There are shortcuts on bass
that when you know them
let you create original basslines
and move around the neck quicker
and without the stress
and they're called...
SHAPES!!!
A shape is just a visual
pattern on the neck
and there are all kinds
of different shapes
for basslines, scales,
intervals, arpeggios
but what they all have in common
is they allow you move around the neck
visually without having
to frantically think about
note names and theory when
you're just trying to play.
[bass grooving]
What, no! No! Leave me alone!
By the end of this
video, you'll understand
what shapes are, why they work on bass
and how to apply them to
your playing at any level.
And I'll give you five starter shapes
that you can use to
easily create basslines
in nearly any situation.
[BassBuzz theme]
Bass shapes are an example
of what psychologist
George Miller called chunking,
where you take a bunch
of bits of information
that would be hard to remember
and combine them into one chunk
that's easier to remember.
Like imagine I asked you
to memorize this sequence
of random letters.
[speaks nonsensically]
It would be really hard
to remember, right?
But if we rearranged those letters
into something more recognizable,
now you'd find it really easy to remember
because you can chunk the letters
into word groupings and bass
shapes work the same way,
instead of having to frantically
come up with basslines one note at a time,
you can combine individual
notes into one larger shape.
We hear the notes in music as a series
of relationships, so, if I play.
["Another One Bites The Dust"]
And then I play this.
[Another "Another One Bites The Dust"]
They both sound like
"Another One Bites The Dust,"
even though they're
completely different notes
and that's because there
are the same relationships
between the notes within the bassline,
meaning they're all the same
distances from each other
in terms of pitch.
On the bass, that's represented visually
by the shape you use
and because of the way
the bass is tuned, you can move a shape
literally anywhere on the neck
and it'll give you the same music
just starting on a different note.
[bass playing "Wipeout"]
ANIMAL: Wipe out, wipe out, wipe out!
Not every instrument is so lucky,
on piano you've got five black keys
and seven white keyS, so, that means that
moving a shape around isn't always
gonna give you the same music.
Vocalists have no visual reference at all,
and even guitarists don't
have it as good as us
because the way that their extra
two strings are tuned means that
moving a shape isn't always
gonna give you the same result.
[guitar catastrophe]
So, lets dig right into
some useful bass shapes.
All the bass shapes I show you
are gonna start from a root note
and in songs, root notes just come
from whatever chords the
keyboard or guitar is playing.
So, if the piano player
is playing E, B, C# minor,
A, the bassist would often just play
E, B, C#, A
and chug along on those root notes
and that could be a
perfectly valid bassline
but many basslines start
with those root notes
and then add other non-root notes
around them to create a
more distinctive bassline.
Here what that could sound like,
with those same root notes I just played.
[piano and bass guitar playing Journey]
♪ Don't stop ♪
- Don't stop what?
♪ Believing ♪
Okay, I won't!
This is where shapes open up
new worlds of possibilities because
they allow you to visually find those
non-root notes which you can then
sprinkle in to create
more original basslines.
So, the first shape we're gonna use
is super simple, it works
90 percent of the time,
it's used in tons of songs and its called
the root fifth shape.
Anytime you have a root note,
if you go up a string and up two frets
then you get a note
that's called the fifth.
And the fifth is a great place to go
because it adds some movement
and spice to the bassline without
making the harmony sound complicated.
And it works on major or minor chords
so you don't even have to
know which one you're playing.
Lets check this shape out, in action,
on Steely Dan's "Rikki
Don't Lose That Number."
We're just gonna jump right in
but feel free to rewind or
slow down the play along
if you need to, here we go.
One, two, three, four.
["Rikki Don't Lose That
Number" by Steely Dan]
How I'm actually
experiencing this as I play
is its like the notes in the shape
are lit up, like, there are magical
colored dots on the fretboard.
Like those, so I don't need to think
about what notes to play every time,
I just imagine the dots of the shape
and then I just plug my
fingers onto those spots.
I don't even need to
think about note names
once I find my root note.
It would be nice to know the name
of the other notes I'm playing
but I'm NOT thinking about
that while I'm playing.
Okay, lets create a quick
bassline using this shape,
so, lets say the guitar player
is playing A, D and E chords,
so, our root notes would be A, D and E
and we could just chug
on those roots, A, D, E.
But if I add my root
fifth shape onto each one
of those roots, I have a
lot of bassline options.
I could do a rock line.
[rockin' roots n' fifths]
I could do a country kind of thing.
[country roots n' fifths]
I could do something more reggae-y.
[reggae roots n' fifths]
I get all that just
from knowing one shape.
Next up is the octave shape, this is safe
to use any time, its one of the most
useful, simple shapes
to have in your toolkit
and an octave is just
the next iteration up
or down of the same note, so,
if I'm playing an F on the
first fret of the E string,
if I go up two strings and up two frets,
to the third fret of the D string,
I get another F and I can move that shape
anywhere on the neck, just
like all these shapes.
So, if I have an Eb on the
sixth fret of the A string
I can find another Eb, two strings up,
two frets up, on the eighth
fret of the G string.
Those are both Eb's.
This shape is super useful
for creating basslines
because it adds some movement
without adding any new
notes to the harmony,
so, its pretty safe and
its also a useful tool
for finding note names on the neck
because if I know the
name of the third fret
of the A string which is C,
then if I go up two strings up, two frets,
I also know the name of
this note, its also C.
And again, because its a shape,
you never have to think
where's the octave,
you just find your root
note, imagine the magic dots
and plant your fingers.
[bass plays octaves]
Lets use this shape on
James Brown's "Hot Pants."
Its a super easy tune
but its also super funky.
Count it off James.
[James Brown] One, two,
one, two, three, uh.
["Hot Pants" by James Brown]
There's tons more stuff you
can do with this octave shape,
if we go back to this A, D, E progression
that our guitar player's playing,
if I just use that shape, I can get
a bunch of different
stuff, I can get, like,
a slap-funk thing.
[slappy funky octaves]
I can get a disco thing.
[bell-bottomed disco octaves]
I can get more a pop-rock thing, whatever.
[generic pop-rock octaves]
And I teach you these and other shapes
and more of the theory of why they work
in my Beginner to Badass course
at BassBuzz.com
Next up is the major triad shape,
if you take the first, third and fifth
notes of a major scale,
you get a major triad,
which forms this shape on the neck
and if you don't know
anything about scales,
you can check out my beginner scales video
but you actually don't even need
to know your major scale
in order to use this shape,
that's part of the magic of shapes,
you just memorize the shape, so,
all you need to know is that you
can use this shape on any major chord.
So, if your guitarist is
playing an A major chord,
you just find your root note which is A
and then imagine the magic dots.
And it'll work perfectly.
[bass guitar playing major triad]
And, like I said, this
is way easier on bass
than on other instruments.
On piano, for example, a C
major triad looks like this.
But if I want an Eb major triad,
it looks totally different visually
and I need a different fingering.
Lets try out the major triad shape
with some classic Bob
Marley, "Three Little Birds."
Here we go, one, two, three, four.
["Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley]
So, back to jam mode, my
guitarist is playing A, D, E,
I have all these options with
just the major triad shape,
from A, from D and from E, so,
I could play, like, a walking line.
[triad walking bass]
I can play something a little more ska-y
[third-wave ska rip-off]
I can do classical Alberti bass.
[alberti bass shredz]
If you wanna learn more
essential bass shapes,
you should click like on this video
and subscribe for more and make sure
you click the bell so
that you get notified
when new videos come out.
If you take the first,
third and fifth notes
of a minor scale, then
you get a minor triad,
which makes this shape.
[bass guitar playing]
And you can use this on any minor chord,
you just find your root note, so,
lets say the guitarist
is playing in E minor.
So, you find an E, and then
you watch the imaginary
dots appear on your neck, ta-da,
and then you just stick
your fingers on the dots.
Easy.
So, you could play an E on the
seventh fret of the A string
or you could use the open E string.
[bass guitar playing]
Its the same shape, even though,
one of the notes is open
instead of threaded.
Lets play with that now
with the Stevie Ray Vaughan,
Dick Dale version of Pipeline, here we go.
One, two, one, two, three, four.
["Pipeline" by SRV and Dick Dale]
There's another cool thing happening
when we apply shapes to moving root
notes because the movement of the roots
actually makes its own shape, so,
you don't need to find
every single root note,
every time you play them.
Did you catch the shape that the movement
of the roots made in that A to D
to E jam we were doing earlier?
So, this is an example of shapes layered
on top of other shapes.
So, if we put our imaginary
dots on A, D and E,
so, it makes this triangle shape
which is a visual pattern that
you can easily memorize,
once you find your root notes
once, you just see this shape,
memorize is and then you can move
your bassline shapes around those roots,
layering shapes on top of other shapes.
So, I got my root fifth shape.
[bass guitar playing]
My octave shape.
[bass guitar playing]
My major triad shape.
[bass guitar playing]
Thanks to this chunking effect,
you only have to remember two things,
your root movement shape
and then whatever bassline shape
you wanna layer on top of that.
[bass guitar playing]
Shape number five is... Supershapes????
You can use all these shapes by themselves
but its much more common to change shapes
throughout a bassline, lets check that out
in action on "Gangsters" by The Specials.
["Gangsters" by The Specials]
This bassline uses the minor triad shape
and the major triad shape
and the root fifth shape,
so, we start on a minor triad.
[bass guitar playing]
On A, then we go to an Ab, major triad.
[bass guitar playing]
And then we go to root fifth on an A.
[bass guitar playing]
We rest for a bar and then,
in the second four bars,
its almost the same
thing, minor triad on A,
major triad on Ab, then
another minor triad
on A and then we got to
the root fifth pattern.
[bass guitar playing]
So, if you had to come up with bassline
yourself, the guitar
player's playing A minor,
Ab major, A minor, Ab major, A minor.
So, you know you can use
your root fifth shape
on major and minor chords.
You can also use your octave shape.
[bass guitar playing]
This particular bassline
just doesn't use that.
And then you can use
your minor triad shape
on the minor chords and your major
triad shape on the major chords,
so, you could come up with
something similar to this.
Okay, lets have some fun
and play this together.
Pick it up, pick it, pick it up.
One, two, three, four.
You've got some super useful shapes
in your bag now but there are
a gazillion more to
learn, scales and chords
and arpeggios and basslines and shapes,
so, here's a 3 step process to help
you learn any of those shapes.
Step 1 is just to nail the fingering,
figure out what fingers you're gonna use,
get comfortable with the fretting
and plucking at different speeds
which bleeds into step 2,
memorize the shape,
this is where you wanna
start seeing the magic dots on the neck,
so, just look at it, see
how far apart the notes are,
in terms of frets and if you think
of a name for the shape
that helps you memorize it,
that's cool, the goal is just to see
the magic dots, so, you can just plug
your fingers onto the shape.
And step 3 is to learn context,
meaning, when can I use this shape
and this is where theory
and ear training come in.
So, shapes do not replace those things,
they just bring them into the real world,
visually and learning the context
of when you can use different shapes
is a never-ending journey,
you'll be learning
new ways to use old shapes forever.
For example, I could just take our
root fifth shape but if I super impose
that onto a minor scale.
[bass guitar playing]
I get all these different
things I can play
just by layering one shape
on top of another shape.
So, learn as many shapes as you can,
memorize them, learn
where you can use them,
explore around, you can check out shapes
in my other videos or
wherever you find them
and soon you'll be
seeing shapes everywhere.
[this is a Beautiful Mind reference]
[It was a 2001 American
biographical drama Film]
[based on the life of John Nash.]
