Learning the Fret Board

eq777 · #1 05-27-2010, 01:03 PM

Hello fellow bass men/women: I have been playing bass for a few years and I'm pretty decent, but I want to get to the next level. ONe of my problems is learning the fret board. Is there a method to learning the notes? I know most of them and can find any of them and can tell what any note I play is, but sometimes, esp in the upper register, I have to take a minute and figure out what I'm playing. Do you learn the fret board by memory? or, is there a systematic approcach? I play bass by ear but I also have played piano/keys for many, many years and sax as well on which I have had to read. I can read, but on bass, my reading stinks!!! Please help with any advise or tricks or methods. Thanks to All...

stratovani · #2 05-27-2010, 01:17 PM

I learned the fretboard by constant playing. Like you, I know all the notes pretty much all over the fretboard, but on the upper registers it'll take me a bit to name them. But in my case I don't really care, since i don't spend much time down there. I consider myself an "accompanying" bassist, not a "soloing" bassist. I'm more Tommy Shannon than Jaco Pastorius!

m_bisson · #3 05-27-2010, 01:19 PM

play scales. I bought my first bass on Tuesday and i've been playing tons of scales and I know most of the notes. (i have some guitar background as well)

Billnc · #4 05-27-2010, 02:01 PM

I feel the best way to learn the fretboard is to take a line you know, about two measures or so and using an 8th note stream. You only need to be able to quickly find the starting note. Play the lick through the cycle of fourths. You don't have to 'think' letter names while playing, but you do need to be able to transpose and find STARTING notes very quickly. This should aid in that pursuit.

McKay · #5 05-27-2010, 02:04 PM

Here is the approach I am doing, I take 5 min warming up doing these.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuzB2_O8GGM

ssabass · #6 05-27-2010, 02:13 PM

Try this- visualize the double dots at the 12th fret as the nut- you are playing one octave higher, but the notes are the same. In otherwords, on the G string, you know that the double dots at the 12th fret produce the octave, G. Picture this point, the double dots, as the nut above, and as long as you are very familiar with the notes of the lower part of the fingerboard, you should instantly know the fingerboard above the snake eyes as well! Hope this helps!

mambo4 · #7 05-27-2010, 02:23 PM

my standard cut n paste resposne...
--------------------------------------
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
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.

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 learnign a tune.
Ideally, 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 inetrvals and chord tones:
"I am playing the root, now I am playing the fifth, I am playing the major sixth...."etc.

incident · #8 05-27-2010, 05:02 PM

I have found that a great way to learn the fretboard AND commit what you learn to memory is to play the notes AND say the notes out loud.

Incorporate this into a 5-10 minute warm up, and you should very quickly have the fretboard memorized.

The theory as I was told, is that if you do it, and say it, you are putting more of your brain power into action, which helps cement this stuff into memory.

eq777 · #9 05-27-2010, 08:42 PM

Thank you incident; and to all those who answered my question. Greatly appreciated!!!

tobie · #10 05-28-2010, 01:45 AM

There are tons of ways of learning the fretboard (as mentioned above) and it's all a matter of time spent vs an eventual level of skill.

If you really want to follow a formulated route, you might want to consider http://www.fretboardformula.com/ (a bit expensive, though). Alex's Bass Guitar Secrets course (www.bassguitarsecrets.com) includes a Fretboard Genius section which might be better value for money as it offers extensive bass guitar training in addition to fretboard training, for less than the fretboardformula package.

I've purchased the bassguitarsecrets course (after 18 months of self-training) and it's the best thing I could have done. My own training was full of holes and uncertaincies now addressed by this course.

MikeyFingers · #11 05-28-2010, 05:15 AM

I have to agree with what ssabass said. If you're comfortable with all the notes on the lower end of the neck, then do exactly what he said. Once you get to the 12th fret, everything just starts over again one octave higher.
Keep that in mind while practicing some of the other exercises mentioned above and you should do fine.

Mr wiggl3s · #12 05-28-2010, 08:07 PM

I've never heard "Learn one string at a time" repeated so many ways.

gmahoog · #13 05-29-2010, 08:57 AM

I find that when I read music that the notes on the fret board stick in my head better. Especially when the music gets above the staff and I have to read from the ledger lines.

RocketMusic · #14 05-31-2010, 06:29 PM

Anthony Wellington has a neat way of learning it. He suggests you prepare 12 flash cards, one for each note. Work on one card per week or per month, however fast you want to own the fretboard. Study the cards with or without a bass in your hands. Heck, do it while you're stuck in traffic.

Just as an example, the "E" card would tell you the string and fret location of every E on the neck, so it might look something like this for a 4-string w/ 24 frets:

G: 9, 21
D: 2, 14
A: 7, 19
E: 0, 12, 24

Work on that until you memorize it. Then lay your hands on your bass and put that information to work. Once you have it, pick another note.

This did two things for me. First, it made me MUCH more comfortable with the fret numbers above the twelfth fret. Before doing this myself, I couldn't tell you where the 20th fret was without starting at the 12th and doing some relative math. The second benefit was that I did indeed learn all of the notes all over the fretboard. Mission accomplished.

Think about a piano player. Have you ever known one who didn't know every note on the keyboard? Sure, keyboard players have some visual cues that we don't, but there's no reason we can't all be that proficient on our own instrument. The bottom line is that if you have to stop to do some math to figure out where a note is, you don't know the fretboard. Period. It's like being pregnant: either you are or you aren't.

The good news is that it's not that hard to learn it, it just takes a systematic approach and a little perseverance. Best of luck! You can do it!

Michael Campbel · #15 05-31-2010, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by McKay

Here is the approach I am doing, I take 5 min warming up doing these.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuzB2_O8GGM

I started with something like this and have added some variety. It went something like below.

* Learn where every "F" is. Play the F on the each string, back and forth, above and below the 12'th fret.
* Learn where every "B" is. Do the same as the F. I PURPOSELY didn't learn them in any order; I wanted to learn them where they were, not necessarily where they were relative to something I already knew (which is different than the video).
* Do a new note every day. Every day you learn a new note, review the previous days' notes. Don't skip the sharp and flat versions.

* After you have some facility with every note, starting doing this changing the notes. Do A, then B, C, D, E, F, G; one note per string, going up and down the strings as you go. Then go backwards; G, F, E... Don't stop at a particular note (that is, don't do GFEDCBA then stop), stop when you hit some time threshold. Just keep going ABCDEFG up and down the strings; you'll find that you hit a pattern after a while, but it's better to just keep going for your 5, 10, 15, whatever minutes.

* Then group them in 2's, A, A, B, B, C, C, ... then 2 backwards, then 3, then 3 backwards, then 4. Always do one note per string, up and down.

* Then change your order. Instead of A, B, C, ... do thirds, or fourths, or fifths (and in groups of 1, 2, 3, etc.) A A D D G G C C F F ... G G G D D D A A A E E E B B B ..., G G G G B B B B D D D D F F F F A A A A ..., etc.

* Then whatever order and grouping you've chosen, do the flat version. Then the sharps. (For good or bad, when I do this I do think of them in those terms; B# and E#; Cb and Fb; even though they happen to be enharmonic to a non-sharp/flat note.)

The key here is to keep going up and down the strings, one note per string, whatever note happens to be next in your grouping and order.

I do this about 10 minutes every practice.

tobie · #16 05-31-2010, 11:53 PM

Good advice given by Michael - a step or two above the 'usual' fretboard excercises which will take a bit of time and effort to master, but thereafter you'll be much more familiar with the fretboard!

RocketMusic · #17 06-01-2010, 08:43 AM

Yep, great advice, Michael! I've been doing the above and below the 12th fret thing with the individual notes, but I haven't been mixing up the notes as I go. Sounds like a fun challenge

Already In Use · #18 06-01-2010, 08:54 AM

Quote:

I have found that a great way to learn the fretboard AND commit what you learn to memory is to play the notes AND say the notes out loud.

I do that nearly everytime I pick up my bass. Like stated you only need to "memeorize" to the the 12th fret.

I have been playing since dec 09 and know the fretboard really well. Got there w/the above exercise.

Robert Spencer · #19 06-03-2010, 08:01 PM

Where can I see a printed version of the fretboard? I want to be sure that what I memorize is correct then I will make my own hand printed version to put on the stand for practicing without looking at the fretboard directly. Thanks & take care. Bob

MalcolmAmos · #20 06-03-2010, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robert Spencer

Where can I see a printed version of the fretboard? I want to be sure that what I memorize is correct then I will make my own hand printed version to put on the stand for practicing without looking at the fretboard directly. Thanks & take care. Bob

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