OK, I weigh in, even though I should probably keep my mouth shut.
I just don’t understand the constant bashing of SBL here… It is totally fair to not like (perhaps to dislike) Scott and his mannerisms, his teaching style, his increasingly annoying marketing, etc etc, but why bash him all the time. Just ignore the site, and move on to something else. Luckily, there is so much to choose from out there!
Also, this was a free “webinar” series… it’s free! Take what makes sense to you; if you feel you are wasting your time, move on.
And also: fretboard knowledge is not gained within half an hour - you have to put a lot of effort into this, and whatever additional information helps you in that endeavor is welcome. But, you likely need to process and digest it, and that takes, again, time.
What Scott was trying to convey was (and this is my summary, which is based on when he did a similar thing a few weeks back):
-
guitar players play chords, hence they need to learn chords; bass players outline chords, hence they need to learn the components of a chord (chord tones = triads)
-
for most types of music (pop, rock, blues, soul, r’n’b, …) and for a bass players mostly interested in supporting and jamming (and not so much soloing), knowledge of scales and extended arpeggios (e.g. over 7th chords) is not necessary, BUT you need to know your triads!!
-
knowledge of triads should not only be based on finding the root and then playing in ascending order, but also include inversions, various directions, and over extended areas of the fretboard
-
initially, it is very beneficial to learn triads while staying within a certain area of the fretboard (i.e., frets 0-5)
That’s the gist of it, really. And, by the way, others teach similar things (like, for example, Ariane Cap, who is, I understand, very much revered in this forum).
So, imagine you knew all your triads (for major and minor chords, first of all), for all keys, and only using frets 0 to 5. If you master that, you can come up with grooves and supporting bass lines for almost every song and easily play along new chord progressions - by playing chord tones (which are the tones that make up the triads), while not having to slavishly and boringly start with the root every time. Your bass lines will be more musical.
Once you can do that, learn to do the same from frets 5-9, and then from 9-12. By learning this, you WILL get to know your fretboard, you WILL be able to play over an F minor chord, starting from the C on the third fret, in descending order when woken up at 2 am at gunpoint, and you WILL be one of the most sought-after bass players (well, if you can play in the pocket, of course 
)
There is, however, and unfortunately, no magic pill to learn this in an afternoon or two. You can get pushed in the right direction, but then you need to put in the work.
Good luck!
