Description
Scale Essentials For Bass Guitar
Unlock The Fretboard & Explore With Freedom
65 lessons spread over 4 modules, 178 pages of lesson material and over 150 audio practice tracks… Scale Essentials For Bass Guitar will fuel your practice for years to come!
Click Here For Full Course Info PDF
‘I’ve watched a lot of videos and taken a few courses from other instructors, but Scale Essentials is by far the best! Mark has a unique manner of teaching which makes it very easy to comprehend and retain the material.’ Pam Anders – USA
‘In short, it’s a revelation. There have been so many penny dropping moments I’ve lost count. I’ve always thought any music theory would be beyond me but your lessons are brilliant and your teaching is easy to follow.’ Mark Henry – UK
‘Scale Essentials really is the best course I’ve ever seen! I thought I’d finally mastered the major scale and it’s modes, but it was only the tip of the iceberg. Step by step you’re taken to the next level and I can go back each time to review the steps in more depth.’ Alex Verworst – Netherlands
Check out more reviews of the course in the Reviews tab above!
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is The Scale Essentials For Bass Guitar Course?
The Scale Essentials course is a step-by-step journey through the world of scales. This is all presented through video lessons alongside the written lesson material and .mp3 practice tracks.
What Level Of Player Is The Course Aimed At?
The course is aimed at any player looking to develop a knowledge of scales and a better understanding of the fretboard. As much as Beginner and Intermediate level players can comfortably jump straight into the course, more advanced players will also see huge benefits by working on the course material.
What Will I Learn?
After finishing the course you will have acquired the following skills and knowledge:
- A deep knowledge of scale construction principles
- The ability to see scales over the entire fretboard
- The skills to shift around the neck with freedom and fluidity
- A deeper understanding of music theory and harmony
- The ability to apply scales into your music
- The ability to analyse music and understand bass lines, chords and melodies so as to build an ever expanding musical vocabulary
How Long Are The Lessons?
The lesson lengths vary but the complete course is over 10 hours in length.
How Is The Course Presented? Do I Download Anything?
The course is hosted on the Talkingbass website so there are no video files to download.
There is a Dropbox folder for each module containing a Course Workbook and any relevant practice tracks.
Is There A Time Limit On Taking The Course?
No. You can take as long as want. There are no time limites
Do I Have Lifetime Access To The Course?
If you purchase the course then yes, you have lifetime access to the course and its material.
Torsten B. (verified owner) –
Very helpful for anyone from beginner to pro level. This helped me to close a lot of gabs and supported with a bunch of exercises. Also this fits into a lot of other courses. I happily recommend this course to any bass addicted.
Elkmar W. (verified owner) –
I spent a lot of time with this course and – even after years of playing – found it very useful to start from scratch again to get rid of habits that found there way into my playing over the years.
It really enlarges the ability to use the complete fretboard while playing and enhances the understanding of baselines you can hear on records and other music sources.
Also the theory behind it is told and don’t be scared it is absolutely useful!
Barney K. (verified owner) –
The scales essentials course provides a mountain of content and does a beautiful good of weaving the information into prior courses (for me that was the chord tones course). Any of the material that was repurposed from other course was perfectly woven into the educational fabric, well done for sure. The building process with the 3 primary scale positions and tying the entire fretboard into the scales was a break thru for me. I am now working from top to bottom with ease, which had always been a bit of challenge. Tons and tons of practice material to keep me going for years and some very solid practice suggestions. The way that Mark weaves the course information from other course certainly tests your retention of prior material and quickly points out areas that I needed to refresh. Excellent and exhaustive compilation of scale work!
Jose L. (verified owner) –
well worth the $, step-by-step no guessing just do it lesson. Mark is a great teacher.
Graham D. (verified owner) –
A thorough coverage of scales with enough exercises to keep me busy for years to come.
Clear explanations and lots of examples. Just add lots of time and practice to improve not just your bass playing but also your all round musicality and musicianship.
Gary F. (verified owner) –
Excellent course, fantastic value, well organised and clearly presented. There is enough information in this course to provide years of scales practise material. It’s structured in a similar to the Chord Essentials course and complements it well.
Gabor B. (verified owner) –
This course was very useful to me and I really enjoyed it.
Liam G. (verified owner) –
very detailed, yet efficient so far!
Lee K. (verified owner) –
I just completed the Scale Essentials course. This course is very thorough and well organized, covering a large variety of scales and modes. It has some overlap with the ‘Chord Tone Essentials’ course, which I previously completed, but this is to be expected for it to be functional as a standalone course. Although some of the topics are repeats of the Chord Tones ones, they were still useful in review in that they were examined in a different context, i.e., scales vs chord tones.
The course is chock full of exercises that will provide a lifetime of practice material. The scales and modes are drilled using 3 different finger patterns associated with each scale/mode. In addition, different fretboard positions are used that transition between these finger patterns, and are drilled extensively. This opens up playing these scales and modes all over the neck.
I was particularly happy to see coverage of the modes of the Harmonic and Melodic Minor scales, since my prior exposure to these has been limited, only dealing with a handful of these modes. Coverage of other scales, such as the Whole Tone, Diminished, and Augmented scales was also helpful due to my limited exposure to these as well.
Overall, I would highly recommend this course, as I consider it to be one of the three foundational courses here, along with ‘Bassic Essentials’ and ‘Chord Tone Essentials.’
Emily M. (verified owner) –
Mark gets to the point, gets across the knowledge, and you have access to lots of lesson materials to practice with. Great course for learning scales and I love me some scales…
Dick M. (verified owner) –
Simply put, the course made me musically literate. I’m able to engage in objective conversation with other musicians using their language. I’ve since purchased the Chord Tone course which builds on the Scales course.
Wayne F. (verified owner) –
A must to help improve your understanding of scales, I’ve played bass for over 20yrs and learned a lot from this course it’s highly recommended, Marks approach to unlocking the aspects of the topic are fantastic, from this I invested in Marks other courses purely on the strength of content and how the courses are delivered.
Petra S. (verified owner) –
I am very enthusiastic about the way Mark teaches. He moves forward in small steps and explains everything in great detail. It is important to him that his students understand the context and develop a solid foundation.
I highly recommend this course!
Diego V. –
All that you want to know about scales and his aplication is inside this course. Mark is the man, right to the point allways.
Anonymous (verified owner) –
The Scales Essentials Course is tremendously beneficial, and I highly recommend it for any level of player who wants to dramatically improve their musicianship. Mark Smith is the BEST in the business. His teaching style is very professional and thorough. He doesn’t believe in gimmicks or showing off. Get this course, and you won’t regret it!