Anybody know of a comprehensive (and I mean comprehensive :) book all about scales for bass guitar. Not the actual scales, but specifically on how to use them?

Having difficulty getting my head around all the different scales and how to apply them to creating bass lines
Questions like:
1. Can you jump from one mode to another i.e. dorian to myxolidian (I know I have spelt that wrong), and use them all over the fretboard? or only particular modes will go with another mode etc
2. All about major / minor e.g. seems to be major dorian and minor dorian (am I right?) and how these relate?

Started practising to drum loops, and not really using modes just whatever sounds good. Sure the lines I come up with are influenced by modes I am familiar with.

Does the average bass player use the modes (I dont mean professionals), or just whatever sounds good?

Be really interested to know?
 
Others feel differently, but my take on modes is that it's a theoretical way to describe what my ear already likes. Others are more "into" it and use modes to drive new sounds, I just haven't invested that much time or effort in using them. But I do find them useful for "putting a name on it" - "what's that? sounds good, but why?"...
 
Yeah thanks, Wasnt sure how much people actually used them. when you look at Youtube, alot of lessons are about scales i.e. DanHawkins, Scotts bass lesson, and talking bass etc

For amateurs (like me) I suppose it opens the fretboard up.. And when I create basslines now they all sound a little the same, but in fairness Ive only started using the drum loops. Hopefully over time I can expand on this :)
 
No doubt that scales are very important to learn. However, perhaps more important for constructing bass lines are ...CHORD TONES.

The site in the link covers them well.

Chord Tones Are Primary | StudyBass
Yeah, chord tones are like the spots on your roadmap you need to visit "on schedule", whereas scales and modes are more like road lines and routing choices. An entirely useless and unhelpful way of thinking about it, lol.

I need more coffee this morning, sorry. ;)
 
Others feel differently, but my take on modes is that it's a theoretical way to describe what my ear already likes. Others are more "into" it and use modes to drive new sounds, I just haven't invested that much time or effort in using them. But I do find them useful for "putting a name on it" - "what's that? sounds good, but why?"...
I completely agree. Modes are a great way to explain and organize how the mathematics of harmony work, but I don’t think most people think about them all that much. Once those relationships are understood I feel like modes just become academic.

What you really need to pay attention to is chords. Scales are just series of notes within the chords so if you know the harmony - the chords - you know the scales associated with it. I think a lot of bassists, especially self-taught, can fall into a trap of thinking too much about scales and modes because we play what is primarily a single-note instrument and they don’t put as much emphasis as they should on chords and harmony.

As far as scales, specifically, go, I’ve been told that Dave Holland’s preferred warm-up is to play only 3 scales: major, minor and dominant in all keys working around the circle of 5ths. 2 octaves. It takes about 20 minutes at a modest tempo. He doesn’t feel any other scalar practice is necessary and devotes the rest of his practice time to playing over actual chord changes.

I don’t know how true that is but I got it from a teacher of mine years ago who was a former student of Holland’s. Hey, if it’s good enough for Dave Holland….

The point is you can get all twisted up in knots over modes but it’s unlikely they’re going to be the main thing on your mind when you’re on the bandstand. You’d better know what chords the rest of the band is playing, though!
 
Anybody know of a comprehensive (and I mean comprehensive :) book all about scales for bass guitar. Not the actual scales, but specifically on how to use them?

If you want to know how to use scales, any music books that discuss that are fine. No reason to be bass specific, in fact it’s best to not be bass specific.

How to use them:

1. What scales work with a given chord? A major scale in any key provides all the notes you need to play all seven chords as either triads or seventh chords depending on the root note. In C major those chords would be:

C or Cmaj7, Dm or Dm7, Em or Em7, F or Fmaj7, G or G7 (dom7), Am or Am7, Bdim or Bdim7.

So when you are playing in the key of C major you will usually only see those chords, so all the notes you need for your line or solo can come from the same scale.

2. Modes get used a lot, particularly mixolydian (major scale with a flat 7th) and dorian (natural minor scale with maj6). Rock and blues soloists use these modes all the time. I'd guess many people who use them don't even think of it as using modes. The other modes are of less interest unless you are going to play jazz or modal ethnic music (Irish, Greek, Middle Eastern, etc.). Certain instruments lend themselves to modal playing, like the harmonica which only has the notes of the major scale. Blues harmonica players will use a harmonica in the key of C to play in the key of G…C major has an F, G major has an F#. The C harmonica has the notes of G mixolydian. They also will use a C harmonica to play in D minor because it has the notes of D dorian (C instead of C#).

3. You need to understand how scales and chords are related. Sit down and play a simple song like “Happy Birthday”. Now for each note, figure out what chords present in the major scale (in whatever key you are in) can fit under that note. Bass lines should emphasize chord tones and the chords are defined by the melody notes. Consider the basic riff used in "Whole Lotta Love”:

E B D B D E

Those notes come from the Emin7 chord (E G B D). That’s the only chord in the whole song, in fact. Riff based songs in general are built around a scale.

I hope this isn't already exploding your brain!
 
The average player does what sounds good. As is obvious from the numerous harmonic mistakes in famous rock bands. If you care about being harmonically correct in for instance a jazz setting, then you need to know your modes.
 
Here is a cheat sheet that I made for a buddy:
keys.JPG
 
I use modes when I play. Yes chord tones are important, especially on strong beats. The pinnacle of this principle is playing the root (the most consonant interval of any chord) on beat 1 (the strongest beat).

But playing ONLY chord tones is boring. So how can you add non-chord tones to movement between the chord tones you place on the strong beats?

There are actually two options: diatonic and non-diatonic notes. Diatonic is $5 word meaning “in the scale”. Non-diatonic are often considered “chromatic” approaches.

So “in the scale” but what scale? This is where modes become very helpful.

The way I use them is by grouping chords together and figuring out one mode that can connect those chords. That mode should relate back to the overall key of the music, or represent the mode that the entire song is in.

Take a simple chord progression, like the verse/chorus of “Taking Care Of Business” by Bachman Turner Overdrive. IIRC it is:

| C | Bb | F | C |

This chord movement sparks a lot of debate around “what key is this in”. The same kind of movement exists in The Who’s “Baba O’Reilly” and in Lynnyrd Skynnyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama”.

Some people view this as a 1-4-5 progression in F, but the some doesn’t resolve to F. The song, the melody, resolve to C.

I think of this as being in C mixolydian. The same notes as F Ionian (aka F major) but with a better “home” note.

Many songs have non-diatonic chords or sections in them, then I’ll find a new mode that fits those chords without grossly violating the key. They have a term for this: modal interchange. Or “borrowed chords” or “parallel modes”.

If you are looking for a scale you can use over a wide variety of chord changes, checkout the major and minor pentatonic scales. Note that these two scales share a modal family. Learn all 5 modes of the pentatonic scale and become fluent using that scale to connect your chord tones.

Then start to relate the various modes of the pentatonic scale to modes of the major scale. In each case only 2 notes need to be added to go from a pentatonic to a mode of the major scale.

Look at the minor pentatonic scale - which is what many newbies erroneously call “the pentatonic scale” like there’s only one - and see how adding a major sixth and a two gives you the Dorian mode (which is always minor, btw, there is no major Dorian mode that I am aware of). Now think instead of adding the major sixth, I’ll add the minor sixth. That gives you the Aeolian mode, aka the natural minor scale.
 
Aside:
I would like to understand why I like some dissonant notes, while others are just embarrassing.
The former sound like an intentional assertion of attitude, while the latter just sound like mistakes.
 
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Aside:
I would like to understand why I like some dissonant notes, while others are just embarrassing.
The former sound like an intentional assertion of attitude, while the latter just sound like mistakes.

One guess might be: Because the pleasing dissonant notes may happen right before a resolving note and 'pull your ear' to a resolution. If you play chromatically you can hear the good ones.

Another example is the flatted 5th of a 7 chord. It sounds good because its in key even though it's dissonant. Flat the 5 of any other chord in the key and it usually sounds bad.

I guess it's really all about context.
 
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The average player does what sounds good. As is obvious from the numerous harmonic mistakes in famous rock bands.

If it sounds good, it is not a "mistake". Music theory did not arrive on one of the tablets from Mount Sinai as a set of divine rules that must be followed in order for music to be "correct". Theory is a way of organizing things to explain what usually sounds good - it comes to us from the experience of musicians over the ages, who figured it out by ear, not the other way around.
 
My bass instruction on pentatonic scales changed my life. I knew what a pentatonic scale was but learning how to apply them made bass lines and fills start to fly off my fingers and got me moving around the fretboard more fluidly. It also helped me rapidly figure out existing bass lines since so many are built on these patterns.