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Double Bass How did you first learn the notes?

I

Ilzhoefer

Sep 19, 2014
22
3
55
#1
Hello:

Curious to know how everyone first learned all of the notes. Yes, I know, practice, practice and more practice, but how where you taught?

Did you learn the strings (E, A, D, G) and the corresponding notes with each string down the fingerboard first or did you learn the notes across the fingerboard every step of the way down.

In other words did you learn vertically up and down the strings or horizontally across the fingerboard?

Just curious.
 
#2
It's been a while, but I learned on DB in orchestra in grade school. Started with open strings, then 1st position (DB) on 4 strings, then half position, then ascending positions on G string.

I didn't fill in the higher positions in the E-A-D strings until later. I'm not advocating this way, fwiw, but that's how I learned.
 
#4
INTP said:
It's been a while, but I learned on DB in orchestra in grade school. Started with open strings, then 1st position (DB) on 4 strings, then half position, then ascending positions on G string.

I didn't fill in the higher positions in the E-A-D strings until later. I'm not advocating this way, fwiw, but that's how I learned.
Click to expand...
That's pretty much how I learned as well, also starting in grade school. Open strings, 1st finger notes, 2nd finger notes, 4th finger notes. We stayed in 1st or half position that first year.
 
#5
2 octave major scales starting on the low E ascending and decending. I had a staff book with the scales notated and my teacher wrote the fingerings under each note. Then I practiced the scales with the fingerings on my own.
 
#6
I started on electric bass. I had already learned scales and modes on BG, which gave me a mental map of the interval relationships on double bass. As soon as I started double bass, I could read and play, although out of tune and with a bad sound. :)

For me, having this mental map was a big help getting started on double bass. The frets and smaller scale of bass guitar make it a great tool for learning the interval relationships on a four string bass tuned in 4ths.
 
#7
I learned by color coding the notes of the open strings. E seems blue to me, so everywhere there's an E, I put a blue sticker on the fretboard. It was pretty hokey looking for quite a while, but it worked.
 
#8
I started out on piano as a kid and then moved to guitar in adult life. Because of that background, I learned things in terms of relationships to other things. Which note is the major 3rd and 5th of each root focusing mainly on the E and A strings at first. It's easier starting in closed positions than using open strings because the relationship has the same "shape" where you went. Once I had that down I randomly quizzed myself to find a note at random as quickly as possible. The goal was to eventually get to the point where I don't have to think about where the note is located on the string - I would just go directly there.

Linear relationships between the chord tones just established themselves. Once I had that down scale practice and dividing the scales up to 3 or 4 note fragments just tied everything together. This system worked for me but that's mainly because I kinda have a strong feeling for how my brain works. I don't expect everybody else to be the same.
 
#9
Edit - Ooops, just noticed it is DB thread, sorry.

It's been a while (about 46 years) but I started at the nut E,A,D,G plus C and F and then worked up he fretboard. At first I only played up to the 5th fret because the action on my bass was so bad that it was impossible (for me as a starter) to play any higher.

Once I got a better bass I soon learned where the octaves to the open strings were and the roots (up to about the 12th fret) that were used to the common keys that the guitarist was now playing in C,D,E G,A. After that it was just a matter of filling in the gaps.
 
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#11
Learned to read treble clef first while playing clarinet in the 6th grade.

By the time the electric bass came around, I was given a Mel Bay book for instruction on what the names of the bass clef notes were and where they resided on the fingerboard, and was told to "figure it out".

(I'm still trying to figure it out.)

As far as I remember, the book broke it down into position-like chunks. (first four notes on all four strings, next four notes on all four strings, etc.)

When I picked up the DB it was Simandl I & II all the way.
 
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#16
Robert Strickland said:
Geez! Why would anybody want to learn about THAT ****! :bassist:
Click to expand...

There is tablature (i.e., paint by numbers).

tab-converter.png
 
#19
Ilzhoefer said:
Curious to know how everyone first learned all of the notes.

In other words did you learn vertically up and down the strings or horizontally across the fingerboard?
Click to expand...

I learned on guitar, but process makes sense on bass as well - you start playing higher and higher, and as you play higher on your highest string, you need to learn the notes on the other strings in higher positions in order to avoid jumping back to the low end of the neck all the time. E.g., on bass, if you'd playing D on the G string (7th virtual fret) and then need the A a fourth below, you learn that it's easier to find it on the second string than to jump back and forth. (Well, sometimes you do want to jump back and forth, but the point is to be able to choose and not be limited to one way only.)

Properly progressively more difficult pieces is what will get you there. Bach 2-Part Inventions are great for this when you're ready, and you can play them as duets with all your guitar playing friends.

-S-
 

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