31 free online bass lessons to watch or read — technique, music theory, walking bass and how to practise — from Pete Lindemere, B.Mus (Hons), PGCE.
Everything here is free to watch or read. There are also free tools — tuner, metronome, groove trainer, ear trainer — and printable charts and lesson handouts.
Written 36 min read
The blues scale for bass: its roots, swing and shuffle, the major and minor blues scales across the neck, the nine-, ten- and eleven-note blues scales of history, blue notes and pitch zones, real bass lines and a call-and-response exercise.
Written 28 min read
The major scale for bass, from Mesopotamia to the modern bass line: construction, ear training, fingerings across the neck, all seven modes, triads, chord progressions, key signatures and two practice exercises.
Written 20 min read
Every bass scale that matters, on one map: the five families, two positions each in notation and TAB, the riffs they power — and why these five run popular music.
Written 36 min read
The history of the minor scale from ancient Greece to the charts, why minor sounds sad, and all 13 minor-family scales with notation, TAB and shapes.
Written 15 min read
The bass pentatonic scale explained: all five modes, the semitone-counting trick that makes them stick, four exercises, the blues scale and two free PDFs.
Written 13 min read
What is a tetrachord? Four stepwise notes spanning a 4th — and the key to 49 scales. The four diatonic shapes, every major-scale mode, and two free PDFs.
Written 23 min read
How to practise bass with a metronome: interactive click settings, pushing and pulling the beat, and the no-instrument drills that build your inner clock.
Written 9 min read
What does diatonic mean? The major scale and everything built from it — the three-part formula that decides what counts, and why melodic minor doesn't.
Video 1 min watch
How to use your picking fingers on bass: the first thing to get right — angle, contact and consistency — for a clean fingerstyle plucking sound.