Root
The note a scale or chord is named after, and the note every other note is measured from. In G major, the root is G.
Why it matters
It's home base — the note that makes a phrase sound finished when you land on it. Find the roots first in any new scale shape and every other note has something to orient around.
Used in a sentence
Digging deeper
The root is the note a scale or chord takes its name from — G is the root of G major, of a G chord, of G minor pentatonic. Every other note gets described by its distance from it, and landing on it is what makes a phrase sound finished rather than left hanging.
Common questions
How do I find the root on the fretboard?
Learn where that one note repeats across all six strings before you learn the rest of the shape. Every phrase you play eventually needs to find its way back to one of them, so they're the landmarks everything else hangs on.
Is the root always the lowest note?
No — the root is a name, not a position. You can play a G chord with B or D as the lowest note and it's still a G chord, just voiced differently. What makes it the root is that the sound is built around it.
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