Learn Your Bass Fretboard Notes

Every bass player needs to know the notes on their fret board.

To demonstrate why, I’ve prepared this helpful, but terrifying, re-enactment for you:

In this scene you’ll be playing the part of Beginner Bass Player.

Annnnd…  scene!

Situations like the one dramatized above are all too common in this musical world. It happened to me, and it can happen to you too. Unless you read this article.

How do you know where to find the notes?

In this article I’m gonna give you an easy way to get started with understanding that fretboard so that you’ll know your notes, and be ready for the next jam session.

The Money Notes

When you‘re trying to learn your fretboard, some teacher or video somewhere is probably going to try and show you a fretboard note chart that looks like some insane codex from the Rosetta stone or something.

Instead of hitting you with everything, everywhere all at once, let’s skip the theory that you don’t actually need right now and focus on the notes that really matter – The Money Notes.

In this article you’re going to focus on the first four frets ONLY.

They’re called Money Notes because that’s what we bass players get paid to play – tasty low supportive notes. 

(While it is very fun to play weedly-weedly-thwappity-dappity-tappity-tap-tap notes waaaay up high, it is not the way to get/keep/build that bass player career.)

Yes, learning all the notes on your fretboard matters, but you can play most bass lines in that low 4 fret area. Also, if you can learn that one area solidly, you can survive at jam sessions where people are calling out chords to you on the fly or on song charts.  

You’ll be doing just that – surviving a pseudo jam session – at the end of this article. But only after I take you through 4 steps to get you jam session ready.

#1The Musical Alphabet

The English alphabet has 26 letters.

The musical alphabet only has 12 notes. This should be easy, right?

The ultimate tool for identifying notes is a piano keyboard.

Voila!

There are twelve notes here, 7 white keys and 5 black keys.

The white keys are named with the letters ABCDEFG.  

Once you get to G, the next white key starts it all over again at A, and it loops from there:

As you move to higher sounding notes, you move forward in the alphabet.

If you move to a lower sounding note, you will move backward in the alphabet.

From A going lower, you would play: AGFEDCBA

Isn’t that nice?

7 notes that repeat, big white keys to see them with. All is well.

But what about those black keys?

The black keys cannot have plain letter names, because those natural note names were all taken up by our seven white keys.

To identify the black keys we will use some adjustments called  Sharps (#) and Flats (b).

If you play a D on the piano:

And you want to raise that note to the next black key, we name that black key D sharp and write it with a little hashtag: D#

If you want to lower the D to the next black key, it is called D flat and is written with a little lower-case-b-type thing: Db

You can do this with any other note as well. Let’s take, for example, a G.

First: find a G.

To raise the G to a G# (G sharp) move to the black key just to the right of the G.

To lower the G to a Gb (G flat) move to the black key just to the left of the G.

Sharps raise (because they’re sharp and pointy) and Flats lower (because they let all the air out of the tires and get lower).

There is a part of this that can be confusing.

Every black key, according to the rules I showed above, can have two different names.

Remember the Db from earlier?

Welllll… what if I started from a C, and wanted to move up to a C# (C sharp)?

The C# is on the same black key as the Db!! Same note, two names.

Now let’s identify every note in order on that piano keyboard.

We’ll start at A and go up, using sharps for the black keys. 

There’s a black key immediately to the right before the next white key, so that black key we will call A#.

Then there’s B (white key).

Then there’s… another white key! C.

After C, there’s another black key, so that would be C#.

Then D. Then D#. Then E. Then another white key, F.

Then a black key, F#. Then G. Then G#, and finally back to A.

Now we’ll go back down, and we’ll use flats for the black keys.

Starting with A. There’s a black key immediately to the left, so that will be Ab.

Then G. Then Gb. Then F. Then another white key, E.

E moves to the left to a black key: Eb.

Then down to D.

Then Db.

Then C. Then another white key, B.

You may have noticed that there are only two places where there are two white keys right next to each other. The reason for this is that those notes really like each other.

You can remember which ones they are because they’re Extra Friendly (EF) and Buddied Close (BC).

I’m going to leave the room for a minute and let you and this blank Piano keyboard get to know each other. Identify all those notes! Go both directions! Use sharps and flats!

I’m back.

Time to move on and get these notes on your bass.

#2Open Strings

To find notes on your fretboard you have to know the names of your open strings. The standard way to tune a bass is EADG.

E is the biggest, fattest string closest to your chin, and then ADG from there.

You need to get this string identification part down if you want to move on and find some notes on that fretboard. Do not read further until you can easily, immediately, comfortably and stylishly identify all of your open strings.

Here are some open string flash cards to test your mettle. If you can get this done quickly and painlessly, you are cleared to move on.

#3The Money Notes

Finally, back to what’s important: money. I mean, identifying notes on your bass fretboard.

We’re going to leave those sharps and flats out of this for a bit and focus only on the natural notes – the white key notes – the plain-letter-name notes in the Money Zone, which is our first 4 frets on each string.

On the piano, the smallest distance we could travel musically was one piano key, right? For example: A to A#

Or A# to B

Or B to C

The very next piano key in line, whether it is white or black, is the smallest distance we can travel.

We travel that exact same distance on the bass by moving one fret.

The difference is that we can’t see white or black keys.

For example:

A to A#

A# to B

B to C

Our first mission for bass fretboard memorization will be: three natural notes on each string.

Once you can find these natural notes in the Money Zone on each string, it will give you a solid foundation to be able to find other notes in the surrounding areas.

The first 3 notes on the E string will be:

E, F and G

E is the open string, so that’s where we begin in the musical alphabet. If you’re thinking of the piano, the white E key would be the starting point. E and F are Extra Friendly, so F is the very next key on the piano and the very next fret on the bass.

That puts F on the 1st fret of the E string.

F to G on the piano has a black key between them, so on the bass, we would skip the 2nd fret (which would be a black key) and play…

G on the 3rd fret of the E string.

When we move to the A string, our beginning reference point will be the A on the piano.

The next natural note is B.

There is a black key between A and B so, on the bass, we skip the 1st fret (which would be that black key) and play…

B on the 2nd fret of the A string.

B and C are Buddied Close – they are adjacent white keys on the piano with no black key between them. 

And thus, C is on the 3rd fret of the A string.

On the D string, we will begin from a D on the piano keyboard.

There is a black key between D and E, so we will skip the first fret of the D string (which would represent that black key) and play…

E on the 2nd fret of the D string.

E to F are, of course, Extra Friendly. They’re right next to each other on the piano, and also on your fretboard. That puts…

F on the 3rd fret of the D string.

I’m hoping that after those 3 strings you’re going to be able to navigate this G string all by yourself. Here’s a blank version of the G string fingerboard, with the piano reference for you to check out.

Did you get G on the open string, A on the 2nd fret (because there’s a black key between G and A) and B on the 4th fret (because there’s a black key between A and B)?

I hope you did.

Click here to check out the answer!

Ready for your 3-natural-notes-per-string test?

Well, too bad. Here it comes.

Well done.

Why did we stop at only 3 natural notes per string?

Well, what would the next note be on each string?

On the E string we found E, F and G. The next note would be an A. 

To find A on the E string, we would go from G (3rd fret) up to an A on the 5th fret (because there’s a black key between them). 

That’s the same note as the next open string!

Same thing on the A string. The next note would be D (on the 5th fret again), and that’s the next open string.

On the D string the next natural note would be a G (on the 5th fret yet again) and that’s the next open string.

You’ve already got those notes memorized from the open strings, so I’m keeping you in the Low end of the Money Zone instead of moving any further up the fretboard.

#4Sharps and Flats

It’s time to fill in all those gaps you left in your fretboard knowledge and put the rest of those Money Notes in your wallet.

Remember how these sharps and flats worked on the keyboard?

Find a natural note, then….

Go up to the next nearest note, and it becomes sharp.

Go down to the next nearest note, and it becomes flat.

It’s the exact same procedure on your bass.

We’ll do this with the note G on your E string. Find G! (psst, it’s on the 3rd fret of your E string.)

If you go up one fret, to the 4th fret, you’re now playing a G#.

If you go down one fret, to the 2nd fret, you’re now playing a Gb.

This idea works for every natural note you just worked to identify down here in the Money Zone.

Just don’t forget about those notes that are Extra Friendly and Buddied Close!

For example, find a C on your A string.

If you raise the C to a C#, you move up to the 4th fret.  

If you lower the C, you move down to the note B on the 2nd fret. Just call it “B”.*

Ready for a pop quiz on sharps and flats in the lowest 4 frets of your bass?

Ya better be, ‘cuz here it is!

If you were able to survive the questions above… you are now ready… TO JAM.

#5Boss Level – The Jam Session

Remember the harrowing scene from the intro with guitar players soloing all around you and the horror and confusion of having chords shouted at you amidst the chaos?

Well, you’re going back in.  But this time, you’re ready.

The playalong track is going to play C, F and G chords over a drum beat. The pattern will be:

4 beats of C 4 beats of F 4 beats of G 4 beats of F then start over at C and keep repeating forever.

The drums will pound out a beat.

The guitar will strum the chords.

You will play single notes that correspond to the chords.

To lock into the chords you need to find 3 notes – C, F and G.

What string had the C on it? The A string.

Where was it?

On the 3rd fret.

What about an F? There are two options here.

There is an F on the first fret of the E string, and also on the 3rd fret of the D string.

If you have two options for a note and you’re not sure which one will be best, it’s safer to go for the lower pitched option. That’s what we’re there for, so go for the low!

Find a G. There are two options here as well.

There is a G on the 3rd fret of the E string, or on the open G string.

Again, go with that low G – the one on the 3rd fret of the E string.

You now have all 3 notes you need for the jam.

The C, the F, the G, and then back to the F, then start over again back on the C.

To play along with the track, just play one note per chord, right on the first count – on beat one.

There are two tracks to listen to – one with an example bass track and one without.

Start by listening to the bass track and playing along until you feel confident that you can lead that part without stumbling or losing your place.

Then put on the track with no bass and hold down that low end in the jam.

Conclusion

If any nearby guitar players heard you just now, they’ll be knocking your door down very soon, so I don’t have much time.

Knowing the notes on your bass is essential to communicating clearly with other musicians and your bass powers have increased 10-fold thanks to the time you just put in.

Congratulations on tackling an often-times daunting task.

Now, I’ll leave you to fend off that horde of salivating, solo-ready guitar players I can hear at your door.

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*B# (B sharp) is an actual note! It is played on the same fret as a C.

It’s ugly!  No one likes having to deal with B#s.

You should know that, although rare, they do exist. Like unicorns.

Also, Cb is B.

Also, E# is F and Fb is E.

People often ask: Why???

Why have these ridiculous ways to spell simple, normal notes?

Well, we English speakers have no legs to stand on.

Wood and would sound the same?? Get outta town. But if you’re a fluent or native English speaker, you know which one to use and when and why. Music is similar in why you’d ever use a B# instead of a C. It has to do with the proper grammar of proper music theory.

It’s not pretty and it’s confusing, and that’s why it’s best to leave out of this article.

Good thing I didn’t include this unnecessarily confusing bit at the end.