Chords for Bass Lesson - Beginner's Guide to Scales and Modes (The Bass Wizard)

_ _ _ _ [G#] _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ [C#] _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ [E] Do _ _ [B] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [A#] you want to know how I was able to do that?
Do you want to know how people are able to solo and improvise on songs and play all over
the neck smoothly like that?
Well there are things called scales and modes which allow us to do that.
And that's what we're going to cover in this video.
For the sake of demonstration in this video, [F#] we're going to use the C major [F] scale because
that's the easiest scale [D#] to demonstrate stuff with.
There's no sharps, no flats.
The notes are [C] just C, [D] D, [E] E, [G] F, G, A, B.
[C] _ _
_ [A] _ And what modes are, are basically if [A] I take that
[D] scale which is C, D, E, F, [B] G, A, B and I start it on the D instead of [F#] the C and play those
notes, it's going to sound a little bit different even though they're the same notes.
And _ _ [G] _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ [D] _ _ that's called the D Dorian mode because [C] that's the same scale [Dm] starting on the second note.
There are seven modes.
[D#] Each one corresponds [D] to a different note in the scale.
[C] So if I start it on [D] the third note, the first one is a C, second is a D, the third is an
E.
[E] So if I take an E and I play the [G] exact same notes, right, remember this shape right
here, [C] C major?
It's the same thing [E] but I'm starting on the E instead of the C. _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ [B] _ _ _ _
[E] _ That sounds different
than this, right? _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] Even though they're the same [N] notes.
And the reason they sound different is because they're the [F#] same notes but if I start [E] on different
notes it creates a different interval between the notes.
And what an interval is, is the distance from one note to another.
So if I'm playing C, [D] [E] D, E, I'm going two frets from the [Dm] C to the D, two frets from [Em] the D
to the E.
That's called a whole step.
[F] If I'm playing from the E, [E] if I start the scale from the E and I play [D] four notes up
to the A, [E] I'm playing [F] a half step [Em] because I'm only going [A#] one fret, a whole [G] step because
I'm going another fret and then [A] another whole step.
So that's a different interval and [D#] creates a different tonal quality and that's what modes offer.
_ So depending on which note you start the scale on out of the seven notes that are in the
scale, you're going to get a different kind of sound and that's going to [Dm] allow you to
play over the neck because if I'm over here on [A] C, _ over here I can go to the D, play the
same scale, I can go to the E, play the same scale again and so on and so forth.
And I'll show you a demonstration of this.
If I _ _ [C] _ have a song in C major and all I know is the C major scale, I don't know the modes,
I don't know anything else, yeah I can solo on it but that's what it would look like. _
_ _ [Am] _ [C] _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ [Am] _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ [C] _ _
_ [E] So as you can see that works, right?
[F#] The notes are right but I'm [F] stuck into one position on the neck because all I know is
that C major scale starting from [F#] the root or the C.
And if I know the modes, I'm able to start it from any note and still play the same scale.
So [D] now we're going to name the modes and then [G] I'm going to tell you exactly what they are.
The names may sound a little complicated but they're really [D#] not, right?
I already explained to you what it is, it's a very simple concept.
They're all the same scale just starting from a different note.
So if I start from a C, which is the first note, that's an Ionian scale, which is just
the major [D] scale.
If [Dm] I start from the second note, [F#] which in the C major is a D, that's called a D Dorian scale.
If I [E] start from the third, that's a Phrygian, _ fourth Lydian, fifth Mixolydian, _ sixth Aeolian,
which is the same as the minor scale, [D] and the seventh is a Locrian.
And I'm going to [F#] have a PDF, if you go in the description of this video, there's a PDF
to all the shapes of what they look like on the fretboard.
I'm going to play it right now as well to show you but you can follow along with that PDF.
It shows you what kind of scale they are, is it a major or minor, what the tonal quality
they offer is.
So I'll have that up in that PDF, check that out, and I'm going to demonstrate this song
how it would [C] look if you knew the modes.
_ So now we're going to see how all these modes work within a [C] song.
The track is in C major, so we already [G] know that C major is going to work.
_ [C] _ _ C major right here.
_ _ D Dorian. _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ Phrygian. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ [Am] _ _ [F] _ [C] _ _
Aeolian.
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ Locrian. And [C] Aeolian.
C major. _
[G] _ _ Aeolian.
[C] Locrian.
Locrian.
_ [E] There's a lot of different modes to choose from and they each give you a different kind of sound.
[A] Now, should you just stick to one mode, should you [E] mix and match, that's really up to you,
you can do whatever [D] you want.
The first solo, in the beginning of the video, the solo I took, I started [N] on the Aeolian mode.
Even though the song is in B Aeolian, so it's B minor, I added a major quality to it by
using the Aeolian mode.
So if I wanted to in this track, for example, _ [C] I could just C [D] major, _ _ _ [C] I can use Aeolian and
give it like a minor kind of sound.
[D] _ _ _ _
_ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ [C] So as you can see, [N] knowing all the different modes and how they work really opens up your
creative control and gives you a lot of freedom to work up and down the neck and to create
all these different kind of tonal qualities within a song.
So I hope you guys enjoyed that.
Make sure you check out my website, thebasswizard.com.
Sign up for my mailing list for exclusive tutorials and I'll see you guys next time.
Thank you. _ _ _ _ _ _