How to Play Bass Guitar for Newbie Lesson 2 : Playing Notes

Lesson 2: Playing Notes

Now that we understand some of the basic techniques involved in bass playing, we can begin to start playing and learning the various notes that can be played on the bass guitar. Before learning these notes it is important to make sure your bass is in tune. We will start with a brief exercise to let you get the feel of playing individual notes, and then we will move on to learning how to identify which notes you are actually playing (and how to find them).

Playing Notes

1. Start by plucking the 4th string (the one closest to your shoulders) without using your fretting hand at all. This will produce an E note. Playing a string without fretting any of the notes is called playing it "Open".

2. Next, move down the strings and play each individual one "Open." This will produce the notes A, D, G respectively. Notice how each one sounds a little bit higher than the one before.

3. Now, go back to the 4th string and place the index finger of your fretting hand on the first fret (the initial space between the nut and the first fret). Hold down the note with the pad of your finger. While holding your index finger down firmly on the first fret, use the index finger on your plucking hand to pluck the 4th string. If done correctly, the sound produced should be slightly higher (by a half-step) than plucking the 4th string alone.

4. Next, move your finger up another half-step to the second fret (the space between the first and second frets) and pluck the 4th string again. This should produce a slightly higher pitched sound than the one before.

5. Repeat this exercise with each of the strings. Start by playing the string open, then with your finger on the first fret, and then again with your finger on the second fret. If the notes start to sound muffled, off-key, or just plain bad, take a look at your fretting finger to make sure that you are holding down the note firmly and your finger is placed directly in the center of the fret. Do this until you are comfortable making individual notes.

Note Positions on the Bass Guitar

1. Each of the individual notes that you have just played have a specific note value attached to them (i.e. the "Open" E string has a note value of E). Also, each time you moved your finger up or down a fret, the note value changed as well. Note values are what musicians use to let themselves know where on the neck they need to play in order to produce a certain note. Without getting too deeply into musical theory, we will use a description of the basic musical alphabet to help you learn to identify where every note falls on your bass guitar.

2. The Musical Alphabet: In Western music, there are 12 different notes that can be played. They are:

A | A# | B | C | C# | D | D# | E | F | F# | G | G#

3. Each note is a half-step higher than the one proceeding it and a half-step lower than the one following it. In terms of the bass guitar, a half-step is equal to one fret, meaning that every time you move your finger up one fret - the note value increases by a half step (i.e. If you start on an A and move up one fret, then you have moved a half-step higher to an A#).

4.As you can see, as you move higher up on the fretboard, the note values increase by a half-step for each fret. This makes it easy to find any note you want to on the fretboard. All you need to do is to figure out which note you are on - and you can then move up or down the neck until you reach the note you're looking for.