What Scales Do We Use In METAL bass playing?!!
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- Опубліковано 4 лют 2025
- This week we're looking at how scales are used in heavy metal styles. Or are they?!!
We'll look back through the history of rock and metal and see how scales have featured from the minor pentatonic, Natural Minor and blues scales of Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath through to the chromatic lines of later metal bands like Metallica, Anthrax and Slayer.
Do they use scales? I'm not so sure!
Riffs Discussed:
Black Night - Deep Purple
Black Dog - Led Zeppelin
Sunshine Of Your Love - Cream
N.I.B - Black Sabbath
Iron Man - Black Sabbath
Phantom Of The Opera - Iron Maiden
Master Of Puppets - Metallica
Caught In A Mosh - Anthrax
South Of Heaven - Slayer
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Let's look at some of the key essentials of metal feat. Metallica: Master Of Puppets, Anthrax: Caught In A Mosh and Slayer: South Of Heaven!
I based one of my bands songs on the E Phrygian scale. E-F-G#-A-B-C-D. It sounds terrific and had a nice mysterious vibe to it
Nile's whole schtick is to use phrygian all the time lol
You use this scale only to D? Or next D-E-F
that's not the phrygian scale bruh
Everytime i decide to stop bass because i suck at it , i watch something from you and you change my mind hah ,thank you for everything sir
"death, disease, and genital torture". lol, yep that's pretty much the thrash metal minor sound summed up. That was funny. You're a great bassist and instructor
Thank you so much for confirming my suspicion that it's more about making it sound sick than it is about making it musically perfect. Huge help!
You explain things that I can understand and then my friend Lucas said to me "when did you get better than me?" I sent him a link to this channel, he ignored me. Point is you're a amazing teacher, and more people that are learning should look into your channel.
Mark - as always the best and most comprehensive bass tuition out there. My bass playing has transformed because of you. Thanks for your effort over the years.
What a brilliant video!
As a bassist of some years who hasn’t perhaps learnt as much theory as I could, lately I’ve been fretting (sorry!) about not being able to recite modes etc. If I’m honest, it’s been hampering my enjoyment of playing.
This whole idea that metal uses intervals rather than scales has been a real eye-opener, and certainly put my mind at rest.
I do intend on improving my knowledge, but thanks very much for such an informative video - and for calming my self-criticism!
What scales? The ones that are fast and heavy of course!
what a masterclass! Man, you're great! keep rocking!!!! the best bass channel!
Top shelf lesson Mark. Now my mind is expanding to all other genres of music. "Feel" .... "don't try to fit it into some scale..." That's deep. Loved the humour in this one by the way :)
This is the best thing ever!! ✨ Thanks so much. I vote for a Part 2!!
Thank you thank you thank you finally a lesson on metal with out the shredding going back to its origins deep purple, zepplin, sabbath and yes cream too, iron maiden, Metallica, anthrax and slayer and made sense instead of showing off how many notes you can play in a second thank you 🤘
Great lesson, Mark! I was noodling around on the bass a few weeks ago, and what I was playing sounded sort of like Black Night, so I decided to learn the entire song properly. I was reading up on the origin of the song. There are some interviews out there with Roger Glover and Jon Lord claiming they blatantly stole the bass line from Ricky Nelson's song "Summertime."
I thought that was pretty interesting. I guess that would make Ricky Nelson one of the Godfathers of metal...
Very good 💓🎸 timing and lessons.
Great video! Really in traditional heavy metal you can't go wrong with a bit of E minor, tonnes of Sabbath/Maiden/Metallica tunes use it. Makes figuring out songs by ear really easy!
Hey thanks so much for sharing your knowledge. 🤙🖤
Genuinely a fantastic explanation of the building blocks of rock/metal.
Great teacher
For how good this guy is . He's just as good at explaining / teaching how it's done . Some guys just play then blab all day about that isn't important to us learning how to play the song / riff / technique / scale / THEORY .
If this heat keeps up, next video Mark will be sleeveless
Great information. Thanks
Wow this is mind-blowing helpful
Intetesting stuff man. Sweet Dreams (Manson's version) is a decending chromatic lick just like South of Heaven is.
Great video. Can you make a video about low tuning metal riffs?
Nice analysis video. Just shows there is always a method of some sort to the madness
Epic Face at 16:04. Great video Mark
The joke about seeing scales on the internet was the cherry on top of this otherwise perfect sundae of a video.
He talks about this notes, and I do not understand anything, but seems to be fun
When I look at metal riffs like from master of puppets, I look at the natural minor with a minor 2nd and diminished 5th added. I found this off of another video I saw (don’t remember who it’s by tho), and the guy called it the “Metallica Scale”. That’s how I look at it and how I’m writing my metal songs as of now.
Nah. That's way over thinking it. It's just a finger pattern. In terms of theory it can be analysed as intervals but there's no functional harmony at play here. It's much more liberating to just throw away the idea of scales (in terms of metal) and just see it as a tonal center (E for example) and then use the intervals and interval combinations you like.
Ah so many memories in there, thanks for sharing :)
Good video 👍
Thanks allot! Keep rockin' 🤘
youre a god for making this video theres like no evidence of there being theory in metal on youtube but listening to really well made metal and playing metal definitely says otherwise
Really strange how that works isn't it? Every genre gets lessons on theory except metal. And we'll maybe polka
@@falconismbot9370 and on top of that its for the bass and not the guitar aaaand on top of that its real information and not an ad for a program i love mark
Brilliant, many thanks!
Thanks!!!
Very cool video but definitely should've used the Ibanez! The Fender just couldn't handle what you were trying to do there 🤣🤣! As always though, fantastic job!!
Yeah, hi! Thanks, my struggle in some parts of Holy Wars...Punishment Due was removed. I'm happy to be a metal bassist because of that. :)
Very cool! I love dark intervals🤘
You're amazing.
Smiled all the way through this lesson in a good way 😀👍 I see your finally using a proper rock bass 😂 just need to grow your hair now 😀😀
My hair used to be so long I'd sit on it.
Thnkyou master
The intricacy of newer metal was only achievable through intervalic chromatics...
It blends modes, relaxes the reach, and winds around the root to keep the key spectrum long.
Brilliant, thanks.
Can you give lesson for black metal
just learn the harmonic minor scale and you're good
Learn Byzantine
For most black metal you will be turned down and just follow the root note of the guitar riff. 99% of Black Metal has shit bass. If you want good use of Black Metal bass you’ll look to first two Darkthrone, GBK, Profanatica and Venom where the lessons this guy talks about apply more
An example for Locrian in metal is the main riff in Painkiller by Judas Priest
Perfectly summed up, with the deathly Slayer as a perfect ending of doom, do'ya think they Sabbath was fed to them by the bottle instead of milk as kids? Lol!
You have killed it. Dead, disease and genital torture 🤣 Thx for that. Have been playing in a thrash band for a while of 12 years and looking for new kicks stumbled upon your video. Found it fresh like a good pint of Ale amon them god ol' boring lagers. Thanks
very cool!!
No mention of Phrygian mode?
Can you give a lesson for tech Death metal and speed metal 5 string scales?
Some Nile and Blade of Horus would be great Mark
Please make a tonal or key analysis of Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath, the revolutionary mother song of all songs. Symptom of the universe would be real interesting too because of the augmented fourth again.
Great video Mark! Hey, what do you call the color of that bass? I have to have one like it!
Natural
Nice bass!
That tone.
It would be interesting to learn how to write basslines for metal, that didn't just double the guitar line but without being boring...would scales find a use then..?
My honest opinion as to why so many Heavy Metal bands since Sabbath use the pentatonic scale and blues scale . Is because it allows us to use the trip tone . Which gives that really eerie sound . Look at the blues scale written out on paper and the possibilities are endless .
I meant "modal" analysis.
Very nice analysis. It's cool to see that metal musicians tend to create music using similar building blocks...
But do you think metal musicians compose thinking in music theory like in your analysis, or they create using more the feeling to hit creepy and heavy melodies?
It's really hard to imagine Kerry King composing and thinking about scales or Greek modes....
The whole point of the video is that metal musicians are rarely thinking of any of the music theory. Intervals aren't music theory. They can just as easily be seen as fretboard shapes, but remember any shapes you see on a fretboard have to be rooted in some sort of emotive context. You have to know what those shapes sound like otherwise you're just randomly picking notes out and hoping for the best like a beginner.
Thank you so much sir...(:.)
First tune to drop d
Eb at least
XaZa I think of drop D as kind of cheating and a bit lazy. I think it inhibits overall learning and improving. I know there's times, and songs, where it sounds great. But why not just tune to D standard, and keep the patterns and distances the same
@@treylem3 there is no cheating in music
Well scales are fine, but they dont djent
GuGu Gu. GuGugu gug. Gug.....Gug.
Thats a phenominal response @talkingbass
@@alexanderheintz6834 Thank you and Thank you
That’s a positive.
Love this video but how unfortunate that you never mentioned the best thrash band
wym he mentioned slayer
can someone give me some advice on what to practice im mostly a hard rock guy...some blues and slower metal. I been playing for years but im not in a band atm and im stuck just following along to songs. I wanna do some cool stuff but a lot of learning materials seem to mostly apply to jazz and I hate jazz. im not gonna do crazy scale fills in a sabbath song or funky slapping to the rolling stones
Sir. May i know your gear set up in this video?
'82 Fender Precision, Rode lav mic both direct into Zoom R16 digital recorder. Video on Canon 80D.
Wow that P has some bite! I thought for sure there'd be some additional foot-sorcery.
E minor
Metal bass is Bassic,ridding a note gto drive the song and put in a few cool licks in there to keep it cool,but heavy ! You are not really talking about 80s forward ! Of course Iron maiden is cool ,but a lot of galloping,horse metal I guess! On all my bass lines ,I lock in with the drums and put in a few cool things that stand out,but your job,or mine is to hold down the rhythm section,and let the guitar play the riffs over that. Some times the bass is the one that starts out the song ,and drives the song! You do some good things here,but to me ,if you are playing metal ,keep your bass lines basic!!!!!!! NO WALKING,a busy bass line is a happy one ,THAT, YOU DO NOT WANT! When my band played with Slayer in the early 80s,they were horrible! And the Bass /singer is the half way talented! I am my best Bass player I know!
Keep up the good work soldier
When does he get to the metal
Tune bass to 432 hz
Downtune to
F A# D# G# C#
PLAY MESHUGGAH
😈😈😈
I just got a noname offa wish. Im isolated and theres no bass players so it oughta lay tracks.
I foolishly hit the 665
Did the bass guitarist of these bands actually know all of this music theory to this level, or did they just play what they thought sounded good?
I kind of insinuated that in the lesson. It's all a case of following your ear and more a case of finger patterns than any theory.
i was expecting dawn patrol by megadeth...
More hostile than little house on the prairie?
Is there a scale of hostility?
Lol
Ps I take it genital torture is more hostile than lhotp?
Depends on the form of torture
BTW, I said Hostel. As in the horror film.
My circumcised life
Yall be callin it djent when I invented it in 78 and called it" bomp"
I'm learning bass since few months, and I still can't understand what the hell is a scale and why is it even a thing ... beside being a boring thing to learn, I find it completely useless if the point is to create bass lines,
Major/minor scale?
Ok I know some scales now .. what now?
Very nice lesson, but....I would argue that the minor 6th is the most important note in metal (along with the Phrygian 2nd) and you don't mention it? I-VI based progressions and riffs are where Metal started to truly depart from blues rock and hard rock in the early 70s. The chromatic and Phrygian came later.
Did you watch the video? I talk about the minor 6th on several occasions.
face tan
So what the genitals is a minor second? Aren't they supposed to be the same whole tone interval as in major second?
I'm guessing you're thinking a minor interval has something to do with a minor scale. It doesn't.
@@talkingbasslessons Now I feel even more minor than a semitone. Or is it minorer? Anyways, thanks for the informative videos that aren't selling anything.
Steppenwolf
"Heavy Metal Thuuunderrr"
@@talkingbasslessons check out the bass on this one.
ua-cam.com/video/l_v5_4yuXRo/v-deo.html
Sometimes you seemed irritated when you make videos about comments
One string scale lol
Why r ublooking black.
What happened to ur skin tone mate xDDDDD
Do you think this guy knows he just wasted everyone’s time? Or is he really that stuck in the past
U talk very much and teach very less