The Hardest Bass Exercise You'll Ever Try...and the secret to playing it like a PRO!! 

In percentage terms, how cyborg are you now?

Did Rio a few weeks ago

as a former pianist I can assure you that this isn’t actually the easiest exercise either…infact pianists learn every scale with both hands over 4 octaves and that takes a lot of time and effort and is material for any piano exams at music shools. It is ofc easy if you play it slowly with an hand…but fluidly and consistently with both hands… and in thirds and sixths? not so much believe me 😅

@@s.d.d.6063Yes. Obviously if you play scales in both hands and focus on development of technique a la Hanon you can make the exercise as hard as you want. But, the problem here is that bass players don’t know the notes of the scale and don’t know the notes on the neck. It’s impossible for a lot of bass players to play this exercise even at a slow tempo out of time. On piano you simply learn the notes of the scale and that’s it. Forget the technique. Forget playing well. I just mean playing the right notes.

I don’t understand

Have you learned the actual notes of other keys? You say you move up-down, left-right etc. That sounds like you're using basic fretboard patterns. Do you know the notes of G major are GABCDEF# or the notes of Eb Major are Eb F G Ab Bb C D? The point of this exercise is learning the actual notes of a scale and the notes of your fretboard. If you are rusty on either of these things, this exercise will be incredibly difficult.

Yes, this isn't directly taken from the book. As I point out in the lesson you can ascend or descend in a variety of different ways. The exercise itself is the main focus here. Not the line.

Yes that's fine from a basic playing perspective. However, this exercise is very different. It tests your knowledge of keys and the fretboard. That's why I ask you to try the exercise at the start of the video. As an example, take a scale, for example Ab major and play it from the lowest note possible to the highest on the bass. That's it. No prep, just go for it. It's basically a test of your overall musicianship. If you know the notes of the scale and the notes on your fretboard it should be easy. Remember, don't start at the tonic. In Ab major, you'll be starting at the low F. Then work all the way up and down the fretboard to the top and back in one fluid line.

Learn it all, stop with the excuses :)

@@omg_wtf lol I learnt the sir duke run! Cheers

"Oh that's great darling, now do it ascending, descending, mixed, on one string, on two strings, on three strings, and on four strings, then over two octaves, then in 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths. oh, and in every key." "ok ma"

According to his web site - 10 Days.

Modes are scales like major and minor scales. They are simply derived from a parent major scale. But in terms of what they are for, they are used for creating a certain sound, particularly in jazz (modal jazz styles) and contemporary classical compositions. You'll hear them a LOT in film scores. Some people are misled into thinking they are something to do with learning the fretboard. That is totally misleading and couldn't be further from the truth. If you use modes to 'learn the major scale all over the fretboard' you'll be simply learning modes all over the fretboard. Learning D Dorian DOES NOT help with learning C Major.

The whole point is that every key should be learned as a separate entity. It’s why bassists and guitarists have a huge musical disadvantage when compared to other instrumentalists. A key or a scale is not just a simple fretboard pattern. It’s the reason this exercise is hard for bass players.

@@talkingbasslessons I'm not convinced. A scale is a sequence of intervals. With scales as with most other things, I'm strongly in favor of recognizing the similarities and making use of them. If you treat all keys as separate entities, you have a lot of relearning to do when you transpose a bass line. It's less complicated if you think in intervals and associated patterns to begin with. As I said, maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're getting at. To improve dexterity it is surely useful to learn different fingerings for the same notes. For instance, to avoid shifting in inconvenient places.

@@MichaelSchuerig I think what he's trying to say is that most players just learn the "patterns" and don't actually learn the notes within the scale as well as where on the fretboard the notes are. The exercise's aim is to essentially force you to learn just that. Bassists and guitarists can get away with just learning patterns but you limit yourself to just playing within the patterns.

@@jelaniwilson1699 Okay, I can agree to that.

@@MichaelSchuerig Obviously you should be looking at intervals. I talk about that all the time here on the channel (I'll wager that there are over 50 of the 600+ lessons on here stressing that). But that's only a part of the whole pie. You should see all keys as independent structures in the same way as times tables. If you're only thinking about the mechanics of "playing bass" then you can do what you want. But the further you go in music the more you will see holes in your musicianship. Learning keys is a VERY basic part of learning music. For example, without visualising the bass fretboard or working it out (just relying on your musical knowledge) answer the following questions: "What is chord vi in A Major?" "What is the 4th degree of the F# Major scale?" "What is chord III in Bb minor?" These are all very basic questions that have a real world application. This is where understanding every key to the same level is important. And, as one last thing, this doesn't mean you shouldn't learn scale 'patterns' or tab or anything like that. Learn everything. Learn to see music from every single angle. Yes, it takes many tens or hundreds of thousands of hours of study and hard practice but that's the whole point.

Or if you play it with one finger. I wasn't referring to playing it fast or with good technique or even in time. The hard part for a bass player is knowing the notes and playing them over the whole range. That's the easy part for a pianist, so much so that they would probably find that really weird.

Do you read music? If not then that’s the reason it’s never occurred to you. If you learn to read the answer stares you in the face from day one.

If you read, it lets you know immediately which scale you’ll be playing in

I mean, yeah, it depends on what you want from bass playing. If you want be a musician, you need to know. If you want to play Blink 182 from TAB, then no you dont

And that’s where people get confused. Ask yourself this: Is the key of A minor the same as C major? No they are not. Is E Phrygian the same as a C major scale? No it’s not. The note you start on is totally irrelevant. The starting note has nothing to do with what the scale actually is. If it was then we’d be constantly switching between modes as we play through a scale.

Or if you are a fan of Victor Wooten, you have to find more time. He said there are 30 keys.

@@marcinfilip7405Unfortunately, they are all wrong. There are theoretically an infinite number of keys. Nobody wants to put any criteria on that question like it’s some gottya thing. But yeah. It’s infinite. The circle of fifths and fourths is infinite if you don’t cheat and do the enharmonic switch at some point of your own choosing.