Hey guys, Welcome to your first bass lesson on LearntoPlayBassGuitar.org! Today, you will be shown the different notes on your bass. To play a note, hold the bass on your lap with the long neck of the bass held in your left hand, unless you are left handed, in which case, you would hold the neck with your right hand. With your finger press down a string on the fretboard, and pluck the same string with your other hand which should be positioned by the body.
Your thumb can rest on the pickup as you pluck the strings.
Now in modern western music, there are twelve different notes to play, and each of these notes are one fret away from each other. The order of notes in music are as follows:
A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#
And then it repeats itself, however, the next A in that progression would be higher than the first A, the next A# would be higher than the first, and so on. When a note is the same pitch, but higher, this is called an octave.
In the progression of notes, there are certain symbols called accidentals. There are sharps, which is symbolized as (#) as you could see above; and there are flats, which are symbolized as (b). A sharp means that you go one fret higher, so an D# is one fret higher than a D. A flat means that you go one fret lower, so a Db is one fret lower than a D. Here is the order of notes with flats instead of sharps:
A, Bb, B, C, Db, D, Eb, E, F, Gb, G, Ab
You may notice that in between A and B, there is a note that in the order of notes above is named A#, but in the bottom it is Bb. They are the same note, only named differently. These are called eharmonic equivalents.
On a bass, there are four strings each decreasing in thickness. The fattest string if played without pressing any frets, is an E. Then string next to it, is an A. After that is a D, and the thinnest string is a G.
Naturally, the first fret on the E string is an F if you follow the progression of notes given above. The next is a Gb, and after that is a G, and so on. Here is a picture of the notes on the first two strings.
The reason that the picture only shows the notes on the first two strings is because you will be able to know the notes on the other strings when you learn about octaves in the next lesson. For now, here is a fun riff to play on the first two strings called Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple.
G, Bb, C—G, Bb, Db, C—G, Bb, C, Bb, G. And repeat
Try playing this riff on just the E string, then try incorperating both strings. You can play on both strings because the 5th fret on the E string is the same as just plucking the A string. Try it!
Rock out on your first bass riff this week! Once you get it up to speed, try playing along with the song by clicking here. Pretty soon you will be just like those guys on stage!