BASS LESSON No 5 - Major Scales

The Major scale.

Every song we hear is built on a scale. In this lesson we are looking at the major scale. The major scale has a series of eight notes beginning on the first note and ending on the same note but an octave higher.

The C major scale written below, is written using the bass clef as that is the clef that bass music is written in.

Each major scale is built on the same structure with the distance between each note as follows:

 Tone  - Tone - Semitone - Tone - Tone - Tone - Semitone

What is a Tone?

Tone is the distance between two notes made up of two semitones eg C - D

What is a semitone?

Semitone is the shortest distance between 2 notes for eg C - C# and F - E

What it looks like on the fretboard

Exercise 1 - C Major Scale

The C major scale starts on the 3rd fret of the A string starting with the second finger. There is a bit of a stretch to the note D using the 4th finger, however, over time your LH will learn to stretch and give you more flexibility when you are playing. 

Exercise 2 - G Major Scale

The G major scale uses the same shape and fingers but starts on the E sting, 3rd fret.

Exercise 3 - D Major Scale

The D major scale uses the same shape and fingers but starts on the 5th fret of the A string

Exercise 4 — A Major Scale

The A major scale uses the same shape but starts on the E string, 5th Fret.

This video shows the different hand positions for the C major scale. It starts in open position (where you are using some open strings and then moves to an octave higher and an octave higher etc. This video is also really good to practice along with all the exercises.