Your best suggestions for learning how to play without looking at the fretboard?

[fourstringbliss]

I want to learn how to play without looking at the fretboard. Any tips or tricks? I can play some notes without looking by knowing where they are in relation to other notes I am playing, but I want to limit my fretboard looking. How do you know what note you're going to play when you're not looking? Do you have reference positions you use without looking?

Thanks!

[CoffeeJanitor]

Practice.

Practice.

Practice.

Just try to play without looking (directly) at your bass (except for big jumps, at least to start).

It'll come in time.

[jacojazz156]

Try hitting the wrong notes & see if reverse psychology works on the bass. Seriously though, if you hit a wrong note you're only 1/2 step away from a right note. Thanks Vic!

[bassteban]

Jam to some music you know very well blindfolded or in a dark room. Then progress to harder tunes. That or have your hot GF(or someone else's hot GF if yours is ugly/shy )flash the nay-nays from the audience.

[Billnc]

You know what? I do not look at the fretboard when gigging or reading music. Yet look at it a lot when practicing. I do keep the 'grid' of my fingers over the fretboard intact at all times so I know what is going to happen when I put a certain finger down. This is key to playing without looking I think.

[iguigd]

Feel the force just like in "Star Wars" close your eyes and listen with your ears. Don't be too critical about yourself in the beginning there will be plenty of mistakes. The harder you try to prefect yourself in the beginning the more difficult its going to be. Most important of all have fun and practice, practice, practice. It worked for me.

[basmartin]

Look at your plucking hand insteed.

[stoolpigeon]

Originally Posted by jacojazz156

Try hitting the wrong notes & see if reverse psychology works on the bass. Seriously though, if you hit a wrong note you're only 1/2 step away from a right note. Thanks Vic!

Ha...that about made me wet my pants!

[M0ses]

Practice some more.
And by "some", I mean a lot.

I've never particularly practiced not looking, but I don't look at my bass much. So practice a whole bunch until you almost don't need to look, and then practice not looking.

[M0ses]

Originally Posted by jacojazz156

if you hit a wrong note you're only 1/2 step away from a right note. Thanks Vic!

Best advice anyone ever gave me.

[jacojazz156]

Originally Posted by M0ses

Best advice anyone ever gave me.

I wish I could take credit for it, but that is from Victor Wooten's latest book. The point being, if you are playing in G and hit a "wrong" note, which Vic says there is no wrong notes, all you have to do is move up or down 1 fret to find a harmony note.

[lowendfriend]

To get better at not looking, I play circle of fourth scales and since I know how the circle sounds, i can tell if I'm mispositioned.

A variation on:

Practice
Practice
Practice

[David1234]

If you practice a scale (say a one octave major scale) and adhere strictly to the "one finger per fret" rule it'll help.

I think one of the best ways to get away from looking at your hands is to start by looking at them a lot, so you'll be able to visualise them. Then close your eyes but still visualise and still work on the same scale, picturing what your hands are doing. This makes a strong visual link in your mind. But, open your eyes when you hear a mistake and watch your hands as you fix it (at first).

When you have to jump a long way up the neck or down the neck, you'll need to look for the dot nearest the fret you're going for. Work out in your mind which dot that is before you look down, and practise making the time you spend looking at your hands SHORTER but don't actually try and do it blind every time. The dots are there to help - way quicker than counting frets!!

Finally, either practise standing up, or have your strap set so that standing and seated playing position the bass in the same place. This'll help.

[MNAirHead]

post a fingerboard on the wall ahead.. then start visualizing where your hands are.

Laydown while playing.

Wear a blind fold

[Rudreax]

Learn to read sheet music. Once you get that down, start trying to sight-read and DO IT CONSTANTLY. Find anything and everything that has sheet music in it (without tabs) and read it, over and over again. I'd suggest finding trombone music and learning from that.

Basically, you obviously can't look at the fretboard if you're reading something in front of you. Hence why reading helps with this so much.