Originally published June 5, 2013, lightly edited for clarity.
After getting the basic geography down of where the notes of a scale are on the bass fingerboard vertical relationships using my 3 note per string box technique, we then move on to navigating the notes of the scale in more of a horizontal fashion using an exercise I call the 4 Note Bridge. In this exercise we go up and down the bass neck in different 2, 3, and 4 note string combinations (5 and 6 too for 5 & 6 string basses), exploring some really cool ways to practice navigating scale note choices. The boxes themselves come out of the number system approach to scales, where I get into why each scale note gets its own shape. Check out this video to get a peek at this effective way of getting around your bass fingerboard using scales!! Scale navigation is one of the fundamentals I teach. If you want guided practice on scale navigation across the neck, online bass lessons via Zoom are available.
