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The Music Theory of Pentatonic Scales for Bass
Penta is the Greek root word for five. So a pentatonic
scale consists of only 5 different notes. While there are many
possibilities for arranging 5 different notes to create a scale,
we are going to look at the 2 most common. They are major pentatonic,
and minor pentatonic.
In order to fully understand how pentatonic scales are constructed,
you should have an understanding of how to construct basic 7 note
major and minor scales. Because pentatonic scales are derived
from them.
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Prerequisite
lessons:
Constructing
major scales
- this is the starting point for understanding all music
theory.
Natural
minor scales - Minor scale construction, and the relationship
between major and minor. Learn how the theory is applied
to the neck of the bass.
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Below is a basic review of major and minor scales,
but you should also read the theory lessons here at CyberfretBass.com
that cover these topics in more detail.
Major
scales
A major scale is just a pattern of whole steps and
half steps (W W H W W W H). A C major scale consists of the natural
notes from C to C (no sharps or flats). Each note in the scale
is assigned a number from 1 to 7. These numbers are very important
to your understanding of music theory. As you are looking at different
scales and arpeggios, you will be using these numbers to help
understand how they are constructed. The major scale is the constant
to which you will be comparing everything else to.
C D E
F G A B C - C major scale
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 - scale functions
Basic
major scale
functions indicated
|--2--|-----|--3--|--4--|
-1st string
|--6--|-----|--7--|--1--|
|--3--|--4--|-----|--5--|
|-----|--1--|-----|--2--| -4th string
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Minor
scales
If you rearrange the notes of a C major scale to
go from A to A instead of C to C, this is an A minor or A natural
minor scale. It has it's own pattern of whole steps and half steps
(W H W W H W W) So a C major scale and A minor scale consist of
the same notes, just in a different order. If you apply this pattern
of whole steps and half steps to the notes from C - C, you will
have to flat the E, A and B notes. This is a C minor scale. You
can now see the difference between major and minor by comparing
C minor to the C major scale. Since E was the 3rd note in a C
major scale, Eb now is labeled with the function "b3"....(flat
3) . So the minor scale has a b3, b6, and b7 in comparison to
the major scale. These numbers are referred to as the formula
for a scale.
The formula for a natural minor scale is 1 2
b3 4 5 b6 b7
C D Eb
F G Ab Bb C - C minor scale
1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 1 - scale functions
Basic
minor scale fingering
functions indicated
|--2--|-b3--|-----|--4--|-----|
-1st string
|-----|-b7--|-----|--1--|-----|
|-----|--4--|-----|--5--|-b6--|
|-----|--1--|-----|--2--|-b3--|
-4th string
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Page 2, The major pentatonic
scale 
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