LOL, so I will help him, Bruce, being as I am kind of a grandmotherly sort who looks after young hardcore players at this site.
X-84, I played hardcore music for a few years. I'd say you can pretty much limit yourself, as a beginner, to the major scale, the minor scale, and major and minor pentatonic scales. You will get by very well with these four.
Also, pay heed to the chords you are playing. In fact, you may find the structure of the chords more useful than entire scales. You do know what the chords are, correct? If not, ask your guitar player(s). Hopefully they'll know, but I played in a band once where the guitar players could NOT name the chords or notes they were playing. All they could do was point to the fret and string. You don't want to be like that, believe me.
As you develop as a player, you might wish to branch out to more scales...let's say Lydian, Dorian and Mixolydian modes, but you can get by with the ones I gave you for a couple years, if push comes to shove, most especially if you know how to play the chords most common in hardcore music. I doubt you'll ever play a minor 7, flat 5 chord for example or need to play a Locrian scale.
These web sites have lessons that will help you with the scales above:
http://www.basslessons.com http://www.activebass.com http://www.bass101.com
One more thing, once you learn those scales both up and down...not just ascending...learn them in two octaves. Also learn them in every key. If that is a burden at the start, at least learn them in C, A, E, D, and G, also F and B flat.
A book you might benefit from is this little spiral bound book that has both tab and standard notation. It has the fifteen most common scales including the ones I suggest for you. They are also in the most common keys a hard core player is most likely to use.
"The Gig Bag Book of Bass Scales" by Joe Deneen and Mark Bridges, Amsco Publications, $11.95, 175 pages.
If you have more questions, please come here to Talkbass to ask.
Jason Oldsted
