This is actually quite embarrassing for me to tell you this, but I have only just committed to memory what each of the six strings on the guitar are.
When you read my about page and see when I first started playing you will see why it’s a little embarrassing.
One of the ways that has helped me to finally get the string names in my head was using the good old method of creating a sentence out of the first letter of each of the string names.
For example, the one that I liked was…
Every Acid Dealer Gets Busted Eventually. (but there are a heap more examples you could use)
Although it’s working backwards, (from bottom to top) by speaking this sentence out loud as often as I could, I managed to finally get the string names firmly implanted in my head.
The next exercise that really helped me was, (don’t laugh guys), when I hang out the clothes (Yes, I help my missus by hanging out the washing) I count out six clothes pegs at a time, but instead of using numbers I use the string names, 1 = E, 2 = B, 3 = G… and so on.
Every string has a corresponding number along with a note name, the top string, thinnest E string, is Number 1, the thickest E string is number 6.
May sound silly but it definitely worked for me. So a good trick for me when learning the string names was to incorporate my learning into a practical exercise or chore that I do every day or so.
Another thing that has always confused me was, which string was the top and which was the bottom. Common sense would say that the bottom string was at the bottom, closest to the ground but it’s not, the bottom string is the thickest string and is actually the one at the top, isn’t that a brain bender.
If you want to memorize the string names in their correct order, this is a phrase that I just found that may help.
Even Billy Goats Don’t Always Eat
Try making up your own phrase, something that you find easy to remember and makes sense to you, when you do, please share it with us in the comments below.