| Intermediate Bass 10: Pentatonic Studies By Roy Vogt Bass Instructor, Belmont University |
Print This Lesson |
The material in this column was inspired by the re-release of Bill Milkowski's excellent biography of the late and great bassist Jaco Pastorius. This newer edition focuses more on the ascendancy of Jaco to his pre-eminence as a Bass Icon and that balances out his tragic decline. Since I had occasion to run across him as a student at both North Texas State University (where my "bass lesson" was sitting 10 feet away from him at a Weather Report concert) and at the University of Miami (where I had the intimidating job of playing bass while he played drums as the Concert Jazz Band ran down his "Domingo" chart) I thought we could look at one of his favorite scale ideas.
Jaco used the major pentatonic scale and it's inversions as well as the minor pentatonic scale and it's inversions for many solo ideas and bass lines. Stanley Clarke and many other Fusion-era musicians used these handy 5 note scales as well, not to mention James Jamerson and the other great Motown bassists and arrangers.
A good way to visualize the major pentatonic as in measure one is to play a major scale and then omit the 4th and 7th notes. I've then constructed the 4 inversions of the major pentatonic scales. Note that you can start on the fifth inversion (A in our study) and run the same inversions and that will give you the minor pentatonic scale and it's inversions.
You can also practice these scales in three note patterns and four note patterns as well. I've written out these patterns in the C major pentatonic scale. Your homework is to play these patterns in all the rest of the pentatonic inversions in major and minor in all 12 keys. To do it right will take an investment of your time, but it will teach you much about your instrument and how to get around on it.
Finally, I included a funk line in a minor in the style of Jaco at the time he was playing with Wayne Cochran and the CC Riders before he released his historic solo debut. Thanks, Jaco!
- Pentatonic studies (MP3, 2.8 meg)
- Funk drums from Int. 10 (MP3, 2.8 meg)
Peace and Low Notes,
Roy C. Vogt
Nashville Bassist
Bass Instructor, Belmont University, Nashville, TN
Print This Lesson | Return to Lesson Index
Roy's Bio | An Interview with Roy | Visit Belmont U. | Visit Roy's Website