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 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 week we’re looking at a scale that players have often heard of but have no idea how to integrate it in their bass lines. The scale I’m talking about is the Melodic Minor Scale. In this lesson, we’ll look at its common use as a substitute scale over the dominant 7 chord and how…
In this weeks lesson we’ll be looking at the 5 pentatonic positions for both the Major and Minor Pentatonic Scales. These scale patterns are an essential addition to your armoury when developing your fretboard knowledge. With these 5 pentatonic scale patterns you’ll be able to move out of the basic, single octave box patterns we…
This week we’ll be looking at the 2 most flexible and common scales you’re ever likely to use in your bass lines: The Major and Minor Pentatonic scales. Pentatonic scales are simple 5 note scales so there are literally hundreds of possible variations. But the most common are the Major and Minor Pentatonic. In this…
In this weeks lesson we’re taking a look at a great (and pretty tricky) Major Pentatonic bass run from the song King George Street by the band Squeeze (Keith Wilkinson on bass). Pentatonic runs are some of the most useful lines you can use when it comes to making cool bass fills. In this video…
In this lesson,I’m going to talk about why I think every bass player should work on an understanding and knowledge of chord tones and chord construction. Every piece we play contains a harmonic background of some kind. This is the ‘chord progression’. When we create a bass line for a tune it’s our functional role…
In this preview clip from the upcoming Chord Tone Essentials course, we take a look at the 3 fingering patterns we can use for any single arpeggio. This allows us to break out of that common 1 octave box shape we can fall into and also sets the scene for more expansion over the whole…