Let's start off by answering the homework questions I left you with in the last lesson.

Question 1 :Let's say you are playing the fret A5. How many half steps are there between A5 and D5?

Answer : D5 is 5 half steps up from A5. How do we test this to confirm that it is true? Easy, we move up 5 half steps from A5 to A10 and check to see if the pitch on A10 is the same as the pitch on D5. If it turns out that the pitches are the same, then we know that our answer is correct. Remember, in lesson 2 we tuned the guitar using this method of comparing the pitch of a fretted note on one string to the open pitch of the next string below. This pitch comparison method becomes a very useful tool for the aspiring guitarist and is something you should become intimately aware of when practicing. In fact, you can check to see that the interval between A6 and D6 is also 5 half steps. So is the interval between A7 and D7 and so on up the neck.


Question 2 Part 1: Similarly, if you were on B7, how many half steps are there between B7 and G7?

Answer: Since we are sstarting on B7 and moving to G7, the answer is four half steps down. We can check this answer by comparing the pitch on B3 to the pitch on G7, since B3 is four half steps down from B7. You might be wondering why there are only 4 half steps in this situation, where there were five half steps in the former question's answer. The reason is because when we tuned the B string to the G string, we held down the B note on G4 and tuned the open B string to that note rather than the C note on G5. If you need to, go back and review lesson 2 to refresh your memory about this difference that occurs when tuning the guitar.


Question 2 part 2: Are there the same number of half steps in the interval from B7 to H7? Remember, H is just our way of notating the high E string from earlier.

Answer: The simple answer to this question is "No"! The interval between B7 and H7 is five half steps. We can confirm this by moving from B7 to B12 and comparing the pitch we get on B12 with the pitch we get on H7. Where the distance between B7 and G7 was only four half steps. So, it is important to remember that when we tuned the B string to the fourth fret of the G string, this changed the interval between those two strings and made it different from the interval between any other two adjacent strings.

At this time I will list the length of the interval between adjacent strings so that you will have a complete listing for your own notes.

Low E string to A string (5 half steps)

A string to D string (5 half steps)

D string to G string (5 half steps

G string to B string (4 half steps)

B string to High E string (5 half steps)


Memorize that because it is very important. Your music career depends on it. Also, it is important to note that a G string is not something your girlfriend wears to the beach. Okay, bad joke, but a little humor helps to lighten the mood when learning a lot of important details. At the moment, it may seem like you are memorizing a lot of stuff, but in time it will all become so second nature and intuitive that you won't even think about it. You will just naturally compute the length of an interval and jump all over the guitar neck because you know precisely how far to jump to get to the note you want.

Because i know you are dying to get your hands on another finger exercise, here is one for your playing pleasure. If you have any trouble recalling how our notation system works, please refer back to lesson 3.

Think of this first section as your index finger remaining planted on the 7th fret of the A string and just lift and drop the other indicated fingers as needed without moving your index finger on A7.


A7i, A9r, A7i, A10p

A7i, D9r, A7i, D10p

Now, move your index finger back to A6 and use the same technique, but pay attention to the new fingering pattern below.

A6i, A7m, A6i, A9p

A6i, D7m, A6i, D9p

When you have played this pattern over and over again and have become familiar with how the fingering works, then feel free to move the pattern to different places on the neck and see how it sounds. Start to think of the notes as a shape you draw out on the neck when you play each note. If you start to think of patterns of notes as being shapes on the neck, it will help you to remember these exercises more easily. I just imagine that there are little dots under the strings where I place my fingers and start to build a mental image from there. It might take a little practice, but for blind and visually impaired people who have a good spacial sense, this approach should seem like second nature after doing it for a while. Because most folks in our situation are heavily reliant on mental maps. And that is all that a pattern of notes is (a mental map for your fingers to follow).


Corey J. Bray