Bass Guitar Tuning - Which Way For More Than 4 Strings - 5 Or 6

The bass instruction course that you use to learn the positions of all your notes on your bass fretboard is going to be based on how you choose your 5 string bass, or 6 string bass guitar tuning. Now here is the secret to how you choose your method of bass guitar tuning. The bass chord charts, scale or arpeggio charts that are used for the bass must adapt to the tuning of the strings.

So for your default bass guitar tuning tuning that you will use for most of your soloing, walking bass lines, improvisation, and band accompaniment, whatever that is, will be your core tuning for learning your fretboard. Other tunings can be used for special songs and compositions but you will want a core tuning to learn with.

So we come back to what bass guitar tuning should I use for my 5 string bass, or 6 string bass? It doesn't matter what you use as long as you are comfortable with using that tuning as your main tuning. It is quite a drag to master your fretboard well in one tuning and then try to redo it all over again for another tuning. That is not very realistic.

With with our bass software, we use the standard guitar tuning. So for example on a 5 string bass, whether you tune the high string to B like a guitar or C an alternative tuning, that doesn't matter. It is the method of learning your fretboard that does matter. Put it this way, there is no disadvantage to learning your bass with it tuned in the same way as a standard Open E guitar tuning. Also there is no advantage to do otherwise.

To learn about bass tunings read tuning bass.

5 string bass and 6 string bass players may want to consider that it is not advisable or necessary to master the bass fretboard in more than one bass guitar tuning . Learn other tunings if you need to, or want to, for a specific application. But get a great bass education software program like Bass Magic Evolution and play the tuning game as an adjunct to your repertoire, not as your goal.