Circle of Fourths Practice

BassTools Bass practice tools

Circle of Fourths Practice. Work the twelve keys in fourths — C, F, B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭, B, E, A, D, G — against a metronome. Pick a mode, set the tempo and volume, choose how many times to loop, and press play. Use headphones or an amp; the notes are low.

C

Major scale

Mode

Drone Scale Mode Arpeggio

Major Minor Dominant Chromatic

Ionian Dorian Phrygian Lydian Mixolydian Aeolian Locrian

Triad Major 7th Minor 7th Dominant 7th Include inversions

Tempo

92 BPM

Volume

68

Lead-in

1

Times around the circle

4

Session complete

The cycle

Pattern per key

Each pass plays every key in fourths. Drone holds the tonic for a bar; scales and modes run an octave up and back down; arpeggios do the same with the chord tones, up to the octave and back. With inversions on, each arpeggio walks through every inversion — a bar each — then a closing root position an octave up. Each key gets as many bars as its line needs. Set a lead-in for a few bars of click before the first note. Nothing is recorded or sent anywhere; the sound is generated live in your browser.