Half steps and whole steps

You know the seven note names. Now you need to know how far apart they are, because they are not evenly spaced. On the bass, distance is easy to measure: you count frets.

The half step

The smallest distance between two notes in Western music is the half step, also called a semitone. On the bass, a half step is one fret on the same string.

The whole step

Two half steps make a whole step, also called a tone or whole tone. On the bass, a whole step is two frets.

The natural notes are not evenly spaced

Most neighbouring natural notes are a whole step apart: C–D, D–E, F–G, G–A and A–B. Two pairs are different:

• E–F is a half step;
• B–C is a half step.

Between two natural notes a whole step apart there is one more note. Lesson 1.3 gives it a name. Between E and F, and between B and C, there is no note at all.

So, going up any single string, the natural notes are two frets apart, except E→F and B→C, which are one fret apart. In the diagrams, W marks a whole step and H a half step.

The pattern is the same on both strings. Only the starting point changes, so the half steps fall on different frets.

The pattern from C

Write the natural notes from C to the next C and mark each step:

C –W– D –W– E –H– F –W– G –W– A –W– B –H– C

That gives the pattern W-W-H-W-W-W-H. Keep it in mind: it comes back in Module 5 as the formula of the major scale.