Find Any Note on Any Guitar or Bass | Easy Steps to Finding or Naming Notes on the Fretboard

I don’t teach my students by answering questions, I teach them by helping them learn to answer the questions for themselves. Today’s lesson is on finding or determining any note on any bass or guitar, no matter how many strings it has. With just 2 magical ingredients I’m going to make it so that you never have to ask someone else what note you are playing or where to find a note, ever again.

🎧LESSON INDEX

0:00 Lesson Intro
0:32 Meet Your Notes
2:49 Ingredient #1: String Names
5:49 Ingredient #2: The Distance Between Notes
8:28 Crawling Up a String
11:46 Determining Your Note
13:27 Finding Your Note
14:50 Homework

💡 LESSON TOPICS

♪ Think of natural notes as the white keys on a piano
♪ The note just above a natural note called “sharp”
♪ The note just below a natural note is called “flat”
♪ Step 1: Learn your string names!
♪ String names for a guitar and 4-string, 5-strings, and 6-string basses
♪ 1 whole step = 2 frets
♪ Memorize this: “It is always a whole step (2 frets) between natural notes EXCEPT B-to-C and E-to-F, which are only a half step (1 fret)”
♪ Rule of thumb for all basses and MOST strings on the guitar: "The 5th fret is the same note
as the next open string"
♪ Play through these patterns, saying the names of the notes out loud
♪ Print and highlight the cheat sheets
♪ When you are ready, use a click or a drum track

🎥 RELATED VIDEOS

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Need more help with your B-string?
🔴 3 Major Scale Patterns to Master the B-String | Guitar Scales Made Easy (11:23)
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📝DOCUMENTS

🔵 Frets 0-5, Naturals, 4-st Bass
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dw158b5vavb...

🔵 Frets 0-5, Naturals, Guitar
https://www.dropbox.com/s/378glw94yhd...

🔵 Frets 0-5, Naturals, 6-st Bass
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wqim5owl5zz...

🔵 Scale Lines - Major and Minor Scales
https://www.dropbox.com/s/l5bx5ny8bp0...

🔵 Notes on the Bass
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4storpi45qa...

🔵 Notes on the Guitar
https://www.dropbox.com/s/flnr27pbybh...

🧑 ABOUT ME
My name is Alex, and my passion is teaching music online. I’m a bass player and composer by training and trade, but what I really love to do is teach. I make my living teaching private lessons on Bass, Guitar, Piano, and Ukulele. My favorite thing to teach is theory - helping the students understand the “why” behind the music and empowering them to make better and more informed musical choices. I’m very adamant about teaching technique. This is how you gain power and control over your instrument and ultimately raise the ceiling on where your limits are and where they will be in the future.

I appreciate you participating in learning music with me, either for free through my videos or in private lessons in my virtual studio. Players of all abilities and backgrounds are welcome! There’s no music lesson I don’t love.

🎸 PRIVATE LESSONS
You can schedule lessons with me, book a free consultation, or reach out to me with questions on my website:
https://www.stepbystepmusic.com/