About StudioBassist

After playing bass for nearly 30 years, my hand goes to the seventh fret on the D string as soon as I see an A. I don't even think about it which is great for sight-reading. However, when I'm presented with an upper-octave note, say the highest C on a 4 string bass, I have to count the ledger lines. StudioBassist is an app to familiarize you with the high frets on the bass guitar to improve your sight-reading and musical understanding.

Instructions

After starting the app, press the Start button to initiate a quiz. A note will be presented on the left of the screen. Select the corresponding fret on the bass guitar displayed on the right. Stop at any time by pressing the Finish button. If you go through the whole quiz, 36 questions will be presented in total.

Main Screen of StudioBassist

If all the questions are answered successfully, you'll get a "Great Job" method. Otherwise, you'll be presented with a screen like the following showing the note, the correct position(s) in blue, and your incorrect selection in red.

StudioBassist Results Showing Two Incorrect Answers

The quiz is timed, so work as quickly as possible to improve your time.

Requirements

StudioBassist requires Java 8. If you're running Java 7, you'll be prompted to upgrade your JRE.

An app for the iPad is under development.

Links

The current version is 1.0.0.

StudioBassist is available as a Java 8 JNLP download. Click on the link below to download and run the app. An icon will appear on your desktop and you can use this icon in place of navigating to a web page.

StudioBassist 1.0.0

Mac Notes

If you're trying this on a Mac, you will need to approve the download in System Preferences since you're not using the App Store. When you select the link in Safari, a new item "sb.jnlp" will appear in your downloads folder. You can access this in Safari by selecting the down arrow next to the URL bar. Copy this to your desktop and double-click. You'll be warned about an unknown developer, but can go to System Preferences > Security to open the file anyway.

As with Windows, a desktop shortcut will be available to run StudioBassist without using Safari or System Preferences.

More

If you have any enhancement requests or have found any bugs, email sales@bekwam.com.

If you're interested in the construction of Java FX apps, check out the Bekwam Blog for articles about this application and other Java application coding posts.