A Good Pentatonic Book

[mesaphlin]

Hello Talkbassers,

I am looking for a good pentatonic book for the bass guitar but I couldn't find one.

I want to train myself over arpeggiated pentatonic scales on bass with many combinations.

Anyone knows a book that could give me that kind of training?

Best

 

[MalcolmAmos]

Hello Talkbassers,
I am looking for a good pentatonic book for the bass guitar but I couldn't find one.

I want to train myself over arpeggiated pentatonic scales on bass with many combinations.

Anyone knows a book that could give me that kind of training?

Best

I do not think I've ever run up on a specific pentatonic book for bass. Pentatonic KHANcepts by Steve Khan is a great book on how to use pentatonic scales in your improvisations.

Deals with what can be played over/under a specific chord. Which has to do with playing like notes so both melody and harmony augment each other and harmonize. For example:

Over/under a Fm7(9) chord your choices could be:

F Dorian
F minor pentatonic
C minor pentatonic
G minor pentatonic
Bb dominant 7th pentatonic, because all of those share some like notes.
​

I understood harmonization a little better after reading this book. Cost me $24.95 ten years ago, I'm sure Amazon could get it for you, if nothing else comes up.

 

[kerryg]

The best book on pentatonics that I've ever seen is Ramon Ricker's "Pentatonics In Jazz Improvisation". It gets pretty wild at the extremes but it's brilliant.

 

[Bassist4Eris]

This is the only bass-specific pentatonic study I know of:

http://www.amazon.com/Pentatonic-Sc...09442&sr=8-1&keywords=pentatonic+ed+friedland

I don't own it, but I own several other books by the same author (Ed Friedland, also a TB member) which range from good to excellent, so this one's probably a pretty good bet.

 

[GastonD]

Jerry Bergonzi also has an excellent book on the subject, although not aimed specifically at bass.

 

[Kaspar Vadsholt]

Jerry Bergonzi also has an excellent book on the subject, although not aimed specifically at bass.

+1

Excellent, exhaustive, with great practice cd's, and Bergonzi himself tearing it up on a couple of demo tracks

The Ramon Ricker book is good too

 

[Jeff Bonny]

Jerry Bergonzi also has an excellent book on the subject, although not aimed specifically at bass.

Which is a coincidence because pentatonics aren't bass specific either.

 

[Spin Doctor]

Which is a coincidence because pentatonics aren't bass specific either.

I have no idea what this is supposed to mean. EVERY bassist I've ever heard of uses pentatonics all the time. And besides that, pentatonics are music specific, not instrument specific. Any musical instrument ever created since the beginning of time (drums aside) can use pentatonics.

 

[kerryg]

I have no idea what this is supposed to mean. EVERY bassist I've ever heard of uses pentatonics all the time. And besides that, pentatonics are music specific, not instrument specific. Any musical instrument ever created since the beginning of time (drums aside) can use pentatonics.

Jeff said exactly what you just said - pentatonics are not specific to the bass but can be played on the vast majority of pitched instruments.

Those who want to take their theory further: learn treble clef. The bass theory books we have are a mere subset of the available theory texts. I'd recommend learning to solo from studying great improvisers, and if one wants to do that one has to come to terms with reading treble clef to access the majority of them.

 

[Spin Doctor]

Jeff said exactly what you just said - pentatonics are not specific to the bass but can be played on the vast majority of pitched instruments.

Duh, you're right. That's what I get for posting when I'm tired. Many apologies!

 

[matthewbrown]

FWIW, anything you can do to embellish a diatonic scale can be done to embellish a pentatonic scale, and in the same way.