Flats
A flat (b) is a sign placed immediately before a note which lowers the pitch of that note by one semitone. Locate the following flats on the fretboard:
When an open string note is flattened, the new note must be located on the next lower string, e.g.,
You will notice that it is possible for the same note pitch to have two different names. For example, F# = Gb and G# = Ab. These are referred to as enharmonic notes. The following fretboard diagram outlines all of the notes in the first position on the guitar (including both names for the enharmonic notes). The first position consists of the open string notes and the notes on the first four frets.
Here are two octaves of the E chromatic scale, ascending using sharps and descending using flats.
As with sharps, flats are cancelled by a barline or by a natural sign.
Single Coil Pickups
Electric Guitar Pickups…
Electric guitars contain pickups which capture the sound coming from the strings and send the signal to the amplifier. The original pickups were single coil pickups similar to the one shown here. These pickups are commonly found in Fender guitars like the Stratocaster which contains three single coil pickups, and the Telecaster which contains two different single coil pickups.
Be sure to play the flat notes for the entire bar until they are cancelled out by a bar line.
The Pod
Guitar Effects…
The Line 6 Pod is a portable amp simulator for guitar. You can plug any electric guitar into it and emulate the sound of the guitar being played through many different amps simply by changing the settings. The sounds range from traditional Fender and Vox amps, through to Marshall stacks and high gain modern Mesa Boogie amps.
The Flying V
Know your Guitars…
This dramatic looking guitar was first released by Gibson in 1958. Like the Les Paul, it contains two humbucking pickups and is great for playing Rock, Blues and Metal. It was used extensively by Bluesmen Albert King and Lonnie Mack, as well as Jimi Hendrix. A later version released by Jackson was used by Randy Rhoads when he was Ozzy Osbournes’ lead guitarist. Today there are many different Flying V style guitars available.
