One of the Most Important Bass Lessons You'll Ever Learn 

I love your laid back and relaxed teaching style. It’s so much better than the typically hyper, high energy youtubers.. they can be exhausting to watch 😅

10 years playing bass and after watching this, all of a sudden a light has just switched on in my brain🤘🤘

I’m a self taught bass and 6 string player for over 35 years. And this is just the simplest and best explanation I’ve seen of how to get understanding of the fretboard. I learned a few things I never really connected before. Well done and thank you!

Thank you for the inspiration! You are an encouragement to me. I'm dealing with Stage IV Prostate Cancer and your lessons help me focus, exercise my mind and help me with my energy. I apply the techniques while praying and playing to Praise and Worship tracks. You're a blessing to me!

I've been a bassist for over 30 years and this exercise is much harder than I thought it would be. Thanks Rich

I’ve never had a lesson, and followed three main steps. Know your fret board, play with drum tracks, turn frustration into opportunities. 20 years later I’m a happy bassist. Tip learn your octaves will help you memorize your fret board.

So simple it's hard to believe how much sense it makes.

I’m a guitarist who started playing bass and absolutely love it! This is a great exercise for bass and guitar!

I agree with the importance of learning every note on the fretboard and believe the best way to do that is to read standard notation, which also provides a comprehensive way to understand rhythmic patterns.

I often motivate myself by watching bass lesson videos on RU-vid, but I have a hard time keeping up with them because I can't understand English very well , but your lessons are very easy to understand, even for a Japanese person like me, and the lesson content fits my skill level. I know that It is not so easy to get better bass skills , but I am confident that if I continue to learn from you, I will make steady progress.

A teacher I had in NYC in the mid 90’s, Keith Carroll, was a huge proponent of using a metronome while playing and calling out the notes on every string from the open one and back down again. Seeing this lesson brought me back to a very important bass lesson I never forgot. Thank you, Mr. Brown!

im a 24 year old 5 string player this is somthing ive been trying to verbalise for a while and im grabing my bass to play along one thing i have considered is writing note names on clear tape and putting it under the fret board temporarily to help with visualizations first sharps then flats since i learned to read sheet on tuba

I do a similar thing where I pick a scale, start on the low E and ascend 3 notes per string, go up 1 step at the top then descend to the bottom doing the same thing, then going up a step, etc. Sometimes you get some inefficient fingerings, but by saying every note out loud and doing all the keys, you really learn where everything is.

Really smooth teacher. “We’re gonna do it in chunks of three.” Brilliant approach and not daunting at all.”

I’m an ear player too and seeing you buckle down and re-approach your instrument this way is inspiring. And also you make it look doable enough that I feel like I could try the same thing without a paralyzing sense of dread, on guitar or bass. So glad you mentioned the connection between the 7th fret and the 5-string bass, which had never dawned on me before. I usually play guitar, banjo, and 4-string bass, and when I play 5-string, to keep from getting too confused I just think of it as a regular 4-string with a bonus lower string. I feel like this will help me level up if I put in the time. Thank you!!

This channel is the reason why I can survive back to back YT ads

I find that when you're musical intuition(your ear) and you're understanding of the harmonized major and minor scale meet, you'll really feel the confidence grow. Even when you don't know what the song is

Usually I don't like clickbait titles but this really is the most important lesson as a bassist and of all the students I've taught over the years, the ones that put the work into this are just simply more successful more quickly. Truth

Started learning the bass again, and I’m past 40 years old. Loving the vibe!

When you raised your eyebrows.....I was "All In!!!"

32 years of playing and I’ve never looked at the fretboard like that. Subscribed for more content. Well done.

Used to play the piano as a kid and now trying to pick up the bass for last few months. I don’t know why I ever thought of this, for a piano I wouldn’t even need a second to tell you what note is what, so having that same understanding with the bass fretboard seems like an absolutely an huge advantage

Never Occurred To Me That The 7th Frets " Match " Up With A 5 String - Flipping Way Cool Go Team Human, Cheers

I've been playing bass for something like 37 years now. As a kid, my focus was speed and precision. I have been able to play fast & complicated stuff for a very long time. For the last decade or so, I've actually been learning theory and how music works. My biggest gains have come in the last 5 years or so from three things. #1 Consistent diverse playing. I've got two different projects going, so I've been playing with other people 2+ times a week for years now. #2 My hard rock band plays a few songs in drop D, and my garage jam project will routinely play songs in different keys depending on who is singing. Practicing transposing like this ALL the time has done fantastic things for my ear and ability to roll with what and where others are playing. #3 I've been working HARD at chords/triads on the A,D and G strings up around the 11th fret. It is pretty much all I do when jamming by myself these days. This practice is not directly beneficial to my bands, playing bass chords in a mix usually gets lost. But, it has done some absolutely magical things to my playing. First and foremost; I have finally connected my fret board top to bottom. Second; I can now hear minors, majors, dominant 7th chords, inverted chords and all the rest by ear. By being able to play those chords myself rather than just the roots, it has become WAY easier to frame the chords everyone else is playing. Third; I have always been jealous of acoustic guitar guys being able to one man band a song. I've now written a handful of acoustic bass/vocal songs I can bust out when someone sees my bass sitting in the corner and says "play me something".

a friend highly recommended your channel, as a 55 year old, who hasn't touched a bass since high school, I see why cheers 🤘☠️🤘

B R I L L I A N T lesson, my brother!! 🙏

"...relaxed teaching style. It’s so much better than the typically hyper, high energy youtubers..." I am happy to agree with that. A very helpful video, thx.👍

Inspiring to see how someone of your level revisits the "weak points" in his playing. Pure gold this lesson!!! Thanks Rich!!!

I love your attitude towards growth! Thank you for the video, you are awesome!

i keep telling myself i want to do this. now i actually will. thanks

Honestly how I’ve always thought about notes on the board. Bad habit is after a while I stop remembering the notes and I just know the pattern that fits the note/chord I’m on.

One of my heros is Carol Kaye. Like her I have always played bass like a guitar with a pick. I am not sure that I could play with my fingers now, but it is done for fun and I am happy with that.

I am just getting started with Bass, started about four weeks ago. I’ve seen a lot of good lessons, and this is right up there with the best of them. Something else to put on my list to practice. As I learn the notes on the fretboard. Thank you for making this video.

Absolutely. I've been an ear player for a long time too. Lately I've been tearing down all the guitar chords and playing it on bass, but naming the notes out loud like you just did. Makes a huge difference. A great way to keep things fresh too. Just found your channel, subscribed.

incredible simplification!!! Thank you!

Priceless information especially to someone who plays by ear. Thanks!

I did it a different way. I simply learned all of the notes (and their names) by learning them on the sheet music. I made up a bunch of exercises where I'd use quarter notes and I'd play two notes and repeat them in the measure. So it might be C E C E/A D A D etc. You'd be surprised how quickly you not only can read the notes on the page, but you also learn the note names too. It's only taken me a couple of months to get them all. Now, in truth, I don't read music well so the next effort is to practice various rhythms but at least I know what the notes are and what they are on the staff. Very helpful.

I'm also an ear player, so this was super helpful! Definitely doing this exercise. I find the more I get out of my ear comfort zone, the easier it is for me to be creative, which is what it's all about.

I dig it. Nice change of remembering the neck.

Jim Stinnett is a tough act to follow. I dig Rick Brown’s approach.

I’m excited to practice your revelation. Thanks.

This blew my mind! My brain never broke down the fret zones like this

Thank you Rich, your such a great mellow instructor. No pressure. 😊

A calm lesson us the best one

I just picked up a bass for the first time yesterday. And I started doing the “name the note” automatically from fret 1-5. Because that’s how kids learn violin. They have to name the notes. In fact they write them on little stickers until they get it.

This was awesome, I highly appreciate ya.

Once again rich is the best and he makes it so easy for us!!!!

You are a real blessing to the musical community. You have a real gift for teaching! Thanks for all that you do, we are all so grateful!

Glad to be back in the Brownstone!

!!!Great thank you very much!!

U have a new subscriber here. I'm looking forward to seeing more of yr lessons.

Very nice presentation and knowledgeable

So simple, but great lesson.

Advanced player here for at least 16 years. Mostly guitar, but I got my five string out and had a great time with this whole dang video! Especially that seventh fret B-E-A-D Thanks for sharing your scope, B-rown. You're one cool dude. 💯

This bass, it just rings so right.

We've been dancing with Mr. Brownstone. He keeps knocking. He won't leave me alone.

This is how to teach relaxed and with no distractions

Clear & well presented.

Just bought a bass for my daughter, really more of a family bass. I was working on this very exercise last night. Nice to see I was working on the right things! I've played a little guitar for many years, and working on piano as well. Hope to move past being a messing around and having fun player and actually learn a few things.

Thank you. Great teaching.

Simple, yet profound! Subscribed!

playing guitar for ages, just switched to bass and you demystified the twilight zone in one sentence. I am in your debt and you have have new subscriber.

The "Twilight Zone"-particularly from fret 5 to fret 9-is my favorite zone to improvise in! The harmomics are at their clearest, in my opinion, whether you're playing natural harmonics or false harmonics. The open-sting octaves on the 7th fret can be a ton of fun. And it's high enough that you can get some nice sounding chords, but low enough that you can get some nasty weird ones too!

_"I realized I could play better if I knew what the f**k I was doing."_ Good thinking, Watson! 👍🌟🏅

My brother played bass for over 30 years professionally and he did it all by ear. He was not a songwriter and not reading music limited his career options.

Very good lesson very relaxed style of teaching I am a complete beginner with the Bass Thanks

Smooth smooth smooth, damn.

Brilliant especially the five string info

Thank you, I've been playing self taught bass for years but mostly just playing songs. I've always been intimidated by scales and improv, these exercises are helping remedy that!

The most important bass lesson you'll ever learn is that the more you learn, the less you know. PS - knowing theory and rudiments beyond your abilities as an ear player will NEVER hurt. Once you understand better how things work, it becomes an invaluable tool and resource. The most skilled and musical players I've ever know had an amazing ear coupled with a solid foundation and understanding of theory. The more tools you have in your toolbox, the better the home you can build onto the foundation of your structure.

I am so glad I found your channel

Love this! I’m a 52 year old novice. Just discovered your channel. Glad I did because I will be back. Thank you

Thanks, Rich. I'm a six string player keen on adding colorful bass lines into my comping. This video has got me off to a fine start. Much appreciated Sir.🙏🙏🙏🙏

I've been playing for about 3 Months now, starting with learning songs (All things Khrangbin

That was one of the first exercises given to me by my guitar teacher - play a note and name it. Another one was to playing various major and minor scales and name the intervals (tone-tone-semitone...)

I'm going to do this exercise for 5/10 mins a day. I bet in few weeks I'll be able name the notes much easier. Thanks, Rich.

Dude I love this! I sorta reached the same point in reverse, after going to school and working almost exclusively from printed music for years and years thereafter, I reached a point where I realized my childhood/teen abilities to learn and play by ear had turned to trash from neglect. At that moment I just started back at the beginning, and devoted my full attention to learning, and often re-learning hundreds and of songs (now), just by ear and memorizing them *without the charts was actually much easier, as it turned out. Some more complicated stuff, being able to write it out to learn it (or to teach it to others) is helpful, but learning both sides of your music like this takes you to an amazing new ability level in both. Bravo!

Always look forward to your videos teacher👏🏿

First 2 minutes I related EXACTLY to what you were saying

I had a brief memory loss for the name of the channel so I typed... "Friends and neighbors bass teacher" on RU-vid search. It brought this one as the first video. 😊😊

Hey Rich, thank you. Great to have another excellent lesson on getting the basics down. I believe that you can never do the simple things too often. Peace and love.

Dziękujemy.

I don't speak english but I've understood... Excelent your lesson! I'm begining to play bass... I'm 58 YO .Thanks a lot!!

Nice clear and professional. I think I'll stick around.

Man Rich, I've been searching for RU-vid for several years for bass instructions that actually help. What I've constantly gotten were the same dry, long-winded, boring folks who seem more interested in showing me how "great" they are instead of helping me understand the use of this instrument. In other words, where have you been???? Thanks for putting things in a language that even I can grasp. New Subscriber for sure.

Rich, you should do a beginner's course playlist. I'm a beginner (but have played acoustic guitar in the past so I might be intermediate beginner) and really enjoy your approach and lessons. They help a lot.

Thank you very much. I've been also almost only guided by ear but developed now after some forty years some kind of sense about where any notes are on the fretboard. Learned it a bit differently by applying the circle of 4th (wouldn't it be great watching a lesson from you about the circle of 6thththsss ;o-) but your method seems a bit easier 😉

I play by ear too, this is a great exercise, thanks for sharing!

Lovely. Thank you for teaching.

That was a great abd simple lesson! Thanks

Music student, professional concert cellist and teacher for 45+ years I bought my first bass (5-string) yesterday and this perfect, beautiful first lesson is both money and honey, Rich Brown! I am going to do this until I can name all the notes. I want a Rich, Brown sound so Ima stop back by for real when I can do that. Please, people, send this man some money and leave honey in the comments. What a gift! Thank You, R&B, and thank RU-vid!💰🍯🤎🔊

your method of remembering the note names of the frets is a realistic foundation.I sometimes use the chromatic tuner on my bass to see what note I'm playing thinking that eventually I'll become more familiar with the note names by memory.I enjoy playing alongside a drummer and I'm a drummer also but supporting a good guitar player on the bass is what really stokes me so when the guitarist asks me to play a specific note I want to know where it is. Thank you for your time and I'll be on the lookout for more. ✌️😎

Just bought a bass last week. After long searching of how to play/memorize fret video, this one is the best method. I'll try to learn this thanks

Good lesson. My music teacher made me learn the note names of the neck twenty-seven years ago. Every bassist should be able to do it. Also, not every 5-string and 6-string basses are tuned to low B. I tune my 5-string from low E to high C, and six-strings from low E to high F.

great seeing you Rich!!! Awesome

As you wagged your eyebrows in the intro, I wagged back. Couldn't help myself!

I used to play bass and guitar when I was in hs, years later I'm starting to find love for the instruments again and this video is exactly what I was looking for

That was cool .Thanks

Great lessons. Very relaxed and understandable.