In the previous lesson, I began to talk about learning your pentatonic scales in different positions –on your bass, I mean, not sitting and standing ;). And this is really important because, as with any scale, if you know it in only one position or pattern, you’ll get stuck!!!
So you have to learn them starting from different positions / fingers, and I recommend starting with three positions. Let’s take the C major pentatonic scale for example: we can start playing it with the second finger on the C, then starting with the fourth finger on the C, and lastly with the second finger on the D.
Once you’ve learned that patterns, what you wanna do is practice going up in one position then down in another, and vice-versa. Practicing that way will give you a much better mastery of your pentatonic scales and, more generally, of your fretboard!
Btw., this doesn’t apply only for the pentatonic scales, it applies for any scale. So if you haven’t watched my lesson on how to practice bass scales, I highly recommend you do so!
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In this video all of your positions seem to be 1 finger per fret. I noticed in one of your arpeggio tutorials that some of your positions span 5 frets. I am physically comfortable with both, but I sometimes get confused when trying to apply the “3 positions” to new scales/chords. Is there a rule of thumb to know when to span 5 frets in a position and when to keep it 1 finger per fret? I hope that makes sense.
can you do a lesson on the 3 positions of a minor pentatonic, these lessons are great
Can you do the same lesson without the cheeky smirk on your face at the end?
Just kidding.
Great series, straight to the point and very very useable as always.