The Map
Sharps, flats, and the two gaps
Why B goes straight to C, and why there is no such thing as E sharp.
Take the guided lessonSeven letters, twelve notes
The alphabet gives you seven names: A B C D E F G. There are twelve notes. Five of them have to borrow.
A borrowed note takes the name of a neighbour plus a direction. Sharp means one fret up, flat means one fret down. The note between A and B is A sharp if you came from below and B flat if you came from above. Same fret, two names.
The two places with no room
Between most letters there is a two fret gap, so a borrowed note fits in the middle. Between B and C there is one fret. Between E and F there is one fret. No room, no borrowed note.
So the full run is A, A sharp, B, C, C sharp, D, D sharp, E, F, F sharp, G, G sharp, and back to A. Count them. Twelve.
This is why B sharp and E sharp are not names you meet in normal use. The fret above B is already called C.
Find the gaps yourself
Every note is shown. Walk up any string and watch for the two places where the letter changes without a sharp in between.
Look for B to C and E to F. On the low E string, that is the open string to fret 1, and fret 7 to fret 8.
All twelve, with the gaps marked
Letters in blue, borrowed names in grey. The two places where one letter runs straight into the next are marked H.
B to C and E to F have nothing between them. Every other letter pair has one borrowed note in the middle.
Which of these is one fret, not two?
Match each sharp to its flat name
Same fret, two spellings. Which one you use depends on the key, and Grade 3 settles that.
Tap something on the left, then tap what it pairs with.
Find the two notes that have no fret between them, going B upward
Labels are hidden. Use what you know about the gaps.
The open B string is one of them. The other is one fret above it.
The two claims that cause the most confusion
A sharp and B flat are different notes that sound slightly different.
On a guitar they are the same fret and the same sound. The two names exist so that written music can keep one letter per scale degree.
E sharp and B sharp do not exist at all.
They exist and you will meet them in a few keys. They just are not the names you reach for day to day, because that fret is usually called F or C.
Takeaways
- Seven letters cover twelve notes, so five notes borrow a name plus sharp or flat.
- B to C and E to F are one fret apart, which is why they have nothing in between.
- One fret can carry two names, and those two names are an enharmonic pair.
- The key decides which spelling is correct, which Grade 3 works through.