Best of all, you can do so using the same set of notes for each of the grooves. Bass guitar exercises for dummies cheat sheet dummies. In this bass lesson for beginners we are going to learn how to play the major scale on bass guitar. Scales and arpeggios for guitar by mike georgia to keep things simple approach it like this. This article shows you how to play over 60 different scale patterns. Understanding and knowing how to play these scales is essential for any beginning jazz guitar player. Take a look at the notes then play the tab or standard notation exercises. Bass arpeggios are a great resource for both practicing finger exercises as well as learning the fundamental components of chords every practice routine should include some kind of incorporation of finger exercise both for developing dexterity and finger independence as well as understanding chords from a fundamental perspective and how they relate to one another musically. On the bass fretboard, adjacent frets are a semitone apart. Kickass major scale exercise for bass talkingbassmark 20190712t19. In ours concretely, they will allow us to create bass lines or to improvise in an efficient way. It contains a huge range of movable scale, chord and arpeggio fingerboard diagrams allowing you to play in any key.
Guitar scales 5 mustknow guitar scales for beginners. Along with doing twooctave scales, this is the main exercise i recommend to my students for getting a thorough knowledge of the neck of the bass. If youre new to practicing rhythms, skip ahead and come back to quarternote triplets when youre more confident with rhythmic patterns. A cable is plugged into the bass s input jack to send the signal into the amp. Dont get hung up practicing exercises and more exercises without ever attempting to improvise. Make sure you get a bass amp and not a guitar amp 6 some way to tune your bass. The major diatonic bass guitar scale aka the major scale composed of seven notes, the major diatonic scale carries a positive and uplifting vibe.
The aim of this series is to get all your fingers moving in every possible way around a scale, so youll be ready for any movement a scale pattern might. This means that for a bar of 44 time, you play two quarter note triplets. These are the three ways you must know to play the diatonic major scale bass. The notes above are all natural however any of this notes can be raised or lowered a half. The bass scales exercises will be distributed in different posts, one different for each scale. The exercises i have given you in the following video tutorials will really open up the geometry of the bass neck and if practiced alongside the arpeggio exercises you will truly start to see the available harmony for any given chord sequence all over the bass.
This bass scales exercise is the best way ive found to learn the notes on the neck, be able to move around fluidly from top to bottom in any scale, build up your playing endurance, and practice playing fast scale runs all at the same time. Ionian dorian phrygian lydian mixolydian aeolian locrian i m712 ii iii iv v vi vii m73 m75 m77 m711 m73 m75 m77 m7b511 m7b53 m7b55 m7b57 dom712 dom73 dom75 dom77. John falstrom, author of eadg 4, discusses and demonstrates the blues scale and blues rock chord progression. Below is the bass tablature for the basic blues in e bass line. The notes that make up different modes of scales are illustrated. Learn these 7 guitar scales and you will be able to solo over almost any jazz standard.
Ionian pnngiaa une m c lvnian eoliatl locrian ionian. So you can study everything carefully and easily find the content, also, everything will be linked to different sections such as arpeggios and bass chords. John then explains the rickenbacker bass guitar and the tone that it brings to rock music. For example, using a sevennote scale you could practice a 3note sequence like this. Here are some finger stretching exercises that will improve the. A great place to start for beginners or anyone new to scale shapes is the good ol open position. Using the following figures and lots of practice, you can play a perfectly authentic groove in just about any of the main musical genres. Jan 22, 2019 scale patterns are an essential guitar technique that builds chops, expands fretboard knowledge, and gives you inspiration in your guitar solos.
Bass guitar scales pdf free download bass scales are successions of notes with a relationship between them and it is necessary, for any instrument, to know and master them. In the early bluegrass recordings, the guitar often never took a lead break at all. The symbol of the bass clef is derived from the old german way of writing f. A surfguitarmiddle eastern scale bass tabs bass lessons. Or you can think of it as starting with the same basic cooking recipe but adding different flavors different sounds to change it slightly. The finest bass guitars in the world are made in poland. The major scale is the standard scale used in western music. Major scale modes for bass guitar with arpeggio inversions. Below are 6 bass guitar exercises that focus on building finger dexterity and becoming better acquainted with arpeggios and how they work together. This pattern of the c major scale shows its specific pattern tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone. Here is the basic bass pattern you will play over the e7 chord. A few years ago, i developed what i call the mother of all major scale exercises. Scroll down to download a printable pdf version of the chart, with no login or sign up required.
You can see a brief explanation of the whole thing, from back when i came up with the exercise, here. This video lesson explains how to do that with the major, natural minor, diminished, whole. Written to be the only reference book a bassist will need, bass guitar scales chords and arpeggios is available to download direct from. Scroll down to download a printable pdf version of the chart, with no login or signup required.
In all of the graphics below ive included the red root notes as well as other neighboring scale tones for better fretboard visualization. Even modes of the same key c major, d dorian, and a minor, for example can all be practiced, because by shifting your mental root note, it will change. That being said, it should be quite obvious that the two go hand in hand. Its made up of the root, 3rd, 5th and 6th degrees of an e major scale for all of you music theory buffs out there. Major and minor bass guitar scales bass books and music. Bass scales chart a free printable bass guitar scales reference. By practicing each different fingering of the major scale and then incorporating. Along with doing twooctave scales, this is the main exercise i. When it comes to these exercises, bear these guidelines in mind. They show the scales as played on a 4 string bass with standard tuning. Books on bass guitar scales you can find plenty of bass guitar scale pdfs on the internet, and a good book on the subject will have bass guitar scale charts to study. With all these scales at your fingertips, you get more choices in terms of flavor, or color, when playing your bass guitar. This video lesson explains how to do that with the major, natural minor, diminished, whole tone and super locrian scale.
Oneoctave natural minor scale exercises bass scales. Though they benefit every guitarist, you might not know how to get the most out of this guitar technique in your practicing. Playing the bass guitar well means playing grooves. Learn bass major scale exercises to use in your daily practice. Jul 03, 2019 the bass scales chart below shows three common bass scales pentatonic minor, blues and major as patterns on a fretboard. It can take as much as 2030 minutes to make it through this scale.
For when you have to learn to play the bass right now. Following are three books we especially suggest you consider. I like the exercise very much, but is there a second page of the pdf. For free music learning resources and video instruction, please visit. The corresponding shapes are about two octaves long 4. For practicing at home with no immediate ambitions to play, a practice bass amp found at any music store will do.
Every time you play your guitar, believe it or not, you are following some form of scale. Bass guitar scales chords and arpeggios is a printable pdf book for bass guitarists. The mother of all major scale exercises part 1 of 4. Bass scales chart a free printable bass guitar scales. As amazing as it is for writing sappy ballads about your first love, its also an incredibly powerful scale to use in genres like soul and funk. However obvious it may be, guitarists tend to overlook both the importance of practicing scales and the importance of practicing scale application. One big difference in how most guitarists and players of nonfretted instruments learn scales is that guitarists learn scales in shapes, or patterns, rather than by learning the actual sequence of notes contained in each scale patterns show where the notes fall on the bass neck in relation to each other. Guitar isnt the only instrument that has advanced concepts. The metal bars that go across the neck are called frets. Bass lessons a surf guitarmiddle eastern scale bass tab this is a scale native to the middle east which was used by the famous surf guitarist dick dale.
When used properly, the bass guitar can be just as interesting and dynamic as the electric guitar. Apr 28, 2016 books on bass guitar scales you can find plenty of bass guitar scale pdfs on the internet, and a good book on the subject will have bass guitar scale charts to study. For the a minor pentatonic scale, its a snap to learn in two octaves in the fifth position, and it helps you with your frethand strength. The beast pdf advanced bass scales exercise josh fossgreen. Jun 24, 2014 bass arpeggios are a great resource for both practicing finger exercises as well as learning the fundamental components of chords every practice routine should include some kind of incorporation of finger exercise both for developing dexterity and finger independence as well as understanding chords from a fundamental perspective and how they relate to one another musically. Bluegrass and flatpicking guitar workshop by dan geib contact.
These scales are essential for beginning jazz guitarists and enable you to play over almost any jazz standard. The two dots on the right of the bass clef symbol surround the line on which f pitch is written. You can move on to tuning forks, harmonic tuning, and variable instrument tuning later. I named it the beast because it takes a while to get through the exercise, and you can practice in every key, with every 7note scale you know. If you know that a scale is simply a collection of notes with a specific pattern then you can map that pattern out on the fretboard and memorise it easily. So you can study everything carefully and easily find the content, also. The major scale is very important because it is the basis of the tonal music we know, that is, it is the.
Aug 02, 2019 bass guitar scales chords and arpeggios is a printable pdf book for bass guitarists. Free printable guitar and bass scales in pdf format for learning guitar and bass guitar. Some common songs that utilize the a minor pentatonic scale are. The pentatonic is one of the most widely used scales in music. Most bass guitars will also have a pickup selector switch along with volume and tone knobs. Though the examples are written in the key of c, its encouraged that you play them across all 12 keys. A pentatonic scale is a popular fivenote scale that youll need to know for riffs, solos and melodies, especially for rock and blues. The 7 scales on the chart below are a good place to start. Think of runs as playing a given scale in straight sequence e. Avoid becoming a person who plays great exercises, but delays using their creative energy until tomorrow. In this weeks lesson ive got a kickass major scale exercise for you that will. Try this exercise with all guitar scales you can think of.
One of the most interesting concepts in bass is the arpeggio. Since the major scale has 7 notes, that is 7 different arpeggios you can get in the major scale. Using the key of e major, john explains the blue notes and music theory. Learn the scales, have fun, and then well give you some exercise ideas to. Bass guitar technique 5 comments in this weeks lesson ive got a kickass major scale exercise for you that will help to develop both your technique and your muscle memory when playing sequential scalar lines. This lesson includes diagrams, audio, scale patterns, exercises, and solo examples. A cable is plugged into the basss input jack to send the signal into the amp. The next set of exercises run through the g ionian scale in different intervals. Bass exercises understanding musics main minor scale including fingering and examples. This book teaches fingerings for these essential fivenote scales all over the neck, and how to use them to create solid, functional bass lines.
A strap can be attached to the strap buttons to play the bass standing up. The scale or mode name and formula is at the top of the page. Lesson 16 a series of major scale exercises to use in your daily practice routine. This is the start of an infinite amount of music making opportunities. One falls on beats 1 and 2, and the second falls on beats 3 and 4.
More scale exercises for guitar in the first guitar scale exercises lesson, we looked at runs linear, repeating ascendingdescending note patterns that sound great as soloing flourishes and that you can apply to any scale you might learn. Arpeggios are simply chords that are played note by note. Here are some finger stretching exercises that will improve the reach and fluidity of your. Bass guitar scales are easier to learn than you think. Scales and arpeggios by jp dias gustavo lopez segura.
The seven main modes scales for the bass guitar dummies. It comprises 7 notes 8 including the octave, spaced. Playing rhythm the most important role of the guitar in bluegrass is a rhythm instrument. That means using quarter, eighth and sixteenth notes and gradually increasing the bpm on your metronome i recommend increments of 5 bpm. Pdf bass scales complete fretboard diagram daniel oscar.