Need some help with theory, please.

[Wes]

Hello, first of all: thanks for clicking on the thread, because I know quite a few people often can't be bothered to explain basic things when they're doing much more complex stuff.

Now, my situation: I recently got accepted into the second year of a local music college.

However, this was on a promise on my behalf that I would brush up on my theory. Basically, I can play good, especially for only playing a year and a half with no tutor, so they accepted me.

So here's the theory I need to learn: Chords, scales, all the notes on the fretboard and time signatures. Basically, before I start dipping in and out of everything in the wrong places, I would like to know how you guys would suggest learning it all. Just a run down in order really.

In case you're wondering, my current theory is pretty small. I know what everything is, like I know what chords, time signatures, etc, are. But I don't know how to use them, etc.

Thank you in advance.

[Scottgun]

Originally Posted by Wes

Hello, first of all: thanks for clicking on the thread, because I know quite a few people often can't be bothered to explain basic things when they're doing much more complex stuff.

Now, my situation: I recently got accepted into the second year of a local music college.

However, this was on a promise on my behalf that I would brush up on my theory. Basically, I can play good, especially for only playing a year and a half with no tutor, so they accepted me.

So here's the theory I need to learn: Chords, scales, all the notes on the fretboard and time signatures. Basically, before I start dipping in and out of everything in the wrong places, I would like to know how you guys would suggest learning it all. Just a run down in order really.

In case you're wondering, my current theory is pretty small. I know what everything is, like I know what chords, time signatures, etc, are. But I don't know how to use them, etc.

Thank you in advance.

I'm not quite following. Second year in a music college? Does that mean you were somewhere else freshman year? Anyway, don't they have entry-level theory courses? Can you take those? Frankly the absolute best thing you can do for yourself is make an appointment with the profs that told you to brush up on your theory and and ask them how you should go about it. Since there are the ones who are going to say whether you did in fact brush up on your theory, they are best able to tell you what they expect. Basically, if they say take these courses, and you come back with a transcript with decent grades in those courses, they have little ground for saying you didn't do what you promised.


Scott

[Bassist4Life]

Find out what entry level music students use for their theory study and use that.

Many amazing music students enter college with little to no music theory skills.

Joe

[SLaPiNFuNK]

Your going to college to learn it... So learn it there... You will learn what you need to know then...

[steveb98]

That's basic stuff and there are thousands of online tutorials and books on basic theory. Get one start working your way through it. When you have questions post them.

One suggestion put down your bass. Study some theory and when you are confident you understand it, then pick your bass back up and see how you can relate it to the bass. Trying to do both at same time with just confuse things for you.

[Bassist4Life]

Originally Posted by steveb98

Study some theory and when you are confident you understand it, then pick your bass back up and see how you can relate it to the bass. Trying to do both at same time with just confuse things for you.

+1

I agree. Music theory is not bass specific. You have to make the transfer to your instrument on your own. Having knowledge of the piano/keyboard is very helpful.

Joe

[Wes]

Thanks for the help guys. Just for those you didn't understand.

I got into the second year of music college, meaning I skipped the first year. In the first year they focus on playing technique and a small amount of theory. But seeing as I play so well for someone who's only been playing a year and a half, they felt confident I could learn the basic theory on my own. I was just asking for some guidance from you guys.

[ALiP BoB]

Not to derail. But what college are you reffering to? Is it expensive?

[morf]

I would say buy a theory+scales book, practice them everyday for 15 minutes, read up on time signatures to understand how they work and what kind of rhythm they refer to.

Go on youtube, watch instructional videos on theory, learning scales.

Google for a picture of the bass fretboard indicating all the notes. From there, learn how chords work, and practice learning the notes starting from a different root note each time. That taught me to find out easily which position = which note since if you know your chord progressions by heart, you just count to find out which note is which. Theres also little tricks to help you, like octaves=same note for example. This is good when you're beginning and you're looking for the notes on other strings, cause if you combine it with knowing your chord progression the whole fretboard opens up and you can basically quickly calculate which note is which. If you keep doing that you should know every note in no time. All you gotta do is pay attention really, recognize them when you play them, tell yourself "hey thats a G right there", and little by little itll come.

[dlloyd]

Originally Posted by Wes

So here's the theory I need to learn: Chords, scales, all the notes on the fretboard and time signatures. Basically, before I start dipping in and out of everything in the wrong places, I would like to know how you guys would suggest learning it all. Just a run down in order really

First thing I would do is to try and get a handle on the different notes available and how they relate to the fretboard.

I'd do this by first looking at a piano keyboard.



Notice how there is a repeating pattern of black keys... you get two bunched together, then three, then two, then three, etc?

Looking first at the two black keys that are bunched together, the white note to the left of them is "C", the white note in the middle is "D" and the note to the right of them is "E". The black note between C and D can be either C#, which means one "half step" (or "semitone") above C, or Db, one "half step" below D.

A "whole step" (or "tone") is the distance between most of the adjacent white keys on a piano keyboard, the ones with a black key between them. A "half step" (or "semitone") is the distance between each of the adjacent keys, whether they are white or black.

Now look at the three black keys grouped together. The white note to the left of the group is "F" and white the note to the right is "B". The white notes in between are "G" and "A". The three black notes are F#/Gb, G#/Ab, A#/Bb.

Where a note has two possible names, we call this "enharmonic equivalence".

Although there is no black key between B and C, it is still possible to get the notes B# and Cb, they are enharmonically equivalent to C and B respectively. Also, there is no black note between E and F, E# is enharmonically equivalent to F and Fb is enharmonically equivalent to E.

Applying this to a bass fret board, the lowest string (in pitch) on a four string bass is "E". When you play the open string, the note you get is "E". If you hold the string down at the first fret, you get and F in the same way that the key immediately to the right of E on a keyboard is F. And this pattern follows:

E string:
open = E; 1st fret = F; 2nd fret = F#/Gb; 3rd fret = G; 4th fret = G#/Ab; 5th fret = A; 6th fret = A#/Bb; 7th fret = B; 8th fret = C; 9th fret = C#/Db; 10th fret = D; 11th fret = D#/Eb; 12th fret = E.

Where I've put the frets in bold, they correspond to white keys on the keyboard.

Looking at only the notes that correspond to the white keys, if you place them on the stave, you get:



Adding the black keys (and thinking of them as sharpened notes), you get:



You can carry this pattern onto the A string, starting with the knowledge that the open A string is the same as the fifth fret on the E string.

[lowerclef]

Here's a chord exercise that will acquaint you with some basic harmony.

Start in the key of C (CDEFGABC) to make it nice and easy - no sharps or flats. You get your chords by skipping every other note of the scale. So you would start with CEGB. That's your Cmaj7 (Imaj7)chord. Then move on to the next set of notes: DFAC, your Dm7 (iim7).

The whole thing would look like this: CEGB DFAC EGBD FACE GBDF ACEG BDFA CEGB. Get your fingers to memorize these hand movements, because now you can transpose this to any other key just by starting this exact same pattern on a different note. Also try going up one chord and down the next, etc. The aim is to hear chord relationships a given key. No matter what key you start in, the basic chord relationships are the same: Imaj7, iim7, iiim7, IVmaj7, V7, vim7, viim7-5.

Don't bother with a metronome for this one - it's more of an ear training exercise. Play each note as long as you need to really listen to what's going on. Hope that helps!

[Wes]

Thank you guys so much! You've covered what I would like to know, and now I have a firm plan of what to learn, etc. I really appreciate the help. Cheers.