These scalar drills off the A major scale not only get your fingers moving and that scale embedded in your mind, they also sound really neat! Hear me use them in a musical context…

#A26

Practice an A major scale on Bass

Video Transcript

Scalar practice tip with Ari.

When you practice the scale, break it down in the various intervals. For example, I’m starting with the easiest interval, thirds. Here’s an A major scale. [ 🎵 Ari plays scale 🎵 ]

I’m going to extend it to include all of the notes that are part of the scale in this area. [ 🎵 Ari plays scale 🎵 ]

Now, I’m going to break down the scale in thirds [ 🎵 Ari plays scale 🎵 ] Essentially you can think: start the scale, skip a note, go up two and go back to what you just skipped, And you weave that through the scale. Now, I recommend you do that on your own rather than read this transcribed.

There are several variations of this you can do. I’m playing ascending thirds up through the scale. I call this variation ascending and up and when I turn around and go back from the top I call it descending and down, because we’re now playing descending thirds down the scale. [ 🎵 Ari plays scale 🎵 ] The formula now is two back, one up, two back, one up, two back, one up, two back, one up.

Here’s a variation, You can switch the starting point. Rather than going up a third, I can start by going down a third and weave that up the scale. Now we’re calling that descending and up. [ 🎵 Ari plays scale 🎵 ] And turning it around it becomes ascending and down. [ 🎵 Ari plays scale 🎵 ] Try to make them nice and connected because as you go down, you notice you have a lot of these shifts. [ 🎵 Ari plays scale 🎵 ] …that are not so easy to get clean.

Now when you have both of these variations under your belt you can combine them. I call these mixed motion. Up a third and then down a third and now you weave that through the scale. [ 🎵 Ari plays scale 🎵 ] These are ascending, descending up. [ 🎵 Ari plays scale 🎵 ]

And there’s another way you can do this. Turn around the starting point. Rather than going ascending/descending up, try descending/ascending up. [ 🎵 Ari plays scale 🎵 ] Musical applications [ 🎵 Ari plays several examples 🎵 ]