# Scales on bass

The formulas are the shared ones on the hub (`/theory/western/#scales`). What changes on bass is
the span: the strings are a fourth apart, so one octave takes three strings and about four frets,
and you shift position instead of stretching.

## Scale lab

Pick a root, a scale (major, natural minor, both pentatonics, Dorian, Mixolydian, blues) and the
string the root sits on — E or A, because from the D string there is not enough neck above you to
finish an octave in position. The page marks the notes on the neck, prints one in-position path as
TAB, and plays it up and back down at the practice bar's tempo.

Three rules: say the root out loud before you play it; one octave clean before two; and a scale you
cannot play in rhythm is not learned yet.

## Suggested order

1. Major — the reference map, and the one that teaches the shift.
2. Minor pentatonic — five notes, the fill vocabulary.
3. Natural minor, then Dorian and Mixolydian — one changed note each.
4. Degrees — name what you are playing while you play it.
5. Sequences and rhythm, then use them as fills over songs.

## One octave of G major

Root on the E string, fret 3. The octave is the open G string.

```
G|---------------0-
D|---------0-2-4---
A|---0-2-3---------
E|-3---------------
```

Three notes on the E string, three on the A, two on the D — nothing stretches. Descend it too.

## A minor pentatonic

Root A on the E string fret 5; the box sits in frets 5 to 8. A C D E G.

```
G|-------------5-7-
D|---------5-7-----
A|-----5-7---------
E|-5-8-------------
```

Fret 8 on the E string is the flat third — the note that gives the box its colour.

## Sequences

Groups of three (up three, back one), skips (every other note), and the same box played on a gallop
cell or a groove rhythm. Then improvise two-bar phrases that end on A, C or E and stop.

## Degrees and landings

Over A minor, A is 1, C is ♭3, E is 5 — landings. B, D, F and G are passing colour. Two drills:
isolate a single degree for a bar, and forbid the root for four bars so phrases have to land on
♭3 or 5.

## Two octaves, and the shift

Do not reverse at the top — continue into the next position. Move the whole hand and land with the
first finger; never stretch the pinky to avoid a shift.

## Common faults

Only ascending · no rhythm · stretching instead of shifting · collecting shapes instead of using one ·
notes in the box that do not speak.