Octave
Practice playing all of these intervallic location options until they are committed to muscle memory. Once you can freely‘ jump’ to any of these locations from the root, then the next challenge is to see if you can play them backto-back, swapping hand positions at each intervallic location change. The next exercise will show you one way to execute that.
EXERCISE 2: PUTTING THEM ALL TOGETHER In this exercise, you will be playing all of the interval options from the C major scale backto-back, and in order, both ascending and descending through the major scale. Set a metronome, drum loop, or other timing reference at a very slow tempo to start, and work until you can play through the entire exercise without a mistake. Remember: you will need to quickly adjust your hand position for each interval so that it will allow you to comfortably cover the distance between the root and each new intervallic location.
Note: Pay extra close attention to the tablature, as that is the guide for which string and location the interval should be played from in the exercise! Exercise 1
This is one of those exercises that is more difficult to play accurately than it might initially seem. The real challenge here is proactively getting your fretting hand in position for each new interval location, playing in a smooth and legato fashion without excessive string noise or stumbling. This takes some real practice, especially at faster tempos.
As you can already imagine, this is only just the beginning. This exercise can be expanded to include every modified interval, including the minor 2nd, minor 3rd, diminished 5th, minor 6th, and minor 7th. We will dig into this further in a future lesson, but for now be sure to practice these interval options for the major scale until they are automatic.
Until next time!
Adam Nitti Nashville-based Adam Nitti balances his roles as a solo artist, sideman, and educator. He has filled the bass chair for Kenny Loggins, Carrie Underwood, Dave Weckl Band, Michael McDonald, Susan Tedeschi, Steven Curtis Chapman, Mike Stern, Brent Mason, Wayne Krantz, and Christopher Cross, while also releasing five solo CDs to date. As a Nashville session bassist he has played on multiple Grammywinning and Grammy-nominated albums, and is also the founder of...
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[ Exercise 1 ]
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