Okay, so I've recently been practicing the major scales and the different neck positions of them on bass. I remember a lesson my old guitar teacher taught me that showed five different positions on the neck of the C scale and how to play them and I implimented them on bass and expanded to every note. So I was looking around on scales and modes online and I saw that the way the scales were played were different from how I did them. I mean the notes were the same but the frets were different and there in one more note played on the scales I see. I'll try to demonstrate.

Here is the Ionian mode of the F scale.

G|--2-3---5
D|--2-3---5
A|1---3---5
E|1---3---5

And here is what I play, I was taught this was the fifth position of the neck.

G|--0-2---3
D|--0-2---3
A|0---1---3
E|----1---3

I mean the key is the same but I'm playing it where I don't have to stretching to the 5th fret. The ionion mode has 12 notes played(Not all different I know) while what I play would have 11.

So am I half assing it and I should learn the traditional way to play the scales and modes or is this okay?

Someone get back to me.
Thanks
Dave

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You should incorporate the fifth fret for practice of reach and a full-sounding tone. I remember years ago my bass teachers telling me to only use the open strings if completely necessary.

Using the fifth fret can give you easy access to bridge the gap on to other notes, as well as easily incorporate transitional riffs.

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honestly, practicing scales on electric bass is a lost cause.
do more finger independence technique, like the climbing diminished thing, and the spider technique.
You can only take scales so far, but the combination of excersizes you can come up with is endless.

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another thing.
If you think you're half ass practicing then you probably are.
Your practice should always be pushing your limits, Its why you practice in the first place, to expand your boundaries. If you think you can practice more or harder then by all means do so.

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I think I should have worded myself better. I was practicing those scales as best as I could but I was thinking THEY might be half assed compared to the traditional scales. Either way I decided to switch to the 7 mode major scale and after I master that I'm going to go for all the others.

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I don't really understand what your problem is. You are playing a scale wrong but that can easily be fixed. There are various sites that can show you the correct way to play them plus there are books you could buy too. I just bought a book with 1,300+ scales.

for the first two years of me playing i refused to use open strings unless it had to be done for tone's sake. Play the fifth fret. Your flexibility will skyrocket.

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no he isnt.
hes playing f major.
but seriously dont waste too much time on scales, the best thing youre going to get out of that is "look how fast I can play this scale" which gets old.... fast. especially since every scale is the exact same pattern for that mode.

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Yeah but there are a million different scales, you have Major, Minor, Persian, Blues and a shit load of others. If you mastered all of em each note, wouldn't you know the neck like that back of your hand?

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theres more productive ways to do that then to spend hours of your time running scales.

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...such as?

Edit: Lawl:



Anyway yeah, anything else? I'm picking up a bass soon so this is useful shit to know.