urgent help needed

floppy

floppy

New member
okay, so i'm a beginner bassist and my bass teacher gave this fingering for a major scale of something, it goes like: 24124134. With 1 meaning first finger, 2 mean second finger etc. He also explanined the notes and frets and stuff but didn;t so it properly so I have no idea what I'm supposed to play. Sorry if this sounds stupid I'm not too sure what it is myself lol. Any help is greatly appreciated! ;D
 
Major scale

ok he's talking about a major scale.... so. i'll do the A major scale here and hopefully you'll know what I/he mean. assume u can read tablature? *edit* ok so E----5----7-- means u play the fifth fret, and then the 7th fret on the E string. (the lowest). repeat for the other strings. E is the string closest to you, G the one furthest from you.

G
D-------------4-6-7---
A------4-5-7--------
E-5-7-------------

sorry for the lousy tab work.
so if you play this a few times, you will notice that the left hand fingers used are 24124134. hence his string of number.

this is the "pattern" for major scale, so if you move it to E string 7th fret (B), you will have a B major scale.
 
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It's a F# Major Scale.

G---------------------
D-------------1-3-4---
A------1-2-4----------
E-2-4-----------------

The notes in the scale are F#, G#, A#, B, C#, D#, F, F#.

# - Sharp
 
yes, if you move the pattern to E string 2nd fret (F#), then u get a F# major scale. but notice that the left hand fingering is still 24124134
 
Ask your teacher to explain clearly loh.

You can also play Major Scale using the below pattern.

I use A Major Scale for e.g. as we are already using A. :)

G-------------------------
D---------------6-7-------
A---------5-7-9-----------
E---5-7-9-----------------

A B C# D E F# G# A

Shift everything up 2 frets and you will get a B major Scale.

Impt is how you can apply this to ur music lo.. Ask ur teacher la. :d

Cheers
 
eh, i'm not sure which one it is from the ones you've all mentioned...
i tried playing them all but it doesn;t ring a bell. if it helps, we were doing the 8 octave exercise with F, E, and A. Then he showed how to put those fingerings together or something and that's where i got confused lol.

Thanks for all the help, you guys! ;D
 
If I'm not wrong, all one octave scales are usually like that rights?
Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm also just starting the bass heehs. ><
 
Vile said:
If I'm not wrong, all one octave scales are usually like that rights?
Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm also just starting the bass heehs. ><
Click to expand...

haha not sure what you mean by "usually like that", but yes, above are the 2 main ways to play the major scale.

a third way will be.

G----------------------
D---------------------
A------------5-7-9-10---
E-3-5-7-8-------------

Incidentally, this is also the first half of the way i'd normally play to get two full octaves on a major scale. not sure if there's any other way to play two full octaves easily.

G-----------------------------------9-11-12-
D------------------------7-9-10-12----------
A------------5-7-9-10------------------------
E-3-5-7-8----------------------------------
 
floppy said:
eh, i'm not sure which one it is from the ones you've all mentioned...
i tried playing them all but it doesn;t ring a bell. if it helps, we were doing the 8 octave exercise with F, E, and A. Then he showed how to put those fingerings together or something and that's where i got confused lol.

Thanks for all the help, you guys! ;D
Click to expand...

Floppy,

from the LEFT hand fingering you mentioned, i am confident it is the way i mentioned earlier. Note that the left hand fingering is independent of which fret you are starting from. you can start at 5th fret for A major, or 2nd fret for F# major, you will still be using the same left hand fingerings.

G-------------------------
D-------------4-6-7---
A------4-5-7-----------
E-5-7-----------------
__2 4 1 2 4 1 3 4 <---left hand fingering.

also, if you don't mind, can you post the 8 octave exercise here? I have not heard of it before and I am interested to learn more :)
 
schmuardian said:
Floppy,

from the LEFT hand fingering you mentioned, i am confident it is the way i mentioned earlier. Note that the left hand fingering is independent of which fret you are starting from. you can start at 5th fret for A major, or 2nd fret for F# major, you will still be using the same left hand fingerings.

G-------------------------
D-------------4-6-7---
A------4-5-7-----------
E-5-7-----------------
__2 4 1 2 4 1 3 4 <---left hand fingering.

also, if you don't mind, can you post the 8 octave exercise here? I have not heard of it before and I am interested to learn more :)
Click to expand...

I emailed him and he said it's a C major scale.

G---------145--
D-----235------
A--35----------
E--------------

Sorry If I did the tabs wrong lol

And the 8 octave thing is really simple. You just play F on the first and third string and move down frets until you get to the twelfth fret and then you go back in reverse. You can also do it with E, and uh, other notes which I forgot. It's srsly basic though. I learned it so I can practice moving up and down the neck, since I'm a beginner. You probably don't need it.
 
schmuardian said:
haha not sure what you mean by "usually like that", but yes, above are the 2 main ways to play the major scale.

a third way will be.

G----------------------
D---------------------
A------------5-7-9-10---
E-3-5-7-8-------------

Incidentally, this is also the first half of the way i'd normally play to get two full octaves on a major scale. not sure if there's any other way to play two full octaves easily.

G-----------------------------------9-11-12-
D------------------------7-9-10-12----------
A------------5-7-9-10------------------------
E-3-5-7-8----------------------------------
Click to expand...

Now that's useful...........
And erm, why is that a major scale? Sorry but i really dont know and still learning theory and scales and such. Why do you start on the 3rd fret of E string?
 
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floppy said:
And the 8 octave thing is really simple. You just play F on the first and third string and move down frets until you get to the twelfth fret and then you go back in reverse. You can also do it with E, and uh, other notes which I forgot. It's srsly basic though. I learned it so I can practice moving up and down the neck, since I'm a beginner. You probably don't need it.
Click to expand...

I dont understand eh. Means i play 1st fret on the E string and 3rd fret on the D string. That makes F and F right? What you mean by moving down the fretboard? Means i play the F major scale?
 
Hickey_ said:
Now that's useful...........
And erm, why is that a major scale? Sorry but i really dont know and still learning theory and scales and such. Why do you start on the 3rd fret of E string?
Click to expand...

wah... why ah... errrr. okie. very cheem, but i try to answer it.

From a note, to another note 1 octave higher, there are 11 notes in between. e.g. will be E string, from open (e note) to 12th fret (higher e), there are 11 notes inbetween.

A scale is just basically 8 notes (including the root note and the next octave note), from one note to the next same note that is one octave higher. the notes that you pick from the 11 possible selections will determine what scale it is.

A major scale chooses the notes using the following pattern. "whole whole half whole whole whole half". Whole means 2 semi tones up, meaning 2 frets up. half means 1 semi tone up, so 1 fret up. (in semitones, the pattern is "2 2 1 2 2 2 1")

so.. E major scale will be
E-0-2-4-5-7-9-11-12
u noticed? starting from open E string, u skip 2 fret, 2 fret, 1 fret, 2 fret, and so on.

u can replicate this using any other root note. let's try.
A-0-2-4-5-7-9-11-12 .....OR (a major scale)
A-3-5-7-8-10-12-14-15... geddit? (C major scale)
I hope this explains WHAT is a major scale.
As to WHY, it's just a name. can just as well called it a #1 scale or alpha scale or whatever. but this is a natural sounding scale, commonly used, so i guess the granddaddies of music decided to call it the major scale.

and why i did a 2 octave G major scale? no particular reason.. just liked that more :) so a major scale is not affected by where you start. where u start only affects which major scale it is i.e. C major, G major, A major.

i hope this helps? if i've made a mistake anywhere anyone please feel free to correct me.
 
Right, thanks buddy. I got that info from cyberfret before your reply! anyway it was a great help. Thanks a lot man. :)
 
yah! How to apply! How to improv! how how how!! I only know the shape/pattern but i still dont know how to apply.
 
haha I think there are other threads on this, but here's my take on bass improv and solos...

First up this website helped me alot.
http://www.rodgoelz.com/bass_improvisation2.htm
this too.
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/lessons/bass_lessons/soloing_on_bass_guitar.html

Second, think about the music, and your role in it... for me, a bassist is the link between the rhythm and the melody. so sometimes it sounds good playing only the root note, sometimes it sounds better with a solo.

Third, what you play gotta be in line with the rest of the band.. so you don solo when ur guitarist is soloing, and even when you do do that, make sure both of you are playing something that sounds pleasing to the ears.

but ok that's just some guidelines.

i think breaking it down there's roughly 2 kinds of bass improvs... one is playing leading notes to the root of the next chord, the other is all out solo in the key/chords of the song.

Leading notes
basically you play the notes before or after the next chord. so you "lead" into the note.
you generally want to play the root note on the strong beats i.e. 1 and 3. so when playing 8th in the example below, the leading note (B) to C, B is on the 8th of the first bar, while C is on the 1st beat of the second bar. same for C# to D. C# is on 8th, D is on first beat.
so a simple one will be smtg like...
G-
D-
A-------------2-----33333334-55555553
E-5555555-----------------------------------55555555
Chords: Am C Dm


The following example is one of my favourite song: Hey, by the pixies. Nothing complex, but hey it does a freaking good job.!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIkWJZf33UY


Solo
errr this one harder to explain here. one way will be to just whack all the notes in the scale in random orders (that sounds pleasing to your ears). that's how I did it :p

A good example is the solo in war pigs by black sabbath. nothing difficult or flashy, and it's just notes in the scale arranged with some bends and licks, but it does the job very well.



I hope all this made sense, it's rather broad a topic. Ask any questions and I'll try my best to answer them. do excuse any mistakes, headache lah. off to bed now.
 
Learn from you guys ma. haha :d
Wat u mentioned is using chromatic. Which is cool.
Read frm the links u provided got many info liao.

The fun thing is playing a "wrong" note and still sound right.

Cheers
 
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