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A friend who is a guitar teacher, told me I should learn to read music. He wrote the notes for guitar's 1st position and said to try and transcribe one of my songs as an aid to composition.
So, I'm wondering if there is a specific way of notating the B string 5th fret "E" and the open (high) "E" string being plucked at the same time. With ring and pinky fingers. I've tried searching it but I don't know what to search.
Normally this would be enough, I think:
The '0' indicates that an open string is to be used (in this case the high 'e' string). And from the context you would infer which string to use for the other 'e'.
If you want to be more explicit that the other 'e' should be on the b-string you could notate this as well:
The number with a circle indicates which string to use, counting from high to low.
Perhaps in this case you want to be more consistent and use the string number notation for both notes:
You may want to notate the two notes in different voices:
And finally, using tab notation you would automatically show which string to use:
Update:
I left out the notation of which pluck fingers to use for several reasons: I didn't think it was essential for your question. And I wouldn't be explicit on that for just plucking a chord, maybe for a more complex fingering pattern. Furthermore the score examples would be unnecessarily crowded, I think.
Nevertheless, to notate pluck finger (or stroke finger) there's a convention to use the letters 'p', 'i', 'm', 'a' and 'c':
thumb = p = pulgar, 1st finger = i = índice, 2nd finger = m = mayor, 3rd finger = a = anular, 4th finger = c = chiquito
The only way I've come across is to have two dots (heads) on the stem - one either side of it, on the top space. Looking rather like if you had to play a D and an E simultaneously, when the music would show one each side of a stem because they would otherwise end up as a big blob if they were both printed on the correct side.
The fingering would make it a little clearer, with 'a' for the ring finger and 'c' for the pinky. Both under/over the now funny looking note.
In some sheet music, numbers in circles are used to designate which strings are played. For this scenario, there may be two circles - with a 1 in one and a 2 in the other.
In Guitar the way to tell where to play a note is usually defined by the context... meaning, what were you playing before that note and what is to come after, what are the fingerings e.t.c e.t.c. When more specification is needed the number of the string is written inside a circle above or bellow and a bit to the right of the note like in the pic bellow.
That A is played on the 4th string (D) 7th fret.
my teacher replied via text. the note with a tail down and a tail up
There are indications that you can write on the staff that pertain to both of your questions (for frets and also picking hand). It's much easier if you check this link:
...than if I were to write it out. :) Although to clarify the two simultaneous notes, you'd use a double-headed note for E, and mark 0 and 5 respectively by the two heads.
