Learn your guitar string names and numbers

Learn your guitar string names and numbers

Do you know your guitar string names and numbers? The standard guitar has six strings and each one has a number and a letter name.

1. E – 1st string
2. B – 2nd string
3. G – 3rd string
4. D – 4th string
5. A – 5th string
6. E – 6th string

When you hold your guitar in playing position and look down at the strings you are actually seeing them in reverse order. The string closest to your face is the sixth string. This is the thickest string and the lowest pitch. But it has the same name as the first string, E. 

To differentiate these two notes/strings on the guitar, we will often use names like “high E” and “low E” or “top string” and “bottom string.”

Do some guitars have more than six strings?

Yes, you will encounter some guitars that have seven, eight, and even ten strings. While most of these have the same tuning for the top six strings, the lowest strings’ tuning differs depending on the instrument. Here are the typical tunings for these instruments:

• 7-string guitar: B E A D G B E
• 8-string guitar: F# B E A D G B E
• 10-string guitar: ^F# ^G# ^A# B E A D G B E
  • The ^ indicates that these notes sound one octave above the low B. Thus, this is a form of re-entrant tuning that Spanish guitar player Narciso Yepes invented to get extra resonance out of his instrument.

The Russian 7-string Guitar

One guitar, however, has seven strings and is tuned differently. The Russian guitar has seven strings and is tuned: D G B D G B D

Check out a wonderful performance from Oleg Timofeyev on a Russian seven-string guitar.

The musical staff

Now that you know the order of strings and which is which, let’s see what those look like on the musical staff:

As we have already seen, there are two E’s, one on the 1st and the other on the 6th string. The 1st-string E sounds two octaves above the 6th-string E. An octave is a musical interval between two notes that have the same name. So if we start from E on the sixth string and go up two octaves, we reach the E on the first string:

Mnemonics to help you remember your guitar string names!

It’s always helpful to have some easy mnemonics to remember your guitar string names. Here are a few, but make up your own!

• Even Amateurs Do Get Better Eventually
• Eddie Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Eddie
• Euripides Ate Dozens of Greek Baklava Everyday
• Eat a Darn Good Breakfast Everyday

String numbers in guitar music

Typically in actual guitar music we won’t have string names above the notes. Instead, guitar music uses circled string numbers (either above or below the notes) to tell us which string to play. Those look like this:

Bach, Prelude (BWV 999):

Tárrega, Capricho Arabe:

Alternative tunings and string names?

What about alternative tunings and string names? There are several alternative tunings that are quite common on classical guitar. There are a few that are more common in other styles. And there are some that are just plain unique.

Drop-D tuning

The most common alternative tuning on classical guitar is Drop-D tuning. This tuning drops the sixth-string E by one whole step down to D. Here’s the tuning:

DADGBE

There are many pieces in the repertoire that use this tuning. Here’s some of the most recognizable:

Capricho Árabe by Francisco Tárrega

Julia Florida by Agustín Barrios Mangoré

Chaconne by J.S. Bach (BWV 1004)

Drop-D and Drop-G tuning

Another classic tuning in the repertoire is Drop-D and Drop-G. Like Drop-D, we tune the sixth-string E down to D, but we also tune the fifth-string A down a whole step to G. The resulting tuning is:

DGDGBE

This is a very common tuning for pieces in G Major or minor. Here are some great examples:

Sevilla by Isaac Albéniz

Tonadilla (La Maja de Goya) by Enrique Granados

DADGAD

“DADGAD” is a very popular tuning on acoustic guitar. It is much less common in the classical guitar repertoire.

DGDGBD

This is a tuning very close to the Russian guitar tuning we looked at above, but for the six-string guitar. Here’s one piece that uses this tuning in the repertoire:

Ikonostas by Angelo Gilardino

C#G#C#G#C#E

By far the most interesting tuning in the repertoire is the open C# minor tuning in Carlo Domeniconi’s Koyunbaba.

Koyunbaba by Carlo Domeniconi

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Want to go deeper? You can learn the entire guitar fretboard with our six string scales. These scales have you play the same note (in different octaves) on each of the six strings across the fretboard. Go here to get started with six string scales.

We hope this introduction to guitar string numbers and names was helpful! Are you a beginner looking for more lessons? Check out our Beginner Classical Guitar Resources page.