General Music Chat

i used to be a guitarist but now i play bass for a band with an awesome guitarist (which is why i sed screw it and played bass for him). Now my question is im wondering if i use guitar scales minor major for bass or is there specific scales i should use for the bass guitar. If anyone has any information about it let me know i would appreciate it. Ok well thats about it thanks.

i used to be a guitarist but now i play bass for a band with an awesome guitarist (which is why i sed screw it and played bass for him). Now my question is im wondering if i use guitar scales minor major for bass or is there specific scales i should use for the bass guitar. If anyone has any information about it let me know i would appreciate it. Ok well thats about it thanks.

Hey man I am a guitar and bass teacher of 12 yrs. You should check out minor and major pentatonic scales. Walking bass lines are cool too. Play with your fingers, picks are for guitarists! The 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of a scale are the most common to be used on bass, however using 6ths and 2nds, 4ths, and 7ths are what seperates blink 182 from John Paul Jones. If you don't know basic music theory, the first note of a scale is the same as the key that song is in, everything else is counted off of that. If you are a metal player try playing with all four fingers like Maiden, it is hard to get but just make your self play the e sting with your 1,2,3,4 fingers, and the try it backwards 4,3,2,1 do this on all strings, this will no come in handy until you get some control over it, but then you will be able to play coo triplets that are impossible to play with a pick, and you can also mute strings with the extra fingers when not using them. If you like to pop and slap make sure you slap with you thumb pointing up like a fonzi type hand motion, but pop by aggressively pulling up on a note with your index finger.

I hope this helps. good luck

thanks for the wake up call on bass being not far from guitar i do play with my fingers (it was one of the first things i learded) the music we play is 70's based originals we do need a vocalist so if you can help let me knoew

hey harold... how ya doin?
I have about 8 years teachin' gtr and bass under my belt, a few "best young" certificates, I attended musicians institute in Hollywood, and I flew through several college courses in theory...
I am currently working on a thread (I suck at gtr) that you might find quite usefull.
It is a thread all about scales. (sm ones apply on bass...). The rules I use don't apply as nicely to bass as gtr (unless you have a six string bass)... but once we hit the root rules - it will really apply to both instruments equally. I say... learn one scale. the major scale. Once you learn it well... it is ALL other scales.
you want major pentatonic... subtract two notes from it... you want minor pentatonic... subtract two other notes from it... you want minor, phrygian, dorian, lydian, mixolydian, locrian... just change how you look at it... it's the same dang scale!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'll get ya started here...

G----------------------4-5-7------------------------------------------------------
D---------------4-5-7-------------------------------------------------------------
A--------3-5-7--------------------------------------------------------------------
E-3-5-7---------------------------------------------------------------------------

-this is the g major scale. the first note is the root note. the second note on the d string is also a root note.
subtract the 4th and 7th degree of the scale and you have major pentatonic...

G----------------------4-7------------------------------------------------------
D---------------5-7-------------------------------------------------------------
A--------5-7--------------------------------------------------------------------
E-3-5-7-------------------------------------------------------------------------

have a look at that other thread and see if you can catch on to the pattern I point out... even tho u only have four strings you might find it usefull later on.
cheers
mv

Now when you say subtract what do you meen by that. Maybe take out the D on the fourth note of the scale?
(I play with a four stringed bass).

by subtract I mean... well let me start from the begining and be thorough...
the major scale is based on a seven note pattern. that pattern repeats several times when moving frm the low e string to the high e string in a scale on the gtr. In this case the lowest note I showed... 3rd fret low e string... is the root of the scale so it is a '1'. so the first scale I showed (gmajor) really is composed of the following degrees: 1 2 3, 4 5 6, 7 1 2, 3 4 5... (in order from lowest note to highest)

G----------------------4-5-7------------------------------------------------------
D---------------4-5-7-------------------------------------------------------------
A--------3-5-7--------------------------------------------------------------------
E-3-5-7---------------------------------------------------------------------------

__1 2 3, 4 5 6, 7 1 2, 3 4 5____-step/degrees
or
__g a b, c d e, f#g a, b c d____-note/degrees

if you subtract the 4th and sevent degree every time you come to it in the sucsession... you get the second scale I showed... and the following degrees (in order form lowest note to highest) 1 2 3, 5 6, 1 2, 3 5.
a "pentatonic" scale has 5 tones... hence the "penta(5)" - "tonic(TONE)".
So by eliminating the two tones or "degrees" of the scale we change gmajor to gmajor penta tonic.
did I get you closer to the truth or further away? - it's ok if I didn't nail it... sometimes it takes looking at something from several perspectives till you find one that makes sense to you.
feel free to ask more q's.
mv

MrMikeV, may i interject with an observation?
The fingering patterns you describe above are not necessarily the most practical or convenient for a bassist (especially beginners). Going from the 3rd fret to the 7th fret is alot of territory/distance on a bass neck. This is where the "one finger per fret" technique has an advantage.
Running the same scale would have it as follows:

G ---2--4-5--7--- G--1--3-4--?----
D ---2--4-5------ D--1--3-4-------- this is the fret hand fingers
A ---2-3--5------ A--1-2--4------ 1index 2middle 3ring 4pinkey
E ------3--5------ E----2--4------
The hand position didn't change at all till the 7th fret on the G string.
Is it difficult, yes and even harder going from the 1st fret to the 4th fret using that technique till you develop a good and usable finger spread.
It really comes into play when using walking bass lines.

I hope you don't mind me posting this.

aka the box mode system.. it is a good system and def has the exact advantage you mentioned... I opt for the 3note perstring method because it makes more sense conceptually and it is easier to learn where your root notes are and translate that into knowing all seven modes of that scale and each of their starting points...
did I mention I have unusually large hands? like freekish wolfmarshall hands?
For a bass player... you go the next step and learn the three places in the pattern I mentioned where root notes for major are possible... and all of the sudden you can make a major scale starting at any note anywhere on the neck... that's the most important point of it... but we didn't really "get there".
these same concepts can be applied to the box mode system... I use it all the time for chordvoicing+extensions... they are easier to reach that way...

you make a good point... then again you really only need to hold down 1 note at a time... you just have to learn to move quickly from one to another.
cheers.

hey mr mike

Here you go dude. Every variation of every scale you could ever want with the notes and positions.

Yes their for guitar but I think they will suffice.

http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/guitar_scales.php

ooops dbl post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

not to disenfrachise your post wegman... cause any ref is a good ref... and however you learn em - learn your scales...

but I can't help thinking the idea I was presenting must have been lost on the majority of it's consumers... the idea I was trying to present was to bypass the labor of learning the same scale in several positions by learning one system of rules that will generate all those scales in all those positions. I (more than likely like you) had to learn them the hard way... and pass on this gift in hopes of making things easier for anyone else who finds themselves in that place I was in before I memorized a crapload of scales.

Either way... learn your scales! If you find one method works for you better than another... go with that. godspeed.

ps HEY CATKILLER! -you aren't still killing cats r u?
I wrote a song for my two cats that I think you'd appreciate... goes like:

"Daddy gonna put the bullet right here(as I point to kitty's forehead),
Daddy gonna put the bullet right here,
daddy gonna put the bullet in kitty's brain,
so kitty don't gotta feel much pain."

their you go songs about cats


how about a song called godamn cats ripping up my couch

or maybe a song called ive seen them in the darkness while they hunt.

hehehehehehe
or howabout "godang cat cost me goddang $110 at the goddang vet cause the goddang thing got bit on the nose by a mouse."

or maybe shoot them from the trees before they get me.