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Learning notes on my bass

#41
This thread reminds me of something Jim Stinnett said in one of his videos.

It was something like this: "It always surprises me when I ask an experienced player to find an A-flat on the G string, and they have to fumble around."

So Kgveteran, you are not alone in not knowing the notes. Still, a person should know the notes on the fretboard!
 
#42
Bass said:
This thread reminds me of something Jim Stinnett said in one of his videos.

It was something like this: "It always surprises me when I ask an experienced player to find an A-flat on the G string, and they have to fumble around."

So Kgveteran, you are not alone in not knowing the notes. Still, a person should know the notes on the fretboard!
Click to expand...

Thanx man, im pretty stoked about how coincidental it was i totally wiped out my lesson today cause i dont know my notes and i come acrossed something that just clicks.
Cheers
 
#43
Kgveteran said:
Dude! I just got out of a lesson and my teacher threw me a curve ball (kudos to him). He had some notes that i was to just play, and i dont know my notes
I have to learn my notes and im starting tonight, i am going to put your exercise to the test! Im very optimistic, for what ever reason it seems very simple, thank you, i will update as i improve

HAHAHAHAHA i just did my A and i already know 4 notes omg its killing me!!!!!! I cant stop laughing

I guess its a combination of ready to listen and really listening Thanx again
Click to expand...

Glad to help. Once you do the exercise a bit, the 7 frets forward, 5 frets behind relationship (same note different string) will start to fall in place in your mind.
 
#44
lark_z said:
Exercise that helped me:
  • Set metronome to a reasonable beat (phone app can work great here).
  • Pick a note, say A.
  • Play that note on the E string on a click.
  • Now play an A on the A string on the next click.
  • Now play an A on the D string on the next click.
  • You guessed it, play that note on the G string.
Now pick a different note and repeat. A few minutes a day will really help.
Click to expand...

This is pretty much how I learned the notes of the fretboard. The only thing I'll add is this, play each note available on each string from the lowest note to the highest note across the neck, and then back down. For instance, a 20 fret 4 string will have
2 - E notes on the E string
2 - E notes on the A string
2 - E notes on the D string
1 - E note on the G string

Then move up one fret and play all of the F notes, then F#/Gb notes, and so on. Use a fretboard diagram to get you started.

This method is pretty fast if you do it once everyday. You'll have it down in a couple of weeks or so.
 
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#45
lark_z said:
Glad to help. Once you do the exercise a bit, the 7 frets forward, 5 frets behind relationship (same note different string) will start to fall in place in your mind.
Click to expand...

This is gonna keep me busy in a very productive way, can we revisit your other
Exercise when i wrap my head around the notes.

This is so helpful ❤️
 
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#46
Bass said:
This thread reminds me of something Jim Stinnett said in one of his videos.

It was something like this: "It always surprises me when I ask an experienced player to find an A-flat on the G string, and they have to fumble around."

So Kgveteran, you are not alone in not knowing the notes. Still, a person should know the notes on the fretboard!
Click to expand...

Thanx man, it was a frustrating moment last night at my lesson that pushed me to begin earnestly learning my notes, and rechecking my thread about this issue
 
#47
@Kgveteran Thanks for asking your initial question. I am in a similar boat. I have been doinking around trying to learn bass for quite a while now. Just pointed out to myself that I need to be more structured and disciplined in my educational and practice efforts.
I really appreciate everyone's contributions here about learning the fretboard. It is a bit overwhelming, but what I think I take away is pick one method, stick with it, and keep working at it. I am wanting to get where I am comfortable playing standard notation as well as chord charts.

One interesting thing I am finding I have to overcome. I have played woodwinds (sax, clarinet, flute) for 45+ years. Woodwinds are sequential instruments (like strings, but unlike valved instruments), but they are reverse of bass. On a sax, if I have two fingers down, and I add a third, the pitch goes down since I am effectively increasing the vibrating length of the air column. But on a bass, if I put the third finger down, the pitch goes up because I am actually shortening the vibrating length of the string. I am finding that I am struggling with this mental roadblock where I have to make my fingers go in reverse to make pitches go up and down sequentially. I am working through this, but I am finding this little piece harder to overcome than I might have expected.

I have both the Hal Leonard and MelBay books I am working through. I also am using iRealPro to work on chord charts for songs I know well. I try to do some combination of those every day. I even take my bass uke to the beer garden at lunch time and sit with my iPad working on skills. Having learned many different wind instruments in my life, I know it will just take time and repetition. Good Luck!
 
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#49
Kgveteran said:
I try to practice every day, but i never learned the notes on the frets, I follow bass tabs. The tab sheets have music also, and i mostly ignore them, and im tired of not knowing where notes are…

Where is a good place to start, i know youtube is loaded with videos but i would like to ask here first, im a noob, only been playing 7months.

I have a pedal tuner i have used for helping me when im tuning and trying to learn something new…
Click to expand...
Yes to everything talked about here. What helped me is also singing the note name and it’s number while playing. For example: when playing notes in the Cmaj7 chord sing as you play each note: C, E, G,B then root(1), 2,5,7. Also playing chords and scales horizontally & vertically (up & down the neck) will help you with note identification in different positions on the neck. Repetition is king here, it can be a slow process and a bit boring don’t give up, keep going until it becomes second nature. Sight reading ties everything together. Highly recommended (I waited too long to learn and am learning it now). Also a slow process but do it daily without fail and it will pay you back in dividends.
 
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#52
If you learn to read music, you have to learn where all the notes are on the fretboard, and it also teaches you how to use them.
When I started to play bass in High School Jazz Band, the first thing they taught was reading music. Many bassists are seemingly opposed to reading music or who knows, but they refuse to ever learn it.
I hear this often "I mean, (inset idol) never learned anything about music and they seemed to do ok"
You can be a bassist and probably sound good without ever learning to read or much theory, but you're just memorizing patterns. IMO being a musician requires learning to read music and basic theory. Good luck
 
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#53
Again, I believe that in isolation getting to know the notes on the 'board is something of a moot point. Preferably, learning this ought to be integrated with at least another aspect of musicianship - rhythm (w/ metronome), ear training (singing the notes with arpeggios or scales), reading (sort of tacit, but very useful approach) etc. To repeat myself, I like compound approach where you work on several skills simultaneously, and, again, Todd Johnson's material is a great example of this.
 
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#54
jchrisk1 said:
Click to expand...


I use this method with my students too sometimes. Just last week I saw a video of Jeff Berlin disagreeing with this random note method to learn the fretboard. He said it is better to learn phrases in a tonality to learn the fretboard instead of doing this random note thing.

Actually the bass neck is much easier to learn than the guitar neck because of the symmetry in the tuning on a bass. So it’s not so hard to learn I think. Its just a matter of putting some time and effort in it. Its totally worth it.
 
#55
Les Fret said:
I use this method with my students too sometimes. Just last week I saw a video of Jeff Berlin disagreeing with this random note method to learn the fretboard. He said it is better to learn phrases in a tonality to learn the fretboard instead of doing this random note thing.

Actually the bass neck is much easier to learn than the guitar neck because of the symmetry in the tuning on a bass. So it’s not so hard to learn I think. Its just a matter of putting some time and effort in it. Its totally worth it.
Click to expand...
I found that when you start doing something fast, my brain can't process note names, no matter how much I know them at a slow pace. Pattern recognition takes over. And like you said, it's easier on a standard tuned bass , than a guitar due to no tuning quirk. Another problem with just learning notes and not connecting them to some kind of pattern is when you change a tuning you lose your bearings because the notes are not in the same spot anymore. Triads are good for providing a reference point for notes, as are learning where the intervals in a scale are in relation to the tonic note and each other.
So I've found a combo of
Triads in root, 1st and 2nd inversion, knowing interval names, bass specific caged 5 pentatonic shapes ( obviously as per guitar minus the top two strings), 2+3 or 3+2 pentatonic shape, 3 notes per string modal patterns, 4 notes per string, single string scales, interval structure of all kinds of 7th chords e.g a major 7th is Major 3rd Minor 3rd Major 3rd, two string arpeggios for maj7th, dom7th, min7th, minmaj7th, min7b5 and dim7th. Sooner or later it all starts to blend together and notes have reference points that are needed at speed when you can't process their names like you can when slow
 
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#56
Kgveteran said:
I try to practice every day, but i never learned the notes on the frets, I follow bass tabs. The tab sheets have music also, and i mostly ignore them, and im tired of not knowing where notes are…

Where is a good place to start, i know youtube is loaded with videos but i would like to ask here first, im a noob, only been playing 7months.

I have a pedal tuner i have used for helping me when im tuning and trying to learn something new…
Click to expand...
Open strings are thickest to thinnest E A D G. There are two frets between each note on a string, other than between E and F, and between B and C. There's only one fret between those. For example, the first notes on the A string are A A# B C C# D.

My brother taught me that when I was 14, and it's got me through more than 30 years.
 
#58
the exercise I use with my students is this one:
learn the notes of C major triad: C E G
then play two notes of the triad in each string starting with the lowest possible. that would be:
-E and G on the E string, C and E ond the A string, G and C on the D string, and E and G on the G string. when you are confident, start on that high G and do it in reverse.

then repeat starting on the second possible note on the E string (that would be G for C major triad).

Repeat with all 14 possible roots (meaning Gb and F#, Db and C#) and you will have learnt A LOT
 
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