How to Read Bass Clef: Bass Guitar Basics

Video Transcript

OK, so now that we understand that our open strings have certain notes on them and that we know that three notes, natural notes on the "E" string, "E", "F", and "G", you need to figure out how to read them so if we see them in a pattern on paper we can understand what's going on. We have two ways of reading, we have tablature and bass cleff reading and it's good to link the two. So, first of all let's look at tablature. Tablature is basically a representation of the strings, so you see these numbers, 4,3,2,1, well, they represent the strings "E", "A", "D" and "G". So this zero here means open "E", this zero here means open "A", so try plucking your next string up, this zero is an open "D", and this zero is open "G". OK , that's all we need to know about tablature for now. Let's look at the lines on bass cleff. So, bass cleff is composed of notes within lines and spaces, it does not represent the fret board at all, it's just a way of organizing notes so that the other musicians also would be able to read bass cleff. So, here's a way of looking at this. The notes on the line, on the first line is a "G", on second line is "B", " D" is the third line, "F" is the fourth line, "A" is the fifth line. Think - Good Boys Do Fine Always- use a trick like that to read those. In the spaces we have "A", "C", "E", and "G" - All Cows Eat Grass - is a way of remembering the spaces. Using tricks like this will help us read the bass cleff. So for example on the "E" string, we have some notes that are lower than the cleff. This note right here is "E", the first ledger line below the bass cleff. And, that would be represented as an open "E" here. The next note up, right below that first line is "F", and that would be the first fret of the "E" string, that's what the one means, first fret. Now the "G" here, the first one -Good- from lines, it's the first line, and that's the third fret from the "E " string. So try not to ease up as you play. "E,F,G,F,E".

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