A mnemonic (nuh·maa·nik) is an easy way to remember things that can be listed that may seem arbitrary before we fully understand them.
For example:
Roy G. Biv for the colors of the rainbow, which are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
My very educated mother just served us noodles, for the order of the planets, which is Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
Please excuse my dear aunt sally - and - PEMDAS, both for the order of mathematical operations, which are parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction.
The strings on a guitar are no different. It is necessary to know the names of the strings at the very beginning of study, so that you can tune the instrument. However before understanding much about music, or how the guitar is tuned, the names of the strings can seem pretty random to a beginner. So I’ve listed here mnemonic devices to help you remember the names of the strings. This is a lot of them, so the value of such a big list is simply for you to find one that you really like so you can easily commit it to memory. I’ve highlighted some of my favorites. The ones I highlighted just made sense to me, but some other one might more sense to you.
6 5 4 3 2 1
E A D G B E
Each Apple Does Get Bitten Eventually
Easter Angels Don't Give Broken Eggs
Eat A Darn Good Breakfast Early
Eat A Darn Good Breakfast Everyday
Eat A Dog, Get Big Ears
Eat All Day Get Big Easy
Eat All Dead Gophers Before Easter
Eddie Ate Dynamite Good Bye Eddie
Eggs Are Deliciously Good Breakfast Energy
Elephants Always Do Good Before Eating
Elephants and Dogs Got Big Ears
Elephants And Dogs Growls Barks Eats
Elephants And Donkeys Grow Big Ears
Elvis Aaron Died God Bless Elvis
Elvis Always Did Get By Easy
Even After Dinner Giant Boys Eat
Even Average Dogs Get Bones Eventually
Every Adult Dog Growls Barks Eats
Every Amateur Does Get Better Eventually
Every American Dog Gets Bones Easily
Every Angel Does Good Before Evil
Every Apple Does Get Bitten Eventually
Every Apple Does Go Bad Eventually
Every Average Dude Gets Better Eventually
I like memorizing the strings from thickest to thinnest personally. However, when we are referring to each string with a number, which happens a lot, the strings are numbered in-order from thinnest to thickest. So the thinnest string is string 1 and the thickest is string 6. For that reason, it may make more sense to you to learn the letter names of the strings from thinnest to thickest. It’s not as common, but there is a good argument for doing it this way. You’ll see I was able to find significantly less examples of this.
1 2 3 4 5 6
E B G D A E
Easter Bunnies Get Dizzy At Easter
Elvis’ Big Great Dane Ate Everything
Every Beginning Guitarist Does All Exercises!
Every Big Girl Deserves An Elephant
Every Body Goes Down An Escalator
Every Boy Gets Dinner At Eight
Every Body Goes Dancing At Eleven
Every boy gets down after Easter
Again, don’t try to learn more than one of these, it is pointless. The only reason for such an exhaustive list is just to help you find one that resonates with you. Once you got it, move on, there’s far too much to learn about the guitar to spend more than 5 minutes picking out your favorite mnemonic.
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