Learning bass guitar fret notes is an essential step in your progression. It opens up a whole new neck area, breaks you out of some old patterns and improves your overall intonation up and down the string.
A half step (also known as a minor second) is equal to one fret (moving left and right) on the fretboard – aka one semitone.
1. A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T
The bass guitar fretboard (also called the neck) has a fingerboard made from various materials such as rosewood, maple and pao ferro. It’s important to know which type of wood/material your fingerboard is because it influences the tone and feel of the string as you play.
For example, basses with rosewood fingerboards tend to have a warmer sound than basses with maple or pao ferro fingerboards. The fretboard also has a nut that holds the strings in place and is usually machined from metal. The nut is usually made from brass or bronze. It is important to have a well-made nut because it ensures that the string doesn’t bind to the fretboard or slip off of it.
In standard tuning a bass can have 21, 22 or 24 frets. Each fret is a note, and it’s important to understand how many notes are on the neck before learning to navigate it. It’s helpful to understand octaves, as they are an essential element of music theory.
An octave is the distance between two adjacent frets on a string or on a fretboard. For example, from the open E string to a fretted E on the same string is one octave. However, from the open A string to a fretted A on the same string is an additional octave.
A whole step is the smallest interval in Western music, and it’s the equivalent to moving one fret left or right on the fretboard (aka one semitone). For example, from B to C on the G string is a whole step.
Learning to read a fretboard chart can seem intimidating for beginners, but it doesn’t have to be. Memorization comes naturally if you can see relationships and patterns between the notes. Once you can learn to recognize the patterns, memorizing the actual notes on the fretboard will be a lot easier. Learning to read fretboard charts will give you the tools to tackle scales, arpeggios and chords with ease. Eventually the patterns will become second nature and you’ll be playing bass with confidence sooner than you realize!
2. C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T
Bass guitar fret notes are the positions on the neck where your fingers touch when you play a note. A bass fretboard has 12 or 24 frets (a fret is a little bar that stops the strings from vibrating).
A bass fretboard can be made from a variety of materials such as rosewood, maple, ebony, pao ferro and phenolic. The type of fretboard that you have will affect your sound, as different types of wood produce distinct sounds.
To help you locate the notes on the fretboard, there are fret markers placed in certain locations. These are often referred to as “fret dots”, “inlays” or “position markers”. Fret markers come in both black and white, and there are also flats and sharps available if you use a tuning such as Standard Tuning or Drop-D. Depending on the type of bass you have, it may have one or many fret markers – most basses have 12 and 24 frets.
Learning the position of the fret markers will allow you to find any note on the fretboard, and will also give you a great reference for learning scales. Knowing where the notes are located will also make it much easier to learn chords, especially those with a lot of moving parts.
When you are first starting out, it is best to focus on the major scale box. The major scale is a good place to begin because it has the same shape all the way up the neck and is easy to memorize.
Remembering the location of each octave on the fretboard is another important step in finding any note quickly. An octave is simply the same note higher or lower. For example, if you are playing an open string E, you will need to go over two frets and up one string to find the same note at its octave.
Once you know the patterns of the major scale, it will be much easier to memorize all of the notes on the neck. The key to memorizing notes is to practice them often, and get used to the patterns that they form. Also, try to commit the names of the notes to memory, as this will help you to identify them on the fretboard and will be very useful if you ever need to quickly change a song!
3. D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T
One of the most confusing aspects of bass guitar fret notes is that the same note can appear in many locations on the neck. It’s important to understand this concept as it will allow you to quickly locate any note on the fretboard without having to hunt for it. In fact, once you understand this concept it will help to take the mystery out of learning any scale or arpeggio on the bass.
For example, if you know that the 5th fret on your A string is the same as the thin open A next to it then you can use this knowledge to quickly find any A on the fretboard (as long as you are in standard tuning). This will save you lots of time since you won’t have to look up the note name or search for it.
The same principle can be applied to any string. You can also use the fact that a half step on the fretboard equals one fret (moving left and right) and is also known as a semitone. For example, B and C (frets four and five) are a half step apart as well as D and E (frets seven and eight).
You can also utilize the fact that an octave is equal to two frets moving up or down and that this works for any string. For instance, if you find a note on the 12th fret of the G string and you go down two strings and up two frets then that’s an octave up and is also known as a B.
To make things even easier, the bass fingerboard will have fret markers placed at certain intervals on the neck. These are sometimes called fret dots, inlays or position marks and they are generally made from mother of pearl or pearloid. These fret markers help to indicate where the notes are located on the fretboard and they will be especially helpful when you are new to playing bass.
Regardless of which method you choose to learn the notes on your fretboard it is essential that you spend some time learning them so that you can play anything you want to play on your bass. Spending a little time on this task will save you a lot of time in the long run and will also make it much easier to memorize the notes on the fretboard.
4. E-A-D-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T
When it comes to learning your bass fretboard, the first thing you need to understand is notes. Notes are pitches that have been given a name, and are the building blocks of music theory. They are very similar to letters in the alphabet and will be used later on to help you read sheet music, understand chords and learn scales.
The musical alphabet consists of the letters A, B, C, D and E (just like the regular alphabet). As you learn the musical alphabet, it is important to get into the habit of spelling out each letter aloud. This helps establish the relationship between the musical alphabet and the bass fretboard and will make it much easier to remember the location of each fretted note.
Unlike the piano keys, where you have white and black notes right next to each other, bass guitar frets are grouped in rows of three. Each row has the same number of white and black frets as the previous row – but the corresponding positions on the strings are one string higher or lower. This is called a half step. This may seem confusing, but don’t worry – you will learn it all as you progress.
Once you understand the pattern of the fretboard, it is a good idea to use a map to help you find your way around. These maps are available in a variety of formats but the most useful are those that show you the locations of each natural (no sharps or flats) note across all 12 and 24 frets for a 4-string bass in standard tuning.
This type of map is referred to as a “fretboard chart”. It will help you visualize the notes and their locations, and will be extremely helpful in your quest for fretboard mastery.
It is also a good idea to begin the process of naming your fretted notes. This will take some time, but it is worth the effort in the long run. It will allow you to quickly find any note on the fretboard and will be a huge help in memorizing the names of all the notes.