Your Classical Guitar Input Here

How do you know whether the note is a flat or a sharp?

by Joe Gomez
(El Paso, Texas, United States)

I was wondering, how do I know whether a note on the fret board is a flat or a sharp, I especially wonder this when I'm going through scales, Could you help me some how to figure the notes out.

Thank You!

Hi Joe,

The key signature of the scale or piece should tell you that. For example, in C Major or A minor there are no sharps or flats in the key signature. But if you're playing E Major the key signature would tell you the notes of F, C, G, & D are all sharpened so when you come to them in the music you would know to play the sharp. Similarly for the flat keys as well.

The other way notes are sharp or flat is via "accidentals", which are sharp or flat notes contained in a particular bar (or the 7th note of the Harmonic minor scale) and are NOT part of the key signature.

You can see some (free) theory sheets here that talk about scales including the order of sharps and flats...

Hope this helps!

Kind regards,
Trevor M.