Learn the notes quickly on the Bass fretboard!

Hi there,
In order to maximize your playing abilities on the bass guitar you’ll want to learn the notes on the fretboard,

On a standard 6 string guitar, there are 6 patterns that are useful for locating all of 1 particular note on every string.

On the bass guitar we can use 4 distinct patterns.

Here is a picture of the bass fretboard:

What we can do is take 1 note and learn the 4 patterns to be able to skip between all of the notes of that kind.

We’ll start with the note F.

• To start with play the 1st fret of the E string. This is your first F.
• Then play the next F which is the 3rd Fret of the D string
• Then the next one is the 8th fret A string
• Next is 10th Fret G string
• Then the 13th Fret of the E string. 

The pattern then just repeats itself (so you’d use the blue line, red, green and then yellow)

Here are a few more examples using the notes A and B :

As you can see the 4 patterns are always the same. Depending on what note you start on, determines which pattern / colour you use.

Many thanks for reading this blog – feel free to share the blog around and comment.

James Schofield.

@jsmusicschool
@harveyjsmusic
www.jsguitarlessons.co.uk