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Things every bassist should know?

Grizzly700

Grizzly700

Mar 18, 2008
1,349
3
Maryville, TN
#1
I am currently weaning myself off of tabs and I was just wondering what scales, runs, riffs, bars, etc every bassist should know. I can read music from my tuba playing. I just want to be able to do things with some jazz bands and stuff that tabs will just not cut it. I am just asking for a list of scales, maybe a few sites that can help with some tabs, and some basic blues bars and things like that.


PS- There are absolutely 0 bass teachers in my area.
 
#2
Grizzly700 said:
I am currently weaning myself off of tabs and I was just wondering what scales, runs, riffs, bars, etc every bassist should know. I can read music from my tuba playing. I just want to be able to do things with some jazz bands and stuff that tabs will just not cut it. I am just asking for a list of scales, maybe a few sites that can help with some tabs, and some basic blues bars and things like that.


PS- There are absolutely 0 bass teachers in my area.
Click to expand...

just about everything you just asked for is on that site.

www.studybass.com
 
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#4
SmittyG said:
Actually, most of what you need to know will come from your tuba playing. Notes are notes; scales are scales. The first thing you have to do is learn the names of the notes up and down your bass neck. Then, just bring over your scales and lines from any tuba music you have available to you.
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Great advice. But note that the electric bass sounds an octave lower than the written note. That's not the case with the tuba music you have. In jazz band and all other case where you are reading music for electric bass the only leger line that is used is the first one below the staff (low E on the BG). To get more at ease with reading in the staff and in the range that most BG music is written, you might find that Trombone music is better. A good begining or intermediate trombone book would be very useful at first.... or better yet, bet the Ed Friedland (Hal Leonard) bass books.

Living in a small town can be a drag.... thank goodness for the Internet.
 
#5
BassChuck said:
Great advice. But note that the electric bass sounds an octave lower than the written note. That's not the case with the tuba music you have. In jazz band and all other case where you are reading music for electric bass the only leger line that is used is the first one below the staff (low E on the BG). To get more at ease with reading in the staff and in the range that most BG music is written, you might find that Trombone music is better. A good begining or intermediate trombone book would be very useful at first.... or better yet, bet the Ed Friedland (Hal Leonard) bass books.

Living in a small town can be a drag.... thank goodness for the Internet.
Click to expand...

Get the trombone version of the Berklee book on Chord Studies. They make a BG version with fingerings written, but the fingerings combined with standard notation is a messy looking page IMO. Many get the trombone version because its easier on the eyes. Lots of great materials available since you read.
 
#7
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#8
Whatever works for you, really. Things I stress in my lessons are efficiency, rhythm, theory, ear training and versatility.

I've noticed a lot of people speak less of tablature these days, but I advocate that my students learn notation, tablature, chord charts, nashville numbering, you name it. You never know what is going to get thrown at you in the real world so it doesn't help to consider yourself above any one method of communication.
 
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#9
First things first, scales aren't as important as knowing chords, arpeggios, the circle of fourths and so on. Music is made of chords, not scales...especially jazz music.

You can know the Hungarian Triple Mochaccino Diminished Scale of Brutality or the Samba-dancing Earwig Dorian and not be able to play any jazz or music of your own.

Grab the Carol Kaye bass dvd/guide. It explains all that. Also, pick up her thing on sight reading; it's better than the Hal Leonard or Mel Bay stuff that I've also tried to learn from.

Another thing is learning how to walk; once you have your basic theory down, you can pick up Todd Johnson's dvd or maybe Ed Friedland's books on walking bass. I find them more useful than Carol Kaye's stuff for walking.

Start listening to more jazz, btw. It won't make you a better player (practice will) but it will start to give you an idea of what to expect.
 
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#10
 
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#11
ihassiphilus said:
First things first, scales aren't as important as knowing chords, arpeggios, the circle of fourths and so on. Music is made of chords, not scales...especially jazz music.

You can know the Hungarian Triple Mochaccino Diminished Scale of Brutality or the Samba-dancing Earwig Dorian and not be able to play any jazz or music of your own.
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Valid but chords, scales, and arpeggios are all directly related. You need to study them all if you want to learn how functional harmony works.
 
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#12
ihassiphilus said:
First things first, scales aren't as important as knowing chords, arpeggios, the circle of fourths and so on..
Click to expand...

if you know the scales then will be easier to know the chords (An arpeggio is built from the notes that make up a chord, but played as individual notes), actually scales are the mother of the chords. Practicing your scales (major and minor) allow you to strengthen your understanding of how music works. Since most of music follows common chord progressions and melodies tend to follow the scale that matches the key that you are in, this allows you to somewhat know what to expect.
 
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#17
First thing I would do is learn major scales. Start with 1 octave, and get comfortable with them in 2 octaves . From this you go directly to modes. Then work on triads as they are the basis for arpeggio's, and by extension chords. Once you have chords somewhat under your finger tips I would work on walking bass. When you throw that all together, it is really quite the pile of stuff to learn and then internalize. If you do it right it will take some time. Besides that you have to learn it all and practice it in all keys.

Mark
 
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#19
Rudreax said:
I always thought chords were based off of scales, not the other way around...If this is the case, wouldn't it make more sense to know the scales and then learn the chords and see how they are related?
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A lot of chords come from scales.

Chords have certain scales that fit best with them because they have the most tones in common. The relationship between the two is called a chord/scale relationship.

For example:

C7#11 - C E G Bb D F#

C Lydian Dominant - C D E F# G A Bb C


check this out for more info:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
 
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#20
I was joking about Paranoid, but I have to agree with ihassiphilus in part that learning chords and arpeggios is more important than learning scales and modes for most bass players, unless you're doing jazz soloing, but even then... the other notes of the scales are just passing tones in between chord tones, you don't emphasize them on string beats, and for most rock, the passing tones from the major scale (and Micolydian) or Dorian minor scale work just fine. For soloing or melodic playing, you will want to brush up on your modes, but early on focus on chords and what notes make up a chord.

Yes scales are important, because they teach you about chords and arpeggios, eg. why those notes are in that chord, and why that chord is in that progression. But if you just want to play...
 
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