A Major Pentatonic, Upright Bass Side

5 notes to the octave, mapped below onto this reader's EADG fingerboard, with every A called out. Those markers are the useful part mid-bar: a chart moves under you, and the thing you need is where the root went — not where the pattern started.

Open, sunny, and hard to play wrong — with no half steps there is nothing to clash, so every note sits comfortably over a major chord. Warm, folksy, and singable.

Heard in: Country, bluegrass, folk, gospel, Southern rock, and countless pop hooks — from "Amazing Grace" to "My Girl".

The walk from one number to the next has further to travel on this instrument, so the notes it passes through are chosen for the distance as much as for the harmony.

Play it slowly against the audio until the position stops being a position, then take it to a chart counted in A and let the numbers pick their own notes out of it.