Learning the fretboard

[GonzoBass]

I'm currently playing in the pit orchestra for Leonard Bernstein's "On The Town"
where he changes key signatures quite often in some songs:
2 flats to 4 sharps to 5 flats to 1 sharp...
all within a few staves!

So what was a Db a few bars ago is now a C#,
and suddenly F# is now a Gb, etc.


It's best to learn your enharmonic spellings...

[jakenewmanbass]

[quote name='GonzoBass' post='199920' date='May 15 2008, 09:00 PM']I'm currently playing in the pit orchestra for Leonard Bernstein's "On The Town"[/quote]
A great composer, West Side Story is an amazing score.

[KennysFord]

nick carey recommended "music reading for bass-the complete guide" by Wendi Hrehovcsik.its a hal leonard series book.Its great for learning notation,playing in all the keys,fret board learning,the rhythm coaching is excellent,especially the for dotted notes and 16ths.
i got mine [url="http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/022559/details.html"]here[/url] quick delivery as well.

[mmuussiiccaall]

Hey, since the bass is tuned in 4th's it's all about the circle of 5th's (which is the circle of 4th's if you go around counterclockwise)
Here's the order of the 4th's G C F Bb Eb Ab Db Gb B E A D these are the notes as you cross strings to the floor
Here's the order of the 5th's G D A E B Gb Db Ab Eb Bb F C these are the notes as you cross strings to the sky
Take note the the word BEAD is by coincidence spelled out 2x in the circle, that gives you 8 of the 12 answers
On a 5 string for ex. the open strings are B E A D G the 1st fret across continues the circle with C F Bb Eb Ab the 2nd fret = Db Gb B E A ......etc.
On a 4 string for ex. the open strings are E A D G the 1st fret across continues the circle with F Bb Eb Ab the 2nd fret = Gb B E A ...........etc. ( to get to that next fret always go 2 counterclockwise on the circle from the note you ended with on the 1st string (ex. 1st string open is G then 4th string 1st fret will be F
which is 2 counterclockwise
This sounds complicated but once you burn the circle to memory it's easy
By the way the circle has a lot more uses!
Greetings from Ohio