Fingerboard chart

[REV]

When my son was in grade school I offered to teach him guitar but he wasn't interested. When he got a little older and some of his friends were starting to play music together he wanted to learn how to play the bass so he could play with them. As I started to teach him he wasn't really interested in learning how to play as much as he wanted me to show him how to play songs so he could play with his friends. This was OK with me and he would come to me about once a week with a new song he wanted me to teach him. Mostly stuff from Grunge bands. Not to difficult. This went on for awhile and then he went off to college. At some point he started taking lessons from some guy and he called me to say that "this guy is showing me all the stuff you used to show me except now I have to pay for it". He eventually started working and kind of put the bass down for awhile but now he's beginning to pick it up again. I want to make a book of scales for him that will hopefully help him get back up to speed. I once saw a .pdf file somewhere that illustrated a fretted bass fingerboard so you write down finger positions for scales. Can anyone supply a link where I could find something like this?

 

[SteveCS]

Sometimes it is better to roll your own, but there are a couple of blanks here:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[REV]

Thank You! This is exactly what I was looking for.

 

[Malcolm35]

This helped me. I Hope it helps. It's a cut and paste thing. Suggest you copy and paste it somewhere he can refer to it whenever he needs some help.

Yes, to what has been said. Get a teacher. If you teach yourself your instructor does not know what he is doing. However, if you do teach yourself, I'd start you off with knowing where the notes are on your fretboard. Why? So later on, when your ear tells you, or you see a chord your fingers know what to do with that information. So, let's get started. The following are some things you can work on before you get with a teacher -- that can tell you how to do it correctly.

For this paper we will be referring to notes as A, B, C & 1, 2, 3. For example:

C Major Scale…….....…C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C (octave)
Scale degree number. 1. 2, 3,.4,.5, 6, 7, 8 (octave)

The Major Scale Box Pattern will also be used in our examples.
The Major Scale Box
G|~~|---A----|-------|---B---|---C---|1st string
D|~~|---E----|---F---|--------|--G----|
A|~~|---B----|---C---|-------|---D----|
E|~~|---------|---G---|-------|---A----| 4th string

C and D played on the A string.
E, F and G played on the D string.
A, B and C played on the G string.

Why did I place the C root note on the A string? If we place the tonic root note of the scale or chord progression on the A string, the 4th and 5th scale degrees will be above and below the tonic root note. Why is that important? The I-IV-V chord progression finds its way into hundreds of simple songs. Having the I, IV and V root notes all together in one spot will prove to be an advantage.

Octaves - Playing the root of a chord and just pounding out root notes is safe - and boring. Think about octaves, which is the root in another octave, R-8, or R-8-R-8 or R-R-8-8, safe and simple. Hold on --- the 5 is always right below the 8 so the R-5-8-5 becomes another safe bass line you could get into muscle memory very easily. More on that later.

Any root note’s octave can be found up two strings and over two frets. To simplify this paper “over” will mean move toward the bridge and “back” will mean move toward the nut. OK this will find the 8 or octave note, if you want to return to the 1 note go down two strings and back two frets.

Find a C note. For its octave 8 go up two strings and over two frets. For the tonic 1 note go down two strings and back two frets.

5th fret rule
The A at the 5th fret is the same as the open A string.
The D at the 5th fret is the same as the open D string.
The G at the 5th fret is the same as the open G string.

7th fret rule
E at the 7th fret is the same as the E open string.
A at the 7th fret is the same as the A open string.
D at the 7th fret is the same as the D open string.

Finding the other notes

• From any note where is its 2? Over two frets same string.
• From any note where is its 3? Up a string and back one fret.
• From any note where is its 4? Up a string same fret.
• From any note where is its 5? Up a string and over two frets, or right below on the next string down, same fret.
• From any note where is its 6? Up two strings and back one fret. Right over the 3.
• From any note where is its 7? Up two strings and over one fret. If you want C’s 7th find a C and the 7th is back one fret. This comes in handy when moving back down a scale.
• From any note where is its 8? Up two strings and over two frets.

Major scale box showing scale degree numbers and the root note on the 4th string.
G|---2---|-------|---3---|---4---| 1st string
D|---6---|-------|---7---|---8---|
A|---3---|---4---|-------|---5---|
E|-------|---R---|-------|---2---|4th string

This box, using scale degree numbers instead of note names will allow you to utilize the scale or chord spelling in your bass lines. See a Cmaj7 chord coming up in the song. The spelling for the Cmaj7 is R-3-5-7. Find those scale degrees within the box and you have a safe bass line. Start with just roots, need more add a 5. The 8 is always a safe addition. From there the correct 3 and 7 fill out a bass line very well. The ole generic R-5-8-5 seems to work most of the time.

Good luck, and welcome to the bottom end.

 

[mambo4]

back in the day I made do with graph paper and a pencil.

 

[Benjamin Earl]

I made one with fret markers and 7 boards per page, which is great for visualizing and connecting scale positions and patterns.
Click here: Blank Fretboards

 

[Lobster11]

back in the day I made do with graph paper and a pencil.

Hah! Pencils and paper? You were lucky. Back in my day we used to have carve in stone with primitive bronze chisels!