how important is it........

[lunarpollen]

So you're saying someone could play you any note, and you could play it back on your instrument on the first attempt every time? You must be some kind of musical genius. Don't you think that musical genius + musical education would make you a virtuoso?

I am nowhere near a musical genius, but I am good at playing by ear. I have excellent relative pitch, and when I was younger, like 3rd and 4th grade, and learning music in music class at school (clarinet), the names of the notes etc. were useless to me. I just imitated whatever the teacher played on the piano or whatever notes my classmates were playing. And I wasn't only limited to imitation, that was just a starting point, I could transpose, improvise, imagine harmonies in my head, etc. When I was younger than that, like 1st or 2nd grade, and we all had those white flutophones, I did the same thing. Standard notation of pitch was too cumbersome for me to have to decode, although notation of note length was not hard for me to understand. I could even imitate the flutophone sound vocally without using the instrument, and I did it often to my amusement when we were supposed to all be playing in unison. I used to get kids in trouble when we were all assembled in the cafeteria for lunch or waiting for the bus by doing note and tone perfect imitations of the flutophone with my voice (we weren't supposed to play with them during those times) and the lunch monitors would get all bent trying to find out who was blowing on their instrument and would always confiscate it from some kid who was unlucky to have theirs in sight...

 

[lunarpollen]

Sorry lunarpollen, everyone is entitled to an opinion, but you are giving bad advice. It works with some instruments, but on the bass, you need to know the names of the notes and chords. It's just that simple. Nobody is going to want to play with a bass player who can't find the "A" on his bass.

I am not giving bad advice, I am just saying that what works for some people can be a burden for others. Some people need to know the names of things in order to comprehend them. For some people, names can get in the way of their ability to work with them. And other people have other ways of working.

I know where A is because that's an open string, but even not knowing the names of the notes never stopped me from playing bass or guitar with others and writing music with others and gigging with bands. I'm not looking to become an instructor or classical player or session player. I would be miserable doing that sort of stuff even if I did memorize the western musical notation official names for all the notes and chords.

 

[Fergie Fulton]

The names of people have nothing to do with what makes them tick. They are just symbols. You learn about what makes people tick by watching them, experiencing them, and interacting with them. The average person can identify way more individual people by sight than they can remember the names of.

Well when i saw that guitar player, you know the one plays blues, black Strat, bit of a beard, glasses, British i think, big in the 60's played with that bass player, really good, bit mad, but great voice, i think the both played for that other British blues guy, the one that now lives in L. A. they were all at the start of the Blues boom but they got that drummer, red hair, beard, fantastic player lives in South Africa now breeding horses. They had a re-union and that one with the glasses i was talking about was there.

 

[greenboy]

You are as dumb as you make yourself. If you refuse to learn how to communicate with others because you think you would limit the concepts you perceive internally, you might as well stay in diapers too because not being able to communicate limits interaction and it also keeps your conceptual growth from expanding in more directions.

 

[slybass3000]

VERY, VERY, VERY IMPORTANT !!!
These are the base for all the right notes to play in a bassline or fills.

 

[Spin Doctor]

..I know where A is because that's an open string..

That is priceless... It should be on a T-shirt.

 

[bassy7]

Its definitely great that you have a good ear- you are lucky in that regard. If you get by doing what your doing then thats fine. However, you could develop into a better player and be able to jam with other folks much easier- if you took some time to learn the FUNDAMENTALS of music.

Could you just imagine a singer with a good ear and a good voice that is illiterate? So they turn to the band and say "Thanks for handing me the lyric sheet and all, but I don't know what this stuff means. Could you guys sound out all of the words for me, and I'll figure the song out that way?"

Isn't it cumbersome when a musician you are jamming with says in the middle of a jam "Hey man, next time around when I play the C chord, why don't you trying playing A, or centering your groove around the A"

I've seen bass players that could easily "outplay" me in a jam. Yet, when someone tells them the chords to the next song- that same player is clueless.

I admit my theory is limited (I'm working on that) but I certainly can name notes and know what notes I am playing.

Since you are already know how to play (possible well) and have some sort of understanding of music--- that really makes it harder to go back and learn the basics. I am going through that myself right now. I started playing bass 16 years ago. Its definitely a little tedious "going backwards" when I am reading/playing nursery rhymes on my bass-- but it is helping me understand music better. Its helping me much more than just playing the same old fretboard patterns.

 

[funkybass]

I should point out I know the names of all the notes on the neck. What i'm saying is, if someone asked me to say what notes are in say a F#min, from memory i could not do it, but if I had my bass in front of me i 'd know.

 

[JTE]

I should point out I know the names of all the notes on the neck. What i'm saying is, if someone asked me to say what notes are in say a F#min, from memory i could not do it, but if I had my bass in front of me i 'd know.

But it's easy to take a minute to figure it out in your head too. Here's the key- do you know WHY F#min is the notes you put your finger on when you have your bass, or not? If you do, then you've already got over half the issue solved. Then it's just a matter of thinking through "F#, whole step to G#, whole to A#, half to B, whole to C#... so, the third is A#, that makes the flatted third A, and the C# is five so the F#min is F#, A, C#.

If you only can figure out that it's F#, A, C# because you learned a pattern for a minor chord, then you don't have the MUSICAL knowledge to put it together. The key is that an F#min is the same notes no matter how they're spread out between the musicians, nor in what order they appear. If I'm playing an F#, the guitar is banging out A and E power chords, and the singer is singing C#, it's an F#min, no matter that the guitar THINKS they're playing A. And knowing what the notes are allows me to reinforce that F#min tonality because I know where those three notes are all over the neck and can play more than just the pattern.

John