Learning note names/locations

[bassmam53]

I've been taking lessons and playing for a little over a year now and my teacher tells me my weakness is knowing note names and locations on all strings. I have flash cards that I use that gives me the fret and string to go to, and the answer is on the back. I've gotten pretty good with these and get most right, but when I go in for lessons and the teacher says "Get on the F" I just get like a deer in the headlights....something about being put on the spot and I can't do it without thinking and looking around for the note.

Any suggestions?

[Jim Nazium]

If you have MS Excel, I can send you a spreadsheet that I used for this. It has a little diagram of a bass neck up to the 12th fret, and randomly shows a pointer to one note whenever you press F9. Press F9, figure out what note is is, repeat until you have it down. Anyone else who wants this is welcome.

[bassmam53]

I do have Excel. That would be great! Thanks

[JSK5String]

Flash cards and excel apread sheets are all fine learning tools, but there is absolutely no substitute for actual hands on your bass' neck practice. Repeat the practice of "finding every E on the actual fret board" over and over until you have it nailed. Then move to the F, then the F#...

Only then will you not freeze in the headlights...

[bassmam53]

Good suggestion....thanks.

[mambo4]

from my old post on this topic:

--------------------------------------
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.

hope that is hlepful...

[Jim Nazium]

Originally Posted by JSK5String

Flash cards and excel spread sheets are all fine learning tools, but there is absolutely no substitute for actual hands on your bass' neck practice.

Oh, I agree, but you're less likely to get busted at work using a spreadsheet than practicing your bass.

[JSK5String]

Originally Posted by Jim Nazium

Oh, I agree, but you're less likely to get busted at work using a spreadsheet than practicing your bass.

Trudat!!!

[wysiwyg248]

What about the good old method of playing and memorizing the notes on the board?
This way, you will know the notes and the sound.

[emor]

Are you learning how to read standard notation in your lessons?

Doing so would help you learn the neck. You'll start associating different intervals and patterns with visual and tactile patterns on the neck, and as you encounter more difficult reading assignments, you'll have to work out the best way to finger it.

For instance, if you're playing in "C," you may find it much more convenient to play the C on the E string and play across all four strings instead of jumping up and down the neck on a couple of strings.

[rcarraher]

Originally Posted by Jim Nazium

If you have MS Excel, I can send you a spreadsheet that I used for this. It has a little diagram of a bass neck up to the 12th fret, and randomly shows a pointer to one note whenever you press F9. Press F9, figure out what note is is, repeat until you have it down. Anyone else who wants this is welcome.

Sounds like a cool tool, can you e-mail it to me?

[bassmam53]

To the post by Mambo4, I have learned the notes on the "dotted" frets as you suggested and that does help a lot. But the problem comes in when the teacher will randomly call out a note for me to go to on a particular string that is when I get lost. I can get it, but it takes a bit. I can't instantly go to it.

To the post asking if I'm learning site reading....no, not at this point. The teacher hasn't moved me to that point yet. He did say that he probably would in time though. Right now he's trying to get me to the point of hearing notes, and I am pretty decent at it. Occasionally on difficult pieces he'll give me some Tab to help me along. I believe he thinks I'm doing well....at least he says that I am. He just said my only weakness is knowing the note names quickly. I took this on rather late in life....53 to be exact, so I've been really shocked at how far I have come in little over a year. I've got around 25 songs that I play really well and several more I'm working on. Done all the scales (major, minor, harmonic minor) except the melodic minors...they are soon to come. My teacher has a Triad study that he has developed and I work on it daily. So all that said, I'm pretty pleased but I do need to work on those note names.

[Blake Bass]

I never made it a point to solely learn the notes on the fretboard. But by learning to read bass cleff really well and practicing 2 octave scales while saying the names of the notes I was playing out loud, I inadvertently learned all of the notes on my fingerboard. So what I'm saying is: it will come as you practice good material. Practicing just learning the notes on the FB is a waste of time when you could be practicing better material that will yield the same results possibly quicker!

[OmegaBass16]

bassmam53, what is it that you do when you practice your "Triad study" daily ? I'm just
just starting learn how to play bass (4 months), and I'm interested in learning this.

Thanks !!

[bassmam53]

To OmegaBass16
If you have only been playing 4 months, I think it may be a little early for you to try to start the traid study yet. I was playing for almost a year (and had my scales down good) before my teacher introduced it. Basically though, what he had me do was figure the various triads for the C (major), then take the 5th of the C (which would be the G), and figure the triads for the G, and on and on. Then I had to do the same thing for the minors. I have written all those out and now I practice those (2 written pages) daily.

[dvh]

Originally Posted by JSK5String

Flash cards and excel apread sheets are all fine learning tools, but there is absolutely no substitute for actual hands on your bass' neck practice. Repeat the practice of "finding every E on the actual fret board" over and over until you have it nailed. Then move to the F, then the F#...

Only then will you not freeze in the headlights...

I agree. It is still a worthwhile exercise but when I did it I found I got really good at finding notes on the fretboard "substitute" but not so much better on knowing the actual fretboard.

A combination of the exercises mentioned works best IMO.

[warnergt]

I'll tell you what helped me a lot. Get the score for a tune
you know that shows the chords at the beginning of each bar (like
the one shown below). Play along to the tune using only the chord
descriptions (letters) as your guide. Completely ignore any tab
that may be on your score.

Start out by just playing the root notes; you can work up to whole
chords when you're ready.

You may even walk through the whole tune ahead of time to figure
out where the notes are that you need. Early on, you will probably
find that you have to stop to find a note.

You'll probably find that you are most comfortable finding the
notes on one part of the neck. Force yourself to play on other
parts of the neck until you get pretty comfortable finding the
particular notes in different places.

Keep doing this (as they say, "practice, practice, practice") and,
in time, you'll find the notes faster and faster until you're almost
not thinking about it anymore.

[bassmam53]

That's a great idea that I hadn't thought of. And come to think of it, I jam with a few guitarist on Monday nights and am already doing that somewhat, but mainly by ear. I will concentrate from now own more on knowing what those notes are rather than just finding them by ear. Good point! Thanks
And it will also help me learn bass improvision in pieces I don't really know a bassline for.

[JTE]

I wouldn't use flash cards or diagrams. Learn how the music works, and the way the bass is tuned. Then you'll LEARN where the notes are instead of trying to memorize them.

For example, learn to read music. It'll help (in so many ways beyond this narrow scope).

Learn intervals. Know what an interval is in theory, on the staff, physically, and what it sounds like. So, for a major third, learn that it's a step and a half, that it's the distance between a note on any space and the next space up, (or lines), that it sounds like the first two notes of a major chord arpeggion, that you can play it on fret lower on the next higher string, or on the same string four frets higher.

When you play scales, arpeggios, songs, etc. Sing the note name as you play it. That'll reinforce the sound with the fingers and the names.

Once you learn where all the C's are on the neck, then if you know this other stuff, you'll be able to find all the E's. Do that with fifths and fourths. Pretty soon you'll know all this without spending time looking at pictures.

jte

[doggo]

Bassman53, I'm right behind you at 48. Good question, this'll be helpful for me too. I'm only 3 months in (with some experience back in my 20s).