Do You Know The Guitar String Names? You Should!
Hey everybody! I have a really basic lesson for you today… we’re going to learn the guitar string names. I know this is probably one of the first things most of you learned but if you haven’t done so yet I highly recommend being able to know the names and numbers for each of the strings instantly!
The main reason why I feel this is important is because it speeds up the learning process. If somebody says “we’re going to be on the D string,” and it takes you a couple seconds to think about it, you might miss the next thing they have to say… then you gotta rewind the video… it’ll slow down the learning process and make this a lot more frustrating than it needs to be.
First we use a mnemonic device, which is a sentence where the first letter of each word is the name of that string (which is the note that you get when you play that string open). Here are some example mnemonic devices that we can use to memorize the guitar strings:
EADGBE are the string names, from thickest to thinnest
- Elephants And Donkeys Grow Big Ears
- Elvis Always Did Get By Easy
- Eddie Ate Dynamite Good Bye Eddie
The numbers are super simple: we start at the thinnest string – that’s the first string. As long as you can count up to 6 from there, with the 6th string being the thickest string, you’ll be fine!
Finally, I show you an exercise that helps you memorize the strings as fast as possible. I call this a brute force memorization technique where you systematically go through the string names every single day for five minutes a day, using flash cards to test yourself.
I hope this helps speed up the learning process! Best of luck!
-James
