Welcome to Gaia! ::

ok you said you would answer anything
so here is a question:

I can't seem to get the notes memorized correctly on the frets and strings and such

any suggestive techniques? or something?

i need help with tuneing

That article dosn't teach much about harmonics, and it dosn't explain dissonance to well... No offense, but theres a lot more that people can use to tune themselves with.

Pitch harmonics are the easiest way in my opinion. I don't rely on them entirely because of the fact that they themselves are not in perfect tune, but its extremely close. Try doing this...

On the 5th fret, if you just touch the string over the fret, don't press it down at all, try plucking the string. If you do it right you will create a tone with it called a pitch harmonic. If you do the pitch harmonic on the 5th fret on your E string, it will duplicate the pitch of the next string. If you compare that sound with the sound of the harmonic on the 7th fret of the A string, you will find that they create an identical sound. That pattern follows crossed to the rest of the strings. Use that relationship with the harmonics to check your pitch. Now as for knowing if it is in or out of tune, experiment with sound a bit. Get a feeling for what "in tune" actually sounds like, and what happens with sound when it is out of tune. Ill make an image to explain pitch and frequency a bit... I have here an example of a solid generic sound. It would sound like a digitally produced kinda sound because of its shape, but the shape isnt whats important here with pitch. In this case it is the distance between the peaks of the frequency. Sound is displayed in waves, different shapes and sizes display different kinds of sounds. Here is an example of perfect intonation, and a set of tones that are out of tune...



Take a look at the difference between the upper and lower set of lines. The upper is 2 pitches played together. It looks like one in this case because there is absolutely no discrepancy between the pitches. Perfect intonation!

In the lower pitches though... Way out of tune! The trick here is illustrated at the numbers. The two notes will sound close. The line that actually lags behind in the waves is in tune, and the one that is expanding is flat. Now how can we as listeners tell the difference? We obviously cant see these waves, but in exchange we can feel them! If you note that at point 1, the pitches are extremely close, but as we move out to point 2 the frequencies start to create differences, and at point 3 you can see that the points actually start to pass each other up! When the waves continue on they match up again! Now if you feel this it will actually create a pulse in the air. If you work with a drummer, get him to leave his snare alone with the snare activated. You will be able to hear that pulse of the frequencies moving in and out of tune in the snare. If you feel really hard though, you can feel that pulse in the air, and hear it as well.

NOW! To tune, your goal is to eliminate these pulses entirely. When you feel them slow down, you know your are moving in tune. If they speed up then you are moving further out of tune. Just take a string you are tuning (I usually move up from the E to the G) and just use those pitch harmonics to feel that pulse. Move your tuning peg till you think the pitches match up in your ear, then use that pulse trick to hone yourself into the (almost) perfect pitch. That should set you up!


Remember, the bass tuning goes from thickest to smallest,
EADG

Thats standard. There are variations, and other arguments about tuning, but thats the popular tuning system. Stick to that for now, then learn about others later!

Where could I go online to get good tabs or notes to songs?

Is the tuning BEAD better with heavy strings?