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How to memorize all the scale easily?
- Thread starter Bassguitar man
- Start date
Spend a few years working on them. I haven't checked out this guys videos, but there may be something here for you to use. Arppegios are important too.
Having trouble learning scales? Then this video lesson on 5 Essential Scales For Bass is for you!
Learn your Major and Minor Arpeggios. An easy guide to the shapes and patterns.
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Start by learning the major scale (don't worry about other scales just yet).
There are 12 major scales (15 if you count the enharmonic keys like F# and Gb). All of them are constructed using exactly the same pattern of half steps (1 fret) and whole steps (2 frets). So if you know this pattern, then you can derive any major scale.
The pattern is:
Whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half
Now you try: pick a note and try building a major scale using that pattern of whole steps and half steps. For example (pop quiz!) what are the notes of an E Major scale using this method?
Each major scale has 7 notes. Can you learn 7 notes in 1 day? The first major scale, C Major, goes C D E F G A B C. Today I want you to spend the whole day just learning that. Tomorrow you will learn the next one. At that rate, you will have memorized all of the major scales in just 2 weeks; wow, what progress!
There are 12 major scales (15 if you count the enharmonic keys like F# and Gb). All of them are constructed using exactly the same pattern of half steps (1 fret) and whole steps (2 frets). So if you know this pattern, then you can derive any major scale.
The pattern is:
Whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half
Now you try: pick a note and try building a major scale using that pattern of whole steps and half steps. For example (pop quiz!) what are the notes of an E Major scale using this method?
Each major scale has 7 notes. Can you learn 7 notes in 1 day? The first major scale, C Major, goes C D E F G A B C. Today I want you to spend the whole day just learning that. Tomorrow you will learn the next one. At that rate, you will have memorized all of the major scales in just 2 weeks; wow, what progress!
It may be a bit mechanical, but memorizing a scale mainly means to me understanding how it is constructed. The rest is playing them until you can recite them in your sleep.
For example, most scales you'll encounter can be derived by their deviations from the major scale (no matter how inherently flawed that is to anchor everything to a mother scale). More exotic ones have their own principles of construction, like whole tone half tone.
For example, most scales you'll encounter can be derived by their deviations from the major scale (no matter how inherently flawed that is to anchor everything to a mother scale). More exotic ones have their own principles of construction, like whole tone half tone.
As someone else pointed out, it’s much more useful to memorize the key signatures. Then when you realize you’re playing a song in say A and can visualize all the available notes instantly.
Write them down and practice recalling them while taking the bus. Quiz yourself.
Of course, you also have to learn your fretboard!
The real question I guess you need to ask yourself is “how do I learn anything?”
Write them down and practice recalling them while taking the bus. Quiz yourself.
Of course, you also have to learn your fretboard!
The real question I guess you need to ask yourself is “how do I learn anything?”
How many words do you know? Can you find your way home easily from different places?
There's a lot stuff we all have memorized, and some of it comes easily, some we have to work on. The saying, "What you don't use, you lose", is very real. Learn a scale, make a game of it, make some music with just those notes, teach someone else that scale. The Christmas song "Joy to the World" starts with a major scale going down. Play that for every major scale you learn (or minor if you have a different attitude about Christmas). Look up the idea of 'Tetrachords' and see if that is a useable idea for you.
Or, like Charles Mingus said, "Better Git It In Your Soul".
There's a lot stuff we all have memorized, and some of it comes easily, some we have to work on. The saying, "What you don't use, you lose", is very real. Learn a scale, make a game of it, make some music with just those notes, teach someone else that scale. The Christmas song "Joy to the World" starts with a major scale going down. Play that for every major scale you learn (or minor if you have a different attitude about Christmas). Look up the idea of 'Tetrachords' and see if that is a useable idea for you.
Or, like Charles Mingus said, "Better Git It In Your Soul".
buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
Part of it is also knowing where/how to start - major scales on the middle finger, minor on the index. You can play most scales finger per fret, without having to move other than when shifting positions. Makes life a LOT easier.
Three limericks to memory and you can "tick off" all the sharp and flat scales within THE MAJOR SCALE.
Take the C major scale = C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. Then using this limerick; See, God, Destroy, All, Earth, By F#ire and C#haos. That is the order of the scales that that have sharps in them. For example:
C has no sharps or flats in it's makeup.
G has one sharp.
D has two, etc.
Now which sharp? For that I use this limerick; Fat Cats Go Down Alleys Eating Birds.
The G scale has one sharp. What is the first sharp? F# for Fat.
D scale has two, the F# and the C#, for Fat Cats.
I cheat by just listing the notes in the scale, on my sheet music, for example; D, E, F, G, A, B, C. Then go to the Fat Cat limerick and add the sharp "mark". F# and C#. If you do not have some paper handy, use your fingers...
You can fill out the rest of the sharp scales by using those two limericks.
For the flat scales use; Farmer Brown Eats Apple Dumplins Gresely Cooked. Yes, you figure out how Farmer Brown gets all the flats. Hint; the F scale will have a Bb note. Take it from there.
Three limericks to memory and you have all the sharp and flat scales. Now finding the notes on your neck is the next step. For that I use the major scale box pattern, root note under the R.
Good luck.
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Learning scales on a bass guitar can be very easy, since you can use transferable patterns and move them around the neck with ease. Then, once you know the names of all the notes on the neck, you can easily see all the notes in a given key. Just start digging in and practice the major scale starting on notes on the E string and A string.
Do NOT start by rote memorization of a set of mathematical patterns. Start learning the fingerboard by playing the scales and memorizing how they SOUND. Through this process you'll begin to discover a lot of the mathematics yourself which will make learning the theory seem a lot less abstract.
If people can memorize thousands of Kanji shapes, you can memorize a few dozen fingerboard shapes; no worries 
I remember cycle of fifths and how many flats and sharps any key has. If you look at it for a while, you'll find there is a pattern to it.
Scales I don't learn to remember mentally; rather I practise them on the bass. Good learning method is to divide a hard thing into multiple simple ones. I start with short parts and gradually add notes. For example, D dorian:
- play basic chord tones only (D - F - A - F - D)
- play up to 5th (D - E - F - G - A - G - F - E - D)
- play chord tones and 7th (D - F - A - C and back)
- play whole scale (D - E - F - G - A - B - C -D and back)
(and 6th chord, 9th chord, 5th to 11, etc, whatever you like; always go up and then back down or vice versa)
Play to a music or drone tone, so you get acquainted with the feel of the notes in a harmony. *)
Before you switch to another scale, learn it in all the keys, or at least as many as you can. It looks hard, but it gets easy quite soon. This way you learn how which note of the scale 'tastes to your ear', and that is what you really need to learn. I'm an optimist: since most scales are similar, it's hard only once.
*) and while you're at it, you could play to metronome as well, so you enhance your rhythm. No need to do it fast.
Scales I don't learn to remember mentally; rather I practise them on the bass. Good learning method is to divide a hard thing into multiple simple ones. I start with short parts and gradually add notes. For example, D dorian:
- play basic chord tones only (D - F - A - F - D)
- play up to 5th (D - E - F - G - A - G - F - E - D)
- play chord tones and 7th (D - F - A - C and back)
- play whole scale (D - E - F - G - A - B - C -D and back)
(and 6th chord, 9th chord, 5th to 11, etc, whatever you like; always go up and then back down or vice versa)
Play to a music or drone tone, so you get acquainted with the feel of the notes in a harmony. *)
Before you switch to another scale, learn it in all the keys, or at least as many as you can. It looks hard, but it gets easy quite soon. This way you learn how which note of the scale 'tastes to your ear', and that is what you really need to learn. I'm an optimist: since most scales are similar, it's hard only once.
*) and while you're at it, you could play to metronome as well, so you enhance your rhythm. No need to do it fast.
There is no easy way, or shortcut. Application of those scales (playing them a LOT) and knowing why you are using certain scales at certain times is the only way. You'll soon realize that scales are the same thing as chord tones... just rearranged. 1-3-5-7-9-11-13 is a scale rearranged. 1-3-5-7-9(2)-11(4)-13(6).
I got a scale and chord book and copied it several times (pen and paper) until it was driven right into my brain. Print of a few hundred fretboard templates.
