Now, you do you wonder why you have dots on a bass, it is there so you can like you can know positions. They also help you learn notes. So if I have E here, E here the same E as right here to also then I am going to octave higher E in octave higher which is the same note as octave higher here which is the octave higher of the 12th fret. Not to get you confused, but just to show you that there is sense to why everything is placed on this instrument. So, the 12th fret is an octave higher it’s E and then an octave higher E. And if we go up all the way to the 12th fret, we will go from one E to an octave E. We are going to do that one time for you. I will tell you all the notes.
So, we have E (Demonstration), open E (Demonstration), then we have F (Demonstration), F sharp or G flat (Demonstration) then we have G (Demonstration), then we have G sharp or A flat (Demonstration), then we have A (Demonstration), then we have B flat or A sharp (Demonstration), then we have B natural (Demonstration), then we have C (Demonstration), then we have C sharp or D flat (Demonstration) then we have D (Demonstration), then we have D sharp (Demonstration) or E flat and then we have E (Demonstration). So therefore if we go up the whole base we have 12 notes which we can make an octave and an octave is going to be very important for you to learn.
In fact, back in the 70s it dictated a whole new musical style which was called the disco era. Which was when everything was played in 120 beats per minute and why was it played at 120 beats per minute, because that stimulates our heart, 120 beats stimulates your heart and secondly they played octave bass lines the whole era. It was very easy. (Demonstration) if you heard lots of baselines it is just like that which were only octaves (Demonstration). I am doing nothing to play octave so therefore you could see that if you learn how to play up to an octave you can have a whole style of concord. Just like that.
Now, what I want you to do though lets go backwards a little bit. Lets go back to learning the notes. The best way for you to learn is just like I did it when I said the note saw what I was playing and heard the sound—so I said when I played the first fret on the E string that was F and I said that to myself. And then I said F sharp or G flat (Demonstration). When I say G (Demonstration) then I said g sharp (Demonstration) or A flat (Demonstration) and then I learn A.
Now saying whether it is flat or sharp depends on what key you are playing in which is like less than two D-B-D two that is a whole note that we can talk about playing between modes and noise, what key to play on. Actually, we put a little bit of that on the end of this DVD. But, you are going to need to learn what these notes are. Why? You can only progress so far. And why? Because all these other bass players that are really good, they told me that this is the way it is done. So, they knew it and they are like really great and so, we want to just follow that pattern. I don’t care what style of music it, whether it is Les Paul or whether it was Jack Casady or whether it was Chuck Grady or whether it was Ron Carter, just some of the really, really a Victor Wooten and some of the great bass players of today; Christian McBride, everybody that is really good. They all stress that you have to learn what the notes are. And plus, you will have more fun. We’re not going to really go into note reading but if you can learn the notes in the different strings, you will be that far ahead.
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