Pitch of Notes

Bass actually sounds an octave lower than it is written on the bass clef.

The fingerboard note names start on the lowest note of a four string bass which is E. They go up one fret at a time. Notice that the sharps (#) are written before the note on a music stave and after the note when written as a letter name. This applies to both sharps (#) and flats (b).

There are two acrostic sayings to help you remember the lines of the bass clef (Good Boys Deserve Fruit Always) and the notes in between the lines of the stave (All Cows Eat Grass). These can be helpful as long as they don’t confuse the fact that the letter names are simply the alphabet from A to G and then continuing on with A after G.

Easier to remember is to call the bass clef the F clef as the note F is between the two dots.

Duration of Notes

Subdivision is an important concept when dealing with rhythm.

The duration of a note or rest is determined by the number of beats (or fractions of a beat) that it lasts for and the tempo of the music.

Tempo

The tempo is expressed in beats per minute (BPM) and is usually written after a crotchet (quarter note) symbol.

= 60 means there is one beat per second. A dot after any note increases its duration by half again and a curved line (tie) between two notes of the same name means that the first note is held for the duration of both notes.

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