In this bass lesson, you're going to learn how to solo through one of the most common
chord sequences, the 2-5-1 progression using 3 separate must-know approaches.
Hi, I'm Luke from becomeabassist.com and if you want to have the confidence to improvise
over this chord progression that I'm certain you've heard before, stick around.
I think you'll like this one!
[Video Intro]
I can virtually guarantee that you've heard the 251 progression before.
It's in so many different songs and across so many different styles of music.
You've got old school artists like the Jackson 5 or Queen using it, if you go back even further,
you'll find it in classical music, tons of jazz - seriously - it's everywhere in
jazz music!
But even more modern artists like Bruno Mars or Ed Sheeran or Maroon 5 chuck it in their
songs too.
It just works!
Because it's so common, it makes sense to know your way around it really well.
That way, if you ever need to create a bass line over this progression or make your own
fills, you'll know exactly what to do and you can be confident that what you play is
going to sound good.
This also applies if you need to improvise over this progression and that's what we'll
mostly be talking about in this video.
Now just in case you don't know, a 251 progression is just a set of 3 chords that all come from
the same key.
The chords are built from the 2nd, 5th and 1st notes of the major scale.
That's where we get the numbers 2-5-1 from.
So if we have a C major scale [plays C major scale] our 2nd note will be here [plays notes]
1-2 - a D right here.
Our 5-chord is 1-2-3-4-5 some kind of G chord.
And of course our 1 is just going to be the C. So the roots of the progression in this
key are D going to G, then landing on C. Straightforward enough, right?
And the final piece of the puzzle are the qualities of the chords.
The D chord is actually going to be a Dm7 chord, [plays Dm7 chord] the G chord will
be a G7 or a G 'dominant' 7 chord, [plays G7 chord] and finally, our C chord will be
a major 7 chord.
[plays CMaj7 chord] By the way, these chords don't have to have the 7ths on them.
They could easily just be a D minor chord, a G major and a C major chord but they're
a bit more colorful with the 7ths on top.
By the way, if you want to understand exactly how these chords are formed and how they all
relate, check out my free Ultimate Guide To The Modes For Bass.
If you do have any confusion about this, it'll clear it right up.
So I'll drop a link in the description under this video for you.
Now that's out of the way, let's talk about 3 different approaches to improvising
over this progression.
There are others, but these are the big ones - the 'must-knows'.
The first approach is probably the easiest to get started and that's to simply play
'within the key' using a pentatonic scale.
So if we have this 2-5-1 progression - Dm-G7-C, then our key is just going to be the 1-chord.
In this case, the C - so we're in the key of C major.
That means we can just plug in the C major pentatonic shape and go to town.
I've got a really simple 2-5-1 backing track in the key of C here that we can use, so if
we just stick to using the pentatonic, it might sound something like this.
[plays pentatonic over track] You can use all the other positions of the major pentatonic
too.
[plays more pentatonic scale] All just the pentatonic scale all over the bass.
This approach works well enough for the most part, but you're essentially just using
one sound over the 3 different chords.
If you wanted to get a bit more advanced, you can start assigning one sound for each
chord and cycle through them that way.
So what sounds or scales are going to work over each of these chords?
Well over your 2 chord, a Dorian scale is going to be great, in this case our 2-chord
is a D minor, so we'll use D Dorian.
Over the 5 chord, a Mixolydian sound is going to work great and for us, our 5-chord is a
G7 so we'll use G Mixolydian, and of course over our 1-chord, we can use the plain old
major scale.
C major for us in this case.
If you don't know these scales, these are actually what are called 'modes' of the
major scale and if you need to know all the shapes and how they work, where and how to
use them, then you should really check out my Ultimate Guide To The Modes For Bass.
It's totally free and it'll give you the whole picture and answer all the questions
you have about these modes.
To get it, just click the link in the description.
As far as how to get started using the modes, I recommend being very methodical with them.
Just to get familiar with them, go up each scale along with each chord.
So when the D minor 7 is playing, go up the D Dorian, go up the G Mixolydian over the
G7 chord and go up the C major scale with the C major 7 chord.
Makes sense, right?
That way, you can hear exactly how the scale relates to the chord.
Let's bring our track back and do exactly that.
So there's our 2 chord - we'd play our Dorian, then our 5 chord - Mixolydian for
that one, then our 1 chord - the plain old major scale.
Let's try to play these ourselves starting with D Dorian [plays scales with track] G
Mixolydian - and the C Major scale.
We can come down the C major as well because it lasts for 2 bars.
Let's go again.
[keeps playing modes]
Do you see how this works?
As we hear one chord, we play one specific sound and when the chord changes, we shift
to another sound.
This is going to outline the harmony for us, but it's also going to give us a ton more
options than just using one sound over all three chords.
Of course this is just the first step.
When you get more comfortable with these modes, you can start playing around with them instead
of just going up and down, which can get dull really fast.
So let's try that - let's play around with the modes a little bit.
[plays modes over track] Something
like that.
Notice that when I do this, I'm going outside of the shapes and boxes that we were using
before.
It's still the same notes, just played on a higher or lower part of the bass.
Again, this gives us more options and lets you play the music you hear in your head.
Chances are, the music that's inside of you isn't going to be confined to a neat
little box, so extending the scales and getting to know them across your entire fretboard
is always a good idea.
So first we had the pentatonic that worked well, but wasn't really playing inside the
chords - it was playing over them, then with the modes, we got more specific about playing
one kind of sound for every chord.
Now, let's take that one step further with the 3rd approach - using arpeggios to outline
each of the chords.
This means instead of using a whole scale, we'll only use the notes that make up each
of the chords.
For the Dm7 chord, our notes are D-F-A and C. There's a couple of options to play this.
You can play it here [plays arpeggios] 10th and 13th fret on the E-string, 12th fret on
the A-string and 10th fret on the D-string.
You can also extend this up to the 12th fret on your D-string, then the 10th and 14th fret
on your G-string as well.
[plays arpeggio]
For the G7 chord, you've got options as well.
The notes are G-B-D and F, and you can play that here [plays root position arpeggio] But
you can also go below that - remember the F and D are also part of the arpeggio.
[plays lower notes] And you can also start on the G-string up here [plays arpeggio] It
gives you a few more options.
And finally, for the C major 7 chord, our notes are C-E-G and B, and you can play them
here [plays arpeggio] Again, you can extend this arpeggio all the way to this G up here
[plays arpeggio] It gives you a nice spread all across your fretboard.
So how are we going to use these shapes?
Again, let's be methodical and systematic about it.
Let's start off by simply going up and down each arpeggio as it relates to each chord.
Let's grab up the track and give it a crack.
[plays arpeggios in order over track] Now let's keep the track going and try to use
these arpeggios to make some music rather than just go up
and down.
[plays arpeggios]
This approach is actually kind of tricky, right?
At the start, it's very possible that you'll sound like you're just running arpeggios,
but there's a way to get them to sound way more melodic and that's to jump around between
the notes of each arpeggio.
Going from one note to the next, then the next is fine, but not the most musical way
of using these arpeggios.
Plus, once you start skipping notes, you get a whole ton of wider intervals in your playing
and they can be melodic as hell!
If we were to do that, it might sound like this.
[plays melodic arpeggios]
Now we've gone through 3 separate approaches, and I'd encourage you to go through all
3 approaches and see which ones work for you, but that doesn't mean you have to limit
yourself to just using one.
In fact, experienced improvisers will use all 3 approaches all the time and blend them
together.
Doing this gives your playing more variety and keeps people guessing - makes sure they
don't get bored of your playing.
If we were to do this over this 251 progression, it might look like this.
[improvises over track]
You see what I'm doing there.
I'm using some scale fragments, some arpeggios, sometimes getting all pentatonic with it.
There aren't any rules here - you can mix and match however you want to get the music
that's in your head to come out through your fingers and onto your bass.
That's the whole idea, and it's wicked fun when it starts working for you!
The key is to practice each individual approach - even the ones that might not fall under
your fingers naturally.
If you really start getting your head around these ideas, they'll start coming out in
your playing naturally.
Once again, if you're at all confused about the modes - the scales we used in approach
#2 - I've got to recommend my Ultimate Guide To The Modes for you.
You'll get the full picture of where the modes come from, how they work, and where
you can use them, but what you won't get is any of the confusing jargon that people
use that just makes you even more confused.
It comes with 2 videos plus a 16-page PDF with all the tabs, notation and shapes for
the modes.
But it's only for people who subscribe to the email newsletter, so click the link in
the description, sign up on that page and I'll send it straight to you - completely
free.
To recap though, you learned 3 separate approaches for getting through the 251 progression on
bass.
You learned that the first one was to use the major pentatonic scale of the 1-chord.
If you're in the key of G major, use G major pentatonic, if you're in Bb, use Bb major
pentatonic etc. etc.
The second approach was to use the modes of the major scale.
A Dorian mode over the 2-chord, a Mixolydian over the 5-chord and your plain old major
scale over the 1-chord.
You also learned that you can make music with the arpeggios of the chords, and to make it
sound more musical and melodic, you can play the notes of each arpeggio out of sequence.
Finally, you learned that you can combine all the different approaches so your playing
has variety and people won't get bored of you just playing the same thing all the time.
Thanks so much for watching - I really appreciate it.
Go ahead and grab that Ultimate Guide To The Modes if you haven't already.
I'd love to see you in there too.
I'm Luke from Become A Bassist and I'll catch you soon.
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