The Bass Guitar
Anticipated Expectation.
Sometimes, memorizing the notes on the fretboard isn’t always enough to be able to play well, and play with anticipated expectation.
There are patterns everywhere in music, especially on the fretboard of the guitar or bass guitar. Knowing the patterns, (almost like road maps), can help greatly increase your play-ability and anticipated expectation.
What do I mean by anticipated expectation?
Imagine knowing something before it happens, and being right. Music is all about anticipated expectation. Musicians eventually learn to play their instruments with a sort of knowledge of what’s “probably” coming in the progression of a song. This anticipated expectation can take years of practice to recognize. It comes from a knowledge of understanding basic patterns in the mathematics of music and having a trained ear for those patterns.
Chances are, if you’ve learned how to play a few hundred songs on the guitar or bass guitar, you have probably figured out that there are repeating patterns in music that exist everywhere. Why do these repeating patterns happen so much? Well, modern American music has long since developed, (over the past several decades), a way of using “ear-candy” patterns that are pleasing-to-listen-to, especially in popular, rock, and country music.
A HUGE percentage of these millions of songs, use the “I - IV - V - vi” pattern, in literally any order, in any key - and it sounds pleasing to almost anyone who hears it.
For instance, if you are learning a country song that has the same three major chords in the intro, the verse and the chorus, it’s probably going to be a pretty damned boring song if it stays like that. But wait! What if there’s a bridge in the song? Most seasoned musicians are going to have that anticipated expectation of a minor chord, showing up somewhere in that bridge. Chances are, it will. When it does, you are automatically ready for it.
Okay, so how can you get ready for an anticipated expectation?
You gotta know your keys! There simply is no way around it. Learn all twelve keys. Know all of the notes for every key.
Know and understand the circle of fifths/fourths. Know it so well that you can use it in everything you ever do in music, from learning to practicing to playing to teaching.
Know your fretboard cold! Look at your fretboard as layers. What do I mean by layers? Know where every note is on the entire fretboard. Know the name of every note on every fret on every string, and know them instantaneously. Know them in a split second.
But wait, there’s more!
It also help a great deal to know another pattern on the fretboard. This pattern is about seeing scales and locations of notes in those scales.
Below are the major two scales I use all the time when playing bass guitar. It is simple, easy to use, and easy to memorize.
The 4th-string root major scale.
All seven notes in the major scale are within a few frets of each other. This is also a “movable” scale pattern that can go anywhere up or down the fretboard, and be used in any key. The lowest key you would use woudl obviously be the key of E major, as E is the lowest note on the 4th string. In all honesty, you probably wouldn’t really need to use it any higher up the fretboard than maybe the 7th or 8th fret. Why? Because we also have the 3rd string root major scale.
The 3rd-string root major scale.
If you use both of these scale patterns (for major), you can literally play almost any pop, rock or country song.
(Keep in mind, the minor scale patterns are a little different. Look for those in an upcoming lesson.)
The lowest you might go for this scale would be the key of B major, because you will need the low E for the 4th note in that key; and that’s as low as you can go. Again, you would really only use this patterns up to about the 6th, 7th or 8th fret.
Practice both patterns in all twelve keys. When you go to learn a new song, knowing these patterns and knowing all of the keys, will absolutely help in your anticipated expectation.
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