Newbie questions about Notes.

[DioMANOWARDio]

Howdy, i've decided i want to try and stay away from tabs and learn songs by ear. I have not been playing for very long but i think the earlier i start the better. I'm going to start by learning all the notes on the fretboard and i'm just slightly confused about a few things.

1) This is going to be really ignorant and i apologise in advance but.. If i detune, the notes are the same as they were in standard EADG.. right....? (don't judge me...)

2) If someone could explain what playing in a certain "Key" is that would probably help me make sense of alot of things.

Any other techniques, excersises, anything that will help me get better at learning songs by ear would be great.

And again, i'm fairly new so be kind, any response would be great and thank you!

 

[KingRazor]

If you change the tuning, it changes which notes are on which frets.

e.g. if you detune your E string to D, G will be on the 5th fret instead of the 3rd fret.

 

[DiabolusInMusic]

Start here

And go find a teacher.

 

[HeadyVan Halen]

Right. I wouldn't worry about de-tuning yet. You have enough to learn in Standard.

I'd also concentrate on scales as they make up chords which make up what key your in..take it slow. Learning by ear is very rewarding and extremely useful.

Go to youtube and look up backing tracks as well. Very cool as a teaching aid.
Keep. Practicing.

 

[DioMANOWARDio]

I usually play in C# Standard cause i play alot of Black Sabbath. i've learnt quite a few scales but all from tabs. Also it's a little hard to find a bass teacher where i live, it's a really little industrial town. (i've had many people ask me what a bass guitar is)

 

[MRDOOM]

VERY good resource.
Online Bass Lessons at StudyBass.com

 

[DioMANOWARDio]

How would I work out the notes if i were dropped to C# standard?

 

[KingRazor]

C#/Db - D - D#/Eb - E - F - F#/Gb - G - G#/Ab - A - A#/Bb - B - C - C#/Db

On the C# string, the open string is C#. The note on the first fret is D, then it continues in the pattern stated above. Repeat for the other strings.

 

[DioMANOWARDio]

Just to be clear if the note doesn't have a "#" then it is a flat?

 

[KingRazor]

Not quite.

C sharp and D flat are the same note.

If you sharp a note, you raise the pitch. If you flat a note, you lower the pitch. C sharp is one half step above C, while D flat is one half step below D. But they are the same note.

 

[Orangeclawhammr]

Just to be clear if the note doesn't have a "#" then it is a flat?

No. A flat sign looks like a "b". If there is neither sign, the note is natural.

 

[DioMANOWARDio]

I found a fretboard diagram and i made it so it showed all the notes in C# standard but none of them have a "b,"either the notes have a "#" or it is just the note. Is this wrong?

I'm using this
The Bass and Guitar Fretboard Diagram Printer

 

[Tupac]

Flat means one note below, sharp means one note ahead. Simple at that. The black keys on a piano are identified by their relative distance from the white keys. IE, C# is one note ahead of C.

 

[DioMANOWARDio]

Also, there is no B sharp or E sharp? is that correct?

 

[905]

B# and E# do exist, but they are enharmonic (sound the same) to (with?) C and F respectively. If you reverse it, Cb and Fb are the same as B and E respectively.

 

[SurferJoe46]

It's easiest to look at a piano keyboard to figure out what a flat (b) and a sharp (#) are in relation to the notes around them.

Typically - all the black keys are either a sharp or a flat of the notes next to them. But like grammar in the English language, there are exceptions.

Notice that C doesn't appear to have a flat (b) but it does in the form of a B.

So ---- B & C and E & F have no black keys between them, but they have a flat in the form of the next lower white key.

The guitar fretboard isn't black and white, but it makes the same 1/2 steps as a keyboard does.

Count the number of all the notes - black and white - for the single octave represented above and you'll realize that the number of steps (notes) in your first 12 positions on the fretboard equal the same number on the piano.

Confused? Yeah - it's a little hard to wrap your head around it some times.

 

[kr0n]

Equal temperament allows us to have C#/Db. Strictly in mathematical sense they are different notes but that would require waaaaaaaay more frets on stringed instruments, it just makes musicians world simpler. Don't over think this, just accept that they are the same.

Start by learning to say ABCDEFG and GFEDCBA, latter being the difficult one. When you can say that, do BCDEFGA and AGFEDCB and so on.

After that learn C major scale and how ALL major scales are formed. C major being CDEFGABc (small c means an octave above, double the Hz for octave). And when going over those scales, say the note name to enforce the location and sound to a word.

All notes are always the same. A4 is 440Hz and A3 is 220Hz, A2 is 110Hz, A1 is 55Hz (which is the lowest A on a 4 string bass) no matter what instrument and how it's tuned. A5 would be 880Hz. Learning what sound is is important as well.

Any other techniques, excersises, anything that will help me get better at learning songs by ear would be great.

Plenty of stuff in the stickies about ear training and transcribing. Check them out. Start out from simple, Twinkle Twinkle and stuff like that. Sing it. And WRITE STUFF DOWN AS YOU PROGRESS, Guitar Pro is a nice tool to write down notes (lets you cheat with tabs too ). You hear a note and try to find it on your bass. You should be able to distinguish unison notes from octaves and other intervals.

Transcribe! is a nice tool that lets you slow down songs without altering pitch.