Octaves:

Let’s keep exploring pitch, specifically the octave, and how it’s divided into 12 equal steps.
View the full lesson at: Octaves | JustinGuitar

Hi :kissing_heart::guitar:. In Easiest Music theory Lesson on improvising you used C major scale for the chords in the key of C. So is it okay to use A minor Pentatonic scale or G major scale, different scales in the key of C when the chords are changing.
Example: 1 5 6 4. There’s A minor, playing A minor Pentatonic. There’s G major chord playing G major scale. Playing solos if a song is in the key of C??

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so i get that the 12th fret is one octave up. but what about the other strings? for example string 6 open is E, 12th fret is E one octave higher. what about an E note on any other string? is that an octave higher, lower, or not related?

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Sometimes it’s the same octave, sometimes it’s different. If you play the 2 different E notes, you will be able to hear if they are the same or if they differ by 1 (or more octaves).

For example: string 4, fret 2 is an E note that is 1 octave higher than the low-E string open.
The open high-E string is one octave higher than that. String 2, fret 5 is the same as the open high-E string. The high-E string, fret 12 is an octave higher than the open high-E string, etc.

These aren’t all the E notes on the fret board, there are several others.

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so how do we know barring hooking up a freq counter?

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Sorry, how do you know what? Where notes are on the fretboard or if they are in the same or different octaves?

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I know where all the E’s are. I want to know the relative octaves between them. For example string 3, fret 9 is how many octaves higher than open 6 string?

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Just play them both and listen. They are in the same octave.

It’s very obvious when notes are an octave apart. One sounds decidedly higher than the other.

Play string 3 fret 9, string 2 fret 5, open string 1. They are all the same note, same octave. You should also start to see a pattern of the same note on adjacent strings.

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that’s impossible

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This was helpful for me.

IMG_3846

The e4, for example, can be played as the open high e string, 5th fret of the B string or 9th fret of the G string. They will be the same note by frequency, although there will be subtle differences due to harmonics/overtones (timbre).

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Why is it impossible?

(I’m pretty sure it’s correct.)

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well i know for a fact that the high e and the low e string are “2” octaves apart, so there is nothing the “same” there. :thinking:

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These 3 notes are all the same octave. I did not say the low- and high-E strings were the same octave.

I would suggest taking @Jamolay 's figure above and play all the E notes on it. You will hear where any 2 notes are in the same octave and when they are in different ones.

Good luck!

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Gagan - your progression is:

| C | G | Am | F |

You are going to struggle to play the C major then G major, then A minor then F major scales over those chords.
You’re chasing down a dark rabbit hole and don’t need to.
You can play the entire progression with the C major scale or the C major pentatonic scale.
You can target chord tones by visualising triads within the scale.
You can use small arpeggios.
With each additional option comes more and more difficulty and hours and hours of practice to incorporate them

The 6-string E major chord contains these notes in this order:
E, B, E, G#, B, E

Three versions of the note spanning two octaves. The open 1st string is two octaves higher than the open 6th string. That is the guitar construction and tuning.

6th string = lowest E on a guitar.
G string at fret 9 = B string at fret 5 = high E string open.
They are all two octaves above the open 6th string.

:+1: @Richard_close2u

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Hi :guitar::kissing_heart:. What happened to the video?? I wanted to learn guitar intro of the lesson :heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes::smiling_face:. It’s not there.

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It is correct. Same note, same frequency (329Hz), therefore same octave.

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Although I am part the way through Grade 5 PMT I thought I would have a look at the new lessons in Grade 1 that Justin mentioned in his recent live stream.

I thought the first two lessons would be very helpful to a beginner, the explanation on frequency and harmonics were demonstrated very well. With my background is engineering when I did Grade 1 I worked out the science of this.

The demonstration of why we call notes in different octaves the same, and they sound similar, can be seen on the spectrum analyser showing the harmonic overtones, this would answer a fundamental puzzle that must occur to most beginners like it did to me.

Well done Justin.

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Interesting observations Michael. Like you I am on PMT G5, 5.3 at the moment but have seen to new lesson topics appearing here and wondering if its worth going back for a review of the new material. Seems like that may be worth the effort at some stage but not sure if another iron in the fire is needed right now. Will bide my time for now.

:sunglasses:

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