this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2024
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This was me post lockdown but I got a bass instead. Still don't know how EQ or scales work but I can play some stevie wonder ig.
Scales are easy, you just have to know all the notes and whatever key of the chord you're playing and you can improvise all of those notes on top.
Example if you're playing a c chord the three notes that make up a c chord are c, e, g
So from there you know that you can play at least those three notes but if you only hit the notes in the key of C you end up with
C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C
Which will work
Anytime anyone is playing a C major chord you can hit any of those notes and it will sound at least somewhat decent the trick is to land on the note that falls within the scale of the next chord for example let's pretend the next chord is A
Key of a is A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#, A
Now play those notes
Just remember that all major triad chords, which is just your basic chord, makes up only three notes, and if you look at a scale those notes are numbers 1,3,5.
So if you're playing a C chord the three notes involved in that quarter going to be C, E, G.
So if you're jamming on the court of sea in the next chord is a and make sure the note before a hits can fall into the scale of a. I hope that makes sense that's what made me click with improvising almost 30 years ago.
To figure out the scale for any key just remember this
WHOLE WHOLE HALF WHOLE WHOLE WHOLE HALF
That is whatever the chord being played is the key for that chord is (starting with the note the chord is based on) (ex C)
W W H W W W H (C, E, G)
OR
C D E F G A B C
hope this helps. Music is just math noise.
It gets easy more crazier but that should get you started
"scales are easy" then writes 300 words of gibberish and tells me to learn math
It's much easier than that. You don't really need to know any of that. On a regular guitar we have shapes. You can learn one shape and move it around the neck to play in any key:
I assume it's probably the same on bass.
I'm not saying that theory is not helpful, but you aren't thinking about it while playing or improvising.
As a bassist, I can at least say that was my experience. I learned pentatonic by paying attention to which notes I'd hear most often, and recognizing which pattern on the fretboard they usually showed up in when played in sequence.
That was pretty much all I needed to be able to jam semi-decently, and everything else just sort of progressed from there.
Everything is math if you break it down enough!
IMO the thing about learning bass is without anyone to play with, it doesn't sound like a song. A workaround is to search YouTube for "backing track for bass practice" and you'll instantly have accompaniment. It may not be the style of music you are into but it'll help you develop an ear for playing. It'll tell you what key the song is in, that note is usually where you start. The EQ isn't that important. Scales are good to learn