Here’s the “A to G of the Musical Alphabet!”
I was going to have a “tl;dr” section at the top of this piece, but this article turned out to be pretty to-the-point. It’s just this one idea: the musical alphabet starts at A and goes through G then starts over again, pretty much forever. Although this is a guitar site, I’m going to use the piano keyboard to illustrate.
Why do you need to know this? I guess you don’t need to know. You can learn a few chords and be on your way and that is very ok with me. Yet if you are drawn in and want to learn a bit more about guitar and music in general, this is one of those foundational pieces of information that you’ll just have to know.
It’s not even that much to memorize, just seven letters, conveniently arranged alphabetically. There will be more in other articles where we expound on musical keys and endeavor to painlessly explore sharps and flats. For now, go forth and jam, secure in the knowledge that you are employing the musical alphabet in all your musical endeavors.
