naming notes

Im thirteen years old and ive been playin for just a few months. I find myself rather addicted to it. Yet i havent gotten around to taking lessons. My guitar is acoustic.I can play through random scales that friends have shown me (though i dont know the names of them), and a few licks that i got off of the internet. But when im goin through the scales and licks, i dont know what notes im hitting. Is there and easy formula that i can use to figure this out??? Also... circle of fifths??? Can any explain?

Notes isn't that important in guitarplaying, as long as
u know the scala good enough to know how the note sounds,
if it gonna fit in or not.. If u learn to play by notes,
this will take longer time.. still, u have to know the
root, and maybe the third(if it's a minor or major).
Some guitarist hear if it's a major or a minor chord,
but that's another story.
the guitar is an instrument played by positions.
a scala helps u to play 'right', but sometimes u can
leave the scala, and make it right anyway.

Anyway, i bet u know what notes the strings are open.
EADGHe. each fret is a half tone up.
the 12th fret is the same as the open string,
so it's really al the same one more time from the 12th
instead.
D-7-
A-0-
E-5-
this is the same note, only the note on the d string is an octave higher..

this is just a start.
learning to know the whole fretboard is painful, but
u have to start one place.. start with octaves over strings.
Try to see the system. Then it's easier to learn the rest.
it's really all about logic.

hmm.. isn't there any articles about sheetplaying on this site?
Maybe i'll write one when i got time.. = )

look because you have just started out don't worry too much about being able to name the all the notes, just try to have fun and gather as much information as possibile, as for what 'Sivert Skaaren' said, the key notes of a scale are the thirds and sevenths, these will determine what "sound" the chord has (with the exception of dim and aug chords.) It is important to know all the chordal tone though (1,3,5,7) the fastest way to learn this is arppegiate ever chord you can.

As for the cycle of fifth's, this relates to the order that the keys go in. You start with C (no sharps or flats)then go up a fifth you land on G (F#) and so on. The cycle of fourths goes in the other direction C then F(Bb) etc.

Hope i helped:)

I always work with diagrams. It's not the best way but works for me.

I just have a diagram of a fretboard on which I name all the note for all the frets. It helps me a lot when I mix two guitars to make them sound right(Harmony).

If you want the diagram, e-mail me and I'll send it to you. It's an excel file.

Thanks for your insight folks. I thought that it was important to know when building chords or something. But how do i determine which notes are "root" notes??? Is that the 1,3,5 scheme? And chords have just one root?