What are Bass Guitar Scales?

Series Summary

Geddy Lee did not become a great bass player overnight, no matter what you may hear from Canadian mythologists. Don’t believe that he was raised by a pack of rock and roll wolves who had secret teaching techniques developed in dark caves over long winters. No, Geddy had to practice just like everyone else, including Charlie Hayden, Bootsy Collins and Robby Shakespeare. Make the bass your life and these scales part of your daily routine if you really aspire to get better. And of course you do or you wouldn’t be getting ready to watch these videos…

In this series of free music instruction videos, our rock and jazz guitar expert shows you how to play scales on the electric bass. From major to minor to triad, learning these scales will help improve your dexterity as well as your confidence as a bass player. Drawing from his experience teaching daily lessons, Casey Cormier talks you through each clip, all crucial steps to the mastery you are sure to achieve if you stick with Expert Village. So watch and learn, and then practice, practice, practice.

Video Transcript

"So in the previous section we discussed the whole step and half step patterns. We looked at it with the natural C,D.E,F,G,A,B,and C, as whole step, whole step, half step, and whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. That formula of whole step, in that order, W,W,H, and W,W,W,H is actually a means by which to figure out a major scale in any key. We basically will look at the first of the open string and see how that pattern applied to an open string in using those intervals, all the way to twelve fret octave, gives us a major scale for that octave, and how to tell what note to actually play. Then we will look at minor scales which is a variation on that pattern. Basically part of the pattern starting in a different place and their relative major and their relative minors, so, we will look at that. We will look a movable shapes for major and minors, we'll also look the diminish scale, and how to create that. We'll look at everything related to these things, we look at the major triads, minor triads diminish triads three notes that outline chords and arpeggios where the octaves are added to those three notes."