I must say as a converted bassist it’s so much easier to fretboard without having to worry about that pesky high B String on the guitar. The think I love is patterns are the same on bass you don’t have to worry because it’s all tuned in fourths 🤩
Playing keyboard helps me to appreciate the ease of ‘patterns’ on a fretboard compared to having remember intervals on a keyboard. That said, knowing musical intervals does help to work out fretboard shapes and learn the notes at the same time. Great tutorial 👍
I enjoy watching this channel because it focuses on one thing- bass lessons. Unlike that other channel that has lesson in its page name but has transitioned from less lessons and more talking. The dude that plays using a glove.
I also rely on the dots, bridging the whole fretboard with octaves, having only 4 strings all tuned in 4ths, and enjoying the awesome effect of chromatic runs, drones, and sheer grunty bass power 😁 Thanks man🙏
Two things I like to practice along these lines are.... - playing scales/arpeggios on only 2 strings - learning the positions for the major scales starting with my first finger on increasing notes on the scales ( so c major notes starting on D, E, F etc, effectively learning the modes but you don't need their names). Has the benefit of showing the connection between major and the couple of minor scales.
OMG! This is GOLD! Invaluable! You should be charging, Mark!!! Thanks so much! I think one of the great things about this exercise is taking the already well known Gmaj pattern and understanding how the phrase and spacing of the notes are the same. It gets my mind out of that old pattern and thinking about other places on the neck. I've always tried playing the same thing in other areas on the neck, but you really put together something solid and easy to practice here!! Thank you so much!!!!
Another great video. You seem to instinctively know that teaching any information needs to be done in a way that 'unlocks' the next step. Even though you move through you message quickly (thanks for eliminating the friendly stuff. I have friends, I come here for information) there are lots of baby steps. Thanks. Keep the great stuff coming.
While I’m relatively new to playing bass I olay guitar for 3 decades and no one ever explained horizontal playing as good as you. Correct me if I missed someone on RU-vid but I’m pretty sure no one is as clear and making it a simple thing. Thanks!
Took. Me all day but finally learned the first part in G. Trying not cheat for the C because I have a 6 string and can do the same pattern. Very helpful but now have to learn to apply it. Thanks
I've been learning bass for a couple of months now. It seems way more natural to play horizontally and bass lines with a more horizontal style seem to be more interesting to me. Couldn't tell why until your video.
Thank you for your tutorial . I never acknowledge the horizontal way on the fret . With this new learning , l am gonna be more efficient . THANKS a lot .
Lol. I'm sure beginners hate you. But, as a bass teacher, I really appreciated this. No BS. No rambling. No dumbing it down. No taking it slow. Just facts.
Lol! I keep coming back to this fella for obvious reasons. Lol. I'm going to buy material right now just because this video. Seriously. Talk about clearing it up. This video really did just that.
Thanks for all you do brother. Scales are good. But arpeggios are what build bass lines. It’s a lot easier to make arpegios sound musical, than to do the same with scales.
About three years ago, I finally became more focused on learning music, and when you said, "Notes are going to come into play at some point," I had to allow a laugh for the obvious nature of that statement.
Noob here, waiting for my first bass to be delivered and I'm thinking, why wouldn't the major notes be inscribed onto a beginner's practice bass? Maybe it's not needed after a few weeks of practice?
Its a great idea. Im 3 weeks into the journey. I write patterns/ideas on the heads of my drums. No looking up and down at sheets of paper helps heaps. I was thinking of liquid paper dots on edge of t fret board when the note falls off the dots already there. Did you think of a way to do something on t bass?
I don't understand players (and aren't you just a player and not a musician?) who don't want to know the theory/notes. Theory frees you, patterns, while initially are freeing, eventually constrain.
Absolutely. Bad habits beget bad evolution. When I learned “how” to skateboard. I didn’t learn the fundamentals. I ended up learning and landing all sorts of flip tricks. ….That I couldn’t perform (and certainly not land) while riding. ..Only while stationary. I then had to go back to riding and cruising then incorporating basic beginner tricks. I stopped skating and can never truly say “I used to skate”. ~ I used to win games of horse. and that’s it. Same thing goes with flashy basketball shots before consistently dribbling down the court at or above half speed. Start over.
Modes are great to learn....eventually. Don't get caught in the trap of thinking modes have anything to do with moving around the fretboard. That's not what they are.
This is the difference between a bass player and a song player. If all you do is learn songs, they can almost always be played in a box pattern - and then keep you there.
Ultimately for me, you’ve confirmed the conclusion that I had already come to about the fretboard. My biggest challenge has been making a way to practice regularly, because I work on the road for 2 months at a stretch. Fret not (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun)! I now have a cheap, under $200 Harley Benton “travel” base that goes wherever I go! Now I can master that fretboard, even if it’s only 15 minutes every day! And I’m also much happier having access to a bass I can grab every day (don’t tell my wife and make her jealous of Harley) ;-) 😊
Thanks for this video! Now that I'm (finally) taking the time to learn theory (beyond a few scales), this kind of things makes so much more sense to me. I can almost feel it all coming into clarity. Really appreciate all you do to add joy to my, and so many others', playing!
Just bought the book. This is exactly what I needed. It gives me something to focus on which is difficult with all of the material out there. Keep up the great work Mark. You're an excellent teacher!
TRUTH THe only other thing i know of that rival the world of guitar/bass gadgetry and guru-ology is golf. So much baloney to get through! This channel and a couple others just tell you straight whats up. If I may, I'd like to shout out Rich Brown, Bass Buzz, Scott's Bass Lessons, and Rick Beato. Talking Bass of course, youre here! All EXCELLENT, just slightly different.
Hi Mark, I have a question. Should a person be practicing bass standing up, or sitting down? I see some very talented and experienced bass players on RU-vid that ALWAYS sit, but I notice that you never sit. Do you have any specific opinions about this? Also: this video was great. I’m going to grab my bass and start practising right now!
Thank you. This is such a grt lesson. Learn notes. Isolate probs. No stataco(sic) notes. Smoothness. This one vid will b a couple of months for me of really clear direction. And is it ok if i download this video? Thanks again.
I've been playing guitar for 15 years and bass for about 4 years, and I completely agree about "learning to play horizontally." In my first year of playing guitar ( so 2008), I learnt the notes of the scale and ent the next 3 years working different positions together to play horizontally. It definitely takes work, but it's worth it. There's definitely no "secret pattern" these advert teachers are trying to sell online. Great video as always, Mark!
I agree, I'm doing the same, playing the bass 1.5 years now and I can say that I can play scales all over the fretboard, major, minor and their pentatonics in all 12 keys. Now, putting it into use situationally is a whole different thing :D But even now, some fills and slides come out of nowhere, so it's working!
@@AlexandarShmex Etudes are a great way of bringing all those mechanics together musically. Mark's Cyborg book of etudes sounds like it might be useful to you. Also, just playing songs is helpful. You'll see how all those scales and arpeggios fit in real-life music...
@@Nikosi9 Thanks for the tip! I have learned or played through more than 100 songs :) I try to do everything, "boring" technical stuff, songs, ear training, musical theory. I tried to find the book, but I can't, can you link it?
As an ex bass player who started again 3 months ago, after 15 years, this video is precisely scratching that itch like no other video did. Ive watched hundreds of video in the last months. This is great stuff.
I have been thinking about your comment. I have been thinking that I wanted to tell you that the CAGED system is looking at the neck more like a guitar player. If you look at the bass neck notes as three at a time fingering, where you stay in a box and play three notes per string, using a combination of "spread" and "close" fingering, there are 7 positions instead of the 5 CAGED positions. Spread fingering is where three notes are spread across 5 frets, close fingering is where three notes are spread across 4 frets. So. Then. Inside those 7 positions are spread fingerings and close fingerings. And there are three smaller boxes inside those positions that repeat. One box is across two strings, using six notes, close fingering, using the middle finger. One box is across two strings, using six notes, close fingering, using the ring finger. And then one box is across three strings, using 9 bites spread fingering.
@@jamiecoxe7327 hi there. The book is an ebook. But beyond that, creating an account in Talkingbass is not just about buying courses or ebooks, there is a massive amount of content and free downloads once you login. It’s not just a payment portal.
Wow, this was fantastic Mark! I have to confess, I am one of those players who likes the box and gets scared straying. This was well explained and not that scary. I was able to follow along and it made sense. Thank you so much! Now to apply this to other scales! You're the best and congrats on the upcoming book!
You have just "yeeted" , at least, one third of Scott's bass lessons. Seriously though, Thanks for consolidating your information, and offering it free to the viewer, instead of trying to sell information that can be had for just a little time/work so you can make monies...
Mark, Thank you so much for this. I love these lessons! I'm an old bass player and I should have made time to learn this stuff when I was younger. Keep on rockin'.
Thank you for another excellent lesson. You hsve a wonderful relaxed teaching style---packed with information yet very easy to understand. Your own skill is also a great asset; It is very motivating to see where the techniques lead to when mastered and come easily.
It’s one of the exercises I wrote for the Cyborg Bassist volume 1. There are many more. That said, there is nothing special about this particular exercise. It’s just a scale.
@@talkingbasslessons thanks, I am learning it and just wanted to know what I am learning. I started playing bass back in 2010, now I am learning how to play. Lol
Thank you for these ideas to “play” with, also nice warming-up exercises too! 👍 Just wondering : do you use those higher positions on the lower strings ( so 18th fret and up on the E -string and A-string) also?
Hey, I like this new, relaxed, (more ad lib?) version of Mark J. Smith! Did you take a new approach or just not feel like editing all the *fun bits* out for the sake of "Professionalism" (yawn)? I like this new style, I hope you keep it! You really hit the bullseye with this lesson, by addressing the ubiquitous urge - mostly among those who refuse to learn note names, or any music theory whatsoever - to play up and down the fretboard with _obvious_ ease. Why is it bedroom bassists all seem to dream about breaking our their "AXE" in a music store (where the fantasy usually takes place) and _thrilling_ onlookers with their fretboard-kindling licks, fills & solos, plus a few arcane jazz scales (played over your average maj/min7b5#13add9 chord, to be sure) *leaving no fret untouched from 0 right up to number 24 (baby!).*
Nothing’s changed. You’ve probably been looking at vids from 9 years ago. There’s been a gradually evolution (obviously) as I’ve become more experienced with RU-vid.
Sorry to say but you move WAY too fast. I find myself constantly rewinding over and over again. That’s okay, I’m sure that’s expected. The problem is you put the music and tab in the lower right hand part of the screen. If I pause your lesson to practice I cannot see the music. It is blocked by the progress bar and ad’s for other videos. Is there any chance you can place the music/tab in the upper left of right hand side of the screen? That way when I pause it to practice I can see the music. I love your channel and lessons keep up the good work. Thanks
PS. Found a solution!! I just grabbed my manuscript book and wrote it down!! I I don’t find your face distracting 😂. You’re quite handsome and I’m willing to bet your partner thinks so too. 😊
Nice lesson, what broke the box for me was a simple 4 notes per string scale over 2 octaves repeating the octave note in the middle with an octave jump between strings, good for stretching ;) and VERY interesting patterns happen when using modes (everything after the octave jump is the same as before ;), Hope this helps someone,
@@orenji7266 Start on say G play the major scale first 4 notes on the E string, the next 4 on the A (thats your octave) then play the same G note you finished with on the A string on the D string (same note string jump) and repeat the pattern for the next octave , hope this makes sense, remember to go up and down the scale, using the same idea (4 notes per string) over modes opened up the neck nicely for me ;) Hope this helps.
Suggestion: Since this is a tutorial about fretboard navigation, I would suggest that the fretboard be more prominently displayed. All we really need is the fretboard, your fingers and your voice (disembodied preferred). Also, may I suggest that for tutorials, you set up a bass with contrasting colors between the board, your fingers, and the strings. The more contrast between these elements, the better. I am not singling you out. Most YT teachers are guilty of the same things. Facial expressions and extra body movements are a distraction (unless you are teaching dance or acting). Good lesson!
Seriously? Mark's given you everything you need to succeed here. Tabs, walk and talk through etc. Now it's time for you to put your big boy boots on and put in the work. No facial expressions, its destracting and I suggest this and that. Your not singling Mark out, just every RU-vidr. Lol, a bit ungrateful and very needy I suggest you start your own YT bass channel and provide FREE videos with tons of RESOURCES at your DISPOSAL, OR. Maybe bass just isn't for you. If this is too difficult to understand. Maybe you need to go back to beginner basics or your a begginer and need to hold off on this till you are a little more advanced. And one final tip and you won't like it. Go get some lessons, 1 on 1. Yep that's right, it's going to mean PAYING for it. Opening your wallet and dusting out the cobwebs. Good luck with your future endeavours. 🤔
@@mrbungle7586 show him how it's done then.. 🙄🙄🙄. You just want him to give a full lesson for free? Plus he's a do the work type of guy. Clearly you're lazy..
