Core Location: Ground

Know your string names and numbers, as soon as possible.

This session also introduces you to the idea of tablature [lines as strings]. What we have put on lines in this session (string indicators, which are numbers in circles) and letter names, never appear in modern tablature. This is for learning purposes only.

guitar strings names and numbers

We can stack 6 lines to represent the 6 strings of the guitar. When we do this, we are using tablature. Tablature, or tab, is a system of notation which uses numbers on lines to indicate which frets are to be played on which strings. We will take a look at tab in this section, but first let's learn our string names and numbers using the lines of tablature.

We've shown the string names as standard tuning [E-A-D-G-B-E]. And we've provided a learning acronym (Eat Apples Daily, Goto Bed Early - use it or make up your own). Our guitars can be tuned to thousands of different tunings. Standard is a baseline starting point for guitar.

I believe that understanding and using standard tuning is essential for all guitarists, even if basing operations in a different tuning [I live in C-G-D-G-C-D most of the time] or a different string setup. Standard tuning informs other tunings, and vice versa.