Hey, everybody.
So I’m having a tough time wrapping around the concept of the bass being symmetrically tuned.
What does that exactly mean?
If somebody could provide more insight that would be awesome!!!
TY!!!
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It just means that all the strings have an equal musical interval between them.
For bass, that is 4 half steps between each string.
A six string guitar is not symmetrically tuned as the interval between the second and the third string is not a fourth, but a third.
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Correct. Versus a guitar’s standard E-A-D-G-B-E tuning, standard bass E-A-D-G tuning is relatively “easier” to navigate after you learn the relationships between strings.
Don’t worry if this doesn’t make sense right now. Josh’s explanations make it clear in B2B lessons.
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Cool.
Kind of makes sense but also not so ouch!
I’ll keep moving forward and I’m pretty sure it will eventually click!
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TYSM!!!
I appreciate the info!!!
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Do you mean 5 half steps?
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Um, I am not so sure about that anymore. Well, the interval between strings is a fourth, that is what I am sure about.
Winner winner chicken dinner.
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Each higher string is tuned a 4th higher as you go from E > A > D > G. When counting like this you are only counting the notes without #'s. And you count the note you start on. Like this…
E string to A string
1-E 2-F 3-G 4-A
A string to D string
1-A 2-B 3-C 4-D
D string to G string
1-D 2-E 3-F 4-G
If you hear people talk about it being tuned a 5th above, they’re counting the number of semi-tone steps to get from one note to another. When doing this, you do not count the note you start on. Like this…
E string to A string
1-F 2-F# 3-G 4-G# 5-A
A string to D string
1-A# 2-B 3-C 4-C# 5-D
D string to G string
1-D# 2-E 3-F 4-F# 5-G
Why the two methods?
No idea. Welcome to Music Theory where the reason for some things are because they date to a time when paper and ink were rare and stone tablets may have been in use.
Why is this important?
You will start to see patterns as you learn the fretboard notes. These patterns will help you find other notes. The reason these patterns work is because the strings are tuned symmetrically and that symmetry makes the bass easier to learn and play.
The reason it’s different on guitar is because the string tuning makes it easier to play chords.
Yes, 5 semitones.
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Yep, either term, half step or semitone, is acceptable.
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The important point is it is 5 
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Yeah, that was answered. 
It means if you had an infinite number of strings that followed the same tuning pattern, your scale shapes would never change no matter how far down you went. Unlike guitar where the B and e strings are shifted
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Ok!!!
That totally makes sense!!!
TYSM!!!
Now I can move on😂
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