Easy Way to Remember The Strings on a Fret Board

Starting from the top string down, the strings go E - A - D - G - B - E as shown above. An easy way to remember those strings is with this sentence:

Eddie Ate Dynamite Good Bye Eddie

As you learn more you'll see that notes and chords and strings all share this musical alphabet.

Its also a good thing to remember that when you read guitar tabs the fret board will be upside down (well sort of). Guitar tabs show the fret board the way you would see it if you were holding a guitar. That means guitar tabs will look like this:

So when you look at a guitar in your lap, the top E string will be at the bottom because you're looking at it from an upside down angle. This makes more sense if you're holding a guitar so if you're confused just pick yours up and take a look. 

This is actually the best way to illustrate a fret board. It's showing it from the guitarists view point which is the view point that we want to see.