Killer Bass Lines Made Easy with the Pentatonic Scale

Forget learning a million scales - here’s how to play killer bass lines with just five simple notes from the pentatonic scale.

Alright LOOK, if you’re a beginner or even an intermediate bassist, you don’t need a million scales to come up with killer bass lines. All you need is the 5 simple notes of the pentatonic scale, used in all styles of music for bazillions of years.

But here’s the thing - it’s simple to learn the pentatonic scale in a few minutes and say “Muahaha, I learned the scale.” Buuuut that’s like buying a bunch of meat and veggies with no recipe and expecting to be the iron chef.

So in this video, you’ll learn:

- The 5 tasty ingredients that make up the pentatonic scale
- Stupidly simple recipes for creating great riffs
- How to master the static and shifting pentatonic shapes to navigate the fretboard like a boss
- How Rage Against The Machine used the pentatonic scale to write hit after hit
- How some of the most famous Motown bass lines only use the pentatonic scale
- How John Deacon used the ‘shifting shape’ to make Queen bass lines even sexier
- How I would give my Rock n’ Roll hall of fame speech

#BassScales #BassBuzz

[BassBuzz]

What’s your favorite pentatonic scale riff? 🎸

[TheHondaDream]

Josh, I went through the whole bassbuzz curriculum, and learned how to play bass guitar well enough that I can play practically any song I hear. I love finding bass tablature to learn from also, although I know I must be careful to not always assume the tabs are correct. Nothing more fun than my wife coming home from a drive and saying, "I heard this song on the radio and I really liked it...can you learn to play it?" which means I get the pleasure of learning a new song! I've got a pretty extensive repertoire of songs that I can play, and I enjoy playing with my friend who is an accomplished guitar player and enjoys the same music that I do (70s and 80s rock). Wanted to thank you for getting me started in the right direction. I'm still working on a good 'bass face', but that will come with time!

[slowPhil]

the amount of information that you can work with just in the first 3-4 minutes is insane!
this channel is awesome!

[gainseytuts]

Don't sleep on this course. 4 months in and I am jamming in a band… we now have 6 full songs written. Thanks Josh!

[turntableslave]

I like when he says "here's a crappy riff" which is the same riff I just made up.

[Idolikethis]

bro~ you just changed my whole mind about Scales, i could never have understood them without your "recipe" reference. Ive never ever ever heard it like this before. i just picked up my guitar, looked up some scales and BOOM, i can finally understand where to go after those little things i make up!!! i legit feel i pulled together a thing i made up earlier today. and imagine, i always or usually deprive myself of looking at things i wanna see and simply bc theyre helpful. odd huh?

[TankFiora]

Khruangbin! Josh's cool factor just leveled up by 100!

[drew-shourd]

Great stuff here sir, thank you for sharing this. I am a retired chef (and also a retired professional drummer) from Los Angeles, who is finally learning the bass and I love it. As a chef, I dig your analogies of cooking and bass playing, spot on boss. Channels likes this one makes it fun and easier, not easy. I am 'retired' due to over 21 surgeries, most on both feet and lower back. As a drummer I have played next to the bass for decades and always had an affinity for it and now, pushing 60, I am learning this amazing instrument. There are some drumming videos on my YT channel, like when we opened for Cheap Trick, as well as a couple bass videos (please don't laugh)
Thanx again for this awesome channel!!🙏🎸💙

[Scrufus]

Oh joyous day for it is another BassBuzz upload! Rejoice my fellow 4 stringed furniture players!

[jaynawilliams]

I took that course. That was a good course. It really helped to give me a good, solid foundation missing from my play.

[armanthefunny]

I kinda came up with similarly shaped "patterns" that I could move around the fretboard myself, never knew there was well known theory behind them. Great video!

[perestroika]

missed you Josh, thanks for the video

[KazReviews]

This morning I wanted to learn to play August 10 by Khruangbin (since ya know, it's August 10th), so I learned to play it from a tab video. Now I come across this video and Josh is talking about the same song! It was meant to be.

[robingladman]

Awesome work iam 73 years old been struggling with this for years but this is absolutely awesome thank you,

[jean-michelfarley]

Tim Commerford is just the king of the minor pentatonic. Ain't surprised to find him here!
Those videos where you tear down an artist receipe for his lines are really easy to put in practice. Keep em coming!

[kevinturvey]

absolutely superb lesson - solid gold info!

[LastTrump]

After playing guitar and Bass for 50 years I am forever amazed at how a lot of music teachers on Youtube can take something simple and make it confusing mainly because they want to impress you instead of simply teaching you. Playing and teaching music can be summed up best by one of the best musicians and producers, Chet Akins. 1. “ Most of the money I ever made in the studio were on the first 5 frets.” 2. To a musician laying down a track of a song that Chet was producing, “ could you play that again and only put half of everything you think you know in it?”

[ZaryaMain]

Another wonderfully crafted, instantly applicable lesson.

[loveeens]

Hi Josh!

Glad to see you mention August 10 in one of your videos. I LOVE Khruangbin! Glad to see that I correctly identified Lora's approach to fretting when I learned this song on my own ~4 years ago just by watching her live videos. It's definitely a more relaxed approach for girls and learning this from a female bassist felt so natural to me because I don't have long fingers to stretch over 4 frets. I still can do it but feels very tiresome and I couldn't stand playing this whole song in a box position.

Note-wise: I can't help but hear additional notes in the main riff of this song - whenever I play it, I add an quick extra forth down after the note that is leading into the next phrase (only for the first two phrases). For example it would be BB BDE BD EB on the first bar instead of BB BDE BD E. The B at the end of the phrase is very brief but it leads into the next bar nicely, and I throw in a tiny slide in place of a shift before the first note of the next bar.

Am I mishearing it or did you just simplify this riff a bit for this video lesson?

[scrub_jay]

Dude, I had to come back to this video to say I have been playing nothing but August 10 for weeks 😆 it might've changed my life. Thanks Josh!