Tip for bass fills and solos.

[IamGroot]

As bass players, we tend to hold down the fort by playing the root. But when you launch a fill or solo, starting on the root may sound tired. Starting on the 5th is usually a safe bet. The 3rd also works well. In fact, any chord tone other than the root works. If you want to start out dissonant, grab a non scalar tone and then slide back into the scale on the next note.

Think of solos and fills in terms of mimicking speech and telling a story. Think of your tone of voice when you start the story. Then find the note pattern that matches that to kick it off.

 

[IamGroot]

Btw, the guitarist pentatonic riffs will sound waaay more interesting if you dont start on the root. Eric Johnson is a master of this. Here is a trademark riff in two octave ascending/descending triplets.

Start on b3 grace note, then
Ascending two octaves
45b7 1b34 5b71 b345
then go back down
4 b31 b754 b31b7 54b3 resolve on the 1

Recognize the lick?

 

[Scottgun]

 

[IamGroot]

The video is dead on.

Fux is pronounced "fooks" and is an alternate spelling for fuchs which means "fox" in german..

 

[Malcolm35]

Last book I read on the solo subject did say to start with the 3rd in each measure and then fill out the measure with what ever chord tones you think best.