Note memorization

So I've recently started learning bass and in his major scale video he said we should know all the notes on the fret board.I saw the picture and everything,but does anyone have any good ideas to help me memorize it?

i remember it simply by E's and B's dont have sharps
therefore from the E string working down you have
E (No Sharp)
F
F#
G
G#
A
A#
B (No Sharp)
C
C#
D
D#
E (Octave 12th fret)
Same for the other strings.
Hope this helps...Good luck.

Cool thanks man.
Any other ideas?
Also gotta ask now, why do those not have sharps while the others do?

Just remember everything has a sharp but B&E(i relate it to breaking&entering... it just makes sense that way.)
A,B,C,D,E,F,G - They are natural notes, they are not sharp or flat of each other.
A#,C#,D#,F#,G# - They are non-natural notes because they are sharp or flat of a note listed above.
If you were to play a B# it would sound the same as C, same for E# and F.

There's a little program called Fretboard Warrior on the net somewhere, I think it's Flash based, it displays a full 6 string guitar fretboard so not strictly for bass and acts almost like a timed game.

A dot appears on the fretboard and you pick the note from the list at the bottom and get a right or wrong answer - it scores you at the end of the time limit you have set I think.

LINK - Fretboard Warrior

They have it for iPhone too apparently.

I just remembered the order that the notes go in from 1st-12th fret on the E string, then I memorized the first note on the first fret on each string (F, A#,D#,G#)

Then I either work my way down to the note I need to know or, if I can, work it out by moving up or down an octave from a note I definately know.

KrysH wrote:There's a little program called Fretboard Warrior on the net somewhere, I think it's Flash based, it displays a full 6 string guitar fretboard so not strictly for bass and acts almost like a timed game.

Is there even a bass option though?

Well given that the first four strings are tuned the same EADG learning the other two can only be a bonus but no on the free version there isn't a bass option.

The paid options (which are a tad expensive imho) are split into a Guitar version and a Bass version - and they have more functions than the free version.

The free one isn't bad tho.

I just memorized the notes going across where the fret markers are, then I started putting tabs into not form instead of numbers

Here's a few basic suggestions.
The 5th fret of each string is the same note as the string below it. So the 5th fret of the E string is A and so forth.
Likewise, the 7th fret of each string is the same not as the string ABOVE. 7th fret on A is E.
Also, you probably know the 12th fret is the octave.
And of course the simple octave pattern. Example: 3rd fret on E, the octave is the 5th fret on D. Remember that hand position. This pattern applies across the entire fretboard.

It's a good idea to learn the 3rd fret notes and the 9th fret ones too, the rest can be filled in no problem.
Suprisingly, you'll probably learn the 2nd fret notes by heart as well, through playing. This is because most of the 2nd fret notes are not sharp ones, unlike the other undotted frets, so they are used more often.

Here's another relation I've noticed:
If you play a note on say the 7th fret of the E string, that same note will be located on the 2nd fret of the A. That's a five fret distance and one string lower (or it will be a string higher if you go in the other direction towards the higher notes). This rule applies anywhere on the bass (as long as you have the five fret distance).

Some really good answers here!

I wrote a blog post about this some time ago if it helps:

http://learnbass.net/wordpress/2008/11/how-to-learn-the-notes-on-the-bass-fretboard/

Stryfer wrote:Here's a few basic suggestions.
The 5th fret of each string is the same note as the string below it. So the 5th fret of the E string is A and so forth.
Likewise, the 7th fret of each string is the same not as the string ABOVE. 7th fret on A is E.
Also, you probably know the 12th fret is the octave.
And of course the simple octave pattern. Example: 3rd fret on E, the octave is the 5th fret on D. Remember that hand position. This pattern applies across the entire fretboard.

It's a good idea to learn the 3rd fret notes and the 9th fret ones too, the rest can be filled in no problem.
Suprisingly, you'll probably learn the 2nd fret notes by heart as well, through playing. This is because most of the 2nd fret notes are not sharp ones, unlike the other undotted frets, so they are used more often.

Here's another relation I've noticed:
If you play a note on say the 7th fret of the E string, that same note will be located on the 2nd fret of the A. That's a five fret distance and one string lower (or it will be a string higher if you go in the other direction towards the higher notes). This rule applies anywhere on the bass (as long as you have the five fret distance).

It's seven frets the other way. Open E equals to seventh fret on the A.

Hmm, maybe it was too confusing but I said "A string HIGHER if you go in the other direction" i.e. A string above.
I don't count the 7 frets for the string below as it's easier the other way around

I only recently started learning the notes, and even then I'm still not that quick with it.

The easiest thing? Just learn the notes without any sharps/flats up to the 5th fret. You'll then only need to know 2 per string, and can work out sharps or flats by just moving a fret up or down. Then when you need something on say the 8th fret E string, that's the same as the 3rd fret A string... which is C

I found that playing blues really helped me get used to playing by notes & memorising them. Playing 12 bars in C, 8 bars in G, another song in F... But that's just me

Try this one it's brilliant (or was/is for me). (<--click on that<--)
It shows a note and times your reaction time to read that note and then gives you a rating.
hope it helps...

Here's another neat site to help you learn the fretboard as well as other great things!
Victor Wooten's Learning Lab
Just click on "Launch The Labs".

This thread is really old.





















Good thing I still needed help though! Thanks for the links guys. I needed practice reading music too so it's perfect!

[quote="MetalJacob"]This thread is really old.

There are bigger gaps than this one in other threads

example:

https://freebasslessons.forumotion.com/general-chat-f3/what-is-this-bass-t206.htm#17733