This is a D minor scale bass lesson, covering the scale’s notes, all positions on the fretboard, and best tips for practicing.
The D natural minor scale is sometimes considered the “saddest” scale in music, but there’s, not a super compelling reason why.
It is also a well-known scale in rock and metal, specifically because of Drop D tuning.
With those basic ideas out of the way, let’s learn how to play the scale!
Table of Contents
D minor scale bass fretboard diagram (showing intervals)
D Natural Minor Scale One Octave Bass Fingering
Notes in the D minor scale
D-E-F-G-A-Bb-Care the notes in the D minor scale, for bass guitar and any other instrument.
Chords in the D minor scale
Understanding the chords in the D minor scale is vital for composition, accompaniment, and improvisation.
| i | ii° | III | iv | v | VI | VII |
| D Minor | E Dim. | F Major | G Minor | A Minor | Bb Major | C Major |
| D Min.7 | E Min.7b5 | F Maj.7 | G Min.7 | A Min.7 | Bb Maj.7 | C7 |
D minor scale bass: All positions
Here are the 7 positions of the D minor scale for bass, played using 3 notes-per-string. This gives you a shape for each degree of the minor scale, making it easy to play the scale with ease as you navigate the neck.
Also note: these shapes will work for the F major scale and all of its modes, because they are “related” to the D minor scale.
Position 1
Position 2
Position 3
Position 4
Position 5
Position 6
Position 7
D minor scale bass tab PDF
What’s Next?
Now that you’ve taken a look at the D minor scale all around the fretboard, you can start improvising and writing music with the scale!
For starters, try jamming over a D minor bass backing track, like this “spacey fusion” track.
Next, tune your bass to drop D and play the D minor scale on both the low D and high D strings, by following the notes shown in the fretboard diagrams from earlier. This makes it super easy and fun to write rock and metal riffs on your bass.
Tool is a great example of a band that uses Drop D.
(Tune to drop D by dropping your E string down a whole step)
Lastly, practice this D minor arpeggio shape, which makes it easier to visualize the 3 primary tones in the scale: The root (D), the minor 3rd (F), and the 5th (A).
That’s it, thanks for reading!
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