Learn how to name every note all over the guitar fretboard by using Octave Shapes!
View the full lesson at Octave Shapes | JustinGuitar
The Note Trainer App is very helpful with this lesson.
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Does the note circle theoretically go forever in each direction? Or is there an “lowest” and “highest” octave in music theory? How are they rated to know the difference between the same notes on different octaves?
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Jesse, my answer would be that it would be bounded by the range of human hearing range (typically 20-20000Hz). A piano’s range is 27.5-4186 Hz. A guitar around 80-1200 Hz
I don’t know enough about the physics of sound to talk about how the harmonics in the high range are created when you play notes on a guitar.
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Theoretically, it is only bounded by the bounds of numeric calculation.
Practically, a decent visual of the limits would be a piano keyboard of 88 keys:
This equates to seven + octaves.
Cheers 
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The last octave shape (6th string to 1st string same fret) is not one but two octaves apart. Do our ears need to know that or is it enough to recognise the common note?
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@dave.pritchard101
Just started out on music theory, but you have answered a query I had, that the 1st and 6th strings are two octaves apart. I expect this would come up at some point in the course
Thanks
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Maybe in the ear training it might. I have since learned that theory wise they are there as a tool to help us locate the notes on the strings.
There are some shapes that crop up in lead and rhythm playing, so they are useful.
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Thanks Dave @dave.pritchard101
I am only two months in with the guitar, started pmt and just had my first singing lesson. Will get around to ear training but I think I have enough on at present.
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I could be wrong, but the D octave sounds like the opening to Petty’s American Girl. Also, I recently encountered the E, F# and G# octaves in Radiohead’s High and Dry. With that one, it sounds even better when you don’t mute the 1st two strings. Fun stuff!
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I don’t understand how the 2 notes can be an octave apart but they are between strings and 4. Wouldn’t the same note on string 5, wherever it falls be an octave apart and the same notes on string 6 and 4 be 2 octaves aparts? Thanks in advance
Hi @Leigh24
Strings are not tuned an octave apart, so don’t think of the frequency difference that way.
Maybe thinking about the number of frets apart the strings are tuned will help. For standard tuning, strings are tuned 5 frets apart EXCEPT for strings 2 and 3 which are 4 frets apart. Since there are 12 frets between octaves, you can expect that a 2-string separation on the same fret will be 10 frets, move 2 more frets toward the body on the thinner string and you’ll have the octave (with the string 2 exception) and the locations on strings 6 and 4 you are questioning should fall into place.
Hopefully, this helps you have not only a mental feel for the octaves, but also a solid fact you can fall back on to check your “feel”.
Leigh - I presume you mean 6 and 4.
Earlier in the theory course you studied the major scale and pattern 1.
Look at these two versions of the G major scale pattern 1, the right hand diagram shows note names. Look for the octave repeats of the notes across all strings.
Do something something with chord diagrams of the major chords of C, A, G, E and D with notes on them.
I had posted this observation about the octave shapes in the old “classic” Intermediate Foundation 1 lesson on finding notes with octaves and then I discovered that this topic was in the PMT. (I need to continue my PMT studies now). I now see that Justin has also pointed out that octave shapes 3 and 4 are similar to power chord shapes. It is also obvious that octave shapes 1 and 2 are like G and C open chords shapes, minus one fretted note, but I thought that I would post here anyway for comment. Octave shape 1 is easy enough for me to play as the weak fingered G chord with unfretted strings muted.
I have just started learning the grade 4 lessons including the Intermediate Foundation lessons. When I got to this again (I had started this back in 2016), I had a major “Aha!”, moment.
I looked at the octave shapes and realized that I could easily remember the octave shapes using beginner chord shapes:
Octave shape 1 - Weak Finger G shape, fretted notes only - I.e. high and low fretted notes
Octave shape 2 - C chord shape ( “outer” fretted notes, i.e. minus 4 string E note).
Octave shape 3 - 5th string power chord (again, highest and lowest notes only)
Octave shape 4 - 6th string power chord (highest and lowest notes)
I find this mnemonic makes it easy to remember the shapes without counting over frets and strings a fixed number of steps. I can even find the octaves from a note without looking by forming the chord shapes.
Note: The G shape for Octave 1 makes sense, since the G chord notes are G on 6th string and G on the 1st string. The C chord shape for Octave 2 also makes sense, since the C chord notes have C on the 5th string and C on the 2nd string. if you moved the listed chord chart octave 2 shape down 1 fret towards the nut, then you have the C chord minus the E fretted note on the 4th string. I pasted in copies of the chord charts from the beginning lessons. This especially makes the power chord shape comparison readily visible.
Note that the first shape is two octaves. Knowing this, you can start to imagine where another shape can exist that has a root on string 3 and also for string 4.
The power chord shapes are all ‘the same shape’ (shapes 3 and 4) until you need to use string 2.
Your shape 2 here is what you’ll see when you need to use string 2 instead of string 3.
@sequences Michael, thanks for the comment. I knew about the Octave 1 shape being notes 2 octaves apart, but your other comment about other shapes got my interest. I had looked ahead to the next lesson with octave shapes 5 and 6 and had wondered about any mnemonics that would work for those shapes.
I realized that the open G and 1st string G note relative positions results in octave shape 6 (from the next lesson) when you slide the 1st string G up 2 frets to A and fret the A note on the 3rd string. You can get the octave shape 5 by starting with thinking about an open D chord with the open 4th string D and the fretted D on the 2nd string and sliding the fretted D up to E on the second string and playing the E on the 4th string.
Now that I think about it further, I realize that Octave shapes 4 and 3 were developed with the same reasoning - octave 4 shape by starting with the open E on the 6th string and the fretted E on the 4th string and sliding up 2 frets to form the shape in the chord chart (or slide up 1 fret to start with F octave notes). The same is true for octaves 3 shape by starting with the open A on the 5th string and the fretted A on the 3rd string and sliding up 2 frets (or slide up 1 fret to start with the Bb octave notes).
So thanks for the heads up, since I wouldn’t have thought of this without your hints.
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Hio @SteveL_G99
Glad I was able to get the good mental activity going. 
I think in offsets, myself. Instead of the power chord, it is “down two and up two”. For the C chord it is “down 3 and back 3”. I am currently using this method to think through the scale degrees. It is slowly starting to gel into knowing the degree and not need to think it through. I am expecting this to help a lot for soloing and noodling.
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Hey Steve,
By extension, if you utilise the CAGED framework, these Octave shapes ( plus the 4th string octave shape) are the foundational framework of CAGED.
So, your 'G chord ’ example is the G shape in CAGED.
(It also contains the double octave, as does the E shape).
If you examine all the other octave shapes, you’ll see the
C shape - as you noted
A shape ( 5th string root - your 'powerchord shape)
E shape ( 6th string root - your 'powerchord shape)
D Shape ( 4th string root)
All these form the skeletal structure of the 5 CAGED shapes; both chords, and the underlying scales.
Cheers, Shane
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@sclay Shane, thanks. I can see the utility of being able to mentally map all the CAGED root notes all over the neck of the guitar for both rhythm and lead playing.