reading question on the "music reading for bass" book by the MI. im really stook on this book!

[allwaysgroovin]

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i started to study this book as i really want to be able to sight read things down quickly, im sure its a great skill to have.

it has been going really well and ive been storming through the ryhthms and "reading within a key" sections where it shows you a fretboard diagram of the notes available to you.

i can read comfortably in the easier keys such as c,g,d b flat and so on because i can "feel" the scale under my hands so i know if im playing in g and theres an f, its the seventh and it will be sharp.

but im really stuck on chapter 9 which is covers position and scale forms. it doesent tell that much information on what these things are and i dont understand how to use the 6 scale forms shown because i cant relate to them atall.

it says "scale form refers to any of the five scale forms derived from the major scale" why 5? and of what scale? are these scale forms the same for every key? there are so many questions im asking myself about these things but ijust cant understand them from the very brief description given in the book.

i would greatly appreciate it if anyone could give me a better explanation of these scale forms as its really getting me down now and there are no bass teachers around here that can help me out.[/font][/color]

[louisthebass]

I've been using this book a lot & can hopefully help you out with what the author is trying to put across...

The 5 scale positions all come from the major scale starting on different scale degrees starting on the lowest note on your bass:
7-1 starts on the major seventh closely followed by the root note of the scale.
2 starts on the major second of the scale.
3-4 starts on the major third of the scale, closely followed by the perfect fourth.
5 starts on the fifth note of the scale.
6 starts on the major sixth of the scale.

What you are basically doing is playing all the available notes within a given scale position, so if you were in G, you would play the 7-1 scale starting on F# on the E string & play all the notes of the G major scale up to B (major third an octave above) on the G string. The same principle applies by starting the scale forms on A, D, & E on the E string until you get to the F# an octave above on the E string where the 7-1 position starts again.

If you know your modal scales, you could think of them like this:
7-1 - Locrian, 2 - Dorian, 3-4 - Phrygian, 5 - Mixolydian, 6 - Aeolian.

When learning this in all keys, you have to remember that different keys will start on different scale forms, but the same principles of playing these applies.

Hopefully this hasn't been too boring to read, but if I can help any further with this, by all means PM me.