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There are two varieties of bass guitar players. The first kind simply plays root notes and a couple of chords and never truly advances in his bass playing. The other type of bass player understands how you can effectively use bass scales under chords and has an unlimited range of new things to play. Which sort of bass player?

If you happen to be a bass guitar player you know about playing the root note of what ever chord the guitar player is playing. It’s probable you likewise understand how to play the triads; or the 3 notes that make up the chord the guitar player is playing. Learning and applying these things is OK but they are actually just the building blocks to what really effective players do which is to play bass scales under chords.

If you are playing three note chords,or triads, you happen to be really playing notes from either a major or a minor scale. These two scales are generally a very good place to begin. Bear in mind that regardless that a piece of music could be in the key of G, when your players shift to the C chord you need to be playing a C scale, either a major or minor, not continue playing a G scale. While almost all the notes match, the secret to this is to try to at the very least begin thinking in scales per chord.

If you want it might be easier for you to first learn two simple 5 note scales. They’re referred to as pentatonic scales. There’s a pentatonic major and a pentatonic minor scale. The pentatonic scales would be the three notes that make up the chord plus two others. If the middle note within the chord is a major note you’d be playing the major pentatonic scale, when the middle note is a minor note you are playing the minor pentatonic scale. You should also work with the minor pentatonic scale under 7th chords, but we should go into that in a different write-up.

Allow me to provide a good example. Your guitar player is playing a C major chord. These notes are C, E, and G. The right pentatonic scale for playing underneath this chord is the major which happens to be C, D, E, G. A. Just five notes. When the guitar player is playing a C minor chord which happens to be C, E flat, and G; you’d probably play the minor pentatonic scale which is C, E flat, F, G, and B flat.

When you have perfected the 2 common pentatonic scales, the next stage in your playing is to master both the entire major scale and the complete minor scale. Each of these scales will usually make sense underneath certain chords. Always remember that when you play pentatonic scales, it does not matter exactly what key the piece of music is in, only what chord is being used at that moment, which always decides which scale you need to be using.

Use these kind of simple scales underneath chords when you play and you will probably begin to realize countless new opportunities for your bass guitar playing.

For a more intense lesson check out this video clip: Bass Minor Scale

Tags: bass guitar scales, bass pentatonic scales, bass scales, guitar, music

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 15th, 2011 at 5:02 am and is filed under Fender Guitars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.