are scales what I need?

[Wisebass]

Hi boilingTheDead

Are scales what I need?

Of course you need scales!

Imagine a bass with fur or feathers.

Back on topic:

I want to be able to improvise immediately above any chord.

I can follow pretty much everything by ear playing the route note and from time to time playing an octive or the fifth

How to start?

Listening is a good approach! (the best "start" if you ask me)

Learn how to recognize intervals (sing them, than play them)

Train your ears to hear the difference between major and minor chords.

Most important thing: Have fun doing it!

Scales: Scales are great to get your technic right (right hand as well as left hand!)

Practice major, minor and pentatonics in all positions. It will help you to play properly and to develop stamina.

Leave some notes out (every second, every third or play only every third…)

Again! Sing with it because...

improvise immediately

Improvising is playing the melody or line that you have in your head.

Leave the noodling to the guitar players.

may the bass be with you


Wise(b)ass


btw: When your guitarist is a Jimmy Page fan, learn the mixolydian scale.

 

[MalcolmAmos]

If we have a blues song the 12 bar blues progression will keep you on track with what chords will be used.

If we have a blues song the blues scale will keep you on track with what notes the solo instruments could use. And then if you want to play lead over a blues backing track the blues scale over the entire song -- or over each individual phrase of the song, i.e 4 bars of the I7 chord to start, so improvise the notes of that scale. Then two IV7, then two I7, then your ending of choice... Perhaps one 5, one 1 a IV and then loop back using another 5.

Most blues jam circles you'll be taking care of the chords in the progression and the solo instruments will be taking care of the blues scale. Start with the blues progression over the entire song and then expand from that.



Grab a 12 bar blues progression and hang on.

 

[AngelCrusher]

Id start with chords plus extensions 9/11/13.

This is the best way since you learn the most important notes over each chord. It is also easier to learn harmonic substitution. For example, playing a D7 arpeggio over a G7 in a ii-V-I. Why would you do this? If you dont know why this can be a nice option (of many) or what a ii-V-I is, then you should absolutely be focusing on chord construction.

 

[Rock Salad]

I really don't understand why we are told to learn "all keys." !
I tried that for like 15 years. Didn't really start getting good and having a voice until I decided to settle in on one key and really learn it. Like really learn it, including all modes in the key and their chords and pentatonics on the fly without any hesitation. Then including common substitutions related to the key, including bop scales related to the key and to the common chordal substitutions.
I find having learned that one key (I chose C,) transposing is easy without ever having worked the new key on its own because the relationship between shapes remains the same relative to each other.
I'm not a top pro or teacher or Berklee grad, but that is what is working for me. And I'm getting pretty deep for never taken a lesson or class.

 

[MrLenny1]

Find a good teacher and save yourself years of frustration.

 

[JRA]

Are scales what I need? How to start?

yes. pick any note. play the scale you are studying. good luck!

 

[glocke1]

I want to be able to improvise immediately above any chord. I know all the notes on my fretboard, but other than that nothing. So I can follow pretty much everything by ear playing the route note and from time to time playing an octive or the fifth. Im pretty much stuck in that level of playing.

I can repeat the notes from most basslines but I would love to understand what is going on.

Are scales what I need? How to start?

Sounds like you need to get a fundamental understanding of Harmony under your belt. By that I mean how chords work on their own and together in relation to scales.

Theres plenty of that information on the internet to help get you started, but if your goal is to really improvise, than I suggest starting studies with a jazz bass teacher. You don't have to set off with becoming a jazz bass player, but the knowledge gained in those studies will benefit you in other ways.

I'm currently back to studying and dabbling in this genre and it's helping me a great deal in becoming a better player overall, however I still suck at playing jazz.

 

[JoeWPgh]

Yes, you absolutely need to learn scales. But just as importantly, you need to see how a chord fits into that scale. But in a way, that might be considered backward. Learn your chords, and expand those notes out to include the full scale it's drawn from. You really need to understand both and how they are related.

 

[NOVAX]

 

[Joebone]

Are scales what I need? How to start?

I dunno. Scales can be functional, but I'm gonna stick with skin...

 

[SteveBassJr]

If you internalize scale tones and progression, they will come out naturally when you improvise.
Lean them in all keys, intensely.
And when you can play them without thinking, move on.

 

[devnulljp]

Do mi so do do so mi do
Every truly cultured music student knows
You must learn your scales and your arpeggios

 

[Rip Van Dan]

I want to be able to improvise immediately above any chord. I know all the notes on my fretboard, but other than that nothing. So I can follow pretty much everything by ear playing the route note and from time to time playing an octive or the fifth. Im pretty much stuck in that level of playing.

I can repeat the notes from most basslines but I would love to understand what is going on.

Are scales what I need? How to start?

You have a great start. Learn major and minor Pentatonic scales and three inversions of the major and minor scales. Then it's just a matter of moving them around the fingerboard. You'll be amazed at how many bass lines are based on the Pentatonic scales.

Along with that, you need to understand what notes are being used in the chords of the songs. Those are called "chord tones" and those are the notes you want to be hitting in your improvisations or in developing your own bass lines. Knowing all the notes on your fretboard is a HUGE leg up in learning the rest of it.

 

[40Hz]

Learning chord theory would make the fastest improvement - Arpeggios (R357) and chord inversions.

Master the Major, minor and pentatonic (blues) scales first, in all 12 keys, before tackling the other stuff.

This. Bass lines usually work within the architecture of the chords for most modern music.

First get major, minor, and pentatonic scales down in the first five neck positions.

You’ll next want to focus on the intervals that make up the most common chords in the most common keys - and the sometimes confusing chord naming conventions. There’s plenty of good books and videos on those subjects already which a quick search will spot for you, so I won’t try to recap it here.

Along with that it’s a good idea to become familiar with common chord progressions. The I-IV-V (blues) and I-vi-V-IV (pop), and the II-V-I (jazz) chord progressions are among the best known. Each genre has its favorites. Knowing them can be invaluable since many songs are either built on a standard progression, or have bolted together a few standard progressions in a Lego blocks fashion. Very little music is totally original. So knowing a half dozen standard progressions allows you to play (no exaggeration) thousands of different songs with a minimal learning curve.

That’s why good subs can tackle a song they’re unfamiliar with and rapidly come up to speed. They have enough experience to spot the building blocks in a song, know the stylistic conventions of a particular genre, and therefore have a very good idea of what to play without actually “knowing” a particular piece of music.

Scales, keys, chords, progressions…get a handle on those and you’re well on your way to handling anything musical that gets thrown at you.

Luck!

 

[dreamadream99]

I want to be able to improvise immediately above any chord...Are scales what I need?

Scales are just part of the picture. They give you the vocabulary at your fingertips, but you should also know keys and chords to really understand note choice in improvisation. Also you need to know all the intervals by ear—that’s the only way to translate what you hear to what you play, then you develop that skill to get faster and faster, until it is simultaneous.

So your development should include components of: technical facility (speed, dexterity, accuracy), music theory (keys and chords), aural skills (interval recognition), and improvisation (yes, you have to practice making up melodies on the spot).

 

[Whousedtoplay]

I want to be able to improvise immediately above any chord.

Do you play the guitar or the sax if you want to improvise immediately(!).

by ear playing the route note and from time to time playing an octive or the fifth.

I think we have a wrong description of the word, "improvise" for a person who can play by ear the root, octave, and/or the fifth.
Let's just forget the word, "IMPROVISE".

Are scales what I need?

Let me present you with an example of MY vision of an amateur (and pop music) beginner bass player who asks similar questions.

N.B. If you play the guitar, there is a different forum.

N.B.2. If you play Metal (Death, etc...) DISREGARD my comment completely!

N.B.3. If you are a mature jazz bass player, then, just have a laugh.

Many decades ago, there was a beautiful pop song with a very memorable (classic), melodically-lyrical bass line played by Pino.

Lady in Red.



Now.
Let's take another song, Hey Girl by Michael McDonald.
At first, those drums in Intro sounded to me like, Hey, somebody needed to better program the drums from Lady in Red", but it's a different song.
If I were to advise you on the bass line, I would ask you to "mimic" Lady in Red's bass line, its wonderful fills for Hey, Girl.

What particular SCALE I would need to learn in order to play a bass line similar to Pino's?

N.B. 4. As a comic relief, the bass line in Hey, Girl was played by >>>> PINO!