All Posts by Jonathan Boettcher

Mini-Chords on the Bass

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Decoding The Bass Guitar

In the last video I showed you how you can use the octave pattern to add a little spice to your bass playing. A very simple trick, with a great payoff.

In this video I showed you how you can take the concepts from the first video and the second, merge them together, and come up with a chord-like pattern that sounds really rich and very melodic. Please note this isn’t an actual chord, as you’re missing the 5 note.

I use this 1-8-3 pattern quite frequently now. If I want a little extra punch, I might hit all three notes at once. If I’m looking for a very mellow sound, I’ll probably hit the root note first, then pluck the other two strings at the same time to really let that third ring through. The key is to really play around with it until you can make it your own.

In Decoding the Bass Guitar I give you the tools you need to find these types of patterns on your own. The technique is simple, but powerful… and there are many other patterns like this just waiting for you to play them.

Have you heard of my No Weasel Clauses Satisfaction Guarantee? I give you a full 60 days to try out Decoding the Bass Guitar, and if you’re not 100% satisfied, I’ll give you a full refund. So I’m taking on all the risk here – you only end up paying if you improve!

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Decoding The Bass Guitar

Add Spice With The Octave Pattern

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Decoding The Bass Guitar

In the last video we learned that we can look at the fretboard in terms of numbers, and of course numbers lend themselves to patterns very well, so therefore we can also look at the fretboard in terms of patterns.

This video shows you the simplest pattern of all – the octave pattern (it’s basically a right angle if you’re a visual learner). You can use it anywhere on the bass fretboard, and you’ll get an octave.

The best part about using an octave to spice up your playing is that you really, absolutely, categorically, cannot go wrong. Think about it – you’re playing exactly the same note!

This is just one of the simplest patterns that I teach in Decoding the Bass Guitar. It is simple, but powerful… and there are many others like it. Even if you already knew this pattern, I guarantee there are things in the full lesson that will be new to you. In the lesson you will learn how to take this concept much, much further, and apply it to different areas of your bass playing.

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Decoding The Bass Guitar

Intro To Bass Guitar Theory

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The G Major Scale on bass:

The concept of approaching the scale as a set of numbers, rather than multiple sets of letter-name-notes, is very powerful and can be applied in many different ways to your playing. This concept really is the foundation of Decoding the Bass Guitar, though in the lesson you will learn how to take this much, much further.

The Pentatonic Minor Scale

The pentatonic minor scale is the first scale any guitar player should learn. It is the easiest, and also the most important, of all the guitar scales. Even if you never learn another scale in your life, if you master the pentatonic scale, you’ll go far — it’s that important!

A Pentatonic Minor Scale Pattern

.The scale in this video is the minor pentatonic scale, and the scale pattern for it is below. The numbers represent your fingers; index being 1, pinky being 4. The red note is the root, and the others are octaves of that same note.

E:  |–1–|—–|—–|–4–| — 1st string
B:  |–1–|—–|—–|–4–|
G:  |–1–|—–|–3–|—–|
D:  |–1–|—–|–3–|—–|
A:  |–1–|—–|–3–|—–|
E:  |–1–|—–|—–|–4–| — 6th string

The tab starts at the 5th fret (Am Pentatonic position)

You can see the whole fretboard in the diagram on the right. The red notes are the root notes. Try to get used to seeing how the scale repeats itself. Every time you see a red note, that’s the octave, and it means the scale is starting over again.

The Next Step

If this pentatonic scale has shown you a small glimpse of what is possible with scales and patterns on your guitar, then go checkout the Guitar Scale Patterns lesson.

Before you stop and say “But a 2 hour lesson on scales?? B-O-R-I-N-G!” consider that plenty of people have written to tell me that these patterns are making a difference in their playing that they never though possible before.

Once you begin to see how the guitar works, it becomes far from boring to learn about the fretboard – in fact, I bet you become as amazed at the fretboard as I am!

Click Here For The Scale Patterns Guitar Lesson

Pentatonic Connecting Run

You may or may not be familiar with the different box patterns in which you can play scales on your guitar. That’s something I get into in a lot more detail in my Guitar Scale Patterns lesson.

To explain these very simply; the boxes you see on the free cheat sheet you downloaded indicate different places where you can play the scale.

In the video below, I demonstrate a connecting pattern that you can use to move in between three different box patterns. This connecting pattern, or run, is super handy because you can start your solo down in the lower registers, then move it up the neck to really build things up. It’s easy to play, and sounds really cool.

In the Guitar Scale Patterns lesson I teach this particular run in much more detail than you’ll see below, but I wanted to give you an idea of what you can do with the patterns.

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Memorize Your Fretboard 200% Faster

The octave is one of the simpler patterns you’ll find on the fretboard, but it is nevertheless incredibly handy in helping figure out specific note names. I use it all the time.

When you’ve got this pattern stuck in your brain, it saves you the need to memorize all of the notes on the fretboard, which, to be honest, is a fair amount of memorization.

Why not take advantage of the pattern, and do less than half the work?

As you’ll see in this short video, that’s very possible.

The octave pattern is just one of the many patterns that I teach in the full Guitar Scale Patterns lesson. In that lesson you’ll learn how the entire fretboard is covered in patterns, and how you can use those patterns to speed up your guitar playing, and reduce the brainpower needed to create licks and solos! Playing by pattern is much easier than reading music!

Questions? Comments? Leave one below….

Click Here For The Guitar Scale Patterns Lesson

Fretboard in the Key of E (Cheat Sheet)

Fretboard-in-EAs promised, here is the download link to the cheat sheet that has all the notes in the key of E.

As you can see, there are four different scale patterns shown in boxes. E major is shown both in open position as well as at the 12th fret in the standard box shape.

In orange you will see all of the E’s marked on the fretboard. Pay close attention, because this is an important pattern (the octave).

Download the Cheat Sheet

(Right click on the link above and select ‘Save Target As’)

Basically, each box represents a spot where you can play the scale in the key of E. These are all diatonic – not pentatonic. I’ll explain the difference there in another post.

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Guitar Scale Patterns Lesson

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSXbsf_5lEk

IMPORTANT:

If you’re just getting started with guitar scales, its quite possible this cheat sheet might be a bit over your head. I go into quite a bit of detail on the patterns on this sheet, as well as many more in the Guitar Scale Patterns lesson. It is over 2 hours of video, going into detail on the different patterns that are on the guitar fretboard – why they’re there, how to find them, and most importantly, how to use them.

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Guitar Scale Patterns Lesson

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