In this bass lesson, you’re going to learn
3 places to play your minor pentatonic scale
on bass that go from the most basic of basics
to some more sophisticated ideas.
Hi, I’m Luke from becomeabassist.com and
if you want to know how to take this scale
that you may already know and use it in different,
interesting and more creative ways, then keep
watching!
[Video Intro]
It’s one thing to know how to play your
minor pentatonic scale on bass, but it’s
another thing entirely to know where and how
you can use it.
So right now, I want to go through 3 places
where you can go crazy with your minor pentatonic
scale and it’s going to sound great.
First of all though, if you need a refresher
on the minor pentatonic, click the link underneath
this video and download my Pentatonic Scale
Cheat sheet.
You’ll learn the 5 shapes and positions
for the pentatonic scales, and you’ll get
them in tab form too.
Plus you’ll learn how to memorize them and
combine them across your whole fretboard which
is going to make everything you do in this
video so much easier.
If you already know how to get around minor
pentatonic scale on bass already, we can jump
right in!
The first place most people get told to use
the minor pentatonic scale is improvising
over a song in a minor key.
For example, if we have a song in the key
of C minor, the C minor pentatonic is going
to work really well.
I’ve got a backing track right here that’s
just a chord progression from the key of C
minor, so let’s play around with this using
the C
minor
pentatonic scale.
[plays track, then some bass] Just like that,
you’re off and improvising using just those
5 notes.
If you already had a chord progression in
mind, but you wanted to come up with a melody,
you could use the minor pentatonic to do just
that.
Pentatonic melodies can sound great and they
get used all the time.
Now notice here that it sounds good and works
for the most part, but it won’t always work
100% of the time.
In fact, in this demonstration, every note
in the scale will work over every chord except
one.
There’s one note that will clash with one
of the chords.
Do you know what it is?
In this case, it’s the Eb and chord it will
clash with is the Bb chord.
Why won’t the Eb work perfectly over this
chord?
Check it out.
The notes of our Bb chord are Bb, D and F,
right?
[plays chord] That’s our Bb chord, and if
I play an Eb over this, what happens?
[plays Eb] We’re getting a half-step in
between the D, which is in the chord, and
the Eb, which is in the scale.
This kind of sound.
[plays dissonant notes] Not super pretty is
it?
So the pentatonic will work the vast majority
of the time, but maybe not over the entirety
of whatever you’re playing.
However, it’s a great choice to get through
songs in minor keys, and the more you play,
the more experience you get, you’ll start
to know which notes you should avoid landing
on really hard.
It’ll become really intuitive.
By the way, there’s a little trick you can
use that lets you play the same exact minor
pentatonic shapes over songs in a major key
as well.
It works like this.
If you’re playing a song in a major key,
go 3 frets down from the root of the key and
play that minor pentatonic.
For example, if you’re playing a song in
G major, [plays a G] then go 3 frets down
from this G - 1, 2, 3 and plug in that minor
pentatonic scale on your bass, [plays E minor
pentatonic on bass] that’ll work in much
the same way.
In this case, if we’re playing a song in
G major, an E minor pentatonic will work well.
If you’re in D major [plays D major], then
go down 1, 2, 3 frets and the B minor pentatonic
will work really well.
It’s a simple idea, but it works really
well.
Let’s move on now though to the 2nd place
the minor pentatonic does really well and
that’s over a good old fashioned blues!
So if you have a blues in ‘x’ key, then
you can use the ‘x’ pentatonic scale.
We’ve been using the C minor pentatonic
scale, so let’s use a C blues to play it
over.
[plays track, then plays some bass]
The blues is super interesting - especially
if you use the minor pentatonic over the whole
thing.
There are actually a bunch of places where
the minor pentatonic shouldn’t really work
very well over the blues progression, but
because the minor pentatonic and the blues
are such a strong combination, it isn’t
really an issue.
Most people are so used to hearing it that
they don’t bat an eyelid.
If you wanted to get a little bit fancy - a
little bit more advanced, you could absolutely
do that by mixing in your minor pentatonic
scale with your minor pentatonic scale three
frets down - just like we did in the first
example.
In this key, it means starting at the C here
[plays a C] and going down 3 frets to this
A and plugging in our minor pentatonic here.
[plays A minor pentatonic] So how can we go
about mixing this sound into our blues?
Well you’ve actually got a ton of different
options here.
If we went through all of them, we’d be
here for ages, so one option that works really
well is to play the minor pentatonic scale
3 frets down over the C7 chords - the ‘1-chords’.
So it’s over the first 4 bars of the progression
and then bars 7 and 8 of the progression and
then the last 2 bars as well.
For the rest of the time, you can use the
minor pentatonic.
If you did that, it’d sound something like
this.
[plays track] Major pentatonic over the first
chord.
Completely different sound.
Now to the minor pentatonic.
Then back to the major.
Minor again, and then major.
This is a great way of varying what you’re
doing but it also helps to actually outline
the harmony, which isn’t something we’ve
really done so far.
Notice that this approach of mixing both the
minor pentatonic and the minor pentatonic
3 frets down can be really melodic and it
gives movement and direction to your playing.
Finally, let’s talk about using the minor
pentatonic on bass to create fills!
For tons of bass players, the minor pentatonic
is sort of the ‘go-to’ when it comes to
making fills.
This is because there aren’t any notes that
are going to sound bad and pentatonic fills
can sound really badass when you pull them
off.
So let’s pretend we’re playing some groove
in C - let’s keep everything in the same
key for now.
Let’s start off by putting a fill in the
4th bar of the groove and let’s just try
coming down the minor pentatonic scale from
this high C here [plays C] - super simple
to start with.
So here’s the track [plays track] Remember
4 bars.
And here’s the fill [plays fill] It might
not be the most inspiring thing in the world,
but it’s a start.
Let’s take the same idea and just play around
with the phrasing a little.
Instead of coming straight down, let’s start
at the same place, but hold on a few notes
a little longer.
[plays track]
Next, let’s try starting on different notes.
Let’s start on the Bb this time.
[plays fill] What about starting on the G
now.
[plays fill] Let’s try starting the fill
on the F now.
[plays fill] Last one - let’s try starting
on the Eb now.
[plays fill, then stops track] You can start
your fill on every note of the minor pentatonic
and it’s going to work great.
You’ll notice that all we’ve done so far
is come down - we haven’t played any ideas
that are ascending yet.
That’s because usually with fills, you want
to land hard on the root of the following
bar - the bar that you go back to the groove.
And it’s way easier to do that if you start
high and aim for the root as you come down.
If you miss hitting that root on the one,
then the groove feels like it’s kind of
falling apart and nobody wants that.
But that doesn’t mean that you can’t play
fills that are ascending.
Let’s try some now - just remember you want
to get back to the C and hit it hard right
on the one so the groove stays intact.
Let’s try
a few [plays track with fills]
This is a ton of fun, it sounds great, and
we’re only those using five notes.
The minor pentatonics are just perfect for
doing this kind of thing.
Once again, if you need to really get a handle
on your minor pentatonic scale on bass, be
sure to check out my Pentatonic Cheat Sheet.
It’ll show you how to play the pentatonics
no matter where you are on your bass, plus
you’ll learn how to move through all the
different positions fluidly and memorize the
whole thing too.
It’s 100% free so click that link under
this video, sign up on that page and I’ll
send it straight to your inbox.
To recap though, you learned 3 places you
can really get crazy with your pentatonic
scale.
The first was just over a chord progression
in a minor key - whether you want to just
improvise or create beautiful melodies, the
minor pentatonic is a great way of doing it.
The 2nd was using the minor pentatonic over
a blues - it pretty much always works!
And finally, we talked about using the minor
pentatonic to create fills, usually with descending
ideas, but sometimes with ascending ideas
as well.
Thanks so much for watching - I really appreciate
it.
I’m Luke from becomeabassist.com and hopefully,
I’ll see you in your inbox with the Pentatonic
Cheat Sheet.
Cheers.
