Hey Friend,

Yesterday, I gave you a very simple way to find the perfect fourth interval AND tune your guitar if you don’t happen to have a tuning device handy. 

You do this by starting with a reference note from another instrument, a tuning fork or any other place to get a reference note. Heck, I’ll use the chord in a song I already know to give me a pitch to work from.

Ideally, an E or A note works best, but you could figure out tuning for the rest of the strings from the D, G or B notes.

The string you tune with the reference note is your base. When you’ve got the string tuned, placing your finger on the fifth fret gives you the the perfect fourth interval as well as the tuning for the next string up in pitch.

Starting with an E note (on the sixth string)? The fifth fret gives us A, which is the tuning for the next string up in pitch. 

The fifth fret on the A string is D - and the tuning for the fourth string. Slide up five frets on the D string, and there you have it - G for the third string.

However, the tuning for the B string is a little different. When you use a G note to tune the B string (second string), the interval is a major third, so only four frets up the neck.

But once you have B tuned, we go right back to the perfect fourth interval on the fifth fret, and we’ve come full circle to the E note for the first string.

By simply learning this easy tuning method, you now know what the notes are on the fifth fret of each string. 

Make sense?

Here’s another fun fact about the patterns on the guitar neck. If you slide your finger up two frets to the seventh fret, that is the perfect fifth interval on that particular string. Careful on the G string - the fifth fret is C, which is a perfect fourth above G.

But look also at the string next to the one you’re currently playing. That seventh fret is the same note as the open tuned string below it (in pitch).

If you can remember these little tricks (the patterns), you have instant reference points all over the neck to tell you what note you’re playing.

If this is confusing at all, don’t worry - it just takes time and repetition for some of these ideas to start making sense. I have to come back to things a few times for the concepts to gel in my head.

But the more you visit the concept and play with it on guitar, the more you will understand and you’ll begin to recognize other little secrets. 

It’s as if you’re being initiated into a secret organization that feeds you only information you can handle, little bits at a time.

Alright, gotta roll. Have a great Friday!

Peace~

Dave