Hello,
I just purchased a four string bass guitar. I don't know anything about the bass guitar. I just learned the strings EADG and that's all. What's my next step? I would love to learn how to play Cooling Water ; Williams Brothers and Miracle Worker; Rance Allen. I was told that I need to learn my scales and when I googled bass scales and saw all those numbers I was lost. What does the numbers represent? I only have four strings on my bass. Can you give me some feedback?
Thank you,
Priscilla
What I think you need to REALLY understand is the forumla for a major scale.
Each Fret on the bass marks a note moving higher in pitch (as you move down the neck) a half note.
So on the E string it goes
E - F - Gb - G - Gb A (etc...)
Now if you notice the A note on the E string is the same as the Open A stringl. Keep this in mind as it will be explained in a little bit.
Ok so a Major scale formula is this:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8(1)
Root W W H W W W Hthe 8 is the same thing as the root, it's just played an octave higher.
W = Whole Step
H = Half Step
The first Note of the scale is what is known as the root note, so above whatever note you decide your major key will be will be the root.
Then from the root you take a WHOLE STEP(skip a fret from your root note fret and play that one). Of course where you see an H you just move your note up one fret.
Now if you remember I said that the A (fifth Fret on on the E string) is the same as the Open A string.
This is means that the bass is tuned in fourths (or fifths if you look at it from highest string to lowest). I won't go into detail on the tuning right now, but a concept that you need to understand is that those notes that you would need to slide your hand down to hit are right there on your next string over.
This is how the tab that Torch7 drew up works
say you have the pattern
-------------------------------------------
---------------1-3-4---------------------
-------1-2-4-----------------------------
--2-4-------------------------------------
ok, so This sould be a Gb scale because the 2nd fret on the E string is a Gb.
So if you follow the pattern I gave you above (
Root W W H W W W H)
Then you will find that the notes for a Gb scale are: Gb - Ab - Bb - B - Db - Eb -F - Gb
Now lets tabe out the actual notes on the strings
0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
------------------------------------------------------------
G | Ab | A | Bb | B | C
D | Eb | E | F | Gb | G
A | Bb | B | C | Db | D
E | F | Gb | G | Ab | A
Now Hoefully you can see how that pattern works out.
Now the pattern that torch tabed out isn't the only way to play a major scale. I encourage you to look at the above forumla and figure out more patterns to play it in. Hopefully this will help you out.
~Jeremy
