I'm a beginner on bass and looking for suggestions about learning scales. What are the useful reasons to learn scales? I noticed in videos and books that scales are played in a sequence; however, I also read somewhere that the scale notes can be played in any sequence to create bass lines. How can basslines be created with scales? What scales are good to start learning? I already jumped ahead to learn rock and jazz basslines in a few songs that I like.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Learning Scales
- Thread starter DonH
- Start date
In its simplest form, songs are based on a key (scale). A scale provides you with a palette of chords that can be used within the key.
From a bass players perspective, the chord tones contained within the scale are the foundation for creating basslines. Other notes (diatonic, chromatic, approach. neighbor. etc.) can be used to add some "flavor."
The Major scale. Know it! Know the formula for constructing a major scale! Play it on one string, over two strings, over three strings, over four strings, one octave, two octave, starting from the first finger, starting from the second/third finger, starting from the pinky. Get the idea? Most every other scale you learn will be compared back to the Major scale.
Now, with all that said, I would highly recommend that you start with the basics -- intervals. From intervals, move on to chord tones (chord tones are the bread and butter for bass players). Once you have a firm grip on intervals and chord tones, then jump into the world of scales.
Welcome to the low end!
Edited to add: Re: playing songs. That is afterall, why we pick up the instrument. Playing along to songs should be a constant in your practice routine.
Last edited:
I'm going to give you a lot of "stuff" and there is no way you can remember all this from one reading. I suggest you copy and paste it somewhere so you can use it as a study paper.
Dirt simple - scale notes are used for the melody. Chord tones [notes] are used in our bass line to harmonize the melody. A bass line can use scale notes or chord tones. Keep reading.....
Gotta do your scales so your fingers get to know the good sounds from the bad sounds plus it helps get our fingers moving on the neck of your bass and helps us learn where specific notes and patterns of notes are found on the neck of your bass. However when you start gigging you will use chord tones for your bass line 90% of the time. I know if it was easy everyone would be a bassists.
Scale notes are used to make chords. The Cmaj7 chord will use the 1-3-5-7 notes of the C major scale. The Cm7 chord is made from the 1-b3-5-b7 notes of the C major scale. We call this the spelling of the chord. Want a D7 chord use the 1-3-5-b7 notes of the D major scale.
This may help. The second page will have the spelling for just about every chord you will ever need.
http://www.tedgreene.com/images/lessons/fundamentals/ChordConstructionFormulas_1976-05-26.pdf
We use the major scale for the building blocks for everything we do. Do get the major scale pattern into muscle memory. You will find it on this string. How to get started? Go to post #4 and 6. Put these two posts to muscle memory so when you need a C major scale or a Cm7 chord your fingers know what to do with this information.
Good luck and happy trails.
Dirt simple - scale notes are used for the melody. Chord tones [notes] are used in our bass line to harmonize the melody. A bass line can use scale notes or chord tones. Keep reading.....
Gotta do your scales so your fingers get to know the good sounds from the bad sounds plus it helps get our fingers moving on the neck of your bass and helps us learn where specific notes and patterns of notes are found on the neck of your bass. However when you start gigging you will use chord tones for your bass line 90% of the time. I know if it was easy everyone would be a bassists.
Scale notes are used to make chords. The Cmaj7 chord will use the 1-3-5-7 notes of the C major scale. The Cm7 chord is made from the 1-b3-5-b7 notes of the C major scale. We call this the spelling of the chord. Want a D7 chord use the 1-3-5-b7 notes of the D major scale.
This may help. The second page will have the spelling for just about every chord you will ever need.
http://www.tedgreene.com/images/lessons/fundamentals/ChordConstructionFormulas_1976-05-26.pdf
We use the major scale for the building blocks for everything we do. Do get the major scale pattern into muscle memory. You will find it on this string. How to get started? Go to post #4 and 6. Put these two posts to muscle memory so when you need a C major scale or a Cm7 chord your fingers know what to do with this information.
Good luck and happy trails.
Last edited:
Scales can be learnt without an instrument - they are just collections of note letter names set out in order. Likewise for chords - they are just sets of notes in combination that can be learnt in a few hours spend with a good theory book.
As a beginner, the purpose of playing scales and arpeggios is to give you the physical and aural faculties you need to actually make music with the instrument.
By playing scales and arpeggios (and other technical exercises) in a structured way you will:
- Learn good left hand posture;
- Learn here the notes are;
- Learn how to play in tune;
- Learn how to mute - keeping the other strings quiet;
- Learn good right hand posture;
- Learn to play in time;
- Learn how to keep your left and right hand in sync;
- Develop good muscle tone, finger strength, dexterity and independence;
- Develop your ear;
- Discover how the quality of the same note changes in different part of the fingerboard - compare 'F' at the 3rd fret on the D string with the same F at 8 on A, 13 on E and 6 on B (if you have a 5-string);
- Develop alternative fingerings to exploit those differences;
- Develop control over dynamics, i.e. loud to soft;
- Develop control over tone, from warm and.mellow to bright and zingy and all stops in between;
- Develop control over attack and articulation, from soft and blooming to percussive and explosive;
- Keep adding to this list...
- Rinse and repeat...
'Structured' simply means doing whatever you are doing with purpose or an objective, such as those listed above, and not moving on to the next thing until the objective has been met or progress towards the purpose has been made.
But at the same time, reflect on what @FatStringer52 said. It is all about the music, so always have a couple of pieces you are working on at the same time as practicing your scales, arpeggios and other technical exercises.
But at the same time, reflect on what @FatStringer52 said. It is all about the music, so always have a couple of pieces you are working on at the same time as practicing your scales, arpeggios and other technical exercises.
I know of diatonic and chromatic, but have not heard of approach or neighbor - I'll have to look it up. Do you use Pentatonic notes/scales? I have practiced intervals and okay with that. Are chord tones within chords? I thought chords is a bit rare on bass.
They are the notes that make up the chords. In the case of the C major triad, the chord tones are C, E and G. In the case of C minor triad, they are C, Eb and G. In the case of the C7 chord, they are C, E, G and Bb, etc...
Thanks! That's a lot of good stuff. This certainly will help a lot in what to work on.
A note (ha!) about chords: A chord is, in the simplest definition, two or more notes being played at the same time. And it doesn't have to be the same musician playing those notes. If I play a C, someone else plays a G, and a third person plays an E, the listener hears the sound of a C Major chord.
As bassists, we are usually charged with playing the lowest note of the chord. But if we only played the roots of chords, our bass lines would be utterly lifeless. So we can spice up our "roots" with chord tones and scale tones (remember, every scale contains a chord, and every chord represents a scale). Country players do this with the stereotypical 1-5-1-5 bass line (What road did the country bass player live on? ROUTE 5!), blues bassists use the also-stereotypical 1-3-5-6-b7-6-5-3 bass line. So even though we as bassists rarely play more than one note at a time, we absolutely MUST know the notes in a chord or scale in order to make our bass lines have meaning and interest... and we have to know what chords everyone else is playing at a given moment, because that informs our note choices. There's a reason a B sounds terrible over a C7 chord; conversely, there are ways to utilize that same B if you're careful and judicious.
Chord tones are essentially the 1, 3, and 5 of a given scale at its most basic level. They get more complicated as more notes are introduced to the chord, but there are essentially 4 "triads" and 2 other chords to master before you get deeper in:
You absolutely must be aware of what chord is being played at any given time in the song, and respond accordingly, or you'll make your bandmates sound bad. There is no grey area here; ya gotta do it.
As bassists, we are usually charged with playing the lowest note of the chord. But if we only played the roots of chords, our bass lines would be utterly lifeless. So we can spice up our "roots" with chord tones and scale tones (remember, every scale contains a chord, and every chord represents a scale). Country players do this with the stereotypical 1-5-1-5 bass line (What road did the country bass player live on? ROUTE 5!), blues bassists use the also-stereotypical 1-3-5-6-b7-6-5-3 bass line. So even though we as bassists rarely play more than one note at a time, we absolutely MUST know the notes in a chord or scale in order to make our bass lines have meaning and interest... and we have to know what chords everyone else is playing at a given moment, because that informs our note choices. There's a reason a B sounds terrible over a C7 chord; conversely, there are ways to utilize that same B if you're careful and judicious.
Chord tones are essentially the 1, 3, and 5 of a given scale at its most basic level. They get more complicated as more notes are introduced to the chord, but there are essentially 4 "triads" and 2 other chords to master before you get deeper in:
- Major - 1 3 5
- Minor - 1 b3 5
- Augmented - 1 3 #5
- Diminished - 1 b3 b5
You absolutely must be aware of what chord is being played at any given time in the song, and respond accordingly, or you'll make your bandmates sound bad. There is no grey area here; ya gotta do it.
Thanks! Those are all great points. In regards to number 1, I caught myself with palm touch the back of the neck and fixed that. Right hand posture is good. I'm looking forward to knowing where all the notes are. Going to work on all of it. That's a big help.
I highly recommend a learning app called Yousician. You can learn scales and music theory, while learning to play. You can learn to read music notation as well as tablature, while playing popular and traditional songs. Start at any level and progress at your own rate. They teach bass, guitar, ukelele, keyboard and vocals. Use it free for 10 minutes a day, until you decide if you want to subscribe.
That sheds a lot of light on what makes the notes sound good together. This gives me a better understanding of chords. I'm going to get started. Thanks!
They are completely different things. Diatonic just means 'of the key'. If you are in a key, any notes not 'of the key' are chromatic.
'Approach' and 'neighbour'', along with 'passing' and others, are just different names for auxilliary notes and refer to how they are used in melodic and harmonic structures such as voice leading or modulation. They may be diatonic or chromatic.
I heard of Yousician. Thanks for the feedback on it. I'll check it out. I have the Songsterr app with tabs to a lot of songs.
Allow me to touch on technique before I head off to Zzzzland.....
Technique can be easily defined as "how something is done". For instance, my technique for putting on a T-shirt is to put my arms through their respective holes, then pull the back of the shirt over my head so it pops through the hole. And my technique can be "graded" on two counts, and two counts only: Effectiveness and Efficiency.
My technique for putting on a T-shirt is enormously effective; once I get the shirt on, it stays on, until I take it off. It can be debated as to whether it makes more sense to pull the shirt over my head first, which is a discussion of Efficiency.
The same can be said about anything you do on the bass. What are you trying to play? Once you've answered that, the next concern is to your effectiveness: do you get the job done? Does everything sound and feel right? Are you playing the right notes, in the right place, with the right feel? If so, your technique is sufficiently effective.
Now we get to efficiency: did you really have to work as hard as you did to get that phrase to sound right? Were you maybe using a 4-fret spread where a 3-fret spread would have sufficed? Were you alternating your plucking fingers? Were you using the Rest Stroke (a very efficient plucking technique)? Was the thumb on your fretting hand low enough so you could spread your fingers out, thereby eliminating the need to move back and forth to reach all the notes?
Ultimately, effective technique is more important than efficient where the sound of the bass part is concerned. Having said that, efficient technique is going to provide greater stamina, prevent injury, and allow you to play more difficult and complicated passages with greater ease. And any serious student must address this aspect of their musical studies. At the end of the night, the number of bootys shakin' on the dance floor will tell you how effective you've been; the next morning, the way your body feels will tell you about your efficiency.
Technique can be easily defined as "how something is done". For instance, my technique for putting on a T-shirt is to put my arms through their respective holes, then pull the back of the shirt over my head so it pops through the hole. And my technique can be "graded" on two counts, and two counts only: Effectiveness and Efficiency.
My technique for putting on a T-shirt is enormously effective; once I get the shirt on, it stays on, until I take it off. It can be debated as to whether it makes more sense to pull the shirt over my head first, which is a discussion of Efficiency.
The same can be said about anything you do on the bass. What are you trying to play? Once you've answered that, the next concern is to your effectiveness: do you get the job done? Does everything sound and feel right? Are you playing the right notes, in the right place, with the right feel? If so, your technique is sufficiently effective.
Now we get to efficiency: did you really have to work as hard as you did to get that phrase to sound right? Were you maybe using a 4-fret spread where a 3-fret spread would have sufficed? Were you alternating your plucking fingers? Were you using the Rest Stroke (a very efficient plucking technique)? Was the thumb on your fretting hand low enough so you could spread your fingers out, thereby eliminating the need to move back and forth to reach all the notes?
Ultimately, effective technique is more important than efficient where the sound of the bass part is concerned. Having said that, efficient technique is going to provide greater stamina, prevent injury, and allow you to play more difficult and complicated passages with greater ease. And any serious student must address this aspect of their musical studies. At the end of the night, the number of bootys shakin' on the dance floor will tell you how effective you've been; the next morning, the way your body feels will tell you about your efficiency.
Find a YT video for "Smokin' In The Boys' Room". That intro lick? PERFECT example of approach/neighbor/auxiliary notes.
I recommend to skim through a book "How to play jazz and improvise" by Jamie Aebersold. It's the rare kind of book where theory is very simply explained, and the real focus is on internalization of the theory, ie. playing what you learned with a good playalong, so that you can learn to feel what the 'flavour' of the tones is.
As an Amazon Associate, TalkBass may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via links on this site.
Dont think about scales without giving equal attention to chord tones. All is explained in this link ( the web site itself is excellent) better than I ever could.
Chord Tones Are Primary | Bass Chord Patterns | StudyBass
Chord Tones Are Primary | Bass Chord Patterns | StudyBass
