The Minor Pentatonic Scale For Bass Guitar
In this lesson we look at the Minor Pentatonic Scale. This is one of the most common scales in all of rock and pop music. We look at how to play a basic, common fingering of the scale, move it around to different areas on the neck and then learn a riff based on the scale.
The Minor Pentatonic Scale
A pentatonic scale has five notes and the name is a derived from the prefix ‘penta’ which means five. A major scale has seven notes and is therefore a heptatonic scale.
There are two types of pentatonic scale – major and minor. We will be focussing on the minor pentatonic today.
C Minor Pentatonic
This scale can be played starting on the third fret of the A string.
C Eb F G Bb
You will mainly use the first, third and fourth fingers, but could get away with only the first and fourth. Playing the scale like this will be a good exercise for strengthening your little finger as it requires more strength to play lower down the neck.
Play this through a few times until you memorise the shape, then try moving it around the neck. As with the other scales, we can practice this one by taking the shape up one fret after every repetition.
Building The Pentatonic Minor
You may have noticed that the pentatonic looks like a stripped down natural minor scale. Basically, it is.
In previous lessons, we looked at how scales are built and how they relate to the major scale.
In numerical term, the natural minor scale is:
1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7
The pentatonic minor scale is the same as this but minus the second and sixth.
1 b3 4 5 b7
By stripping away some of the more emotive and characteristic notes of the natural minor scale, we are left with a more ‘to the point’ scale. This simplifies the pentatonic whilst still giving it a minor edge. The natural minor scale has a tendency to sound sad and moody but the pentatonic is a way of including these tones without overpowering the feel of the music.
The simplicity of the pentatonic has led to it becoming one of the most popular scales used today. Being able to apply this scale in context will enable you to improvise and create riffs in loads of musical styles including pop, rock, country and blues.
The Pentatonic In Context
This riff has a typical pop/rock feel and is very reminiscent of some Paul McCartney riffs from The Beatles. It is based on the C minor pentatonic scale and uses octaves, hammer-ons and pull-offs.
Happy New Year Mark…And thank you so much for being a top notch teacher.
Your lessons are great. I remember watching this video and understanding more deeply the lines that I had learned when I first picked up the bass. “Oh, this line by Geezer is built out of a minor pentatonic scale. I can see why he chose that for this song, because it’s meant to be somber and introspective, but not necessarily depressive and sad.” Thank you.
When I went to youtube searching for online bass lesson I saw so much that I became confused but the moment I click on your video and saw how nearly lined up it was I knew I would learn so much from you. Thanks alot ,you’re the best
Hi Mark, I am a firm follower of your lessons, highly appreciated. On a german site (bonedo.de) they have 6 workshops on the minor pentatonic scale and they play them over/beyond the octave as well – is there a reason you don’t bring this up or am I missing the obvious(same thing on your lessons about the major pentatonic)
Thanks for letting us know and keep up the good work
Cees Smit, Germany
Looked up your German site, wonderful, thanks
PLEASE I SIGNED UP FOR TALKING BASS LESSONS BUT I DO NOT RECIEVE ANY LESSON PLEASE I NEED HELP THANKS.
He is a okay teacher but terrible at customer support!!! You pay $16 plus a month for this which over $200 a year and they don’t return repeated e-mails messages and send you e-mails about special training simple steps to walking bass for $69 and it is NO DIFFERENT then the lesson already out there!!!!!!!!! GRRRRR
Great professor, I paid my college prof’s much more and they were not near as nice. I have learned much from Mark at Talking Bass – net. thank you!
This guy is great he’s a master teacher, so easy to follow, and easy to understand.
I have not taken thr plung as yet but will be in the very near future. Enjoying playing riffs at present and very impressed at my ability so far thanks to you Mark.
Seriously your lesson are awesome and easy to grab. I love it 🎸🎸🎸🎸👊👊
Just discovered your YouTube posts and this website. All are outstanding. I watch a lot of content as well as member of Scott Devine’s website. Your instruction is top notch. I have learned so much watching a few of your lessons. Thank you for this amazing resource!
I have learned the 3 scales, Major, Minor and Minor Pentatonic all in C.
Now its time to practice and exercice.
Thank you Mark!!
I love your lessons mark ✌️
This is just an aswesome way to teach how to play bass guitar – all these years I’ve felt like living back in the dark ages. Thanks for showing the way of the true bass warrior lml lml lml
Kindly may I know the name your using in your YouTube channel