Top 5 Reasons Bass Players Should Know Scales

Know the layout of fretboard

When you know the layout of scale patterns it becomes a lot simpler to create a visual map of the fretboard. It is like connect the dots. Because the fretboard begins over at the twelfth fret, it is a breeze to jump up to a high fret for a fill or solo lick. It's easier to do when you know scales simply because when you jump to the higher frets, you'll know exactly where you're jumping to and what the pattern is as soon as you get there. You'll never really feel "trapped" in one spot on the fretboard once more.

2. Create coordination

Playing through scales is the very best way to acquire fretboard agility quickly. It is important to know scale patterns and practice playing through them often. This will give your hands and fingers muscle memory for those patterns. Being familiar with some various scale patterns and getting some muscle memory means the right notes will all of a sudden start appearing under your fingers before you even require to play them.

3. Quicker to communicate

Believe of scales and music theory as a language or code. Notation on sheet music would be the written form. The point is that it's a fast way for musicians to communicate with one another. It tends to make it simpler to clarify an concept for a various way to play a song or inform somebody how to play a song you wrote.

4. Play much better bass in a band

Once you have had a chance to practice scale patterns and start to visualize the layout of the fretboard, you can listen, adhere to and react much more closely to what your bandmates play. You will start to get the notes below your fingers much faster. From practicing scales you will know the various sounds that different scales have. This becomes a tool you can use to identify whether or not the guitar player (for instance) is playing a Significant or minor chord. Then just plug that scale pattern in off the root note. All these things make it easier for you to come up with your personal cool sounding components and add your own touch to cover tunes.

5. Learn songs faster

When you can hear whether a chord in a song is a Significant or minor chord, you are on your way to getting a created ear. It becomes much simpler to figure out songs when you have "big ears". This simply means that you can rapidly recognize what it is that you are hearing and play it on your instrument. Following that it is simple to figure out the root notes of the chord changes and then add in scale tones to taste.

Bass players who have not taken the time to learn scales and a bit about music theory occasionally wonder if they should bother. The answer is yes, there are a entire lot reasons to learn a bit about it. For one thing, it is simple. There isn't really that much to know to apply basic understanding of scales and music theory to the music a bassist already plays. Understanding how the music works makes it easier to control and get inventive with the low finish part.