Never really understood the power of scales till last night ...

[lopxtc]

Okay I know this is going to sound totally noobish but I have only been "playing" bass for a year now and just starting to grasp onto concepts of chords structure and music flow. In all of my practicing all I have ever really done is just sit at my amp and play along with songs that I printed off from Guitar Pro, with sheet music books I own (I can actually play Another One Bites the Dust, Killing in the name of, Born Under a Bad Sign, and about three or four other songs), or just doing scales/chords.

Well last night I installed the new garage band from iLife '08 and was playing with the Magic Garageband feature with a slow blues setup. Not really knowing what to play I figured that I would stick to pentatonic scale of the key of the song and played mostly swung 1/8's with some quick 1/16 chromatic runs and the occasional 1/2 note. Was actually amazed to myself how well it actually sounded with all the other instruments playing along, even the wife was amazed that the bass line (albeit very very simple one) was actually coming from me LOL.

Just with all the talk lately on here about the value of scales and such I kind of felt that I would drop a story about how to beginner those simple scales actually made me feel good about my level of playing so far.

Aaron

[JackWhite]

congratulations. scales really pay off! its important also that those patterns get "normal" for you so you dont have to think all the time about them.

still trying to get that "effortless" (being able to do it without thinking too much) scalethingy down too

[magnusdeus123]

lol , you arent even on half the high you can get from that pack of crack yet brudda' . When you get advanced enough , get into modes . You will truly realize the potential of scales then , when even utter rubbish you play will sound great . That really will get you expressive , because once you have the set colors which you know you can paint with , you can just go and freely paint....

[MonetBass]

It's pretty sweet when the light bulb comes on, isn't it? Congrats, dude.

[bassclefman]

So the song will focus simply aroung the scale? Let's say for example the song is in the key of "C" minor scale, so the song would involve the notes consisting of the C minor scale? I'm sorry I still need to grasp this. So should I memorize all the scale patterns and then do what? I simply play what I hear on CD's I know my notes on the fretboard I know a little theory I use a tascam bass trainer so I can slow down the bass lines on Cd's I simply play what I hear but I would love to grasp the issue of scales. Help!

[Lalabadie]

Well there's like a couple of levels with this.

Let's say you play a song in C major (fancy shizzle). It means the notes you'll play with will be C D E F G A B

But you can have a progression through that. Like

C C C C
F F C C
G F C C

That would be a basic 12-bar blues.
Now what happens in this progression is what we call modes. Here's just a quick explanation of 'em so you can see why they're useful.

You're playing the song in C. Basically, you don't want to use notes out of this scale. So even though the progression calls for a bar in F, you will just start out on a F and play the notes of the C scale all the way up the the next F. This can lead to weird scales, but used in the right context, they fit. See:

Here is your scale, two times

C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C
| - - - - - - |                      This is your C Major scale
      | - - - - - - |                This is would be an F Lydian (if I don't mess up my modes)
        | - - - - - - |              This would be a G mixolydian

But they're all played in the same key .

[magnusdeus123]

Bassclefman : Hell no !! Thats totally a wrong way of thinking how to work with a key of a song . Just because you are in C doesnt mean you can take the Cmajor scale and play around with it . That sort of thing is ok if your a lead guitarist , but for a bassist , there has to be a strong harmonic foundation first . If it was that simple , then you would'nt have all the jazz guys working their ass off on all types of chords and which notes to go with them and such .

For being able to play around with a scale you need to approach the thing modally . Now explaining modes is beyond the scope of this post , but you should check out http://www.zentao.com/guitar/theory/ for all theory related stuff , the guy explains it pretty well .

[bassclefman]

Thanks guys! I will do further research on scales I'm just tired of being a copycat bassist playing what I hear on CD's (tablature) I want to create my very own expression on the bass but the issue of scales just has'nt sunk in, once again thanks, more input on this subject would be really helpful. Thanks!

[CapnSev]

I wish this would happen with some of my students

[edwinhurwitz]

First off, congrats on the discovery! It's a great moment! Now, the next seed I'd like to plant in your mind is to forget about scales and start thinking about chords. For bass, that means arpeggios. Roots, 3rds, 5ths, 7ths. But what about the other notes in the scale, you ask? Think of them as the 9, 11 and 13th, rather than the 2, 4 and 6. The reason for this is that if you simply play up and down the scale, the harmony is static. There's nothing that tells you what the actual chord is, only the scale. While this might work out OK in ragas and sadly, jam band guitar solos, it makes for very boring and non functional bass parts. Try creating lines that move in 3rds. So if the chord is C7, the notes to use would be C, E, G and Bb. You can use the 9, 11 and 13 to move between the other notes or to add tension.

This does take a little more space to explain than a post on talkbass, but once you start thinking in chords, it tends to make your lines sound a lot more solid. If you are playing a modal tune (all one chord), it still sounds better to think in chords than scales. If the chord is C7, you also have a Dmin7 or Gmin7 that you can play that will add tension. Just keep your lines based on 3rds using the notes in the scale and you can come up with all kinds of lines that create and resolve tension.

Interestingly, when Miles started playing modal music, he and Trane were obviously very schooled in chordal playing. Just because the harmony became static, doesn't mean that they stopped playing chords. They played chord progressions over the static harmony and that's what creates the tension and release necessary in good improvisation. The freedom came from being able to come up with all kinds of chord progressions to play.

I hope this helps in some way.

Edwin