What You Should Know about the Different Bass Guitar Playing Styles – Learning Your Scales
Playing your bass guitar on various scales is another foundational technique that you’d do well to master. Scales are basically a set of notes in an ascending or descending arrangement and together share certain characteristics and follow a basic pattern. Guitar scales make musical organization easier as well as composing pieces and doing improv. Practicing guitar scales would also make it simpler for you to understand and memorize chords as well as give your fingers much-needed practice for dexterity and speed.
The Chromatic Scale
This is the simplest scale of all. It involves an entire dozen of notes and each note moves up a half step in the scale. Although the chromatic scale is the easiest to learn, it’s not exactly the most beautiful to listen to. Even so, continue practicing the chromatic scale as it provides an essential pattern that other scales use.
The Major Scale
The Major C scale is probably the best known scale of all. It uses seven notes (eight if you count the fact that the first is repeated) and the steps between each note could be half or whole, depending on which note you’re talking about. If you know your Do-Re-Mi then that’s what the Major C scale is. Other major scales would have the same melody only at a lower or higher pitch, depending on which scale you’re playing.
If this is your first time to play a whole step, that is equivalent to two frets or a pair of half-steps.
With major scales, you start and end with the same note or your root keys. Thus, if you’re playing the Major C scale then you start and end with C or ‘do’.
Minor Pentatonic Scale
The next thing on the list of scales is the Minor Pentatonic scale. This type of scale produces a somewhat darker or more melancholic sound, which is probably why it’s often used in rock & roll as well as being the most widely used scale in blues music.
The minor pentatonic scale is composed only of six notes. If you’re playing the minor pentatonic on the scale of E, you’ll start with the root note and play the fourth string on open position. You will then end playing the second fret on the second string.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Don’t be bothered if you don’t get the scales right on your first try. That’s okay. What’s important is that you continue practicing until you can at least differentiate scales and know when the scale is playing a minor pentatonic, chromatic, or major note.
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