Tag Archives: music theory

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Bass Guitar Theory: The Major Scale

The first scale you need to learn on the bass guitar is the major scale. It’s a critical part of music theory and can be found in many different popular songs.

The major scale consists of a pattern of whole and half steps. The pattern is shown below:

root whole whole half whole whole whole half octave

Here is a C major scale tab

c major bass scale

It’s pretty simple, and once you memorize the pattern you can play a major scale starting on any note you choose.

If you are curious to learn about scales, check out the wikipedia article on major and minor scales. I will do a followup article about minor scales fairly soon.

Any questions? Leave a comment below.

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Theory: Whole And Half Steps

Hopefully you have a small amount of music theory, otherwise this article may be a little hard to follow.

A whole step is a 2 fret difference between notes. For example, C to D is a whole step. Here is the tab that represents C and D, played on the A string.

bass guitar music theory

A half step is a 1 fret difference between notes. For example, B to C is a half step. Below is the tab that represents B and C, also played on the A string.

half step music theory

Why is this important? Because it helps you gain understanding of basic music theory and about bass guitar scales (Major, minor, chromatic, etc.).

This has been a short, simple article about music theory. If you have questions just comment below!