This week we’re going to take a look at Pentatonic Scales and a simple approach for playing up and down the fretboard rather than across the fretboard. The Major Pentatonic Scale As a refresher, to build a major pentatonic scale just take a major scale and remove the 4th and 7th. C Major Scale: C…
This week we’re looking at some cool little bass chords you can use to juice up your bass lines, riffs and fills. Double Stops Double Stops are just two notes played together. This could be an interval like a 5th, 3rd or 10th. But we can also add ornaments and embellishments like hammer on’s into…
This week we’re looking at how to play Bossa Nova bass lines. We’re breaking down the most popular Bossa Nova, The Girl From Ipanema by Antonio Carlos Jobim (most famously sung by Astrud Gilberto). The Bossa Nova Stereotype Those of you that have taken any kind of cocktail gigs will have, at some point, had…
This week we’re looking at how you can inject some awesome juice into your bass fills, runs and solos by using an intervallic approach to shedding scales. Getting Away From The Norm! Many beginner to intermediate bass players see scale runs in a very linear, up & down fashion. You run up the scale and…
This week we’re looking at how you can easily incorporate the Dorian scale/mode into your playing using a scale you already probably know really well: The Minor Pentatonic scale The Good Ol’ Minor Pentatonic Scale! OK, so most of you probably know a minor pentatonic scale. I’ve covered in loads of other lessons and it’s…
In this third lesson on bass fills we’re going to look at chromatic notes. Chromatic notes are commonly used over dominant 7 chords (like our A7) and can add a lot of melodic interest and spice into your playing. What The Hell Are Chromatic Notes?! So first of all, what are chromatic notes? Well, chromatic…
In this second lesson on bass fills we’re going to add some scales into the mix. We’ve been playing fills over the A7 chord in our simple progression so we’re going to look at the A Mixolydian scale. Let’s have a refresher… In this lesson we’re going to look at how we can use scales…
This is the first video in a series of lessons looking at the basics of bass fills. We’re going to be looking at a simple and common four bar chord progression and working through several bass fills on the final bar of A7. Bass Fill Basics You can insert fills wherever you like in a…