How To Find And Play Octaves Across The Guitar Neck

Octaves are one of those guitar “unlock” moments: suddenly the fretboard stops feeling like random dots and starts looking like a repeating pattern you can actually use. We walk through what an octave is in plain language, then immediately turn it into a practical guitar technique you can apply anywhere on the neck. If you’ve ever wondered why the same note seems to show up in multiple places, or why your riffs sound thin when you try to play higher, this is the missing piece.

We start with the core idea: an octave is the same note name repeated at a higher pitch after you travel through a full set of notes and return to the root. From there, we build a reliable “how to play octaves on guitar” shape: fret a note, skip a string, and grab the matching octave up the neck. The real secret is not just the frets, but the muting. We explain how to deaden the string in the middle so you can strum confidently and still get a tight, clean octave sound that works for rock, funk, and melodic rhythm parts.

Then we take the shape across different string sets and address the common confusion point: why the octave spacing changes as you move to higher strings due to standard guitar tuning. You’ll also learn quick noise-control tricks for accidental string hits, and how to practice octaves like movable shapes so they become automatic.

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Thank you!
Steve

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Transcript

Intro And The Octave Question

Steve 0:35

Hey, Steve Stein here from Guitar Zoom Academy, and today we're going to be looking at octaves. How do you play octaves on the guitar and what are they? First thing we want to do is just understand what is an octave. So when I play a scale, for instance, and it's okay if you don't know what the scale is, but if I was to play an A major scale, my notes would be A, B, C sharp, D, E, F sharp, G sharp, and then A all over again. A and A. When I travel through an entire scale, regardless of the scale that I'm playing, and I get back to that note again. If I start on A, that's my root. As I play through the entire scale and I get to the root again, that's one octave. If you think about a piano when you started on middle C and you go C D E F G A B C, that's an octave. And then C D E F G A B C, that's another octave. So the piano keyboard, the guitar, whatever it is, doesn't have, you know, 88 different notes. It has the same notes over and over and over repeated in what we call octaves. That's what octaves are. So on the guitar, there's a couple of really great ways that you can learn to play octaves and use in your playing or, you know, whatever it might be. And so what we're gonna do here is we're just gonna go back to that A on the sixth string. Okay. So if I was going to play this A and I wanted to play the octave, I would skip a string and move two frets higher onto the seventh fret. So I have five and seven. Those are octaves. Now, in order to play them together, I need to deaden out the string in the center. So what most people will do is when you make this octave, for instance, pressing you might use your first and third or first and pinky or you know, whatever's comfortable for you. When you make this octave, your first finger is going to intentionally deaden out the fifth string. So you'll get a clicking sound, but you won't get a pitch. So when you strum it, you won't hear the pitch. You might hear the click, but you're hearing the click of the guitar pick anyway. And to be extra safe, what you can learn to do is deaden out the strings underneath that, just in case you might, you know, strum too far, you can deaden those out as well so they don't make sound. But if you're very careful, you don't need to worry about that as much. But so that's an octave. I'm playing this A and this A. And I could do this anywhere. I can move down to G or F sharp or F, you know, whatever it is I need, I can play that anywhere I want. So it's kind of like playing a power chord, but you're skipping the note in the center and you're deadening out that note. So you're not trying to like, you know, jump over it. You're literally strumming all of those strings, those top three strings, but you're killing or deadening the one in between. Now, if you want to play octaves on the fifth string, you would simply move down one string and do exactly the same thing. Now we want to play this note, deaden out this note, and play this note. So again, you need to be a little careful that you don't hit the sixth string. And if you do accidentally hit the sixth string, a great little trick you can do is touch the sixth string with the tip of your index finger to kill it. So it also doesn't make sound. So even if you were to hit it, it you're gonna get a click from it, but you're not gonna get a pitch. And those clicks aren't a big deal because again, your guitar pick is creating a click when it hits the strings anyway. So it's not a big deal. But you know, you can be careful and try not to hit that string or deaden it out, and then if you do hit it, it's not a big deal. So you have six string, fifth string. Now, when you go to the fourth string to make an octave, you're gonna move down one more string. But this note isn't gonna sound good. Okay, when I play this, it's not gonna sound good because of the tuning of the guitar. I can't play five and seven. I have to play five and eight. So again, I'm skipping a string in the center, deadening that. So I'm playing five and eight. And again, I can move anywhere I want. Okay, but I have to have five and eight. I have to have two frets in between. When I was doing this, I have one fret, one fret, but now I need two frets. And if I move down again, I still need two frets because of the tuning of the guitar. So that's how you'd play octaves on the sixth string, the fifth string, the fourth string, and the third string. You can't do octaves on the second string because you don't have enough strings down here. Okay? So that's not gonna work. So that's how you'd play octaves, and that's what octaves are and how they work. And you can get used to playing these all over the guitar. Again, whether you want to play first and pinky or first and third, whatever's most comfortable for you. You just get used to being able to move it kind of like a power chord. Okay? So hopefully that helps you a little bit. Take care. Uh keep practicing, stay positive with your playing. Always remember you can always like, subscribe, um, you know, that sort of thing to the channel if you like the stuff that I'm making, and share it with anybody that this might benefit as well, okay?