Accidentals

These are called accidentals, and are absolutely vital to the music. Fortunately they are very easy to learn on a stringed instrument.

The sharp sign

The sign is called a sharp. It tells yo to play the note it's attached to one fret higher on the fretboard than you would if it hadn't been there.
  Tricky? Not at all, let me show you.

Here is the note overview from the first noation chapter:

With sharps for all notes it looks like this:

You see the low g is on open 4th string without a sharp, and on the first fret with.
  The low a is on 2nd fret without and 3rd fret with a sharp.
  And so on.

The flat sign

Once you understand the sharp sign, the flat sign: is easy. It tells you to play a note one fret lower than you normally would:

That's all.

The natural sign

And the third one? That's the easiest of them all. The natural sign: simply cancel out a flat or a sharp and tells you to play the note "normally."

What on earth do we need that for?
  I suppose there are a few things I forgot to mention about those accidentals. Oh well, better late than never.

Duration

An accidental isn't valid for just a single note, but for all the notes of that pitch for the rest of the bar. In this example


both the fs are sharp even though only the first one has a sharp sign. If we want the second f to be natural, we need the natural sign:

Key signatures

The sharps and flats are often found not within the piece but as key signatures valid for the entire tune. That's the topic of the next page.

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