50 years ago I took one guitar lesson. The first question I asked was “what are the dots for?” The entire lesson ended up being a 50 minute blather about the importance of the dots that left me so confused I never went back. Until today I was convinced that I was too stupid for the guitar, but now understand this is an age-old dilemma…
Hell, maybe I’ll just pick up the guitar in my retirement!
The way I look at it is this: The dots are there obviously as a visual cue to let you know where you are on the fretboard. If I’m going to place one dot, where would it be? Clearly, the octave seems to be the logical place for the first guidepost. It also happens to be exactly halfway down the string, so there’s that, too. So there goes a dot on fret 12, where the octave is located. Now we know where the notes start to repeat themselves.
Then where would we place the next one? For me, the next logical place would be the fifth, which happens to be the 7th fret. You can make an argument for the fourth, as well, but I’d go with the fifth because it’s the diatonic scale degree that feels most like half an octave to me.
So now we have markers at the 12th and 7th frets. At this point, I would think you need to add at least two markers to help visually break up the fretboard and be easy to locate notes. Skip a fret and mark the 4th below the 5th, and skip a fret and mark the 6th above the fifth seems pretty logical to me. We’re marking diatonic notes and avoiding having two marked frets next to each other, which should help us visually locate notes on the fretboard.
Now the last one, on the 3rd fret. My instinct probably would have been to place that marker on the 2nd fret, as it’s a diatonic note and it works in visually breaking up the fretboard cleanly. On the other hand, I can see putting that marker there, as it creates a nice symmetry. There’s two unmarked frets below the 3rd fret, and then, as you come up to the octave, there’s two unmarked frets between the 9th fret and the 12th fret. So that one could have gone either way.
I hope that makes some sort of sense. Basically, it all seems logical to me from a musical and practical standpoint. The only marker I might have a question about is the one on the 3rd fret (which my guitar doesn’t have), but I can see justification for because of the symmetry.
I should say, at this point, it would also have made sense to me to mark the 4th fret (the major third) instead of the 5th fret (the perfect fourth.) But the sixth, I think, would have to be where it’s at. So then, if we were to add one more dot, it would be at the second fret, for a pattern of 2, 4, 7, 9, 12 instead of 3, 5, 7, 9, 12. The latter seems somewhat aesthetically more clean to me, but either works.
Arguments based on the scale would make sense if the guitar had one string, and all songs were played in the same (major) key based on that open string. But they’re not.
Having the major scale marked out on on the fretboard isn’t super helpful when the vast majority of the time, it’s not actually marking the scale for the key you’re playing in, on the string you’re fretting.
Clearly, then, the main point of the markings is just as a visual aid for being able to quickly find the fifth versus the sixth fret (and look reasonably attractive while doing so); only at the margin do music-theory considerations matter.
I totally agree with **pulykamell’s **thinking. Though, as he’s not a guitarist, he may have not appreciated why guitarists find the fifth fret (a musical fourth-step up from the open string) more natural as the next major marking after the octave: first, because the guitar is tuned in fourths (well, 5/6ths of it anyway), so that’s kind of a natural spot to mark, and second because for most forms of guitar music (except maybe blues/rock electric guitar leads and some rock rhythm guitar), the open strings are used a lot and so lower frets are more important than higher ones, making the fifth fret more important than the 7th.
But maybe more importantly, on the physical guitar neck, the fifth fret is exactly halfway between the nut and the 12th fret, so, on a purely visual level that’s the next spot to mark.
The other spots kind of fall out from there: putting a marking two frets away from the major marking is enough so that you can find what you’re looking for quickly, without too much clutter. So go up and down two from the fifth fret. The choice of the 9th (two up from the already -marked 7th) or 10th (two down from the 12th/octave) is pretty arbitrary. Maybe just the one closer to the nut was considered more important, given traditional guitar music, or maybe it just looked nicer, since the the 9th is just slightly closer to physically halfway between the 7th and the 12th frets than the 10th fret is.
So here I am, supposed to be working, and I trying to get a harmonic out of every fret on my bass guitar.
1 and 11 were the only real problems.
Good discussion, all. I noticed at a recent gig by Mimi Fox (she of the harp harmonics) that her custom made guitar has zero dots. The arrogance! Or maybe they’re just on the side of the fret board. Either way, I can hate on her for it, but not much because she’s fucking awesome (and I mean that word in the old sense, not as in “This ice cream is awesome.”)
I’m not an expert on acoustic guitars, but from what I see, many classical-style guitars don’t have dots on the front of the fretboard (though they might well have them on the side). And, of course, on a custom guitar, the owner can have whatever they want done. 
But then, why would it be so important to mark the fifth fret and not the sixth if the notes they indicated didn’t matter ? As long as you had a few markings somewhere, anywhere actually, you’d be good to go. But that’s not the case. All the dots mark notes that are very important harmonically relative to the open string. I can’t believe that these “arbitrary” visual aids happen to coincide with these important notes.
Most of the markers are very helpful and I depend on them.
3rd fret maker is the G and C barre chords.
5th fret marker is A and D barre chords.
7th is B and E barre chords
9th is the weird one. C# and F# barre chords.
Probably because most sharp keys use those notes. Start with Key G. It has one sharp, F#. Key of D has 2 (F#, C#). Continue around the circle of fifths and add more sharps. You’ll use F#, C# sharp notes a lot.
Chord progression, F#m is the vi chord in key A. Key of E, C#m is the vi chord. Both on the 9th marker.
Ok, I don’t find the 9th marker that useful for chords. 
But it’s helpful occasionally.
12th fret marker is the octave.
So, in key of A. The I vi IV V progression uses A, F#m, D, E. All found on the markers, if you play barre chords. I play in key A a lot.
Key of E, same chord progression uses E, C#m, A, B chords. All found on the fret markers.
Were the fret markers purposefully designed that way? <shrug> Seems like some serious thought went into it.
That’s how I learned the dots. I memorized the barre chords many years ago.
The dots get me on the natural root notes. In between the dots is sharp and flat chords.
Except for that weird 9th marker. That’s an exception thst has to be remembered.
I don’t play lead and haven’t memorized the entire fretboard. I know where my chords live. It’s worked for me since high school.
Classical guitars tend to have tiny dots on the side at frets 5,7, 10 and 12. They’re basically seen as a training aid for students. Mine rubbed off years ago.
I have no idea if there is any correlation but the dots are spaced 3-2-2-2-3-3.
That is the same fretting for playing some blusey root scale (I have no idea what it is called)
6th string / 5th fret -> 6th string / 8th fret [3 fret span]
5th string / 5th fret -> 5th string / 7th fret [2 fret span]
4th string / 5th fret -> 4th string / 7th fret [2 fret span]
3rd string / 5th fret -> 3rd string / 7th fret [2 fret span]
2nd string / 5th fret -> 2nd string / 8th fret [3 fret span]
1st string / 5th fret -> 1st string / 8th fret [3 fret span]
I realize this is completely unrelated, but it was the only other time I’ve really used the 3-2-2-2-3-3. Anyway,as you were. I don’t know anything about music but just enjoy playing guitar.
I’m really enjoying the thread.
My “regular carry” bass has no frets and no dots…it’s a beautiful instrument and a joy to play.
But you are on to the secret—un-lined fretless basses like mine typically have a set of tiny dots along the top edge of the fretboard, so people in front think we are absolutely playing the thing totally by ear like a boss, when we still have cheater dots out of sight. Make no mistake, if you play the one long enough, the dots don’t matter, but they sure are a nice safety net to have.
I think I misread. You are probably talking about a classical guitar, yes?
The good ones don’t have any dots.
But the octave is always right at the fret that is at the edge of the guitar body, so it’s pretty easy to find your bearings.
I was going to say–I don’t play a lot of guitar, but I guess I’ve played enough that I don’t need the dots to help me along. It’s not that difficult with a fretted instrument to get the lay of the land. Fretless, though…I would be out of tune in a sec!
Does anybody on this thread actually play the guitar?
First, fret markers come in many shapes, although dots are the most common.
Next, there are fret markers only on steel string guitars (both acoustic and electric), but never on nylon (formerly gut) string guitars. Gretch puts dots on the upper edge of the neck, but not on the fretboard.
Fret markers are not helpful for playing scales on a single string, because nobody plays on a single string. Furthermore, playing scales is just practice.
When you play a melody, you can start on any string and any fret in any key. Well almost. The markers help you find a place to start.
Fret markers also help when you’re strumming barre chords.
SHEESH!
So, you don’t know the answer either. Got it.
I don’t know, but I do know how to spell Gretsch.
There aren’t markers on modern nylon stringed guitars, but they did exist on some early versions of guitars
Treble clef notation replaced tablature in the mid 1700’s and the 6 string guitar basically existed after 1790.
While the actual reason for the front dots and the inventor is lost to history, seeing as they are on the front of an instrument (not visible to the player) that played chords, and the dots help other instrument players quickly and visually see what a compatible note would be.
As the link above pointed out the dots mostly mark the harmonic comprising of a major chord but the 9th is related to the partials. It is simply just four marks and three spaces which is the a small number of markers to convey a lot of information.
If you look at even Martin guitars from the 1800’s they will only have the harmonics on the 5th and 7th fret marked like the link above too.
The least helpful post in this thread. Seems like you went out of your way to NOT answer the question. “Fret markers come in many shapes”? No shit? Next you’ll be telling me that there are different makes and models.