I want to get to know the fretboard better.....

[Fassa Albrecht]

Basically I feel I don't know the fretboard well at all. I am comfy playing to the 7th fret but anything after that and I'm lost.



How do I get to know the fretboard better?


PS I can also play between the 12th and 16th frets well.

[kesslari]

Read the stickies at the top of this forum. Some great ideas there.
Then do them.

[DocBop]

Just have to force yourself to use it. Get some sightreading material that lays in that area of the neck. Work on music where the keys lay up there. Do your technique exercises in 12-keys but force yourself to stay in that area of the neck.

Take stuff you play down the neck and play it up the neck in same key. That will force you to different strings and view of the neck. You will see new opportunities for fills and timbre moving things up. It's like practicing your scales from high note down instead of low note up like most do. It give you a whole new perspective.

The best way to work on being creative is to limit what you have to use. Like artists do. When they want to work on creativity they don't add more colors to their palette they limit themselves to only two colors, that forces coming up with new ways to say a lot. Bass the same thing limit the range of frets and/or strings you use.

[mambo4]

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
Ocatve: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.

[Dennis098]

the scales excercise, 3 frets a string. is stickied.
also, find all the C's on the fretboard.
D, do the same,
repeat for all 12 notes
doing the harmonized chords in place of scale tones on the scale excercize helps too.

[ryco]

Originally Posted by Fassa Albrecht

Basically I feel I don't know the fretboard well at all. I am comfy playing to the 7th fret but anything after that and I'm lost. How do I get to know the fretboard better?
PS I can also play between the 12th and 16th frets well.

Well, by your post it seems you are familiar with every thing except frets 8-11. That's only four frets/notes!

And it sounds like you realize everything repeats from the 12 fret on — only an octave higher, of course.

Two frets below 12 (octave), fret #10 is easy to conceptualize; across the fingerboard is DGCF low to high, one note name down from the name of the string, or the m7 of the string, or the same note as the 5th fret one string over.

The other fret up (#11) is a chromatic leading up to the octave. Or the M7 (aka leading tone).

The two frets below (#9 #8) are chromatics leading down to the V, M6 m6 respectively.

Hope this helps. Like the good Doc sez: ya just have to use them a lot. They are very convenient.

[Nappa]

Learn some scales and do them slowly saying (out loud)each note that is being played. A metronome will also help with this, remember alternate fingerstyle will makes your scales more fluid sounding.

http://www.studybass.com/tools/chord...-note-printer/ A very nice tool that will let your print off fretboards with the notes on them, you can toggle the sharps and flats on the diagram page after clicking the show all button a few times.

[MarkTAW]

The 8th fret E string is the same note as the 3rd fret A string. If you can play on the A string from 1-7 you can play on the E string from 6-12.

[9mmMike]

Originally Posted by mambo4

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
Ocatve: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.

Isn't that 3rd fret GCFBb?

[cheesemonkey]

my teacher has me sit with a metronome and just start with one note like C and just play all the C's on all the strings with the metronome start with E string 8th fret then 20th fret then go to A and do 3rd and 15th fret then go to D and play it on 10th then 22nd fret and finally G string 5th and 17th fret. and play it backwards. And once i can do it with 100% accuracy playing every beat (At a slow tempo somewhere between 80-100 nothing really fast.) then I'll do another note and do the same thing... play all of them on the e then all of them on the a then all on d then all on g and work backwards... works well.

[cheesemonkey]

Originally Posted by 9mmMike

Isn't that 3rd fret GCFBb?

yes

[MrBorisSpider]

Make yourself spend time naming the notes as you play them. Do that for 5 or 10 minutes each day. Also, in your spare time, draw diagrams on a sheet of paper of the neck up to the 12th fret. It really helps. Focus on the E and A because, through octaves, you can tell what note you're on on the higher strings.

Also, remember, 5th fret of the string you're on is the same note at the open string above it and 7th string is the same as the one below.

[Stumbo]

A Fretlight guitar will do exactly what you need. They used to sell a bass (FG-200 back in the '90's).

Here's some discounts on eBay:
http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI...light_back_lot
Sometimes you can find the 200 series (non-computer connected) for sale on ebay and other sites.

If you want, take off the top two strings and cover the l.e.d's.

You can compress a year's worth of practice into a a couple of months.

[Jerose]

Sorry for the off-topic, but the moment I read the thread title I thought:

"Well... I could set you up on a date..."



Ok, back on topic!

[mambo4]

Originally Posted by 9mmMike

Isn't that 3rd fret GCFBb?

funny I've posted that thing thre or four times and you're the first person who caught that...

[9mmMike]

Originally Posted by mambo4

funny I've posted that thing thre or four times and you're the first person who caught that...

Only because I am a rookie myself and it's fresh in my mind!

[Stumbo]

http://www.realisis.ca/calculators/fretboard.html

[JTE]

A. Spend time finding every note on the neck. As cheesmonkey suggests, pick a note at random and find that note everywhere on the neck (I assume you've alredy figured out the octave beiing up two frets and two strings, the 12th fret repeat, etc.

B. Play scales, naming every note you play. Do it ascending and descending. Same thing with arpeggios.

C. Play a bass line you like. Have someone stop you at random times and tell you what the last note you played was.

D. Play some lines you like in different keys, naming the notes as you play them.

BTW, those last two don't work so well for one-note bass lines

[DocBop]

The way I got learned the notes up the neck was needing them for reading. Since this popped up in another thread I will mention it too. Get the Simandl book (required for all real bass players even if they only have it on the shelf to look cool.) Or get someone to xerox pages 104 and 105 the Broken Chords Extending through all the Major Keys. That will get you not only having to know the notes up to the 12th fret but will drill it in musically playing triads in inversions which will also help your ear.

[Fassa Albrecht]

Originally Posted by Jerose

Sorry for the off-topic, but the moment I read the thread title I thought:

"Well... I could set you up on a date..."



Ok, back on topic!

Ha ha very funny. Not!