In this bass guitar lesson, we’ll be looking at how understanding patterns on the neck can greatly improve our musical ear and help us anticipate what notes are coming next in a chord sequence.
One of the things that makes a beginner musician freak out is hearing or playing along chord sequences on the fly. They often feel that they need to be able to get to the level when they hear something and they'll magically pick notes out in the air and instantly find them on the bass...
The reality is it's actually not quite like that. I believe that a good ear training is is a combination of 3 things:
1. Traditional Ear Training:
This basically means being able to identify intervals. For example, if you go from C to E, you know that this sound is a Major Third.
2. Music theory:
If you understand music theory, you'll have an idea about the notes you'll play on the neck or at the very least have an idea of what note you'll most likely play.
3. Knowing the Shapes on the Fingerboard and Visualization:
Understanding the chord shapes on the neck and visualizing it can help guide your fingers on where to go.
Remember that ear training is recognizing sounds and patterns and being able to replicate them. This only works well when you have these 3 combined. Sticking with just the chord shapes will only make you hugely limited because you lack a more peripheral or holistic understanding.
To help you further, what we'll do is take the track that we've been using in the 30-day Killer Rock Bass Action Plan. This is based on the Journey tune "Don't Stop Believing".
Here is the original bass line used in the outro of Don’t Stop Believing. This uses the open strings and centered around frets 1-4 on the neck:
Example 1
Here is same chord sequence but we are going to play the keynotes up the octave:
Example 2
As you can see, I’ve stripped out the passing notes but kept the pushes at the end of each bar. Notice the shape that is created on the fingerboard.
Useful Tip: Try and use ‘one finger per fret fingering’ and shapes will start to become more obvious.
In this next example, we are going to transpose the chord sequence down a tone into D major. Notice how the shape and patterns on the neck remain the same :
Example 3
Lastly, here is the same sequence but in the key of G. This time we are going to place our root note on the low E string. You’ll find exactly the same pattern works again!
Example 4
Lesson Wrap Up
That is the end of our bass guitar lesson! Take your time in going through the exercises. Once you're comfortable doing with the parts, try to push yourself a little further by taking on this challenge:
Using examples 3 & 4 as a starting point try and add the passing notes backing from example 1!
If you liked this lesson and wish to learn more, do make sure to check out the FREE 14-Day Bass Lab PLUS membership Trial!
Good luck and get stuck in!
James