The major scale is the foundation of all western harmony and is obviously very important to study in both theory and practice. To turn an eb major scale into a c minor scale you would simply have to start on the 6th note c in the eb major scale. Its a great scale to start with on guitar, we can use open strings and that makes the scale easy to learn. If this is new information to you, then initially you can even think of it as a dorian with a major 7th, but ultimately you want to aim to learn the melodic. The intervals for the minor pentatonic scale are root, m3, p4, p5, m7, and p8. If youve learned the minor 7th chord pattern, youll notice this scale only has one note in addition to the minor 7th chord.
In a previous lesson, i introduced the major pentatonic scale and gave an example of its use in creating walking bass lines over a blues chord progression. Like the major scale, the minor scale includes 7 notes root 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th. The natural minor scale is our basic foundation when it comes to the minor key. This is a simple bass lesson on the natural minor scale for beginners. Learn major scales on bass guitar free downloads and. Transcript we can think about a minor as lowering the 3rd, lowering the 6th note of the scale and lowering the 7th note of the scale. Because the e minor scale starts on an open string, its pattern is unique.
The first mode that you will explore in this lesson outside of the minor blues scale is the melodic minor scale. Instead, id like to think about it as an e flat major skill starting on the sixth note c. Learn how to play the c natural minor scale on bass guitar with our free tab, sheet music, neck diagrams, and more. In this lesson we will be looking at all 3 minor scale. While there is only one major scale, there are 3 kinds of minor.
Minor pentatonic scale patterns part 1 talkingbassmark 20190407t15. This will help you learn how to play melodies and chords on a. For the application part of this lesson, well be using a simple c minor scale. The second is a scale in which the seven note name is raised one half step. A chromatic scale starts on one note and ends on the same note but an octave higher. Learn bass guitar scales the minor scale one of the best ways to learn and remember the minor scale is to understand how it compares to the major scale. Exotic guitar scales are great for adding spice to your lead guitar playing. Here will find some free interactive applications created to help you learn how to play the guitar improve all the skills required by playing guitar and music in general. But, a lot of this can be confusing when we are trying to play music. This scale is a fairly simple introduction to scales and how scales work.
Learn how to play an a minor scale on the bass guitar from musician john sutton in this online guitar lesson from howcast. However, this time we will rhythmically separate the b string and the e string as repeated pedal notes. This scale is often called the blues scale but we will stay away from that name because many people seem to have different ideas of what is or isnt the blues scale. If you missed part 1, major scales on bass guitar, check it out. I agree about reading, but here is another suggestion for learn scales. This scale is great to write fulllength songs, solos and to improvise with. However, the minor pentatonic scale has five different notes. There are so many minor scales on bass that you could use, but which ones should you use. These charts highlight the notes and chords of c pentatonic scale on guitar and bass fretboard. Before we proceed further, we need to address the existence of 3 types of minor scales. In minor chords, the 3rd interval is lowered by a semitone, taking you to a note thats not found in the scale. Misc scales a major and minor scales bass az chords. A shorter scale length generally makes an instrument physically easier to play, which may aid beginners, though this could be a dangerous crutch. It can be major or minor, pentatonic or anything else, but dont worry about that yet.
Playing scales is a good way to develop your knowledge of the notes on the bass guitar. Bass guitar lessons with bass tabs, notes, scales and easy. Chromatic scales are basic scales that include 12 notes. How to play the minor pentatonic scale on bass guitar. Learn bass guitar scales the minor scale bass player. Major and minor bass guitar scales bass books and music. Minor scales on bass guitar in 300 words lots of pics.
The natural minor scale for bass guitar talkingbass. The melodic minor scale in the jazz form is the same structure ascending and descending, and it contains. Harmonising the natural minor scale lesson duration in minutes. How to play an a minor scale on bass guitar howcast. Play a major and minor scales bass using simple video lessons. The concept of relative major and minor keys is also discussed.
In this bass lesson, youll discover which two minor scales get used the majority of the time and youll. To describe this, here are the 3 minor scale variations in the key of a. A harmonic minor scale guitar tab a harmonic minor scale guitar 2 octave tab a melodic minor guitar. This lesson covers the construction of the natural minor, harmonic minor and melodic minor scales and how they relate to minor keys. In this post, ill be breaking down the harmonic minor scale for bass guitar. Welcome to the guitar learning software overview page. In numbers relative to the basic major scale, the minor scale is. You can find out how to play e minor elsewhere on this web site. The minor scale bass is also called the natural minor scale because this is how we differentiate it from other minor scales such as the harmonic minor or melodic minor. We will also add the b string to the higher register. Learning how to play the minor pentatonic scale on bass guitar will add a lot of flavor to your playing because its one the most versatile scales. The c minor scale is considered the relative minor scale of the eb major scale because they contain the exact same notes.
In this lesson we will again play the e minor scale in the lower register, on the lower strings. The structure of the minor pentatonic scale is very similar to the blues scale. I wouldnt suggest learning any of the 12 scales shown in this lesson before learning the minor pentatonic scale, the natural minor or the major scale see. While there is only one major scale, there are 3 kinds of minor scales. You can pause, rewind, and replay to see proper bass guitar fingerings and techniques at your own pace, as often as needed. Only one note different from a major scale it has a b3 interval, the melodic minor scale is effective when soloing over tonic minor chords, such as the im7 chord in a minor blues progression. In this lesson we will play the e minor scale in the lower register, on the lower strings, hence bass motion. Scotts bass lessons is the leading online bass community, with a wealth of free online lessons for new and experienced bass players alike. The smaller scale is degree vi of the larger scale so it will also have another name which is aeolian mode. Like i did in my previous post about patterns in the major scale, this is a companion piece where ill break down minor scales, specifically natural minor scales what we think of when we hear minor scale and reveal the patterns in the same way. How to play twooctave minor scales on the bass guitar. In this tutorial were going to study one of the most fun scales. A traditional a melodic minor scale is the same as the natural minor scale, but with the sixth and seventh notes f and g being sharpened when the scale is ascending it is the same as a natural minor when descending.
Now youre probably asking yourself why you should learn scales instead of just playing bass lines. Oneoctave minor pentatonic scale bass scales studybass. We are going to use the minor scale as our base which has 7 notes not including our octave. Bass guitar scales chords and arpeggios features a wide range of common and exotic scales including. Every minor scale except e minor follows the same pattern. The solution below shows the c minor scale notes, intervals and scale degrees on the piano, treble clef and bass clef the lesson steps then explain how to identify the c minor scale note interval positions, choose the note names, and scale degree names for a quick summary of this topic, have a look at natural minor scale. We can think about c minor as c major with a lowered third note, a lowered sixth note and a lowered seventh note.
The problem also comes from being able to keep them all in. The information here is presented as a reference, if you want to crack into using it then i recommend my master the major scale dvd course first of all. The note that is on the 1st fret of the 3rd string is bb, so this is a bb natural minor scale. How to play a twooctave e minor scale on the bass guitar because of the size of the bass guitar, you need to shift your left hand out of position in order to play twooctave scales. The twooctave e minor scale is the only minor scale that requires a. Professional bass instructor john arbo guides you in over 30 videos with splitscreens and closeups as needed. Minor pentatonic scale and blues scale on the bass. The first is a scale in which all notes are played naturally.
A major and minor scales bass misc scales, version 1. In this lesson, we are going to take a look at minor scales on bass guitar and show you the basic concepts behind it. Watch your instructor demonstrate proper techniques for playing exercises. In this lesson we will be looking at all 3 minor scale variations and examine the pattern for constructing each one. A mediumscale bass will use a 32inch scale length, and instruments with a 30inch scale length are considered short scale. Caged patterns major scale and minor pentatonic guitar.
The third is a little bit different than both scales. He developed this book after years of teaching the importance of learning arpeggios and scales in all twelve keys to his students. Minor pentatonic scale patterns part 1 talkingbass. All the bass guitar scales in the book are presented as movable diagrams, allowing you to play all over the neck.
The minor scale in its purity is called the natural minor scale, and it is the base for 2 more scales, the harmonic minor scale sharp 7th degree, and the melodic minor scale sharp 6th and 7th degrees. Because of the size of the bass guitar, youll need to shift your left hand out of position in order to play twooctave minor scales. The minor scale alone has three different variants that are commonly used. Root, perfect 2nd, minor 3rd, perfect 4th, perfect 5th, major 6th, major 7th. So a scale is just a sequence of notes played up and down. There are three main types of scales that can be played on the bass guitar. Finger it the same as you did the scale that started on the 4th string. On the guitar, we can play the same scale in a great variety of fretboard positions. Intervallic construction of the minor pentatonic scale. These free online bass lessons from mark j smith are released weekly so subscribe for updates and visit.
The minor scales in music are particularly interesting because of the number of different minor scales that there are. The higher register, the upper e string, will be used to play the repeated pedal notes. How to play a twooctave e minor scale on the bass guitar. This form of the natural minor scale begins on the 3rd string. A major chord uses the first, third and fifth notes of the major scale. This is how to play the c minor scale on a bass guitar. Here is the interval pattern for the melodic minor scale. How to play a c minor scale on bass guitar howcast.