I have designed this set of exercises to do two things: improve your sense of rhythm and increase the speed of your scale playing.

**Before you begin to play the exercises, you might want to set your metronome at 60 and practice clapping each rhythm--2 notes per beat, 3 notes per beat, and 4 notes per beat.

**If 60 seems very slow for the eighth notes, leave it there until you try the other two rhythms. The 16th notes might be faster than you think. If 16th notes are easy, go ahead and increase the speed a little at a time.

**Here is how to play it: Play the scale (I used "pentatonic minor" for the example, but you can choose any scale that you want to practice) using eighth notes--2 notes per metronome beat. Repeat this part of the exercise until it becomes easy.

Then practice the triplets--3 notes per metronome beat. Practice these triplets until you can play them smoothly and evenly.

Next comes the section of 16th notes--4 notes per metronome beat . Again, repeat this section until it becomes easy. If you find the 60 is too fast at first, just slow the metronome down a bit.

Here is the Exercise:

Advanced Exercise

When you can play each section of the exercise as described above,try this:

Begin with the eighth notes and play them twice. Then without stopping, go directly to the triplets and play them twice. Again, WITHOUT STOPPING, go directly to the sixteenth notes and play them as written--four times.

When you can do it this way at 60, gradually increase the metronome speed until you can play the entire exercise at 100 beats per minute.

If you don't have a metronome, you need to get one as soon as possible. Here is a relatively inexpensive one that will help you with your practicing. You can even use it as a drum machine!

NOTE: **Be patient, especially when playing the triplet portion! Because the accents keep changing, it may get confusing. Stay with it, though and you will be AMAZED at the results as reflected in your solo playing.

These exercises use the "Pentatonic Minor" scale. Try doing the exercises with Bass Guitar Major Scales or Bass Guitar Minor Scales

Do you need drum tracks to practice with? We have just added a whole section of midi drum backing tracks! Now you can practice with the original drum part. Check them out at Almost Free Drum Tracks

Want to improve your picking speed? Try Bass Guitar--Alternate Picking

Or try the next lesson: Bass Guitar Major Chords

Leave "Bass Guitar Scales Practice" and Go to the Main Free Bass Lessons Index

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