Climbing Mount Hubbard

MochaFiend

MochaFiend

Jan 6, 2022
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#1
I decided to pull the trigger on Joe Hubbard's Bass Foundation course. I am currently taking private lessons, but always feel like I'm just not quite getting everything, so have decided to supplement with a A to Z linear course.

Without giving any copyright information away, I will say that I was concerned when I received the first lesson in my inbox and realized what was expected: memorize the entire fretboard -- in a week. :vomit:

I have been unsuccessfully trying to memorize the fretboard for... as long as I have held a guitar or bass, and have never managed it. There are so many resources available for this type of memorization, but it often seems like nothing is bringing awareness to the unordered mass of frets and strings.

I would be grateful for any suggestions. I don't just mean "relative" knowledge -- like find a "C" and then extrapolate from there whichever note I'm looking for. I can already do that. I mean an arbitrary "pick a fret / string and tell me what note it is" kind of absolute memorization without anchor notes.

I'm kind of desperate because this task is, for me, like sitting at base camp looking up at the top of Everest and wondering how the hell anyone gets to the summit without a LOT of support and assistance from others. Thank you for any suggestions!

Side note: I did find this suggestions in the education thread, to use charts from studybass like this one: Fretboard Generator & Printer | Tools | StudyBass
However, that particular link / site is not working for me in any browser on my PC. It does not seem to generate any charts when the Print option is selected. Would someone be kind enough to test and see if it's working for them? (pilot error -- i didn't realize Notes tab needed to be manually updated in order for the rest of the tool to function)
 
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#2
The most effective way I know is to run scales end to end slowly and say the note letter names as you play them. For C major, start on open E and go as far up the neck as you can (D on a 20 fret neck, E on a 21, F on a 22 or G on a 24), then back down. Then do B major, E, F#, G#, A#, B, C#, D#, etc. Then a couple of flat keys like F (with the Bb) and Db (with Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb). Works like a charm ...
 
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#3
SteveCS said:
The most effective way I know is to run scales end to end slowly and say the note letter names as you play them. For C major, start on open E and go as far up the neck as you can (D on a 20 fret neck, E on a 21, F on a 22 or G on a 24), then back down. Then do B major, E, F#, G#, A#, B, C#, D#, etc. Then a couple of flat keys like F (with the Bb) and Db (with Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb). Works like a charm ...
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestion, Steve. Is that "vertical until you run out of strings, and then horizontal until you run out of frets" or is there another method that's not immediately intuitive for me?
 
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#6
SteveCS said:
The most effective way I know is to run scales end to end slowly and say the note letter names as you play them. For C major, start on open E and go as far up the neck as you can (D on a 20 fret neck, E on a 21, F on a 22 or G on a 24), then back down. Then do B major, E, F#, G#, A#, B, C#, D#, etc. Then a couple of flat keys like F (with the Bb) and Db (with Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb). Works like a charm ...
Click to expand...

This, but SING the notes rather than say them, then you get to also know what the notes sound like in your internal voice, it doesn't really matter if you singing them in tune. I like to use the cycle of 5ths to cycle through starting positions for a given scale.chord tone.

Add arpeggios into the mix and you'll be cooking on gas in no time.
 
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#7
The various suggestions involving having your bass in hand are probably best, but you can't always be holding a bass. I've found Bass Guitar Note Trainer, an app for Android phones, really good for getting five mins practice in here and there through the day and it's designed to do exactly what you're looking for here. (I now want an app that helps me better understand how the notes are related, but that's a different problem.)

My experience with it started with anchor notes as you describe. I have to identify /this/ note? OK, which of the five notes I know automatically is it near? Count from there. And then as I used it more, that five became ten, fifteen and so on. I'm still not at the every-string-fret-combo-is-instant stage, but I'm a lot closer than I was.
 
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#8
I was there where you are and for me it just took tons of repetition for it to sink in. I still review it from time to time aside from thinking about the note names as Im working on something.

A tool that helped me was assigning each place on the fretboard a geographical position marker. Ex: the open E is E0, the E an octave up at the 12th fret is E12. The E on the A string is A7, the E an octave up on the A string is A19. I hope this makes sense.
 
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#9
Anthony Wellington suggests drilling with flash cards
12 cards
one side has a note C , F#, Eb, whatever
the other side has every string-fret coordinate that is that note
He claims to study them while drivign but that is unsafe lol

He also suggests drilling on one note at a time, every day, until you know all positions for that note
January: practice playing every E on the neck each day for 5 minutes
February: every A
March : every D
and so on around the cycle

after 1 year you'll be good:

 
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