The Whole Tone Scale – Why it’s cool! (with free jam track)

by Ari 30 May 2019 2 minute read

I refer to this video lesson on the Whole Tone Scale regularly in my lessons

As one YouTube commenter stated:

“I always found little use in this scale, you have just changed my mind. Thanks as always! You’re amazing.”

The whole tone scale is a very educational scale because it is the easiest of all the symmetric scales. It is built from only whole steps. It hence creates very pretty shapes on the fretboard and teaches us a whole (ha!) lot about:

  • the symmetry of the bass fretboard
  • how notes work
  • shapes within shapes

There are also only two of them, so if you learn one scale you are covering six (!) chords and sounds.

Download this PDF to see the pretty shapes this scale creates.

The best way to learn this scale is to improvise over a 7 sharp 5 chord and use it. Here is a whole tone track for you to download (composed by Wolf Wein!)

Want to learn more about the whole tone scale?

Enjoy my Talking Technique video on notreble.com.

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Bassist, author, educator.

Groove enthusiast and learning nerd.

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Hi. I'm Ari.

As a bassist, I have toured/played/recorded with a variety of rock, Jazz, and funk bands, I have worked with some incredible producers (Keith Olsen) and musicians (Paul Hanson, Muriel Anderson) and I toured Brazil with Stu Hamm as a duo.

 

As a bass teacher, I have taught at London Bass Day, Gerald Veasley’s Bass Boot Camp, SBL, Truefire, notreble… I even ran my own music school for a few years before gigs took me back on the road.

 

One thing to know about me is that I teach because I am absolutely fascinated with the learning process. And I am obsessed with helping others realize their musical potential.

 

When I started playing bass, I excelled very quickly because I had an amazing teacher who taught me using a powerful method. This method transformed my playing so quickly that I passed a bunch of high-level university auditions and even tested out of entire classes at university even though I had been playing for only a very short time.

 

That’s what, many years later turned into one of my books, co-written with Wolf Wein, called “The Pattern System for the Bass Player”. I created entire systems of learning based on some of these ideas and wrote books and created courses together with Wolf. Our bass books have sold over 30,000 copies and garnered rave reviews.

 

I started teaching online in 2009 and have embraced technology as a powerful learning tool since then, never losing sight of the importance of providing feedback and personalized guidance to learners.

 

Read more…

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