Know Thy Neck!

Know Thy Neck!
By Ed Friedland

It seems obvious that the better you know your fingerboard, the more musical options you’ll have. While we can all agree on that, how many of us really take the time to explore the fingerboard to its fullest extent?

Know Thy Neck - Ed Friedland

Let’s take a look at one of the most basic musical elements there is: a one-octave C major triad. No big surprises here, root-third-fifth-octave; CEGC. Got it? Sure. But most people will find their one or two ways to play it and leave it at that. FIGURE 1 shows you 13 different ways to play the C major triad off your lowest C (on a 4-string bass). The first five fingerings are from the third fret C on the A string, the next 8 from the eighth fret on the E string. My process for finding different configurations is to work from the nut toward the top fret, looking for all the notes in the triad from the open strings up.

If you play a 5 string bass, you can also find many more fingerings from the 13th fret on the B string. But guess what? This is just the tip of the iceberg. Next find all the different fingerings from every C on your bass—the 5th fret on the G string, the 10th fret on the D string, the 15th fret on the A, and the 20th fret on the E. The 17th fret on the G string will not give you any ascending triads, unless you have 24 frets, and then only the root-third-and fifth.

It is also possible to find some unusual fingerings by jumping around the neck. FIGURE 2 shows you some unlikely, but still legit approaches to the triad. Let’s face it, many of the fingerings in both examples are not exactly built for speed, but the point is they exist on your fingerboard, and playing them will expose you to the full scope of how things lay out on the neck.

Now, repeat this process in all keys, with minor, diminished, and augmented triads, as well as major seventh, dominant seventh, minor seventh, minor seventh-flat 5, diminished seventh, augmented major seventh, augmented seventh arpeggios. In your spare time, you can add the major, natural minor, melodic minor, harmonic minor scales and their associated modes.

First take the time to discover the possibilities, then get comfortable with their locations and fingerings. When you’ve settled in with all that, add the metronome and play through them in tempo. Your fingerboard discovery process is underway!