Pentatonicscales #4

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A‹ B¨ C C

4

4

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Chord Sequence

Pentatonic scales are fantastic tools to help you start spicing

up your bass lines and grooves. They are also great if you want

to start throwing in some runs and fills too.

When creating runs and fills within your bass lines, sometimes

certain scales sound a little to jazzy or simply out of place.

When this is the case, pentatonic scales are great as they are a

little more ambiguous than other scales. This is because they

have fewer notes than a regular scale. Normally scales have 7

notes whilst pentatonic scales have 5.

Work through the chord sequence below and simply ‘plug- in’

the corresponding pentatonic scale to start creating your owns

fills.

Here’s the chord sequence:

Pentatonic Scales Lesson 4 (L#53)

Scott Devine

V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V

Below are the 3 specific patterns I use within the fourth tutorial of my pentatonic series. The final pattern is to show you how large the area covered is when you use just three patterns.

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Pentatonic Scales Part 4 (L#53)

Your Action Plan

1. Learn the three different positions that I presentwithin the lesson. You're aiming to be able to 'see'the shapes of these scale patterns on thefingerboard, so when you're practicing make sureyou're actually looking at the fingerboard and makinga conscious effort to 'see' the shapes. Start slowly togive yourself a chance to internalize each shape.Remember this isn't a speed exercise. If you playthem too fast you'll be at risk of simply not ingrainingthem within your playing and musical memory.Remember who won the race? The tortoise… not thehare!

2. It's a great idea to use a backing track so you canhear each scale pattern within a context. If you'redoing it without a backing track, the 'flavour' andpersonality of the scale can sometimes be a little toambiguous and get lost. The backing track can bevery simple. Just a sustained chord would be perfect.

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3. You should start by running up and down each scalepattern. Then concentrate on moving between themand finally improvising over them.

You can now play the three scale patterns with ease and are confident when improvising over a sustained C major chord. Now repeat the above two steps but in a different key, in fact in multiple keys. I recommend that you aim to repeat the above steps in around six different major keys.

Scott Devine