This is part two in my lesson for beginner bass players. In this series I will go through some basic tecniques, theories and patterns. If you are starting to play bass guitar or are a beginner, you've come to the right place. It may take you years of practicing to become a very good bass player, but this lesson should be a good place to start and a solid foundation that you can build your skills and knowledge of the bass guitar, tecniques and theory.
Part 2 - Music theory and scales:
Now that we got the basics out of the way we can start playing scales. First we'll start off with some quick music theory. Then I will show you how to play a few scales.
Notes:
Before you can learn how to play different scales on the bass guitar, you need to know what notes are and where to find them on the fretboard.
The notes are named by letters and symbols in something called the musical alphabet. The musical alphabet is important because then we know what tone actually are playing and and we can tell our bandmembers what notes to play. There are 12 different notes in the musical alphabet where you have you have both natural, sharp and flat notes. The different notes are:
A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G#
The natural notes are A, B, C, D, E, F and G. A sharp note has a # symbol after the letter(ex. A#). Sharp means to go up one note. While a flat note got "b" after the letter (ex. Ab). Flat means to go down a note.
Each note is a half-step higher than the one proceeding it and a half-step lower than the one following it. On the bass guitar, a half-step means on fret. I would recommend you to find a picture of the fretboard with all notes marked on the web to learn more about where the different notes are on the bass. I cant copy any links here because of copyright and shit.
I recommend you to take some time to get to know the fretboard. Study where the notes on the bass are located and try to play them.
Scales:
A scale is defined as a specific set of notes. The musical alphabet only has 12 notes, but they can be grouped in many ways. Some scales got 5 notes, some got 7, or 8, or 10, or 12. Therefore there are many unique scales who has a unique sound and musical effect. Some scales has a soft and soothing sound, while others have a dark and depressive sound. Scales help you to organize musical ideas and to give musicians a framework for composition and improvisation. Practicing scales on bass will help you learn where to find the different sounds on the fretboard and mentally organize your understanding of music. Scales are also a good tool to use while you practice. Sitting down with a few scales and a metronome is the best of develpoing speed and strength in your fretting hand.
Chromatic scale:
The chromatic scale is the most basic and essential scale to know. It includes all of the twelve musical notes. The chromatic scale moves up in half steps from the designated root note to its corresponding note one octave higher. While you can use any note as the root note (i.e. A Chromatic, B Chromatic, C# Chromatic), we will use E in the following exercise (to see a how to play this exercise, just click the link).
E Chromatic Scale:
Start by playing the 4th string "Open". This is an E and will be the root note for this scale. Next, use your index finger to hold down the first fret on the 4th string and play the F note. Move up a half-step and play the F# note with your ring finger. Move up another half-step and play the G note. Move up another half-step and play the G# note. Play the 3rd string "open". This is an A. Move up half-step and play the A# note. Move up half a step and play the B note. Move up half a step and play the C note. Move up half a step and play the C# note. Play the 2nd string "open", which will be a D note. Move up half a step and play the D# note Move up half a step and play the E note. Play it backwards.
This may not be the most musical sounding scale, but it does form the basic from which many other scales are constructed. Play around with it. Start at 40-60 bpm and move up as you feel comfortable playing it. The major scale: The major scale is also one of the most important and common scales in music. The major scale has a bright, upbeat sound and helps form the basis of songs that are built up around major chords. While the chromatic scale only has half-steps, the major scale has a combination of both whole (two half steps) and half-steps. In this exercise we will use an G major scale. Remember to check the link for pictures of how to play it and a sound clip of it.
G Major Scale:
Play the 3rd fret on the 4th string, which is a G note. Play the 5th fret on the 4th string, which is an A. Play the 2nd fret on the 3rd string, which is a B. Play the 3rd fret on the 3rd string, which is a C. Play the 5th fret on the 3rd string, which is a D. Play the 2nd fret on the 2nd string, which is a E. Play the 3rd fret on the 2nd string, which is an F#. Play the 5th fret on the 2nd string, which is a G. Do it backwards. Play around with this scale too. start at 40-60 bpm and move up as you feel more comfortable playing it.
The minor pentatonic scale: The minor pentatonic scale is one of the most used scales in all styles, especially rock, jazz, blues, metal and funk. This is because minor chords have a more darker, sadder musical quality to them. The minor pentatonic scales only have 5 steps, in as oppsed to the chromatic scale (12 steps) and the major scale (7 steps). In this exercise we will use a C minor pentatonic scale, alsp remember to check the link here. C minor pentatonic scale: Play the 3rd fret on the 3rd string, which is a C note. Play the 6th fret on the 3rd string, which is a Eb note. Play the 3rd fret on the 2nd string, which is a F note. Play the 5th fret on the 2nd string, which is a G note. Play the 3rd fret on the 4th string, which is a Bb note. Play the 5th fret on the 4th string, which is a C note. Do it backwards. Play around with this scale too. start at 40-60 bpm and move up as you feel more comfortable playing it. That concludes part 2 of my learn to play bass for beginners. In the next part I will guide you through bass patterns. Stay tuned for next part!