• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Learning note names on bass?

S

squiresuzuki

Jun 8, 2011
178
4
#1
Hello,

I'm wondering if you guys have any tricks to learning the notes on bass.
I'm quite good a playing, but not at reading music on bass. I know how to read music (I'm an advanced pianist and trombone player). I've tried playing through music (like Bach cello suites) and I can do it, but it seems like every note I translate from the music to the fretboard I have to calculate by determining the interval from the open string to the note...like if there's a B then I think that I have to play a major 3rd about the G string (the 4th fret).
If you have any tips, then please share. Thanks.
 
#2
Have you looked at Studybass.com? There is a good method there. My teacher has me running through the Major chords following Circle of Fifths/Fourths. I had to use a print out of the fretboard at first.
I find the root note and say it out loud. Then I move thru the circle of fourths (counterclockwise). This is helping me out.
 
#3
How long have you been playing bass?

I used to teach bass to middle-school students. I approached the process by emphasizing the importance of hand position and interval recognition in addition to note location.

After the student learned the name of each open string - and could find an open "E," "A," "D," and "G" on the bass clef - they'd be asked to find every other "E," "A," "D," and "G" on the instrument, and on the bass clef. They'd jump all over the fretboard playing those four notes - with correct hand position - until those four notes were memorized.

After learning those four notes, we'd learn chromatic scales, followed by diatonic major scales. We always stressed the importance of the intervals between the notes we'd already learned, and the new notes we were learning.

Once students had learned these basics, we spent a lot of time on ear training emphasizing roots, thirds, fourths, fifths, and octaves; hear a fifth, play a fifth; hear the root, play the octave, etc.

Next was the cycle [circle of fifths], followed by remaining intervals, e.g., sevenths, minor thirds, sixths, etc.

At this point in their development, students would have learned the location of every note up to the 12th fret, and were able to understand the relationship between their hand positions, the intervals being played, and what it said on the sheet music.

Does that help?
 
#10
It is not that hard to learn them. My teacher make me learn scale pattern and from that I learn every not on the fret board. I learn scale that go across multiple octaves by myself. You can got a long way with all the musical knowledge you already have.
 
#11
First, make sure you understand the logic of the fingerboard.

Then, pick a note and find it everywhere on the neck. All the E notes for example. You'll see the patterns and that'll get you going. Then move up a fourth and find all the A's, etc.

Another method is to practice the major scale on ONE STRING for as many octaves as you neck allows, naming the notes as you go along. Move to the next string and play that same scale from as low a note as you can reach to the highest. NAME the notes as you play them.

John

PS, and don't waste time writing them on the neck. Just learn them without crutches, it'll be a lot faster and easier in the long run.

jte
 
#12
squiresuzuki said:
Hello,

I'm wondering if you guys have any tricks to learning the notes on bass.
I'm quite good a playing, but not at reading music on bass. I know how to read music (I'm an advanced pianist and trombone player). I've tried playing through music (like Bach cello suites) and I can do it, but it seems like every note I translate from the music to the fretboard I have to calculate by determining the interval from the open string to the note...like if there's a B then I think that I have to play a major 3rd about the G string (the 4th fret).
If you have any tips, then please share. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Here's a quick method:

1. Memorize "BEADGC." BEADGC is your friend. The four open strings are right in the middle--"EADG." If you had a string below your open E, it would be B. If you had a string above your open G, it would be a C. Now you now the open strings on a 6-er, if you ever get one!

2. Since you know the open strings, you know the 12th fret--same thing (just an octave higher).

3. At the 5th fret, the note is the same is the next highest open string (and the same octave). For example, E string, 5th fret is A.

4. Since the 12th fret is the same as open string, the 17th fret is the same as 5th (just an octave higher)

5. At the 7th fret, the note is the same as the next lowest open string (and the same octave). For example, A string, 7th fret is E.

6. Since the 12th fret is the same as the open string, the 19th fret is the same as the 7th (just an octave higher).

Now look at the fretboard. You know the open string and the 5th, 7th, 12th, 17th and 18th frets already. These are your landmarks. If you pick any fret at random, you are no more than three frets away from a landmark. You know the chromatic scale, right? Practice counting from the landmarks.

Of course, there is more to learning the fretboard than just being to figure out which note is where. But you do have to know which note is where.

Good luck!
 
#14
JTE said:
First, make sure you understand the logic of the fingerboard.

Then, pick a note and find it everywhere on the neck. All the E notes for example. You'll see the patterns and that'll get you going. Then move up a fourth and find all the A's, etc.

Another method is to practice the major scale on ONE STRING for as many octaves as you neck allows, naming the notes as you go along. Move to the next string and play that same scale from as low a note as you can reach to the highest. NAME the notes as you play them.

John

PS, and don't waste time writing them on the neck. Just learn them without crutches, it'll be a lot faster and easier in the long run.

jte
Click to expand...

+1.

In addition, you could stop and name each note you are playing when you do it. You'll know the notes quicker than you expect.
 
#17
It takes time, there's no way around that. But if you work on it consistently each day, even if only for 10 or 15 minutes minimum, and find a way to make it fun and not over analyze how hard it seems or how much progress you are making or how smart you think you are, it will work itself out.

Going through arpeggios of harmonized major scales as 7th chords in all inversion in all keys is a really good way to internalize this and lead into other areas of theory... but it takes a certain amount of familiarity to be able to do this.

BassmanSBK said:
1. Memorize "BEADGC." BEADGC is your friend. The four open strings are right in the middle--"EADG." If you had a string below your open E, it would be B. If you had a string above your open G, it would be a C. Now you now the open strings on a 6-er, if you ever get one!
Click to expand...

Better yet, make that BEADGCF.

Not only does this ascending series of fourths (or descending series of fifths) correspond to the (extended) open tuning of the bass, it also happens to be the order that flats are introduced in keys that use flats, and in reverse, the order that sharps are introduced in keys that have sharps.

So, the key that has 3 flats has Bb, Eb, and Ab, with the rest being natural. The key that has two sharps has F# and C# with the rest of the notes natural... etc.

You can also use this information subtractively, because once you are dealing with 4 or more accidentals in a key, it can be simpler or advantageous to think of the notes that are natural. So for example, in the key with 5 sharps (the key of B), only the B and E are natural, because they are the last two in the series when you start in the top as you do for keys with sharps.

I use somewhat related mnemonic devices for the keys... in that same series, if you start at the key of C which has no sharps or flats and look at it as if it were an open string, going down from there are strings that correspond to the keys that have sharp notes. when you get down to B you start going up in fifths instead of continuing to go down in fourths (unless you prefer to think of descending further in fourths). G D A E B F# C# are the keys with sharps, from 1 to 7 in that order.

For the keys with flats, visualize the B E A D G C F series as if it were a fingerboard where you are going across it at the first fret. You start with C that has no sharps or flats... then F Bb Eb Ab Db Gb Cb (the last of which you'll have to imagine at the 6th fret of the F string) which is the order of keys with flats from 1 to 7.

Using these ideas and the harmonized scales as 7th chords in all keys, you will gradually eradicate any preference or difficulties that make some keys easier or harder than others, and you'll get rid of any mental blocks for the enharmonic equivalents which cause some players to have to slow down and think (or just use the wrong name) when they encounter an E# or a Cb or whatever.
 
#18
did a couple of things.
I created a cheat sheat.. a simple grid that I used to illusturate my fretboard (24 frets) copied it and made a "Sharps" and a "Flats" master copy.

Then I color coated the different letters, C's Blue, B's Brown, A's Green etc..Solid color for the Natural note, outlined the letter in the color for the sharp of flat of the natural note (used same colors for the flats enharmonic notes too) This opened my eyes to the patterns... all the notes in the key of C became the 'mode notes' the rest became the enharmonic notes...

I'll have to see if I can scan it and maybe post it.


I have a circle of fifths chart printed, hung the sharps cheat sheet on the right, flats to the left.. then went through the say (sing) and play method of learning all major scale keys. (then Minor, getting to the Maj/Min Pentatonic and Blues shortly..)

then I started doing arpeggios for the Triad, and 7th chords acending/descending for all keys.. (and transcribing those exercises too) once you get the pattern down you can transopse it to other keys..

in addition I would transcribe (and transpose) my practice routine, so I forced myself to make the connection with reading the staff and imporve that area too. I dont like reading, but I just suck it up and "Git'er'Dunn" so I dont have to look at my toes if they ask "can you read standard?"..

set the drum machine or metronome and got to cracking..

maybe its not the funnest way, but it works. I have done some of the other methods mentioned above too, but I know this worked really well for me.

AFRO
 
#19
One other thing that was VERY helpful to me in this process. Practice your arpeggios, scales, and note naming exercises AWAY from the bass. I spent a lot of time on the bus to school and work visualizing the fingerboard and working out where the notes were. I think it really helps to get this information in your head for instant recall rather than just reliance on "muscle memory".

John
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back