Bassic Talks

Bass-ic Talks ~ Bayo-David Oluwatobiloba
SHARING WITH OTHERS

BASS-IC TALKS A lot of times I have met
with people that are
What is Music?
ready to share their
M usic as a term has proven to be a difficult concept to

define thoroughly. As different people’s definition are not totally
music materials (in form
of books, video, audios,
software etc.) with you,
accepted by others. and at the same time
However, music definition can be seen to have some
common facts from different music experts. people who pretend they
 Organised Sound don’t have and are not
 Pleasant Sound willing to share their
 Melody
materials with you. Even
 Rhythm
 Improvisation if you found out that they
have it in their
Music can also be defined in other ways; possessions! Whichever
Victor Wooten in one of his workshops defines Music as a
way, everyone is right.
language: Language helps to communicate, what we want to say,
feeling and what we are to convey, so here the language is not Those that share might
more important, but what to say. Likewise Music, but the be sharing for the love of
instrument used to convey them is secondary.
sharing, discussing the
This book takes the Bass Guitar as the primary instrument
material with you,
to be used in conveying our emotions and feelings. Imagine if you
could improve your bass playing skills to the point where you learning from you when
could play almost any musical idea you want to create. Yes it is you use the material
very possible; this book gives a basic path to getting this done.
Those that don’t share
The normal routine we get into to learn this is, you lock yourself
in a room alone for long periods rehearsing and while doing this might be because they
you tell yourself everything you’re doing wrong and wonder why have spent so much to
it all seem so difficult. Then you later conclude you have to do get the materials.
this constantly for the next 5-10 years.
Unfortunately, most musicians learn their instruments this You will come across
way. It all seem we are learning from other peoples pattern and people with different
doing what they were doing whether they are successful or not. notion about sharing of
But, the methods here and some little secrets here are coupled ideas and materials. It is
together to bring about quick guide to the long journeys normal. Pay for what you
need. If need be.
A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring – Alexander Pope
PRACTISE WITHOUT YOUR
Bass-ic Talks ~ Bayo-David Oluwatobiloba BASS
You might want to ask, why

practise without the
instrument, while it is the
BASS ANATOMY reason you got this book in
the first place
What is a Bass Guitar? Yes, practising without your
bass helps a lot.
A bass guitar is an instrument of the string family. Some practise examples are
below
It has big strings and produces a sound that people  Writing what should
describe as heavy, thick or even low frequency. be played down a
paper and visualising
how you could change
SOME CLASSIFICATIONS FOR BASS GUITARS your fingering
position
STRINGS CONFIGURATIONS
 Close your eyes and
 4 strings (Standard Bass) mentally picture your
 5 strings, 6strings and even more (Extended- practise time
Range Bass)
 Listen to songs and
radio and pick out
MODE OF AMPLIFICATIONS new musical ideas
 Electric Bass
 Semi-acoustic Bass  Sing your notes
 Acoustic Bass carefully making sure
you spell out the
notes.
FRET CONFIGURATIONS
 Fretted Bass Your
 Fretless Bass imagination
sharpens, the
listening ears
HARDWARE CONFIGURATIONS become better
 Bolt-on Bass at recognising
tunes, chord,
 Neck-Through Bass timbres, colour
notes,
Note: We are working with the Bold lettered embellishment
classifications and other
ornaments.
This way you are
learning a great deal
without touching your
bass at all.
Tuning Pegs
The tuning pegs are used in wounding or
Good
tightening habits
and are as easy
loosening of to form asinbad
strings – Tim
onesto
other get McCarver
1
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TUNING PEG
This helps the player to adjust the strings to right and desired tuning,
making it suitable for playing
TUNING MACHINE
The tuning mechanism is the machine at the back of the bass headstock; it
is the main thing behind the tuning that makes it possible
STRINGS
This metal wounds, flat wounds, round wounds etc. They give the notes
when fretted, picked, slapped or popped.
N.B not to be called SPRINGS
BRIDGE
The bridge helps to hold the strings in their equal and evenly spaced
widths. This is located on the body of the bass.
FRET
The usually horizontal shiny metals found under the strings
N.B a fretless bass does not have FRET
FRETBOARD
This is the board on which the Fret is placed; this is the area of play
DOT POSITION INLAYS
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These are white dots or designs etc located on fret "3, 5, 7, 9, 12" before
the other octave begins
N.B some custom basses and some bass companies may not put this on their
bass, and they may have different arrangement.
SOUND PICKUPS
This is usually black, though not always. It is located after the fret boards
under the strings. They pickups the sound from the strings
TONE/VOLUME KNOBS
These knobs are located under the pickups, they are turn able. They are
used to control the volume and fine tune the tone of the bass to desired ones.
SADDLE
This is where the strings come in. Its helps to carry the bass strings for
accurate fret board radius
BELT STRAP NUTS

This is enables a belt to carry the guitar and hold it in place, so that the
hands can be free to play
JACK PLUG INLET

This is a round opening. In which a jack is to be plugged.
‘Tis the mind that makes the body rich – William Shakespeare
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THE MUSIC ALPHABETS
T here are 12 notes in music, and these notes are represented by the
first 7 alphabets of the English language.

Namely;
A B C D E F G
After G, The musical alphabets repeat again. This is referred to as OCTAVE.

See below
A B C D E F G A’
Octave Octave
lower higher
Quickly Memorize these TIPS

 B to C is a Semitone
 E to F is a Semitone
 The others are Whole tones
A B C D E F G A’
semitone semitone
Pitch
The pitch of a note is how high or low it sounds. It’s useful to talk about
how much higher or lower one pitch of a note is to another. The distance
between two pitches is called the Intervals.
The Intervals between two notes is the distance between the two notes. In
other words, how high or low one note is to the other.
SEMITONE/HALF-TONE/HALF STEP
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This is the smallest interval between one note and the another note. Either
higher or lower. It is also called a half step/half or semi-tone. It is denoted by
“H” or “S” or “St”
WHOLETONE/FULL-TONE/FULL STEP
If you go up or down two half steps from one note to another, then those
notes are a whole step apart. It is also called a Full tone or Full step. It is
denoted by “W” or “T” or “F”
This concept is so important that it is almost impossible to talk about scales,

chords, harmonic progression without referring to intervals. So it would be a
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good idea to spend some time getting comfortable with the concepts below and
practicing to identify intervals.
HOW TO DERIVE THE CHROMATIC SCALE
From figure above,

There should be a note between A and B, and it is represented by the ash
coloured rectangle;
 Moving a semitone forward from A, we have A sharp
 Moving a semitone backward from B, we have B flat
 # means Sharp (diesis): It is increases a note by a half step

 b means Flat (bemolle): It is decreases a note by a half step
The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do – Walter Bagehot
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THE 12 CHROMATIC SCALES
Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
1 A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G# A'
Bb Db Eb Gb Ab
2 A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A#'
Bb Db Eb Gb Ab Bb
3 B C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B'
Db Eb Gb Ab
4 C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C
Db Eb Gb Ab Bb
5 C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C C#
Db Eb Gb Ab Bb Db
6 D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C C# D
Eb Gb Ab Bb Db
7 D# E F F# G G# A A# B C C# D D#
Eb Gb Ab Bb Db Eb
8 E F F# G G# A A# B C C# D D# E
Gb Ab Bb Db Eb
9 F F# G G# A A# B C C# D D# E F
Gb Ab Bb Db Eb
10 F# G G# A A# B C C# D D# E F F#
Gb Ab Bb Db Eb Gb
11 G G# A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G
Ab Bb Db Eb Gb
12 G# A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G#
Ab Bb Db Eb Gb Ab
13 A’ A#’ B’ C’ C#’ D’ D#’ E’ F’ F#’ G’ G#’ A’
Bb' Db' Eb’ Gb' Ab’
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INTERVALS
Symbol Name Description Fret Distance
1 Prime 0 steps 0 Frets
b2 Minor 2nd Half step 1 Frets
2 Major 2nd 1 whole step 2 Frets
b3 Minor 3rd 1 whole step + half step 3 Frets
3 Major 3rd 2 whole step 4 Frets
4 Perfect 4th 2 whole step + half step 5 Frets
#4 Augmented 4th 3 whole step 6 Frets
b5 Diminished 5th 3 whole step 6 Frets
5 Perfect 5th 3 whole step + half step 7 Frets
b6 Augmented 5th 4 whole step 8 Frets
6 Major 6th 4 whole step + half step 9 Frets
b7 Minor 7th 5 whole steps 10 Frets
7 Major 7th 5 whole steps + half step 11 Frets
8 Octave 6 whole steps 12 Frets
Note: On the bass fretboard, a fret is a semitone apart from the next fret.
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The fretboard showing the intervals; the note C is seen as the reference note , in
the diagrams below.
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10
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NARROW YOUR FOCUS
Fixing One Detail at a Time
Intense focus is the key to

FRETBOARD MAP make big progress in the practice
room. With focus bass players
makes great leaps forward in their
If you were travelling to a place you have never abilities. Without focus, many
bassists flounder.
been to, you would be less stressed with a very good Try these important focusing
techniques:
map in your hands. You just simply need to navigate
your way round the buildings, obstacles and things for  Zero in on the exact issue
that is making a specific
you to get to the destination. Meanwhile, while you are set of notes difficult to
learn. For example, the
navigating to your destination, you might have noticed move from note to another
there are still several ways that also leads to that same might be the problem. Or,
perhaps it is the rhythmic
destination. This is also the true for a Fretboard Map. placement of just a couple
of note that is causing the
This is how bassists know where to touch to problem. Don’t just play
the entire session over and
produce certain pitches, move around the fret board over again, thinking you
dishing out colourful notes, locking the groove will get the problem fix
itself. So in other to create
cohesively with the drummer, and going to the right a successful muscle
memory, intense focus on
and desired fret flawlessly. a problem will help fix it.
The fretboard mastery is one of the keys to
 Think about one aspect of
playing what we hear in our minds. So how do we your music at a time. You
can work a rhythm without
master this fretboard? paying attention to the
pitch, or you can learn the
pitch without the rhythm.
Below are some recommended ways to do that on Tone production and
dynamics can be isolated
your own. and worked on
individually. This same
Fretboard provide an area of play for bass guitar idea can be used with your
players on their instrument. A fretboard is also called techniques. You can either
focus on the right or the
fingerboard when it is fretless. Fretboards are designed left hand as you play.
Concentrate exclusively on
on guitar-like instruments such as Bass, Lead guitar, a single technical issue:
Posture, Picking pattern,
Ukulele, Banjo and the likes. Fingering, Shifting,
Balance, Muscle tension.
Fret boards are demarcated by the use of Frets Sometimes you will need to
think about the music globally,
(thin metal horizontally fixed on the musical paying attention to all aspect
instrument) simply to show where to touch to produce of a song, but rehearsing
locally by intensely
certain pitches. It is a major concern for beginners, concentrating on a single
aspect of your playing. This
makes you feel good, when
you have successfully gotten
over what was your initial
weakness
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starting out with bass, trying to visualise and map out the fretboard seems like a
mystery.
Getting familiar with the fretboard naming would bring the user to a level
of confidence in producing the pitches the way it is wanted. Bassists consider
this topic as an important one, as little can be done without proper mastery of
the fretboard. "The mastery of the fretboard is fulfilling"
FRETBOARD NAMING
In order to name the fretboard, we need to know the names of the Open Notes
(notes that rings without fretting any note [without pressing any string down on
the bass guitar]) of the standard tuning for bass guitar.
The Bass Guitar Open Notes (4 strings Bass)
The biggest string, ‘E’ 4th string
The second to the biggest string, ‘A’ 3rd string
The second to the tiniest string, ‘D’ 2nd string
The tiniest string, ‘G’ 1st string
From the open notes, we will continue filling up with the chromatic scale.
USING THE CHROMATIC SCALE

A chromatic scale is a scale of semitones, moving from a note to the
immediate note through the 12 notes and back to the octave respectively. e.g. A
chromatic scale in the key of C
Diagram below;
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Ascending Chromatic scale

C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C'
C Db D Eb E F Gb G Ab A Bb B C'
___________________________________________________
Descending Chromatic scale
C’ B A# A G# G F# F E D# D C# C
C’ B Bb A Ab G Gb F E Eb D Db C
____________________________________________________
The above chromatic scales are similar

1. They sound alike
2. Some notes are spelled differently
C# and Db
D# and Eb
F# and Gb
G# and Ab
A# and Bb are said to be Enharmonically Equivalent notes
# is called a Sharp a.k.a Diesis

b is called a Flat a.k.a Bemolle
Do not compete with others, but yourself; trying to be better than yesterday. everyday! ~ Bayo-David Oluwatobiloba
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TUNING OF THE BASS GUITAR
TUNING
B ass guitar like other string instrument needs to be tuned especially
when they are out of tune, or when they are just bought. Tuning is a way of
getting stringed instrument to the desired pitch they are to ring when picked,
slapped or popped. Tuning of stringed instruments like bass used to be a bit of a
problem, especially for beginners, but today even novices are saved by modern
technology. But Traditional tuning is sometimes more preferable.
Digital tuning is simple, but it does not take the conditions of the neck in
account. Even if the open strings are in tune, the bass could very easily be out
of tune on the higher frets. It is therefore necessary to learn tuning your bass by
“ear”.
You can use a piano or keyboard to “catch” the pitch of the note.
------------------------------4th string -------------------------E

------------------------------3rd string -------------------------A
------------------------------2nd string -------------------------D
------------------------------1st string --------------------------G
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FINGER DUTIES TOTAL NEW CREATION
A lot of beginners
LEFT HAND TECHNIQUE
think when they want
 Place your thumb at the back of the fret board to create ideas it has
 The other left-hand fingers above the neck
to be totally a new
 Do not press too hard with the thumb
creation. They work
 Relax all fingers
towards making
 Press down the string of the first bass note just
below the fret with one of the left-hand fingers everything theirs. It is
 Use the necessary force to achieve a full tone, possible and except by
but do not press hard inspiration and after a
lot of experience.
Note: The little finger is normally a challenge at the Making a totally new
start of your learning period. After using the little creation might be
finger for a while though, the finger muscles grow time taking. So i
stronger and the finger becomes more efficient.
suggest you take
FINGER NAME SYMBOL FINGER NUMBER concepts from
different piece, mimic
INDEX FINGER (i) finger 1
concepts and with
MIDDLE FINGER (m) finger 2 time you will have
RING FINGER (r) finger 3 enough concepts in
your bag to make
PINKIE (p) finger 4
total new creation.
The fingerings for a bass guitar are simple and a
versatile way to move about the fretboard. Bass
players use different kinds of fingerings when playing.
But we will be talking of the one finger per fret
fingering.
What is one finger per fret fingering?
19
Each of the four fingers 1 to 4 in the above diagram is designated to play their
fret numbers alone.
Fretboard Exercises for Dexterity
Play this combination of pattern to coordinate the fingers
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RIGHT HAND TECHNIQUE
T he right hand of a Bassist does so much; it helps in the upward and
downward picking, slapping, popping and even tapping of notes. The picking
style will be focused on here.
PICKING STYLE
The picking of a note is just similar to picking up of a pencil just that way
you will pick the string, but let your fingers slide through it. The aim here is to
use two fingers which I recommend. You want to be able to alternate finger
while picking a string, so as to not tire out one finger fast, while one pick the
other rests. You want to be able to play notes alternating the fingers on the right
while fretting any note on the left. Let’s work on some patterns for the alternate
picking
Legend ‘i’ – Index finger

‘m’ - Middle finger
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Play this patterns out very slowly, remembering you can only play at top speed
what you have mastered slowly. “We started out writing slowly; we make
mistakes when we were still young. But now, we can write as fast as we want. It
is so, because we have first done it slowly!”
After the above, you need to move out of one strings picking, i.e. going
downward or upwards to the next string. In order to do this right and surely, do
not be shy to look at what your right hand is doing, making sure each finger is
doing the picking and leaving the next finger to play the next picking. Focus on
the alternating finger. It is one of the keys to playing fast.
Lastly, in order to balance and position your fingers for the alternate
picking, you can anchor your thumb on the pickup, so it acts as a support, a
resting place for the thumb.
TIMBRE
Timbre is the quality of sound produced by the bass sound. It is created by the
strings and amplifier of course, but an equally important factor is the position of
the right hand on the body of the bass.
The force of the picking finger should be as follows:

1 . Very soft Almost a mere touch Soft Light picking without force
2 . Neutral Light, gentle pick with a slight force
3 . Hard Powerful picking, tough and short
4 . Very Hard Normally for fast two or three finger playing
The higher up the fret board you play, the harder you will need to pick the string
to compensate for the higher tension of the string.
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SCALES
PRACTISE CONSISTENTLY
INTRODUCTION Practising consistently is a step to mastering
your instrument your own way, taking out at least 10-
15 minutes warm-ups, exercises, learning of songs,
licks, creation of bass lines this all add to the long way
I n order to play on the bass fluidly, one of

from being a beginner bassist to advanced bassist and
everything in between.
Set up quality time and you will surely see great
improvement
the recommended ways to help you start the Warm ups
Get to work on new pattern, scales, arpeggios
fretboard mastery is to visualise the shapes of the and chord tones
scales played on the fretboard, try to set patterns. Exercises
Work on fingering exercises, technique
You want to be able to see the notes on the exercises, get materials from friends and keep
working at them
strings as you play across them, planting them
deep into the muscle memory. Practise licks
There are lots of short musical phrases made
my someone else that you can learn and play, use
LEGENDS and sound well, remember the first step to learning
is by mimic.
W or T means Wholetone or Tone Create New Bass lines
Create bass lines with different methods. I
3H means 3 half steps recommend playing a bass line with your voice
first. That is usually more rhythmical if you
are not yet experienced in creating bass lines
on the go. Many of us can mimic the hardest
What are scales? bass lines with the mouth. Try yours and
record it. Then try to mimic what you have
Scales can be seen as successive notes arranged scatted on your bass.
in a way to fit particular chords.
Scales that we will be outlining in this chapter

are;
1. Chromatic scale
2. Diatonic scales
3. Pentatonic scales
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CHROMATIC SCALE
This is a scale in which the successive notes are built in semitones/half

steps e.g. between C and Db is a Half step (H)
C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C
Db Eb Gb Ab Bb
DIATONIC SCALE
How to build diatonic scale in all keys

 Rule 1:- Write the musical alphabets starting from the first note of the
desired key .e.g in the Key of C major. Start with C.
 Rule 2:- Apply the formula
 W W H W W W H for major scale
 W H W W H W W for minor scale
 Rule 3:- Make sure no alphabet repeats in the corrected scale.
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MAJOR SCALE
This is a scale in which the notes are built by

Whole-step, Whole-step, Half-step, Whole-step, Whole-step, Whole-step, Half-step.
________________________________________________
Example (In the key of D major)
 Rule 1:- Write the musical alphabets starting from the first note of the
desired key.
D E F G A B C D
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
 Rule 2:- W W H W W W H
1. D → E this is a Whole step
2. E → F E → F# is a Whole step
3. F# → G this is a Half step
4. G → A this is a Wholetone
5. A → B this is a Wholetone
6. B → C B → C# is a Whole step
7. C# → D this is a Half step
________________________________________________
 Rule 3:- D E F# G A B C# D
Below are various ways of playimg the same major scale using different fingers
as starting point.
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MODES OF MAJOR SCALES
What is Mode?
Mode can be seen as the rearrangement of notes in a scale from their root
to their respective octaves. Modes are good ways to expand a particular scale,
giving us different flavours, tensions, harmonic relationships etc.
C D E F G A B C
2 2 1 2 2 2 1
Modes of Major Scale

Ionian Mode
This 1st mode of the major scale is characterised by;
Interval: R 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Mode note: d r m f s l t d’
Key of C: C D E F G A B C
Dorian Mode
This 2nd mode of the major scale is characterised by;
Interval: R 2 b3 4 5 6 b7 8
Mode note: r m f s l t d r'
Transpose: d r mo f s l ta d'
Key of C: C D Eb F G A Bb C
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Phrygian Mode
This 3rd mode of the major scale is characterised by;
Interval: R b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 8
Mode note: m f s l t d r m
Transpose: d de mo f s se ta d
Key of C: C Db Eb F G Ab Bb C
Lydian mode
This 4th mode of the major scale is characterised by;
Interval: R 2 3 #4 5 6 7 8
Mode note: f s l t d r m f
Transpose: d r m fe s l t d
Key of C: C D E F# G A B C
Mixolydian Mode
Interval: R 2 3 4 5 6 b7 8
Mode note: s l t d r m f s
Transpose: d r m f s l ta d
Key of C: C D E F G A Bb C
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Aeolian Mode
Interval: R 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 8
Mode note: l t d r m f s l
Transpose: d r mo f s se ta d
Key of C: C D Eb F G Ab Bb C
Locrian mode
Interval: R b2 b3 4 b5 b6 b7 8
Mode note: t d r m f s l t
Transpose: d de mo f fe se ta d
Key of C: C Db Eb F Gb Ab Bb C
Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have a different
effect - Pascal
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Bass-ic Talks ~ Bayo-David Oluwatobiloba HAVING A MENTOR
Having a mentor now

MINOR SCALE a days is a problem
that beginners get.
They don’t want to be
This is a scale in which the notes are built by a protégé. They want
Whole-step, Half-step, Whole-step, Whole-step, Half-step, to be their own
Whole-step, Whole-step. bosses. Having a
________________________________________________ mentor pushes you
further. Because when
Example (In the key of B minor) you are thinking you
are doing great. Your
 Rule 1:- Write the musical alphabets starting from the mentor is seeing your
weakness. He/she will
first note of the desired key. help you to move
further/faster and
B C D E F G A B perhaps create a
platform for you to
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 prove yourself.
 Rule 2:- W H W W H W W Nevertheless be

careful of who you
1. B → C# is a Whole step choose as your
2. C# → D this is a Half step mentor because in the
cause of the
3. D→E this is a Whole step relationship, you tend
4. E → F# is a Whole step to learn his/her good
5. F# → G this is a Half step and bad sides. So care
must be taken to act
6. G→A this is a Whole step like a sieve. Take what
7. A→B this is a Whole step you need and let go of
the bad sides.
________________________________________________
 Rule 3:- B C# D E F# G A B
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RELATIVE MINOR
What is Relative minor?

A Relative minor can simply be seen as a minor key that is relative to a
major key. Every key in music has its relative. A minor has a major relative and
vice versa.
How do we get our relative minors for our major keys?
Using the Cycle of Chromatics.

The Cycle of Chromatics stated below.
 Write the Cycle of Chromatics, then

 Count three notes back from the original key in the above cycle.
(Cycle of Chromatics)
So, the key of C gives A as the relative minor; key of G counts back 3 times to
E on the cycle of chromatics.
The cycle of chromatics and their relatives states
A D G C F Bb Eb Ab Db Gb B E A'
Using the Tonic Solfa

Tonic solfas are the 7 notes a key has.
 Write the tonic solfege of the key
 Count the 6th of the tonic solfege
Simply in the key of C
C D E F G A B C’
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
From the tonic solfege above we see that A is the 6th of key C. Hence, we say
A is the relative minor of C.
Illustration
God created man in his own image on the 6th day. God is the Root of the
creation. And we are the relative minors, which he created on the 6th day.
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PENTATONIC SCALE
Major Pentatonic scale is a scale that has 5 unique notes in them. There are
several variants of pentatonic scales.
This is a scale in which the notes are built by
Whole-step, Whole-step, 3 Half-step, Whole-step, 3 Half-step.
Example (In the key of C major)

Rule 1:- Write the chromatic scale starting from C
Rule 2:- W W 3H W 3H
C→D this is a Whole step
D→E this is a Whole step
E→G this is a 3 Half steps
G→A this is a Whole step
A→C this is a 3 Half steps
________________________________________________
 Rule 3:- C D E G A C
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You would be surprised at the number of years it took me to see clearly what some of the problems were which had to be
solved, looking back I think it was more different to see what the problem were to solve them. – Charles Darwin
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ARPEGGIOS
A rpeggios are broken chords otherwise referred to as liquid chords.

They quickly outline the notes in a chord in succession, therefore providing a
suiting effect. The arpeggios of some common chords are below. They can also
serve as finger exercises, building finger dexterity and coordination.
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TRIADS
Scales and Tonal Functions
I n any scale:
 The first degree (first note) is called the Tonic
 The second degree (second note) is called the Supertonic
 The third degree (third note) is called the Mediant
 The fourth degree (fourth note) is called the Subdominant
 The fifth degree (fifth note) is called the Dominant
 The sixth degree (sixth note) is called the Sub-Mediant
 The seventh degree (seventh note) is called the Subtonic or Leading
Tone.
Primary Triad
These triads have their roots as Tonic, Subdominant and dominant
Do Tonic Do Mi So 13 5 C E G Major Triad

Fa Subdominant Fa La Do 1 3 5 F A C Major Triad
So Dominant So Ti Re 1 3 5 G B D Major Triad
Secondary Triad
These triads have their roots are Supertonic, Mediant, Sub-Mediant, Leading
tone
Re Supertonic Re Fa La 1 b3 5 D F A Minor Triad

Mi Mediant Mi So Ti 1 b3 5 E G B Minor Triad
La Submediant La Do Mi 1 b3 5 A C E Minor Triad
Ti Leading Tone Ti Re Fa 1 b3 b5 B D F Diminished Triad
36
37
BASIC CHORD SHAPE IN THE ‘KEY OF D’
38

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Bass-ic Talks ~ Bayo-David Oluwatobiloba

SHARING WITH OTHERS

M usic as a term has proven to be a difficult concept to

You might want to ask, why

DOT POSITION INLAYS

BELT STRAP NUTS

JACK PLUG INLET

THE MUSIC ALPHABETS

first 7 alphabets of the English language.

After G, The musical alphabets repeat again. This is referred to as OCTAVE.

Quickly Memorize these TIPS

This concept is so important that it is almost impossible to talk about scales,

HOW TO DERIVE THE CHROMATIC SCALE

From figure above,

 # means Sharp (diesis): It is increases a note by a half step

THE 12 CHROMATIC SCALES

Symbol Name Description Fret Distance

1 Prime 0 steps 0 Frets

b2 Minor 2nd Half step 1 Frets

2 Major 2nd 1 whole step 2 Frets

b3 Minor 3rd 1 whole step + half step 3 Frets

3 Major 3rd 2 whole step 4 Frets

4 Perfect 4th 2 whole step + half step 5 Frets

#4 Augmented 4th 3 whole step 6 Frets

b5 Diminished 5th 3 whole step 6 Frets

5 Perfect 5th 3 whole step + half step 7 Frets

b6 Augmented 5th 4 whole step 8 Frets

6 Major 6th 4 whole step + half step 9 Frets

b7 Minor 7th 5 whole steps 10 Frets

7 Major 7th 5 whole steps + half step 11 Frets

8 Octave 6 whole steps 12 Frets

Fixing One Detail at a Time

Intense focus is the key to

USING THE CHROMATIC SCALE

Ascending Chromatic scale

The above chromatic scales are similar

# is called a Sharp a.k.a Diesis

TUNING OF THE BASS GUITAR

B ass guitar like other string instrument needs to be tuned especially

------------------------------4th string -------------------------E

FINGER DUTIES TOTAL NEW CREATION

What is one finger per fret fingering?

Fretboard Exercises for Dexterity

Play this combination of pattern to coordinate the fingers

RIGHT HAND TECHNIQUE

T he right hand of a Bassist does so much; it helps in the upward and

Legend ‘i’ – Index finger

The force of the picking finger should be as follows:

I n order to play on the bass fluidly, one of

Scales that we will be outlining in this chapter

This is a scale in which the successive notes are built in semitones/half

How to build diatonic scale in all keys

This is a scale in which the notes are built by

MODES OF MAJOR SCALES

Modes of Major Scale

Having a mentor now

 Rule 2:- W H W W H W W Nevertheless be

What is Relative minor?

Using the Cycle of Chromatics.

 Write the Cycle of Chromatics, then

Using the Tonic Solfa

Example (In the key of C major)

A rpeggios are broken chords otherwise referred to as liquid chords.