Using pentatonicscales #1

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Copyright © 2013 Scott's Bass Lessons

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Start point 01:50

Using Pentatonic Scales

Pentatonic scales are a fantastic tool to help you start spicing up your

bass lines and grooves. They are also great if you want to start throwing in

some runs and fills too.

When creating runs and fills within your bass lines, sometimes certain

scales sound a little to jazzy, or simply out of place. When this is the case,

pentatonic scales are a great choice as they are a little more ambiguous

than other scales. This is because they have fewer notes than a regular

scale. Normally scales have 7 notes whilst pentatonic scales have 5.

Work through the chord sequence below and simply ‘plug- in’ the

corresponding pentatonic scale to start creating your owns fills.

Here’s the chord sequence...

C Major Pentatonic Scale

Pentatonic Scales (L#50)

Scott Devine

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02:19A Minor Pentatonic Scale

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02:40 Chord Sequence

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Ex.1

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04:17 Fill Using C Major Pentatonic Scale.

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05:29 "here we go"

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Fill Using Bbb Major Pentatonic Scale Over Bb Chord.

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06:25 Fill Using A Minor Pentatonic Scale on the A minor Chord.

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Copyright © 2013 Scott’s Bass Lessons

Using Pentatonic Scales (L#50)

Your Action Plan

1. A great starting point for you if you haven't usedpentatonic scales before (or even if you have) wouldbe to listen to some of the greats using them. Thiswill give you an idea of what 'flavour' you'll get whenusing pentatonic scales within your bass lines andruns. Here is a list of bass cats you should check out,each of them use pentatonic scales extensively forthere bass runs.

Sharay Reed Pino Palladino Justin Raines Maurice Fitzgerald

2. Next, let's dig into the video tutorial. Become familiarwith the chord sequence. Once you can groove overit and have a good idea of which pentatonic to useover which chord (and have memorized thepentatonic patterns). It's time to start implementingthem to create your own runs.

Copyright © 2013 Scott’s Bass Lessons

Take one at a time. Start playing runs over the C major chord using the C major pentatonic scale. Don't worry, if you feel like you can't do it 'on the fly' yet simply pre-compose three of your owns runs using that scale and rotate them over the C major chord while playing the groove. Then, repeat this same exercise over the other chords.

3. Once you can play through the exercises of step 2confidently you should look into mixing thepentatonic scales so you can begin to create longerruns over the chords. Your aim here is to be able toplay a run from the Bb major pentatonic for instance,into the C major pentatonic when the chord changesto C major. So essentially your bass runs are going tobe across the chord and will be using more than onescale. This will get you used to switching scales 'mid-run' and also give you the ability to think more linear,instead of vertically. As before, if this feels to hard todo 'on the fly' simply pre-compose a bass run anduse that over the chord sequence just to hear andfeel what you're aiming for.

Remember, using pre-composed runs is not cheating. They are simply giving you a step up and moving you closer to doing it 'on the fly' which is what we're aiming for. This is just like when we used to repeat the same sentences over and over when we were growing up. It was getting us used to the language and how we should use it.

Scott Devine