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.
Scale ascending and Decending...
- Thread starter Mo' Bass 00
- Start date
Hm.. I think you should be more specific, I think I can answer your question.
Scales Ascending (going higher) Start again at the Octave note, which is always the last note of th scale.
I will mark the octave
A major scale
G]--------------------
D]-----------4-6-(7)--
A] ----4-5-7 ---------
E] 5-7----------------
Then after that you go to
A major scale
G]-------6-7-9-------
D]-(7)-9--------------
A] ------------------
E] -------------------
And once you get to where you can no longer you change strings you kind of skip a fret and act like you change strings.
Since we can no longer repeat the pattern.
G]-------6-7-9-10-12-(13)
D]----------------------
A] ---------------------
E] ---------------------
This last step is least important unless you want to go really high
And then you can always go to the scale again in a different octave by going 12 frets down the neck and repeating the pattern
Then you will stay in key.
Just remember the shape of the scale!
Scales Ascending (going higher) Start again at the Octave note, which is always the last note of th scale.
I will mark the octave
A major scale
G]--------------------
D]-----------4-6-(7)--
A] ----4-5-7 ---------
E] 5-7----------------
Then after that you go to
A major scale
G]-------6-7-9-------
D]-(7)-9--------------
A] ------------------
E] -------------------
And once you get to where you can no longer you change strings you kind of skip a fret and act like you change strings.
Since we can no longer repeat the pattern.
G]-------6-7-9-10-12-(13)
D]----------------------
A] ---------------------
E] ---------------------
This last step is least important unless you want to go really high
And then you can always go to the scale again in a different octave by going 12 frets down the neck and repeating the pattern
Then you will stay in key.
Just remember the shape of the scale!
Adam Nitti wrote some good Bass Player shed stuff on this-try playing scales "diagonally". Play 4 notes on 1 string, then the next 4 on the next string, etc-this allows you to run up and down the neck in a given scale/key. If you practice these you'll be more able to use the whole board, instead of always staying in 1 comfort zone.
When I started playing bass again a few years ago the teacher I had, had me working on playing scale on one string. Really makes you aware of how the scale is constructed, where notes are on the string, and good practice shifting. Then we moved to using two strings. That really started me see scales in fragments. Next we did two octaves and after see scale in fragment easy to see how to shift and extend the scale. Then three string scale and going up two octaves. Then doing scales from lowest available note on the bass to the highest. Learning to see scale in fragments and how the intervals combine to create a scale I could now navigate the neck from any point to any other point. On my own I started doing the same approach with modes and melodic minor.
People here seem to groan when I bring this up, but it worked for me might for you. Adam Nitti in a class I took talk about using the modes as a way to know fretboard, but looking at them as inversions of the major scale. So take the C major scale and its modes. You need a fingering for each mode. Now play C major scale/ionion mode using C at 3rd fret A string. Now play D Dorian starting at 5th fret A string. See the overlapping notes. Phrygian at 7th fret and so on so on till back to C Ionian at the 15th fret A string. You can look at it as modes or inversions of the major scale, either way you now can naviage the neck in C major starting anywhere. Back to your question I would play like the C Major/ionian mode at 3rd fret and instead of stopping on the C slide up and play the D on the 7th fret G string. From there I would come back down in D Dorian. From the low D on A string I would slide up to E and go up Phrygian and so on and so.
Combining the first exercise of seeing scales and modes in fragments, and then the Adam Nitti thing, I think I have good knowledge of the fretboard.
Another Adam Nitti thing is we tend to learn arpeggios from low root up. So sometime we are up on D or G string we need to change to chords and we go through pause or worst drop down and go up. To learn where the roots are in the arpeggios patterns on top of the patterns as well as on the bottom.
Thing is try to look at the problems and find your own solutions, or if you learning some pattern or exercise from a lesson try to expand on it. Break it apart, can you use it for other scales or as approach to something else. That type of exploration really helps you knowledge of the instrument as well as develop you technique. Most important just don't learn this stuff and fingering patterns and stop at that. Take and play with it try to make some music with it. By trying to jam on a pattern or some lesson idea is the real teacher.
People here seem to groan when I bring this up, but it worked for me might for you. Adam Nitti in a class I took talk about using the modes as a way to know fretboard, but looking at them as inversions of the major scale. So take the C major scale and its modes. You need a fingering for each mode. Now play C major scale/ionion mode using C at 3rd fret A string. Now play D Dorian starting at 5th fret A string. See the overlapping notes. Phrygian at 7th fret and so on so on till back to C Ionian at the 15th fret A string. You can look at it as modes or inversions of the major scale, either way you now can naviage the neck in C major starting anywhere. Back to your question I would play like the C Major/ionian mode at 3rd fret and instead of stopping on the C slide up and play the D on the 7th fret G string. From there I would come back down in D Dorian. From the low D on A string I would slide up to E and go up Phrygian and so on and so.
Combining the first exercise of seeing scales and modes in fragments, and then the Adam Nitti thing, I think I have good knowledge of the fretboard.
Another Adam Nitti thing is we tend to learn arpeggios from low root up. So sometime we are up on D or G string we need to change to chords and we go through pause or worst drop down and go up. To learn where the roots are in the arpeggios patterns on top of the patterns as well as on the bottom.
Thing is try to look at the problems and find your own solutions, or if you learning some pattern or exercise from a lesson try to expand on it. Break it apart, can you use it for other scales or as approach to something else. That type of exploration really helps you knowledge of the instrument as well as develop you technique. Most important just don't learn this stuff and fingering patterns and stop at that. Take and play with it try to make some music with it. By trying to jam on a pattern or some lesson idea is the real teacher.
Adam Nitti got those exercises from Russ Rodgers....an excellent bass teacher in Atlanta and I'm sure he got them from someone else.
Yup.
We all are Sensei in the dojo of music.
Meaning we all are both teacher and student. The cycle never ends. 
