The Spiral : a practical daily method for working harmony,

melodic vocabulary and fretboard fingering on the bass

What this method pretends to work primarily

This is a 30 minutes daily method that pretends to help you with:

• Notes and chords recognition in the fretboard.

• Strengthening of fingers and Intervals fingering mastery.
• Soloing and new melodic ideas.
• Tonality changing mastery.

What this method DO NOT pretends to work primarily

• Rhythm and groove.

• Pickup-hand techniques (slap, tapping, palm mute, etc).
• Velocity.

You can add this elements if you want, but is not the main objective here.

Let’s go!

1 Choose a mode

2 Choose three series of intervals from the chart (next page)

3 Start a countdown timer for 30 minutes. Placing the root of the mode in the first fret of the lowest
string, play one of the series up and down the strings moving the root progressively following
the structure of the mode and keeping the same position. Then move one fret above, do the
same and continue like this until you place the root on the 12th fret.

4 If you have finished and you have not run out your 30 minutes, repeat the process with series 2
and 3. If you have finished the three series and you still have time before ending the 30 minutes
timer, take the rest of the time for improvising with the tonality that results from placing the
chosen mode’s root in the first fret of the lower string.

5 Do steps 2 to 4 once a day for a week and then change to a different mode (keeping the same
series) each week until you have worked every modes.

6 Repeat the whole process choosing another group of three series. As in a spiral, you will work
the same things over and over again but with new perspectives and new learned skills each
time.

IMPORTANT NOTE :

Take your time to think where you put your fingers and be sure you are playing well every single note. DO
NOT USE A METRONOME. This is not a velocity or rhythmic exercise, so take it easy. If you run out the 30
minutes before finishing the first series all over the fretboard, it doesn’t matter!! The next day you will do
better!!! Find your own learning rhythm, be patient but keep constancy.

Juan Diego Poveda Ávila - Bass Player / jpoveda33@gmail.com

 Chart of all possible series of main intervals
in one octave

Beginning with the Root

1 3 5 7 7 5 3 1
1 5 3 7 7 3 5 1
1 5 7 3 3 7 5 1
1 7 3 5 5 3 7 1

Beginning with the 3th

3 1 5 7 7 5 1 3
3 5 1 7 7 1 5 3
3 5 7 1 1 7 5 3
3 7 5 1 1 5 7 3
3 7 5 1 1 5 7 3

Beginning with the 5th

5 1 3 7 7 3 1 5
5 3 1 7 7 1 3 5
5 3 7 1 1 7 3 5
5 7 1 3 3 1 7 5
5 1 7 3 3 7 1 5

Beginning with the 7th

7 1 3 5 5 3 1 7
7 3 1 5 5 1 3 7
7 3 5 1 1 5 3 7
7 5 1 3 3 1 5 7
7 5 3 1 1 3 5 7
7 1 5 3 3 5 1 7

Juan Diego Poveda Ávila - Bass Player / jpoveda33@gmail.com

Example

Chosen mode : Dorian

Chosen series : 3571

5731
1357

Transcription of the exercise (applied to a 4 string bass with standard tunning)

...etc.

For 5 and 6 string bass just complete the notes in each position using all strings.

If the 30 minutes has not run out, you can improvise all over the instrument using Eb major scale (cause
this is the tonality resulting from fingering a dorian mode in the first fret of the E string).

Program for the next weeks:

Week 2 : same series, phrygian mode.

Week 3 : same series, lydian mode.
Week 4 : same series, mixolydian mode.
Week 5 : same series, aeolian mode
Week 6 : same series, locrian mode
Week 7 : same series, ionian mode.
Week 8 : different series, dorian mode

And so on...

Do not forget to apply the learnings to your music, otherwise the method is useless.

Good luck, and have fun!!!

This work has been created by Juan Diego Poveda and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommer-
cial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.