In this bass lesson, you’re going to learn
a hack for the pentatonic scale that will
have you fluidly playing all up and down the
neck of your bass.
Hi I’m Luke from becomeabassist.com and
keep watching if you want to really start
nailing your pentatonic scale
[Video Intro]
Today’s lesson actually comes from a question
on another video of mine from a viewer named
Sai who asked about how to memorize the shapes
of the pentatonic scale and I thought it was
a great question.
But really quickly, before we get into answering
the specifics, we need to go over the minor
pentatonic shapes really quickly.
Our first one - just our regular old minor
pentatonic will look like this - and let’s
use the key of C minor for this one.
So our first shape will look like this.
[plays first pentatonic shape] We’re starting
on our C - 3rd fret of the A-string, then
up to the Eb - 6th fret.
Then across to the D-string and the G, we
play the 3rd and 5th fret on both strings.
[plays again] Easy enough to get started,
right?
A lot of people know this shape pretty well
- it’s the kind of home base for the minor
pentatonic.
Our next shape, we’re going to start on
the Eb here - the 6th fret on our A-string
and plug this shape in [plays 2nd pentatonic
shape] From our start, we’re using the 6th
and 8th fret on the A-string Eb and F, and
then for the D and G-strings, we’ll use
the 5th and 8th fret for both.
SO 5th and 8th fret on the D-string [plays
notes] G and Bb - and 5th and 8th fret on
the G-string C and Eb. [plays more notes]
This is also the major pentatonic shape.
In this case, we’re actually playing Eb
major pentatonic.
Pretty cool, right!
By the way - you can download all these shapes,
plus the tab and notation for all of them
as a free Pentatonic Cheat Sheet download
on becomeabassist.com.
Just click the link in the description and
sign up on that page and I’ll send it straight
to your email address.
Next we get probably the easiest shape of
all of them.
We’ll be starting on the 8th fret on the
A-string and for all the strings, you’ll
just be using the 8th and 10th fret. [plays
3rd pentatonic shape]
8th and 10th fret on your A-string, F, G - 8th
and 10th on your D-string - Bb and C - and
of course on your G as well - Eb and F.
This one couldn’t be simpler!
Second last one now.
We’ll start on the 10th fret of the A-string
and for both the A and D-strings, we’ll
play the 10th and 13th frets [plays notes]
and finally for the G-string, we’ll play
the 10th and 12th frets.
Notice this one is very similar to the first
one we did.
Check it out.
Here’s the 4th shape [plays 4th shape] and
here’s the first one [plays 1st shape] There’s
only one note difference in the shape.
Finally though, we get the last shape and
this time we’re starting on the Bb - 13th
fret on the A-string.
On the A and D-strings, we get the 13th and
15th frets [plays 5th shape] and then on the
G-string, we get the 12th and 15th frets.
[plays notes] That’s our shape.
Of course, when we get back up to the top,
it’s the same shape as our first one.
[plays 6th shape]
Now that we’ve got a better understanding
of the shapes, let’s get to the fun stuff.
Now Sai asked how to better memorize the pentatonic
shapes.
The exact words Sai used were “I try to
play the shapes vertically, which works fine,
but when I try to combine the shapes to play
up the nck I get confused” This is a classic
mistake!
Something works in practice, but when it comes
time to use that thing in an actual song,
things get all turned around.
The solution though, is to make your practice
look and feel more like you’re actually
playing.
How do you do that?
Well most people when they start to practice
something - especially something like scales,
what do they do?
They just go up and down the scales in isolation,
like this.
[plays scales] There’s nothing wrong with
doing this, but it’s not particularly musical,
is it?
It’s just an exercise and when it comes
time to use these kinds of scales in your
practice,you run the risk of sounding like
you’re just playing an exercise.
The thing I suggested to Sai in the comments
was to do this.
Go up one shape of the pentatonic scale, but
come down the next one.
Instead up going up a shape, then down the
shape, then up to the next - hijack that process
and go up one shape and down the next shape.
That’d look like this.
[plays pentatonic shape] Up the first one
but instead of stopping here at the top and
coming back down, we’re going to go ABOVE
that top note to the next shape up [plays
note] and come down that one.
[plays pentatonic] Then you can go up the
next shape [plays pentatonic] and same deal
here - go ABOVE the ending of that one to
the next shape up and come down that one.
[more pentatonics] And then we’d go up the
5th shape [plays pentatonic] and down the
first one again, but up 
the octave.
[keeps playing pentatonic]
Do you see how this works?
Now, you’re not just going up and down the
individual shapes - you’re actually connecting
them with each other and this might still
just be an exercise, but it sounds a hell
of a lot more musical than just going up and
down scales.
Ugh!
You can also play around with this idea in
other ways.
You could start off by going down the first
shape and then up the 2nd and follow that
pattern.
That’d sound like this.
[plays pentatonics] It’s the same idea,
but executed differently.
Let’s see how this sounds if we just take
this idea and play it over something like
a blues.
So I’ve got a blues backing track here in
the key of C - let’s just play this idea
over it and see how it sounds.
[plays exercise over track] It still sounds
kind of ‘exercise-y’, right, but you’re
using all the shapes and moving fluidly between
them.
Next, let’s try something a bit different.
Let’s go through the shapes one by one and
really stay within them.
Then, we’ll consciously pick the points
where we’ll move up into the next shape.
So if we bring back the track we’ll start
off just in our first shape.
[noodles in first shape] Just the first one
to start with.
And at some point, pick your time and move
up to the next shape [moves up in shape].
Wicked!
Now we’re here - we’re using this 2nd
one.
Now let’s move up...NOW [moves up] Yeah?
See how we’re doing that?
Let’s move up again.
[moves up] And up to the last one [moves up]
Awesome.
Let’s go up to the first shape again, but
up the octave. [moves up] Sweet!
We’ve just gone through all the shapes and
it never really felt like we were playing
an exercise.
We just used that simple framework of starting
in one shape, picking a point to move up to
the next one and then just doing it.
If you wanted to, you could get more advanced
and even set limits on how long you wanted
to stay in one shape.
You might play a game and try to move up to
the next shape on beat one of every bar.
That might sound like this.
[plays exercise] This is actually a ton of
fun - and it’ll reinforce the shapes of
the pentatonic and make it super easy to play
fluidly over your whole fretboard.
All it takes is some practice and a framework
to follow.
You’ve got the framework now - you just
need to put the practice in.
Now if you need the shapes for all these scales
or if you want them in tab form or notation
form, be sure to click the link in the description
and download my Pentatonic Scale Cheat Sheet.
You’ll get the formulas for all the shapes,
as well as the tab, like I mentioned, but
you’ll also get a variation that combines
multiple shapes together across all your strings
that can really help open up your playing.
It’s 100% free so click that link to grab
it!
To recap though, you learned all about your
pentatonic scale and a more musical method
of memorizing the 5 different shapes, and
going between them in a fluid, musical way,
rather than just up and down the scale.
You learned that going up one shape and down
the following shape was a great way of doing
it as well as doing the opposite - coming
down one and back up the next.
When you got the hang of this, you could then
play around with the idea of staying in one
shape for a while, then picking a point to
move to the next shape.
Thanks so much for watching - I really appreciate
it.
Make sure and check out that pentatonic cheat
sheet.
I’d be happy to send it your way.
I’m Luke from becomeabassist.com and I’ll
catch you soon.
