Nope I have no idea how.

Seconded.
John Patitucci, right?

yeah john patitucci. A very melodic bassist.

I don't have the necessary gear to improve myself.How can u go on with a 100+ bucks guitar?

i believe its still possible.

i was lucky to start with pretty decent gear for a beginner

well i don't think you need good gear to learn the theory side. So why not spend the time now to get as much theory as possible and then when u finally get the gear, then spend time doing the necessary rudiments like scales and stuff and put the theory into practice... At least you won't be sitting around grumbling about your gear.

I started with a cheap RM200+ acoustic, I played it for a year plus. Because I was a metalhead then, I had to play all those Pantera and Papa Roach riffs on the acoustic. When you don't think so much about the good equipment you could get later, you would practise without second thoughts.

Well, if you know you're going to be serious about guitar, then use that 100 bucks guitar to practise your scales, going over and over them everyday.... even watching TV.... just keep practising them scales.....
Don't worry about your tone.... hey..... if you can rock out on a crappy guitar, just imagine what you can do with a REAL one!

i also practice with my less than 100 buck guitar for 2 years, before i got my 1st electric...but too bad, i didn't go for theory class so i'm basically still stuck at where i was until now...

seriously, can anyone here teach me scales? i don't understand a single thing that were shown on the net...

teach scales...err.... I assume you know the standard major scale? There was a thread on this scale stuff somewhere i remember.

But anyway...Let's start with a C major scale. It is called the Ionian mode.

It goes C D E F G A B C.

i'm lazy to put the tablature down. But i guess you know where C is. Then just play do re mi fa so....etc and listen to see if you get the right notes. Shouldn't be so difficult. Then learn that pattern and memorise it. And wualah you have the major scale. Let's refer to it as C to C.

Now going into the modes.
lets take C=1 D=2 E=3.......B=7 and then to the high C=8.

If you play the C major scale from D to D, then D is the 2nd note of the C major scale. D to D in C major is called the D Dorian mode. So you would be playing :

D E F G A B C D (compared to D major which is D E F# G A B C# D)

And when you are playing E to E, then E is the 3rd note of the C major scale. And this is called the E Phrygian mode. And you would be playing:

E F G A B C D E (compared to E major which is E F# G# A B C# D# E...i think... )

And when you start it on F, F is the 4th note, it's the F Lydian mode and so on...

So basically the C major scale is the:

C Ionian (major scale = ionian)
D Dorian
E Phrygian
F Lydian
G Mixolydian
A Aeolian
B Locrian

all at the same time. I think i got all the names correct but do correct me if i got some of them wrong.

Now thats the basic. So if you want to find say a B mixolydian you have to transpose. Since G mixolydian is a C major ( scale and B is 2 "steps" above G, this means i have to transpose up 2 steps from a C major scale which gives me an E major scale. So the E major scale is the mixolydian mode of the B major scale.

Pretty confusing at first, but i hope it helps a bit with the mode stuff....Applying these modes is a whole different story which i cannot explain because i know nothing about it....

That's how I learn it first, just like how I learnt the major/minor pentatonics. Basically I remembered that the major pent is 3 frets below the minor pent. Now I have to unlearn it because it doesn't help at all when you improvise! The reason is that you can't visualize the scales and intervals on the fretboard, even if you can apply them, you probably won't understand the theory behind it.

Good way to explain it to beginners though... it makes modes seem much easier.

actually what bassix is doing is the long way
just memorise like phrygian is the 3rd, lydian is 4th etc.
so when you see like A lydian, you know its in the key of E and etc etc.

thanks bassix, that would really really benefit me if i know my major scale...i do understand the modes that you were talking about...but too bad for me, i dun even know my major scale...

well yeah something like that. I use intervals to memorise. Example lydian is down one string and up 2 frets or down 5 frets on the same string....stuff like that. However this is limited as when you play like that, you tend to stick to one position and so the left hand doesn't really move around.

There are a few guidelines on applying these modes over different chords. Well, for jazz it's usually 7th chords but i guess it can be applied to any type of chords. But the examples i saw were with 7th chords.

major 7th - ionian
minor 7th - dorian
7th - mixolydian
minor 7b5 (augmented i think..) - locrian

***lesson "walking basslines pt. 2" by Adam Nitti***

the dude didn't give any other examples. But he did say to look for scales which contain the base of the chord or something like that.... I guess walking basslines is as close as you can get to solos melodically....

asura_86:

I believe the major scale is the stepping stone and it's not that difficult to learn. It is not absolutely necessary to know the notes you are playing to play scales. However i strongly recommend that you know the notes you are playing. Because if you are going in to theory then it is important. If you just want to play and learn the minimum for the fun of it then don't bother.

It is pretty straight forward, if you don't know the notes, scales can be learned in terms of form. The major scale has a few forms in different positions, but the easiest one, i think, is always to start with the root note (C for C major) at the 6th string (the thickest one also called the E-string)

I don't see what's so difficult. There's a good example here.

in this page, they used the G major scale as an example so they start on the 3rd fret. But if you shift it up to the 8th fret, then it becomes a C major scale. The numbers on the black dots are the left hand fingers being used to fret. 1 being the index finger, and 4 being the little finger. Pretty self explanatory right i guess....

wtf is this?

er...he's really a beginner...sure dunno ...
how about starting from a some basic training like fingering training...
i wonderng whether you can use all your fingers to press on the fret board...
started from the E strings, position all your fingers at the 4 first freds, then pick one by one...continue your practice by moving up one string....

make sure the sound is clean~

this is the very very basic

those are my warm-up practices before i actually start to practice my songs...but make sure u use it with a metronome (for timing) start at 40bpm, then work ur way up...for me, my minimum speed is 70bpm and max speed currently is 110bpm, cannot go lower then 70bpm or will fall asleep...

bassix, u got any other source that explain more on scales in details?? would like to read more about them...

the whole problem of scales aint learning them, or knowing their fomula....but applying them.....

sure i can learn most of the mods in a week give and take, but if you ask me to apply i go blank.

beginners? start with the penta.. learn how to go up the fretboard and all the way down. add some weird notes for kicks if you want.

This post has been edited by +3kk!: Sep 15 2006, 02:56 PM

correct, but you still have to learn them first

asura_86:

unfortunately i don't have any other sources. There is actually nothing much to study in scales. Scales are something like a definition. There is no way to explain scales. It's just like you have 2 eyes, a scale has 8 notes of which the 1st and the 8th are an octave apart. You can memorise them but not really study them as in why they are like that. They just are i guess.... But don't worry take your time. Can't learn everything overnight.

oh and darrencw:

Those are the modes you use to play over chords. Like when you play over a C7 chord, u use the notes from a C mixolydian mode scale.

And a little correction:

7b5 is diminished and not augmented....terminology error. Sorry

I was told once that the division of 8 notes in the scale was because most european musicians were able to clearly segregate 8 different notes in their voices...hence in parts of asia, like india for example their scales consist of some crazy amount of notes... rather like a fretless bass where you can actually play "in-between" notes. Understanding scales is actually easier if you break it down to intervals. let's take c major. c d e f g a b c in intervals: w w h w w w h (w=tone, h=half-step/semi-tone) hence using intervals... D major would then be: d e f# g a b c# d .... there you constructed the scale... of course then you can fit in the corresponsing keys attached to it..... maj-min-min-maj-maj-min-dim-maj ...... fitting this into c major... thus a song in the key of c major would then contain the following chords: C major D minor Emin Fmaj G Maj Amin Bdim

Hope this helps... and yay tgif ...mode exercises here I come.

edited to correct minor...

This post has been edited by stefanong: Sep 15 2006, 04:15 PM