Improvise Much Smoother Bass Lines With This Scale Trick
KYLETEACHESBASS
6,906 views
In this lesson, I'm breaking down one of the most powerful ways to use your scales as a bass player — not just to run up and down the neck, but to actually smooth out your bass lines and make every chord change feel intentional and musical.
We're working in the key of A over a four-chord progression, and I'm going to show you two frameworks that will change the way you think about connecting chords:
1. Outlining the chord you're on — staying grounded in your root notes and chord tones
2. Thinking ahead to the next chord — using neighboring scale tones to set up each root note before you land on it
This "neighboring notes" concept is the real takeaway here. Once you can see the notes above and below every chord target on your fretboard, your bass lines stop sounding like exercises and start sounding like music.
We also touch on what to do when a chord has an accidental — a note that doesn't belong to the key — and how to use your ear to navigate in and out of those moments without overcomplicating it.
Backing track is in the description. Download it and put these ideas to work.
Backing Track: A Major Soul Jam Band No Bass
0:00 Intro
1:03 Framework #1 — Outline the Chord You're On
2:50 Framework #2 — Think Ahead to the Next Chord
3:51 The Neighboring Notes Concept
4:58 Demo — Connecting Chords With Neighboring Notes
6:46 Demo — Full Progression With Neighboring Notes
8:20 Framework Combo — Outlining + Connecting
10:58 Play the Scale in Multiple Positions
11:30 Handling Chords With Accidentals (C#7 Breakdown)
13:47 Don't Get Daunted — Use Your Ear
15:16 Recap & The Big Picture
16:17 Final Backing Track Run-Through
20 Comments
Edit: ...and let us take risks knowing we can get ourselves out if it doesn't quite work as intended.
This video succinctly covers so many fundamental concepts to creating basslines that took me years to figure out by myself.
One big problem I have is memorizing the chord progression so that I can think about the next chord.
What's your answer?
Is there a trick to memorizing a chord progression, especially when they change?
Improvise Much Smoother Bass Lines With This Scale Trick
KYLETEACHESBASS
6,906 views
In this lesson, I'm breaking down one of the most powerful ways to use your scales as a bass player — not just to run up and down the neck, but to actually smooth out your bass lines and make every chord change feel intentional and musical.
We're working in the key of A over a four-chord progression, and I'm going to show you two frameworks that will change the way you think about connecting chords:
1. Outlining the chord you're on — staying grounded in your root notes and chord tones
2. Thinking ahead to the next chord — using neighboring scale tones to set up each root note before you land on it
This "neighboring notes" concept is the real takeaway here. Once you can see the notes above and below every chord target on your fretboard, your bass lines stop sounding like exercises and start sounding like music.
We also touch on what to do when a chord has an accidental — a note that doesn't belong to the key — and how to use your ear to navigate in and out of those moments without overcomplicating it.
Backing track is in the description. Download it and put these ideas to work.
Backing Track: A Major Soul Jam Band No Bass
0:00 Intro
1:03 Framework #1 — Outline the Chord You're On
2:50 Framework #2 — Think Ahead to the Next Chord
3:51 The Neighboring Notes Concept
4:58 Demo — Connecting Chords With Neighboring Notes
6:46 Demo — Full Progression With Neighboring Notes
8:20 Framework Combo — Outlining + Connecting
10:58 Play the Scale in Multiple Positions
11:30 Handling Chords With Accidentals (C#7 Breakdown)
13:47 Don't Get Daunted — Use Your Ear
15:16 Recap & The Big Picture
16:17 Final Backing Track Run-Through