I.
The Fretboard
Four or five strings, the whole neck. Tap any fret to hear it and watch the same note light up everywhere it lives — the map every bassist carries in their head.
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Never played before? Start with the big button — your first sound is about four minutes away.
the foundation of the band
Bass is where rhythm meets harmony — the note everyone feels but few notice. The whole instrument is one map of strings and frets, and once you can see it, you can play anything. Switch between 4- and 5-string up top, then tap the neck — you’re already playing.
plate iii · the four-string electric bass — tap the neck below and watch a string ring
plate iii the 4-string electric bass
Tap any dot to hear the note and find its twins across the neck.
start here · the guided path
A step-by-step course: the four strings, reading the fretboard, finding notes, the octave shape, and your first groove. Each lesson teaches one idea and puts it straight under your fingers — no quizzes, progress saved.
▶ Jam: play along to a tune →∑ The science of the strings →♪ The listening room: why this instrument →
study the bass
See the neck, learn the shapes, lock the groove — from a first note to a walking line.
Four or five strings, the whole neck. Tap any fret to hear it and watch the same note light up everywhere it lives — the map every bassist carries in their head.
Scales and arpeggios as movable patterns. Learn one shape, slide it anywhere — the secret to playing in every key without re-learning a thing.
The bass is the band's heartbeat. Lock a line to a drum loop, from one steady root to a walking line — play-along from your very first note.
the method library
Built on the foundations laid by the players who defined the instrument — the feel of Motown, the fluency of Carol Kaye, the freedom of Jaco, the craft of the walking line.
the maths & physics of this instrument
Most instruments make waves smaller than the room. The bass does not. Its lowest note lays down one wave every 8.33 metres — longer than a classroom is tall, three times over. Once a child has seen that drawn to scale against a ceiling, wave speed stops being a formula on a board and becomes a fact about the building they are standing in.
Measurement · λ = v ÷ f · scale drawing
Sound travels 343 m/s. The low E repeats 41.2 times a second, so one wave is 343 ÷ 41.2 = 8.33 m.
No other school instrument makes a wave you would have to knock a wall down to fit in.
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Distinguishing quantities · units
In the air that note is 8.33 m long. On the string it is 2L — about 1.73 m on a 34-inch scale. Same note, two completely different measurements.
The instrument holds both at once, so the difference can't be waved away.
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Square roots · inverse proportion
Mersenne's law: f = (1 ÷ 2L) × √(T ÷ μ). Pitch falls with length, rises with the square root of tension, falls with the square root of mass per metre.
Three variables you can see and feel on one string — and the answer to why they didn't just use thinner wire.
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Halving · powers of two
41.2 Hz → 8.33 m. 82.4 Hz → 4.16 m. 164.8 Hz → 2.08 m. Double the pitch, halve the wave, every time.
A doubling sequence measured in metres of air rather than counted on paper.
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