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Sight reading. If you don't read yet, then learning to read will also teach you the fingerboard.
I combined learning the neck with other exercises. Major scale, minor scale, other mode, interval exercise what every was the nights exercise I would move it around the neck making sure I knew the note I was starting on. I never worried about the other notes of the exercise since I am a shape/geometric thinker. I always made sure to move it around in a systematic manner (along a string, across a fret, all that note on the neck, all notes in the major scale) What ever exercise and moving method I chose for the night was it. I still do these exercises, just not very night. IMO combining learning the notes and something else is better use of the time than just working on the notes.
Let me add that a good way to really get this stuff stuck in your head is to practice with chord charts, as others have said. I use iReal Pro and play standards, which have a lot of interesting chords in them, and I've gotten much better at finding roots from all positions on the fly through doing this. You have to anticipate where you're headed when you're reading chord charts, and you'll soon find yourself able to hit a proper root from just about anywhere.
Pattern is just another word for arpeggio, but playing patterns means you're not necessarily thinking of all the note names in the arpeggio, you just know that your major third is always over one string and down one fret, your fifth is over one string and up two frets, etc. You're more apt to think of patterns using numbers, and that's how a lot of players do it.
Pattern is just another word for arpeggio, but playing patterns means you're not necessarily thinking of all the note names in the arpeggio, you just know that your major third is always over one string and down one fret, your fifth is over one string and up two frets, etc. You're more apt to think of patterns using numbers, and that's how a lot of players do it.
One of the advantage to walking standards for me is that I soon get tired of playing the same patterns or arpeggios so I'll stretch out and start to experiment after a bit.
Another thing that has helped is learning a bunch of bluesy tunes because there are a lot of patterns that come up repeatedly and they aren't all the same, so you'll cycle through a bunch of different ones learning that stuff and you can add those to your toolbox.
One exercise I really like is to deep dive each note. Say E, find all the Es on the fret board. Then put on a metronome at a moderate tempo, 70-80, and just play quarter notes. Change to a different E every beat; it may be the same, or up or down one or two octaves. Do that a few minutes in your warm up for a week. Then change notes next week.
You can even extend that with scales. Do E major, minor, Dorian, etc etc all week.
You can even extend that with scales. Do E major, minor, Dorian, etc etc all week.
I would recommend Scott’s bass lessons. He does a great job of breaking the fretboard down into shapes and formulas that very quickly will demystify 75% of music theory, in less than a month I’m guessing.Thank you all the great people for your answers!
First, my background is indeed over twenty years, but as I played metal and punk, first six frets of E and A were enough. After a years long hiatus of being grown up, I got my strings back to have fun (covid19, yeay!). Now I wish to be able to play little bit more than Enter Sandman
To let you know better my learning style:
I prefer understanding before remembering. My SO is a lawyer and she must memorize few 5" books for her exam, while I am engineer and I need to understand 20 formulas - and that's it : )
And they don’t change as often as law.
My game changer in music was discovering a key. A song in A major consists only of A major notes, so should my bass line. This made me need one scale/chord instead of three, five, eight+, you name it. I know as well why, even I have E major chord in A major key song, I should not play D#, though it is a part of E major.
This made me understand, not remember.
I understood rules of walking thanks to Mark from talkingbass.net
Root - third - fifth - chromatic step to next root.
That's it! My brain exploded!
I like this idea! I totally forgot there are some apps!
Well, my B(rain)PU can't compute quick enough on a flyHowever, it is a starting point to following idea:
I got that already and will increase - I shall make my orientation points on 5th, 7th and 10th fret. Maybe calculation from 9th to 10th will be easier as 9th to 7th and BPU will make it.
I use patterns and start to feel imprisoned by them. Like a child I feel safe in known areas and won't step any further. They are super easy to start (like box shapes Scott learned me) and bind later.
I am taking lessons - by this day took two - and I think my teacher has to much talent for me.
Not every great sportsman will be great coach. He can't give me life hacks for fret map since talent made him learn easy. He can't give me a 100% fool-proof-groove rule, what to play etc., since he did not need to understand it. It just came.
He is a great player however and can explain some other topics. In the second lesson I improvised a few minutes solo over G major. This wouldn't earn my Grammy but wasn't a disaster neither.
I am not a patient patient. I want it all and I want it now : )
Can understand that. I quit all the music in grammar school where stupid teacher humiliated us and forced to play. I can remember throwing flute against the wall. She killed all the fun. It took me few years to grab an instrument and word „notes” made me shiver
I know, and this is how I fell in love in key of a song!
other online teachers do a good job with chord tones and shapes and all that as well, But I find SBL has the most robust and enthusiastic curriculum.
Know the notes of one string up and one string down in some key-positions:
B E A D G C F => Open=EADG
5th fret=ADGC 7th fret=BEAD 10th fret=DGCF
12th fret=EADG
BC and EF are next to each other on the same string.
By now you know the G is one string up from C => One string up from C# must be G#
Try to see the repeating pattern and make it your own
B E A D G C F => Open=EADG
5th fret=ADGC 7th fret=BEAD 10th fret=DGCF
12th fret=EADG
BC and EF are next to each other on the same string.
By now you know the G is one string up from C => One string up from C# must be G#
Try to see the repeating pattern and make it your own
Everyone has an idea, and I'm no exception.
Learn to read by reading, and the fretboard will become as familiar as your hand, plus you learned to read!
This is a good way to do it, right here: https://www.amazon.com/Jeff-Berlin-Bass-Mastery-Beginners/dp/0578820048
Learn to read by reading, and the fretboard will become as familiar as your hand, plus you learned to read!
This is a good way to do it, right here: https://www.amazon.com/Jeff-Berlin-Bass-Mastery-Beginners/dp/0578820048
As an Amazon Associate, TalkBass may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via links on this site.
I was actually having a lot of luck with this, until I changed tactics.
I'm coming back to bass after many years, so I have a lot to work on. For several weeks,
I was focusing on reading. For me, combining reading and learning the fret-board was working quite well (though many advise treating them separately).
At the moment, I am focusing on slap, stength-building, muting, arpeggios as modes, etc., but do find I can now read well enough (after doing what the quote above suggests) to go through some basic slap (and groove) examples.
Just chiming-in since I had the same question a few months back, and found the quote here worked best for me. I also did Scott's Bass approach of going through the circle-of-fifths by fourths (counter-clockwise) which also helped.
Another good "cheat" is to note all the places where portions of B, E, A, D, G, C (think: 6-string bass) cross the neck, since most of us can remember the notes for the open strings.
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I have the answer, IReal, circle of 4ths exercise (I think they call it 12 major key exercise), play it on each string, took me 15 minutes a day for a month, I now know where each note on my neck is.
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The app, iReal Pro? I thought it was all about the standards?
Just go through the circle of 4ths, on one string at a time? I setup Band-in-a-Box to go through all the keys as backing-track. Does iReal just give a backing track, or something else? Anyway, good idea: one string at a time!
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It does have the standards but, also 12 key major and minor “songs” ( I like to think of them as exercises), great to really learn circle of 4ths, learn to solo over changes and learn the neck.
The IReal Pro song does II-V-I following the circle of 4ths, has bass, drums, piano, you can eliminate each instrument, change tempo, determine number of repeats. Only does the chords, so you need to add melody, also has no single note transcription (the head is not written out), like in the actual Real book.
mem·o·ri·za·tion
/ˌmeməˌrīˈzāSH(ə)n,ˌmemərəˈzāSH(ə)n/
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noun
noun: memorization; plural noun: memorizations; noun: memorisation; plural noun: memorisations
the process of committing something to memory or learning something by heart.
"this understanding and knowledge is acquired through rote memorization"
/ˌmeməˌrīˈzāSH(ə)n,ˌmemərəˈzāSH(ə)n/
Learn to pronounce
noun
noun: memorization; plural noun: memorizations; noun: memorisation; plural noun: memorisations
the process of committing something to memory or learning something by heart.
"this understanding and knowledge is acquired through rote memorization"
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