I haven’t even hit on anything lesson wise yet involving scales. But I watched one of the free videos that covered the C Major scale.
Just messing around on my own, I’ve since been playing around with shifting the scale to different strings, octaves, and different notes.
What would be a reason to say play C Major starting on the E string vs. the A string? It’s definitely easier on the E string.
I played brass instruments 35+ years ago, so it’s kind of fun wrapping my head around the fact there are multiple locations of the same notes and how the repeatable patterns are. I only picked up the bass 5 days ago and I’m quite terrible on it at the moment.
One of the big ones for me is what are the other notes that I’m playing. If the grouping of notes makes more sense to play on one string vs the other, I’m going to play the note there.
timbre: listen to the C on the E string and the one on the A string - same pitch, but clearly different timbres, giving you a choice
position: as @faydout said, it can make certain things “easier” to play/reach if you finger the note in different positions. It depends on what else needs to be played (here: before and after the C).
A single bass line can often be played within several particular positions on the fretboard. There can be several reasons for that, but most commonly it is because of how the chord tones of the progression lead into each other to create a smooth melodic line (this is called voice leading).
This is why and how good bass lines are composed: They sound pleasant and “right” to the ear of even non-music-oriented listeners.
Don’t worry if this seems mysterious or confusing right now. Learning how to play bass at the same time as learning music theory is a lot.
The best thing to do as a beginner is to learn “how” to play scales all over the neck. Knowing the “why” of doing so will come along as you progress through your study of technique and theory. At this point, just play and have fun with it.
Whichever position you choose, it’s always fun to continue the scale through multiple octaves until you run out of frets & strings. Helps me with learning the scales in various positions and learning the notes on the top half of the neck better (since I almost never play them otherwise).
Which instruments did you play? I play trumpet, French horn, and flugelhorn. I always wanted a French horn, but could never afford one. I sold my trumpet to buy my bass and amp, but I still have my flugelhorn.
I played Trumpet, Baritone, and Tuba. But that was in high school and I’m 53 years old now🤣. I started on trumpet, I could hit triple C notes but just wanted to keep going lower.
I still have some music memory from those days, I can still remember the valve positions on a trumpet for all the notes.
I’m less than a week into the bass guitar now but I’m completely hooked.
I could never quite hit that high C. But like you I’m hooked on the bass now. I like that all the notes are equally easy to play and my lips don’t swell up.
Short answer: Because you’re going to change chords, and you want a hand position that will allow for the smoothest shifts to the new roots of each chord, with easy access to the other chord tones you might grab while you’re there.
It depends a lot on the rest of the song, the genre, and what kinds of changes and patterns you want to bring up later.
The E string will have a thicker timbre, but it won’t give you room to go to lower pitches without sliding your hand along the neck.
If you’re playing something like country or blues, it’s often really nice to be able to grab the fifth below the root by just rolling your fretting finger down one string. See “Folsom Prison Blues” or “House of the Rising Sun”.
But there are songs that are very slidey and progress in something like 1 → (7 or 6) → (2 or 3). Songs like “Sweet Jane” that basically just slide around the E string.
Most often, having the root of the songs key on the A or D string in the 3-7 fret range will give the most options to change chords with the least hand shifting.
I definitely agree with everyone and would like to give you a real world example.
The band Cracker has a song titled Low. This would be an easy cheesy song that we often warm up or sound check with. One acoustic guitar , one electric guitar , and me on bass.
Let’s just stick with the A String here for a moment. While I am playing C on the @JoshFossgreen money notes from that video , the two guitar players pick around their 12th fret or whatever. When those two work their way down to that first position , we begin to sound muddy. So I jump up to the 15th fret C on that A String and play my same pattern again.
When the electric guitar begins to solo , I simply jump back to the 3rd fret on that A String and play those money notes again.
So it actually is rather important to learn where C notes are on the fretboard. Most audience attendees won’t notice if you camped out on that third fret but with ear training , you will know immediately when you’re becoming muddy sounding.
The other real world example would be how we play Country Heroes. During the verse of the song , I play the C on the A String. When we play the chorus section , I jump to the 8th fret of the E String. Same Notes , Same Patterns , and that creates a nice smooth transition from verse to chorus. This also opens up a beautiful opportunity for a quick riff starting on the appropriate note on the 12th fret. Way Cool
I may be reading this thread wrong. I discovered that the same finger pattern used for the C major scale played almost anywhere on the neck sounds like a scale.
For example:
A string frets 3 and 5 = c and d
D string frets 2,3,5= e,f, and g
G string frets 2,4, and 5 = a,b, and c octave.
Play that pattern anywhere you have enough space (frets, strings) it will sound like a scale.
Note names would change though.
The scale name would then be whatever the first fret note you played was.
Am I right on this?
Absolutely and you can also shift up or down a string, so long as you have space. So shift the standard C major pattern down a string and you’re playing the G major scale. It’s one of the beautiful simplicities of bass and also why it’s so easy to get away without the theory. Which doesn’t mean that’s the right thing to do!
)
But like you I’m hooked on the bass now. I like that all the notes are equally easy to play and my lips don’t swell up. 
