fretboard

[sherlock10851]

How did you memorize your fretboard?

[BassMan4Him]

My grand-pa had a long strip of masking tape running on the side (Where you could see it) and he wrote the name of the notes on it. Thats how i learned. He put a line like this: | on it to represent sharp or flat and he put the four notes in the fret So within the 2nd fret and 3rd fret it said: G C F | The line represented a sharp to the fret before or the flat of the next note on the string.. Kind of hard to explain...

[Jazz Ad]

Playing and practising, again and again. The kind of stuff that comes by itself without really working on it.
Reading and being conscious about what you play (notes, key, scale) are good for this because you put a name on what you fret rather than just playing by memory.

[JTE]

By learning the logic of it, and then working at it. First by avoiding things that had the notes written on the neck. Then by doing things like finding every A on the neck, then every E, etc. through the circle of fifths. By doing this stuff mentally while on the bus. By playing arpeggios and naming every note as I played it. By learning the major scale in all 12 keys and playing it for at least two octaves ascending and descending while naming the notes I was playing.

John

[pocketgroove]

Starting with the low E, I listened to the sound of the note and found all the octaves of E on my fingerboard. Then I moved to A, D, and G, before figuring out all the in-between notes. When I saw the patterns of where octaves are on the board and how notes are relative, everything else fell in place. Mostly, I just relied on my ear to identify what sound is where and how it works with other sounds.

At the time, I didn't know any theory at all, and I don't think that's a bad thing. I got familiar with the board first by ear, and I was able to more fully apply the theory later when I started to learn it.

[dalahorse]

I picked it up while learning to read standard notation on the bass. Back in my symphonic percussion (timpani) days, I read in the bass clef all the time. So I only need a little time to remember the note names on the staff. From there, it just made sense. When I saw a written note, I already knew it's name. So maybe my way was backward. I assigned frets to notes rather than notes to frets.

[mambo4]

my usual responses....
----------------------------------
LEARNING THE FINGERBOARD
---------------------------------------
when I first picked up the bass I memorized the open strings (EADG) and then memorized each "dotted" fret up to the octave:
open:EADG
3rd fret:GCFA#
5th fret:ADGC
7th fret:BEAD
9th fret:C#F#BE
Octave:EADG

With those notes memorized, I could quickly figure out "in between" notes based on the dotted ones. If you can instantly find E then you can almost as instantly figure out where E flat is. It was enough to get me by at first.

I never made a deliberate effort to memorize the rest of the neck, eventually I just absorbed the knowledge via experience.

It is worth noting that that experienced musicians are not constantly thinking "I am playing an A,now I am playing Eb, now I am playing B..." ect. as they play, unless perhaps first learning a tune. I deally, They are thinking of the sound they want to hear and the physical fingering needed to get that sound. Personally I tend to think in intervals and chord tones "I am playing the root, now I am playing the fifth, I am playing the major sixth...."etc.
------------------

But that's just for note names. If you really want to learn the logic of the fretboard, as JTE wisely suggests, check the sticky thread for PacMan's Sure-fire scale practice method.

[Russell L]

I pretty much did what mambo4 said. I was already familiar with piano notation, so I knew there was no note between E and F and between B and C. Learned the dots and let the others fall into place. You get better over time.

[sherlock10851]

Originally Posted by mambo4

my usual responses....
----------------------------------
LEARNING THE FINGERBOARD
---------------------------------------
when I first picked up the bass I memorized the open strings (EADG) and then memorized each "dotted" fret up to the octave:
open:EADG
3rd fret:GCFA#
5th fret:ADGC
7th fret:BEAD
9th fret:C#F#BE
Octave:EADG

With those notes memorized, I could quickly figure out "in between" notes based on the dotted ones. If you can instantly find E then you can almost as instantly figure out where E flat is. It was enough to get me by at first.

I never made a deliberate effort to memorize the rest of the neck, eventually I just absorbed the knowledge via experience.

It is worth noting that that experienced musicians are not constantly thinking "I am playing an A,now I am playing Eb, now I am playing B..." ect. as they play, unless perhaps first learning a tune. I deally, They are thinking of the sound they want to hear and the physical fingering needed to get that sound. Personally I tend to think in intervals and chord tones "I am playing the root, now I am playing the fifth, I am playing the major sixth...."etc.
------------------

But that's just for note names. If you really want to learn the logic of the fretboard, as JTE wisely suggests, check the sticky thread for PacMan's Sure-fire scale practice method.

I really like that

[Fl3tch3rb0y]

Hey,

Ok...for fretboard knowledge here's what I did. I knew from theory that any major scale starting from the root is made up of the following steps: W W H W W W H (W=Whole and H=Half)....Also the bass strings are perfect fourths apart so the next step on the next string up is four frets back.

Its that whole and half step thing of the major scale which is basically the most important part to understanding music theory.

[Fl3tch3rb0y]

Just to add....There are 32 notes from the Key of C (C Maj Scale) possible between the nut and the twelfth fret of a four string bass. So if you can be musical within the key of C Maj from nut to 12th using those 32 notes then your actually learning the scale, the fretboard and practicing all at the same time. Do that every day for a couple of weeks and make up some of your own tunes and for sure you will gain the knowledge and musicality you need. I think all the Maj scales are the most important and once you have all those down then thereafter each other scale becomes easier eg minor scales and blues pentatonic scales. You might not win the bass technique olympics which I see demonstrated on youtube each day but at least you wont be the equivalent of captain hooks parrot or michael jackson's monkey!!

[mdsmith]

These all sound like good ideas. I'm actually just starting to try to learn the notes on the neck by working in Ed Friedland's Bass Method book. It seems to be teaching me to read notes on the bass clef, and learning where they are on the neck at the same time. I breaks them down by string and position, ie. on the E string, first position, you learn the E, F and G notes. So, even though I am only at the E string, second postion so far, I have 5 notes that I can both read from the bass clef, and identify on the fretboard. This might not seem like much to you more experienced guys, but it feels like an acomplishment to me. It's definitely a step in the right direction from my, get a tab off line and learn a tune, regular guitar days. At least now I'm learning my instrument instead of just learning songs.