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About this course
What you'll learn
45 lessons • 39 charts • 20 Jam Tracks
Welcome to Pentatonic Playground for Bass! Pentatonics are powerful building blocks for grooves, fills and solos. In this course, I'll teach you five must-know shapes that will unlock these sounds for you. Then, we'll connect these shapes for freedom all across the board, so to speak. You'll get some great chops in the process, and you'll get plenty of ideas for real life applications! Are you ready to gimme five?
Pentatonic sounds have widespread use in many old (even ancient!) and modern styles of music. They create an open sound without harsh dissonances—in other words, all the notes of the pentatonic scale will sound pleasant with each other.
A pentatonic scale consists of five notes, which create patterns of two notes per string on the bass, resulting in very accessible shapes. Five notes is a small reservoir that can be easily kept track of. They're great building blocks for hip grooves, exciting fills, cool solos, and catchy melodies. They are applicable to many different styles, found in musical genres as diverse as country, rock, pop, folk, jazz, Latin music, blues, film and video game scores, and ethnic music. Although many variations and alterations of the basic pentatonic scale exist, in this particular course we are mainly using the major and minor pentatonic scales. We'll explore their shapes on the fingerboard, sounds, uses, and the oodles of fun that can be had with them.
The sound of the major and minor pentatonic is very familiar. Let’s listen to these two scales and analyze the sound.
A systematic approach is the best way to achieve confidence in all areas of the bass. When you get these five shapes under your fingers they'll give you access to the major and minor pentatonics all across the fretboard (including their modes as well).
Each shape has its particular features which we'll examine. I laid out the best fingering for you to try and have included exercises for getting the patterns under your belt (these are also a killer technical workout!). To start, let's learn these shapes in the keys of G major and E minor.
Let's introduce our first pattern. Pattern 1 has a hexagonal shape, with its (major) root at the lowest note. In this segment, I'll demonstrate it and give you the low down.
Let's take a look at the features and applications of Pattern 1 in this video! It contains the major root in two octaves, so it's great for grooves using major pentatonics. I'll also show you the hammer-ons contained within it.
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20 results
Aton1
Verified buyer
05/21/26
The A to Z of the fretboard
This course is an absolute must if you want to move freely across the fretboard. Ariane Cap is a captivating personality and a great teacher. It’s incredibly fun to practice the exercises with her. Highly recommended.
guitaralice
Verified buyer
04/29/26
With Ariane Cap you get the Pentatonics under your belt!
The topic of pentatonic scales for bass is covered in three sections. Section I provides a brief overview, emphasizing the focus on the G major/E minor pentatonic scale. Section 2 introduces the five patterns. Each pattern is presented in the same way. After a short overview, the features of that pattern are discussed. Ariane Cap always includes a special exercise in the subsequent technical exercises, keeping you motivated. The Groove & Fill Demo section shows how to approach this topic while practicing the pentatonic scale. Each section concludes with a groove played in either G major or E minor. Section 3 begins with various workouts, focusing primarily on connecting the five patterns, such as horizontal connections, diagonal connections, and single-string fingerings. The workshop then presents various applications, such as chord qualities and pentatonics, pentatonics and blues, and soloing ideas with the five patterns. It concludes with a short gear talk. This workshop is certainly suitable for intermediate bassists. Even advanced players will discover little things they probably didn't know before. I particularly like the visual aids for the five patterns: The Hexagon, The Boot, Big Box/Little Box, Little Box/Big Box, and Upside Down Boot.
xsit
Verified buyer
11/09/25
good course and method, teacher, complete tutorial pack. . .
davidcherisier
Verified buyer
11/04/25
Great teaching 👍
SouthKev
Verified buyer
03/27/23
I don't normally play Bass, but have been asked to do so, love this course it's ideal for me, easy to follow and understand.
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