Using Pentatonic Scales on the Bass #1 (L#50)

Pentatonic scales are widely used in almost every style of music, so much so that they're often called the 'bread and butter' of the bass player!

In this lesson, I'm showing you how you can get pentatonic scales into your bass lines and what they are good for. I'm also discussing how to adapt them, depending on the style of music you're playing.

Basically, a major pentatonic scale is very much like the major scale, except it misses out the 4th & the 7th, leaving us with just 5 notes (penta = five). The minor pentatonic scale misses out the 2nd and the 6th and sounds much more bluesy or jazzy.

Then, we'll see how we can use both minor and major pentatonic scales over a simple chord sequence. Have fun! ;)

Other lessons in the series

Using pentatonic scales on the bass #2

Using pentatonic scales on the bass #3

Using pentatonic scales on the bass #4