How to Play Notes on the Bass Guitar

Notes are the basic building blocks of all music. Knowing the notes and how to play them on the bass guitar is very important. The bass guitar has an "alphabet" of 12 different notes: A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. If you have a four-stringed bass guitar, then from top to bottom, the strings correspond to the notes G, D, A, and E. Each note on the scale of A to G# is half a step higher than the one preceding it. On the bass guitar, half a step equals one fret. Every time you move your finger one fret up the neck, the note that you play increases by half a step.

2. The "#" sign means "sharp." So a note labelled "C#" is known as "C sharp." Determine where all these notes are on your bass guitar. While using a diagram as a guide (such as the image at the top of this article), you should slowly play each note and say its name as you play it. This will get you used to where each note is.

3. Practice playing each note in ascending and descending order. Remember that if you play a string "open" (without pressing it down on any of the frets) then it will play the note after which it is named. For example, playing the top string "open" is the note "G."

Tips & Warnings

• The notes on a bass guitar are: A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#. Each note is half a step higher than the one before it, which corresponds to one fret higher on the bass guitar.
• Become familiar with all the notes. Remember that there is no # (sharp) for B and E. Say the names of the notes out loud as you play them slowly.
• Do not give up - keep practicing the basic notes when you first start playing the bass guitar.

Resources

• Free Lessons from Bass-guitar-music.com

[hintohush]

on 8/24/2009 great tips

[elawrence]

on 8/24/2009 Thank you for the tips on playing notes on the bass guitar! 5 stars!