Bass Notes Chart

[Dallas852]

I've been looking for a simple drawing of a bass guitar neck with all the notes clearly labeled. I want to learn them all and figure that if I'm chained to a desk all day I can print them out and look at them during the day that this will help me in learning them.

Anyone have any chart, or anything like that.

 

[Already In Use]

http://www.studybass.com/tools/chord-scale-note-printer/

 

[sirpug]

http://www.studybass.com/tools/chord-scale-note-printer/

That's what I use. I go there all the time to print out scales. It's nice because you can specify the root note and the scale and it'll show you them on your fretboard.

 

[Already In Use]

Study bass has been a HUGE help for me.

 

[Dallas852]

Study bass has been a HUGE help for me.

Thanks guys, I'm so newbie to bass that I'm trying to soak it all in as quickly as possible. I've been to study bass but I've had a hard time navigating, as I get there and want to learn everything.

 

[251]

I find I remember things like the fretboard faster & longer by writing out a chart. For long term results repetition pays off; twice a day for a month, once a day for a month, once a week for a month, one a month for a year. I would need a sharp blow to the head or a neurosurgeon to forget what's been learned.

Writing has always been a good way for me to deal with rote memory tasks. Using a memorized image takes too much thinking to be useful playing bass. Your results may vary.

 

[MalcolmAmos]

I'm a chart guy. Visual learner perhaps is a better term to use.

http://www.celticguitarmusic.com/basschart.htm

OK you've got the fretboard chart, how are you going to use it? How about another chart - The Major scale and how it is laid out on your fretboard.

The Major Scale Root on the 4th string.
G|---2---|-------|---3---|---4---| 1st string
D|---6---|-------|---7---|---8---|
A|---3---|---4---|-------|---5---|
E|-------|---R---|-------|---2---|4th string

The Major Scale Root on the 3rd string.
G|---6---|-------|---7---|---8---| 1st string
D|---3---|---4---|-------|---5---|
A|-------|---R----|------|---2---|
E|-------|---5----|------|---6---|4th string

Where is the 5th? Up a string and over two frets from the Root. Yep 5ths are up a string and over two frets from the root all over your fretboard.
Where is the 3rd? Up a string and back one fret.
Where is the 2nd? Same string over two.
Where is the 4th? Up a string.
Where is the 6th? Up two strings and back one. Over the 3rd.
Where is the 7th? Up two strings and over one fret.
Where is the octave (8)? Up two strings and over two frets.

Yep, your 5th is always up a string and over two frets, or if you place your root on the 3rd string the 5th is on the same fret but on the 4th string -- as well as up a string and over two frets, i.e. take your choice. If you place your root on the 3rd string where is your 4th? Where is the 5th? Is that great or what? Check it out your intervals are always in the same spot just waiting on you.

Now using that lets get some bass line riffs into muscle memory, i.e. Root-5 or R-3-5-3 perhaps R-3-5-b7 and then the major pentatonic R-2-3-5-6 always comes in handy. Playing 8's how about R-R-3-3-5-5-6-5. Five or six go to riffs can get you started. What the heck here is the blues scale R, b3, 4, #4, 5, b7 go have fun with that.

Next listen to enough music that you can predict the chord changes. Let backing tracks help you with that.

 

[Dallas852]

I'm a chart guy. Visual learner perhaps is a better term to use.

http://www.celticguitarmusic.com/basschart.htm

I read this in a post the other day. It kinda boggles my mind. the whole wording of it confuses me. I'm a very visual learner, (I'm a graphic designer...that should tell you something haha.) I get confused when you move your root up a string, etc. I need a diagram to see the patterns, once I see a pattern I'm good to go. I see the one that is listed with it. So that is a Major Scale on the E string??

 

[MalcolmAmos]

Yep. The other one is a Major scale starting on the A string.

Place your root note - 4th string 8th fret and the C major scale is there waiting on you.

Place your root note - 3rd string 3rd fret and the C major scale is there waiting on you.

Why would you want to do that? Why have two places for the C major Scale? Well, sometime I like to place my root on the 3rd string, because a I IV V progression is soo much easier there, i.e. Root on the 3rd string with the IV same fret on the 2nd string and the V same fret on the 4th string.

Focus on the root note and then see how that root note's scale comes into focus.

Good luck

 

[Dallas852]

I'll have to experiment when I get off work.

 

[MalcolmAmos]

I was late for a meeting when I posted earlier. I'm back now and will spend a little more time on your answer.

The major scale pattern:
G|---2---|-------|---3---|---4---| 1st string
D|---6---|-------|---7---|---8---|
A|---3---|---4---|-------|---5---|
E|-------|---R---|-------|---2---|4th string

Is repeated all over the bass fretboard. Place the R on the 4th string 3rd fret and the G major scale is waiting for you, i.e. G, A, B, C, D, E, F#. Place the R on the 4th string 5th fret and the notes of the A major scale are waiting for you, i.e. A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#. Why? What note is on the 4th string 3rd fret? It is a G. 4th string 5th fret is an A. So if you start the major scale pattern on the root note, G, the pattern will point to only G scale notes. Just play the pattern and you have all the notes in the G major scale waiting for you. That F# automatically was placed under your fingertips, as were the C#, F# and G# when you asked for the A major scale.

Now as the bass fretboard is tuned in 4ths you can start that same major scale pattern on the 3rd string and to some degree on the 2nd string as well. If you start on the 2nd string you do run out of strings before your pattern completes itself.

The Major Scale Root on the 3rd string.
G|---6---|-------|---7---|---8---| 1st string
D|---3---|---4---|-------|---5---|
A|-------|---R----|------|---2---|
E|-------|---5----|------|---6---|4th string

Point in all this if you know where the root is the root's 5th will always be up a string and over two frets. The root's 3rd will always be up a string and back one fret. I find that helpful.

Now if you are not going to use riffs of R-3-5-3 or R-2-3-5-6 then it's not a lot of help. I play generic riffs of R-3-5-3. So I like this approach.

If you are faced with a C chord then R-3-5 will always work. Why? Well the C chord is made up of the 1 or root note, the 3rd note and the 5th note of the C scale. Now the song is probably in 4/4 time so you need one more note to fill out the measure. How about R-3-5-3 to fill out the 4/4 measure.
C7 chord R-3-5-b7
Cm chord R-b3-5-b3 or R-b3-5-8
Cm7 chord R-b3-5-b7
Cmaj7 Chord R-3-5-7
Cdim chord R-b3-b5
Cdim7b5 chord R-b3-b5-bb7

So I see a Cm7 chord I know a :
Root nothing will work
A Root-5 will work
A Root-b3-5-b7 will work
In other words I see a Cm7 chord - I mental say OK it is a C minor chord that means R-b3-5 and it has a b7 so I can if I like fill the measure with R-b3-5-b7. Now that took a millisecond.

Sometime the song calls for just the root and sometime the song calls for R-b3-5-b7.

If I know where all those notes are - piece of cake all I now have to worry with is establishing a groove.

This may come in handy:
http://www.smithfowler.org/music/Chord_Formulas.htm


Hope that helped.

 

[Dallas852]

Wow, lots of info. I'm going to have to read and re-read that to comprehend. What does the R-3-5-3. mean. Is that Root-third-fifth-third of the root scale?

Also, when learning the notes, should I learn the notes as Notes + Sharps, or Notes + Flats? I printed off a chart off studybass and it shows sharps, but when I played trombone (back in the day) I only remembered flats being used. {Wow, what a n00b question.}

 

[Dallas852]

Another point of confusion. If you start a scale on the 3rd string:
The Major Scale Root on the 3rd string.
G|---6---|-------|---7---|---8---| 1st string
D|---3---|---4---|-------|---5---|
A|-------|---R----|------|---2---|
E|-------|---5----|------|---6---|4th string

Do you start on the R and go to the 8, or do you go in order, in sense going backwards once you are finished on the 2nd string?

 

[251]

I'm a chart guy. Visual learner perhaps is a better term to use.

http://www.celticguitarmusic.com/basschart.htm

OK you've got the fretboard chart, how are you going to use it? How about another chart - The Major scale and how it is laid out on your fretboard.



Where is the 5th? Up

<snip>

http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/guitar/index_rb.html
Use this site to look up the bass line riff for those chords.



Next use all that and jamm over backing tracks.


For everything else check out www.studybass.com

Good points, as usual, Malcolm. I see the fretboard & the patterns & the relationship of notes. I do think charts are really useful. I don't find looking at a chart is a good way to remember it. I certainly don't find having to think while I play will let me make good music.

Ultimately Dallas852, you need to be able to find a particular note under your fingers without (much) thought. Memorizing a chart of the fret board will get you started. You know yourself best, so do what you do to memorized the chart. Once you own that, begin to translate that image in your head to the actual fret board on your bass. One of my teachers suggested 2 exercises that worked really well for me;
- Play scales, melodies, arpeggios, patterns, modes ... & speak each note as you play it. When you get bored, do this to a metronome. Start slow & increase speed until speaking notes like Eb or D# doesn't work.
- Randomly, spontaneously, play notes all over the neck & name them as they are sounded. Don't forget those hard to reach notes on your lowest string & highest fret. Random means sometimes notes are chromatic & sometimes they are 3 octaves apart & everything in between.

Want to work from paper? Speak the notes off a chart because, it's what comes after you know where the notes are. Get bored with that, speak (sing) them in time. Trombone etudes work well for this. It's music you've never heard meant to build dexterity on another instrument. I find them in my Library.

Join the visual image, the auditory memory (speaking notes), the muscle memory (playing notes) so that your eyes see the note on a page & your finger finds it on the bass. FWIW, I haven't locked the sight reading down, yet, & am considered a solid Intermediate player by my music friends.

You can see this is a long project. It should not be the only thing you do. Learn music you like, jam with friends, join a band. Don't wait until you think you're ready. Give yourself an opportunity to rise to a challenge by making music with others, recording, playing for an audience. BTW, each of those is a project, too.

 

[MalcolmAmos]

Another point of confusion. If you start a scale on the 3rd string:
The Major Scale Root on the 3rd string.
G|---6---|-------|---7---|---8---| 1st string
D|---3---|---4---|-------|---5---|
A|-------|---R----|------|---2---|
E|-------|---5----|------|---6---|4th string

Do you start on the R and go to the 8, or do you go in order, in sense going backwards once you are finished on the 2nd string?

I think I understand your question - we finish the scale on the 1st string - at the 7 note. You can if you wish advance to the 8 and then go back down scale and end on the R at the 3rd string. That would run the scale "up scale" and then reverse it and "come back down scale".

 

[251]

Wow, lots of info. I'm going to have to read and re-read that to comprehend. What does the R-3-5-3. mean. Is that Root-third-fifth-third of the root scale?

Yes.

Also, when learning the notes, should I learn the notes as Notes + Sharps, or Notes + Flats? I printed off a chart off studybass and it shows sharps, but when I played trombone (back in the day) I only remembered flats being used. {Wow, what a n00b question.}

Because of the Temper of their instruments, reed players will want to play keys with flats, Bb, Eb, Ab. Rock Guitar players like to play in E, A, D, G, so prefer Sharps. You already know, an Eb by any other name is D#. Practice both, if you can make time.

 

[Already In Use]

The link on study bass lets you print scales and a bunch of other stuff. Its interactive. Select what you want and the program displays it.

 

[MalcolmAmos]

Wow, lots of info. I'm going to have to read and re-read that to comprehend. What does the R-3-5-3. mean. Is that Root-third-fifth-third of the root scale?

Yes.

Also, when learning the notes, should I learn the notes as Notes + Sharps, or Notes + Flats? I printed off a chart off studybass and it shows sharps, but when I played trombone (back in the day) I only remembered flats being used. {Wow, what a n00b question.}

Good question. All those scale patterns I've shown are really cheat sheets, short cuts to get by with not having to learn which scales have sharps and which sharps. Or which scales have flats and which flats. When you played trombone a lot of music with horns, sax, etc do use the flat keys. As 251 pointed out - I think we posted about the same time.

If you placed "our" major scale pattern on the 4th string 1st fret (the F note) the F major scale notes F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E would be waiting for you. So that pattern can be used for both scales with sharps and scales with flats in them.

Which should you do learn all 15 (yes 15) of the major scales and which ones have sharps and which have flats and which sharps are in what scale, etc, etc. Yes eventually. But, you can if you want start with the patterns and let the pattern place the correct notes under your fingertips for you -- and get into playing some songs right now - and then learn all that scale stuff later. Your choice.

Quoting from The Bottom Line by Todd Coolman.
"It is one thing for a bassist to have an intellectual knowledge of intervals, but, if he cannot find the intervals on the bass fretboard while playing, the knowledge doesn't mean much."

I cheat, strike that, I elect to use patterns so I can find the notes (intervals) on my fretboard.

 

[Dallas852]

I think I understand your question - we finish the scale on the 1st string - at the 7 note. You can if you wish advance to the 8 and then go back down scale and end on the R at the 3rd string. That would run the scale "up scale" and then reverse it and "come back down scale".

G|---6---|-------|---7---|---8---| 1st string
D|---3---|---4---|-------|---5---|
A|-------|---R----|------|---2---|
E|-------|---5----|------|---6---|4th string

So it goes in this order:
B, C#, D#, E, F#, G#, A#,B ?
Or do the F#, and G# on the E string come into play?

Thanks for all the good advice, keep it coming!

 

[grifff]

G|---6---|-------|---7---|---8---| 1st string
D|---3---|---4---|-------|---5---|
A|-------|---R----|------|---2---|
E|-------|---5----|------|---6---|4th string

So it goes in this order:
B, C#, D#, E, F#, G#, A#,B ?

Yes, each note in the scale is assigned a number. B is the 1 C# is the 2 and so on.

Or do the F#, and G# on the E string come into play?

I'll let someone else answer this because I can't find the words to explain it clearly at the moment.