Bass Scales- Learning Them, Playing Them, and the Benefits

Of course, scales are a helpful learning tool for playing any instrument. Even the most accomplished musicians started out by learning the art of playing scales so they could learn notation, reading and playing sheet music and moving up and down the musical staff smoothly and easy. Bass scales are one of the critical components an aspiring bassist must grasp if they are to learn the finer nuances of the bass and perfect their musical skills.

Before rushing out and finding instructors and taking lessons, it's paramount that you realize the importance of scales. Since scales will be the starting point of any reputable teacher, it's actually very helpful to get a good understanding on the topic prior to starting your lessons. Scales are the basic arrangement of notes featured in an octave starting from the lowest to the highest notes. Each octave, which is then named after the first note in its scale, features eight notes, so the C scale begins at the bottom of the octave with C and the goes up the scale for seven more notes. If you were to play the C scale on a piano, it would look like this - C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. There are a lot of scales, and during the course of your bass guitar lessons, you will most likely learn them all.

A huge part of playing an instrument is learning new pieces by reading sheet music. Scales assist with this aspect of music by teaching you to read and play notes simultaneously. Plus, as stated previously, playing bass scales will help you master going up and own the staff seamlessly. With progress, you will play the scales faster, easier and more fluidly and that means you will be able to play some really difficult, and cool riffs later on when you're playing actual music. Scales are really useful in helping to reinforce and perfect this technique.

So what's the best option for learning to play scales for bass guitar? Well, to start at the very beginning, before scales even, you'll need to learn basic fingering to play the notes correctly on your bass, and that, usually means a private teacher. However, if your schedule or budget rules a private instructor, there are instructional DVDs and videos available online that can guide you in learning basic fingering.

After you've conquered the fingering for each note, you can start with scales beginning with the basics and then progressing to the more advanced. You will begin with the major scale first. Guitar scales will be different from piano, so you'll also need to learn to read sheet music for bass guitar. Once that's out of the way though, you'll learn the major scale followed by the other key bass scales, like the minor scale, and the major and minor pentatonic scales.

With a lot of practice, you will find that as time goes by your scale playing skills will improve dramatically. You will notice that each scale, while involving different fingerings, all follow similar rhythms and patterns. Some will be harder to master than others, however with consistent practice and quality instruction you'll be able to play them all quickly and fluidly with time.

Bass Scales- Learning Them, Playing Them, and the Benefits

By: Jesica Ohle

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