Unlocking the fretboard...

[needmoney]

Hey Adam, I know this is probably a massive topic to cover but was hoping you might be able to share your knowledge.

Basically I'm always trying to work out routine and efficient ways of learning the fretboard, but I always get stuck in a rut cause there are so many possibly ways of going about it.

So I was hoping you might share your insight. I've caught a couple of your clinic videos and am always flawed about how efficiently you can move around the fretboard in such a systematic fashion. Basically I just want to get that part down so I can focus more on the actual music.

Thanks!

[adamnitti]

great question-

yes, i could probably write volumes about this in this post, but let me share with you some key things that really helped me out when i was trying to get a handle on this...

to me, learning the fretboard is more about your ear training and intervallic awareness than anything else. the reason for this is that the bass is tuned symmetrically, and musical shapes and componentry layout the same on the instrument, regardless of what the key center, scale, arpeggio, etc, is... (of course, not all of us are playing basses that are symmetrically tuned in 4ths, but the intervallic and ear training applications still apply in these instances.) understanding how the layout of the fingerboard is 'mated' to what you conceive/hear is the key.

in my observation, by far the biggest problem that plagues most bass players (or most stringed instrument players, for that matter) whether they are aware of it or not, is that they play more with their eyes than their ears. in other words, they depend more on the rehearsed shapes and patterns to navigate the fingerboard than they do an actual, spontaneously heard/inspired idea. the irony in this is that we typically practice patterns and shapes in order to learn the fingerboard better... however, once we reach the point of tackling the muscle-memory challenge embedded in each pattern, then we experience diminishing returns with respect to true musical development. why? because we then transition from the 'learning' state into a state of "executing rehearsed repetitive motions", we reach the end of our learning capacity with those respective shapes and patterns. it is for this reason that i have in my studies and with my students essentially redefined the purpose for patterns... they should be used primarily as introductory muscle-memory development exercises, but once you have them under your fingers, they need to be used exclusively for ear-training exercises, instead.

ok, so before i extend this into a book here, let me interrupt myself and make my main point. mastery of the fingerboard comes when you have the ability to hear something either internally or from an external source, and then play it immediately on your bass, without the need for any other reference or translation. it's the 'george benson' example... being able to spontaneously play what you sing or hear. all of us should be doing that all the time, whether we are singing out loud or not. this ultimately suggests that possibly one of the best ways to learn the fingerboard and how to navigate it is to work on your ear-training... and... one of the best ways to work on your ear-training is to work hard on transcribing music you hear, or at the very least, learning these things note-for-note on your bass, including all of the nuances of the players' phrasing, dynamics, etc, etc. this way, you are now having to find the shape of the sound you hear on your bass, that would have been previously unfamiliar to your hands, because you never played it in that way before!!! so the ultimate goal then becomes:

be able to hear any musical idea and play it on your instrument spontaneously without error.

sound difficult??? well, sure it does. and it's going to take most of us a lifetime to achieve that... BUT, it's not an issue of difficulty...

it's an issue of unfamiliarity. so in order to make the unfamiliar familiar, we have to begin to practice a different way. not just play modes and arpeggios in all keys up and down the neck!!! that is not going to help us achieve this goal. keep doing that for your dexterity and facility on the fingerboard, but realize it's more of a technical exercise than anything else. start spending more of your time learning how to play what you hear without any assistance from a pattern or notation or youtube video, etc, etc.. unlocking the fingerboard means uncovering the music there by having to FIND it.

ok, well i had no idea i was going to spend that much time on my answer, but there you go.

a couple more points that will help you:

-a lot of players don't realize this, but if you want to learn your fingerboard really, REALLY good, then you also need to practice your READING. i repeat... PRACTICE YOUR READING. reading forces us to find the notes (remember that word.. 'FIND'?) on the fingerboard that match the pitches indicated. of course, the greater range covered in the piece of music you are reading, the better you will progress. don't just practice reading basslines in the lowest octave of the bass.

-if you haven't done this already, get intimately familiar with the shapes of all the intervals on the bass. most of them have at least 2 locations that you can cover for the same interval from a single hand position.

finally, if you want some direction as to how to get started with solid ear training using your bass, check out my ear training articles on bassmusicianmagazine.com:

http://www.bass-musician-magazine.co...e-id=613038129

http://www.bass-musician-magazine.co...e-id=113038371

http://bass-musician-magazine.com/Ge...e-id=123476953


whew... i'm tired now!!!!!

[P_bass]

Great answer!

It's off to the woodshed...

[Eublet]

Good articles!

[stpvoodoo1]

Great question/answer.

[Interceptor]

Wow.

Thanks Adam! You've just inspired another player to break out of bass by sight.

[bottomzone]

Thank you needmoney for the great question and Adam for the revealing answer!



A Groove is a Terrible Thing to Waste!

[Ray Salamon]

Yeah, I'm pretty certain I found the place I'm going to be frequently visiting. Good stuff here, and this is something that has been on my mind a lot recently. Thanks Adam! (and thanks OP for asking).

[OrionManMatt]

My guitarist roommate reinforces the truth of this post, God bless him. Fantastically capable and has a great ear but is stuck in shapes and what's comfortable. It's good motivation and a reminder that if I'm not playing what's in my head, then I'm not trying or practicing it until I can.

[DaZombieWoof]

Originally Posted by adamnitti

-a lot of players don't realize this, but if you want to learn your fingerboard really, REALLY good, then you also need to practice your READING. i repeat... PRACTICE YOUR READING. reading forces us to find the notes (remember that word.. 'FIND'?) on the fingerboard that match the pitches indicated. of course, the greater range covered in the piece of music you are reading, the better you will progress. don't just practice reading basslines in the lowest octave of the bass.

I guess my desire to return to some jazz type playing will be fed by reading. Very little real reading these days as it's just lyric with chords sheets. I have heard Orban's Trombone method book suggested as a good reading exercise as it's bass clef and probably not going to be lines that would be obvious. Hmm, might be outstanding for fretless.

Huntsville Alabama is so close. I will have to come up to Nashville.

Okay, how much of what you are doing lately really requires you read charted stuff? Is the reading practice more now a matter of practicing the mental and physical stuff that makes your playing without much reading so much better and you can hear and feel the loss if you don't?

[adamnitti]

Originally Posted by DaZombieWoof

I guess my desire to return to some jazz type playing will be fed by reading. Very little real reading these days as it's just lyric with chords sheets. I have heard Orban's Trombone method book suggested as a good reading exercise as it's bass clef and probably not going to be lines that would be obvious. Hmm, might be outstanding for fretless.

Huntsville Alabama is so close. I will have to come up to Nashville.

Okay, how much of what you are doing lately really requires you read charted stuff? Is the reading practice more now a matter of practicing the mental and physical stuff that makes your playing without much reading so much better and you can hear and feel the loss if you don't?

well, i'd say that realistically about 25% of what i do requires notational reading. the rest is either memorized or presented in number charts or chord chart/hybrids.

i'm not going to say that a lack of reading practice would be a detriment to your performance quality... in my opinion, sightreading practice is not going to significantly improve the depth of your groove or even your phrasing or dynamics. however, you will benefit in other ways. the most obvious is that you will be able to read. the other benefit is how it will help you to learn your neck even better, especially as it relates to being able to spontaneously identify multiple locations of relative intervals.

[fLaT-fIfTh]

Originally Posted by adamnitti

great question-

yes, i could probably write volumes about this in this post, but let me share with you some key things that really helped me out when i was trying to get a handle on this...

to me, learning the fretboard is more about your ear training and intervallic awareness than anything else. the reason for this is that the bass is tuned symmetrically, and musical shapes and componentry layout the same on the instrument, regardless of what the key center, scale, arpeggio, etc, is... (of course, not all of us are playing basses that are symmetrically tuned in 4ths, but the intervallic and ear training applications still apply in these instances.) understanding how the layout of the fingerboard is 'mated' to what you conceive/hear is the key.

in my observation, by far the biggest problem that plagues most bass players (or most stringed instrument players, for that matter) whether they are aware of it or not, is that they play more with their eyes than their ears. in other words, they depend more on the rehearsed shapes and patterns to navigate the fingerboard than they do an actual, spontaneously heard/inspired idea. the irony in this is that we typically practice patterns and shapes in order to learn the fingerboard better... however, once we reach the point of tackling the muscle-memory challenge embedded in each pattern, then we experience diminishing returns with respect to true musical development. why? because we then transition from the 'learning' state into a state of "executing rehearsed repetitive motions", we reach the end of our learning capacity with those respective shapes and patterns. it is for this reason that i have in my studies and with my students essentially redefined the purpose for patterns... they should be used primarily as introductory muscle-memory development exercises, but once you have them under your fingers, they need to be used exclusively for ear-training exercises, instead.

ok, so before i extend this into a book here, let me interrupt myself and make my main point. mastery of the fingerboard comes when you have the ability to hear something either internally or from an external source, and then play it immediately on your bass, without the need for any other reference or translation. it's the 'george benson' example... being able to spontaneously play what you sing or hear. all of us should be doing that all the time, whether we are singing out loud or not. this ultimately suggests that possibly one of the best ways to learn the fingerboard and how to navigate it is to work on your ear-training... and... one of the best ways to work on your ear-training is to work hard on transcribing music you hear, or at the very least, learning these things note-for-note on your bass, including all of the nuances of the players' phrasing, dynamics, etc, etc. this way, you are now having to find the shape of the sound you hear on your bass, that would have been previously unfamiliar to your hands, because you never played it in that way before!!! so the ultimate goal then becomes:

be able to hear any musical idea and play it on your instrument spontaneously without error.

sound difficult??? well, sure it does. and it's going to take most of us a lifetime to achieve that... BUT, it's not an issue of difficulty...

it's an issue of unfamiliarity. so in order to make the unfamiliar familiar, we have to begin to practice a different way. not just play modes and arpeggios in all keys up and down the neck!!! that is not going to help us achieve this goal. keep doing that for your dexterity and facility on the fingerboard, but realize it's more of a technical exercise than anything else. start spending more of your time learning how to play what you hear without any assistance from a pattern or notation or youtube video, etc, etc.. unlocking the fingerboard means uncovering the music there by having to FIND it.

ok, well i had no idea i was going to spend that much time on my answer, but there you go.

a couple more points that will help you:

-a lot of players don't realize this, but if you want to learn your fingerboard really, REALLY good, then you also need to practice your READING. i repeat... PRACTICE YOUR READING. reading forces us to find the notes (remember that word.. 'FIND'?) on the fingerboard that match the pitches indicated. of course, the greater range covered in the piece of music you are reading, the better you will progress. don't just practice reading basslines in the lowest octave of the bass.

-if you haven't done this already, get intimately familiar with the shapes of all the intervals on the bass. most of them have at least 2 locations that you can cover for the same interval from a single hand position.

finally, if you want some direction as to how to get started with solid ear training using your bass, check out my ear training articles on bassmusicianmagazine.com:

http://www.bass-musician-magazine.co...e-id=613038129

http://www.bass-musician-magazine.co...e-id=113038371

http://bass-musician-magazine.com/Ge...e-id=123476953


whew... i'm tired now!!!!!

I knew after watching/hearing you play that you would be just as articulate speaking bass as you are playing bass. It definitely shows...
Looks like I'll be hanging around this forum.

[DaZombieWoof]

Reading seems to help from familiarlity and seeing how other people approached a tune. Big band jazz charts, particularly Basie Band and Ellington have some elegant lines worth thinking about.

Reminds me much of the statement attributed to Charlie Parker about how to play like him. "Well, you learn your horn, you learn your scales, you practice, practice, practice, and when you get on stage you forget all that and play!" The trick being you can't effectively "forget all that and play" without having done all that and provided yourself with the capability to cash the checks you musical head may choose to write.

[adamnitti]

Originally Posted by DaZombieWoof

Reading seems to help from familiarlity and seeing how other people approached a tune. Big band jazz charts, particularly Basie Band and Ellington have some elegant lines worth thinking about.

this is a GREAT point, and one i neglected to mention in my reply, because for me, personally i get even more of that familiarity from the act/process of transcription. but you are absolutely correct... reading allows us to learn the lines and approaches of others that we might not otherwise have picked up any other way. thanks!

[adamnitti]

Originally Posted by fLaT-fIfTh

I knew after watching/hearing you play that you would be just as articulate speaking bass as you are playing bass. It definitely shows...
Looks like I'll be hanging around this forum.

thanks so much.

[abstractart06]

Adam, Thanks for being so generous in sharing your Knowledge. I had someone tell me years ago that, "before you can play it you have to sing it". Your explanation has really made me aware of the pattern trap we can all fall in to. I am going to apply this learning process to everything I play. No wonder I forget the things I played the day before. I was not learning to actively hear what I was playing.

[Interceptor]

Follow up report.

I took Adam's teachings to heart back when this was originally posted, and stuck with it. My intonation and sense of intervals have improved dramatically. I am just getting to the point where I am starting to be able to transpose a lyrical thought to the fretboard in just a couple of attempts. Freeing!

The unintended benefit popped up in my vocal work as a choir singer. Once again, as my recognition of intervals improves, my solidness of pitch (and role whithin a chord) continues to improve.

The changes haven't been subtle!

Thanks Adam!

Jim

[adamnitti]

jim, this is fantastic!!! thanks so much for posting your positive feedback! i'm so glad it helped.

Originally Posted by Interceptor

Follow up report.

I took Adam's teachings to heart back when this was originally posted, and stuck with it. My intonation and sense of intervals have improved dramatically. I am just getting to the point where I am starting to be able to transpose a lyrical thought to the fretboard in just a couple of attempts. Freeing!

The unintended benefit popped up in my vocal work as a choir singer. Once again, as my recognition of intervals improves, my solidness of pitch (and role whithin a chord) continues to improve.

The changes haven't been subtle!

Thanks Adam!

Jim

[bstringkyle]

Good stuff, I think I am going to break out the note reading book for bass now. Thanks Adam For the inspiration

[Aunt Babe]

Hi Adam,

Based on this great thread, I was hoping you could give me some advice. (I've already recieved some from other boards, which was great, but I always want more!). I decided to take up bass after 11 years of piano lessons, so I already know how to read music and know a bunch of theory. I'm not a great player, but if I hear a song I can easily figure out and play the chord progressions w/o any music. When I go on 'how to play bass' sites, they assume you know how to read music, and therefore spend lots of time on rhythm, time signatures, learning patterns on the fretboard, etc. Coming from a piano background, I just knew instinctively that I wanted to be able to visualize a note on the staff and automatically know where to fret and what string for that note.

How would you go about having someone like me 'learn the fretboard'? (Right now I'm doing basic exercises to learn how to fret and pluck (mostly from studybass.com), and I"m reading through the Idiot's guide to Bass Playing).

Thanks for the help in advance!