Start with the mental practice of learning the arpeggios. I don't think memorizing patterns is learning. What you want to do is be able to MENTALLY spell the common chords with the correct enharmonics. That means you need to know:
1. How to build the diatonic major scale in any key; that is, you know the W W H W W W H formula, and you can think through (without an instrument) to determine the notes in any diatonic major key.
2. Then you need to know the formula for basic chords from the scale of each root-
Major chord is 1, 3, 5
Minor is 1, b3, 5
Seventh is 1, 3, 5, b7
Minor 7 is 1, b3, 5, b7
Diminished is 1, b3, b5 bb7 (and know WHY it's a double flat 7, not the sixth!)
Augmented is 1, 3, #5
Major 7 is 1, 3, 5, 7
3. Then you need to know the scale (NOT the pentatonic, the diatonic major scale) all over the neck. You need to be able to play it in multiple positions, and you need to be able to play it up and down the neck. I highly recommend AGAINST getting charts or diagrams. Use the knowledge from step 1 above to figure out where the notes are, then make your own diagrams. That'll help you LEARN this instead of rote memory.
Then you take all this knowledge and put it into music. Take a simple chord progression, and find the arpeggios for each chord on the bass, over two octaves. That means you're going to have to know the major scale all over the neck for at least two octaves ascending and descending.
So, if you're looking at a progression of Amin7 to Dmin7 to G7 to C then you need to figure out the following :
A. What are the notes in each chord? For example, you need to know that the Amin7 is A C E G (see #2 above).
B. Then play those notes all over the neck. Start with them from the lowest root to the highest root on the neck, then go back down. The key is that you SING the notes as you play them- it's not a speed exercise, it's to train your ear to HEAR the chords.
C. Once you're comfortable with this, then do the same with all the chords. You'll see some overlap on these (duh- that's why they're in the same key and why they sound good together).
D. Now start at the lowest note available for each arpeggio (NOT the root), and play them along the whole neck.
E. Then (assuming one measure per chord), start at the lowest note of the first chord (that's an E on a standard tuned 4-string bass) play one note of the arpeggio in order for the first measure, then switch to the closest note of the next chord, playing notes in order again until the end of that measure, etc.) Do this up and down the neck, again singing each note.
John
