centrehalf5 Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 Hi, I'm newish to the bass and trying to get my head around a few basics. I see that most 'fills' in rock music are based around the pentatonic scale. My question is, when working out my fills should I bass them on the pentatonic scale related to the current chord or the pentatonic scale of the key the track is in (or does that add up to the same thing? Thanks in advance folks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 (edited) [quote name='centrehalf5' timestamp='1410097237' post='2546042'] Hi, I'm newish to the bass and trying to get my head around a few basics. I see that most 'fills' in rock music are based around the pentatonic scale. My question is, when working out my fills should I bass them on the pentatonic scale related to the current chord or the pentatonic scale of the key the track is in (or does that add up to the same thing? Thanks in advance folks. [/quote] [size=4]Good afternoon, centrehalf5, and welcome to the forum... Have you not answered your own question..? "... [i]I see that most 'fills' in rock music are based around the pentatonic scale[/i]...". The fills that you've 'seen' are based on the key of the piece, or on the current chord..? Personally, I'd suggest that the 'important' notes on which to base a fill (or solo...) would be the chord tones; the notes that make up the current chord. It's a good, safe starting point, provided that there is no 'clash' with the melody or vocal line. It can be risky thinking/playing 'scales', depending on the musical genre; there are so many pieces that don't follow or obey classical harmonic structure. For simple I-IV-V blues-type pieces, the 'scales' thinking can work, but pieces with modern structures will not necessarily comply to this way of playing. Chord tones will, however, work in pretty well all situation, at least as a starting point. Subject to completion, correction and/or contradiction from others; hope this helps.[/size] Edited September 7, 2014 by Dad3353 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doddy Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 Chord tones are where it's at. They are what will give you a solid harmonic grounding and will give you the basis for your fills. I don't know how much you already know, but I'll give you the basics. Assuming you already know the major scale (I don't just mean the fingering pattern), chords are constructed from the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes...we can add the 7th later. So, a Cmaj chord will be C, E, G. Gmaj will be G, B, D, and so on. The same then applies to minor chords-they are built from the 1, 3, 5 of the minor scale.So again, C minor will be C, Eb G. G minor will be G, Bb, D etc. This will give you a good start for making lines and fills.Later you can start expanding from these by adding more scalar notes, but the chord tones are at the core. If you were to think of your fills based on the key of the piece,then there is a whole other explanation about diatonic harmony but I don't want to overload you with information just yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centrehalf5 Posted September 7, 2014 Author Share Posted September 7, 2014 Thanks guys, really helpful responses. I can see this is going to be the go to forum for my bass questions... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 (edited) [size=4][quote name='centrehalf5' timestamp='1410112148' post='2546253'] Thanks guys, really helpful responses... [/quote][/size] [size=4] [quote name='centrehalf5' timestamp='1410112148' post='2546253'] ...[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]I can see this is going to be the go to forum for my bass questions[/font][/color] [/quote] Bring 'em on [/size] Edited September 7, 2014 by Dad3353 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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