I think Gio had an article a few weeks ago on “chords on bass”. The chord shapes on a 4-string and on a 5-string should be identical, as one tends to use the upper three strings (A, D, G) and high on the neck preferably - otherwise, it can get muddy. So, neither the E or the B string are really involved.
However, if you have a E-C 5-string, then a different set of chord chart would indeed be needed 
It just means playing the position requires a small shift (or a stretch, depending on your hand size).
The “classic” shapes allow your hand to stay in position, i.e., you don’t need to move your hand (at all, or perhaps only a little bit). When you shift after the first note, you set yourself up for being able to access a different part of the fretboard. This is helpful for when you expect to be moving horizontally along the fretboard (like, say, for two octave runs etc.).
Also, in the examples here, after the shift, the shapes are more “compact” (max two frets to span), and thus you can potentially play faster/easier from that position.
I shouldn’t have tried to multi task. I meant scales for a 5er, not chords.
Why is the first root note for Joy to the World called Bb and not A#?
Hm… because it is in Bb major???
Maybe I misunderstood the question, but nobody would write this piece (or almost anything) in A# major… it would have 10 #s 
Thanks, perfect answer. 
This was a fantastic write-up @Gio. Loved the humor and the many audio examples. Top notch work, can’t wait to read future articles!
Yes, the entire hand shifts position up the neck as the index finger slides up.
And you go from one finger per fret to only needing to cover 3 frets.
As for the shifting, I find that it sometimes helps to shift to your strong fingers, rather than just up to the pinkie. The same seems to happen here.
A good riff to practice shifting the index finger down towards the lowend would be “Doctor, doctor” by UFO. For shifting up the fretboard, there’s tons of ideas. Maybe you guys have a good recommendation.
I’m a little late here with the response, but I think folks pretty much covered for me!
To be absolutely clear:
The shifting form (unlike most scale forms we learn as beginners) has a position shift built into it:
The shift is in a different place for the major and minor pentatonic/blues scale, but the concept is the same.
You shift with your index finger up a whole step, and that lil’ shift makes everything accessible and smooth and comfy for the hand and ear.
@Billn mentioned my favorite part, in that it takes you from having to cover a 4 fret range to only a 3 fret range, and my hands love that.
When you put that together with the smooth whole-step shift, it becomes this super comfortable, easily movable shape.
Because I only did 1 octave scales here, the shapes are the same shapes I would play on my 5 string. I don’t have any real new stuff for when things move to more strings, but there is a joy in watching how many more notes can be covered in one position… but, again, that’s only when you’re working outside of the 1 octave that I focus on in this article.
This is great @Gio - honestly at first I thought an article on scales is not something that’s going to grab me … but turns out it is I’m definitely going to go through the exercises.
YES! Thanks tons!
This is the ultimate compliment/comment.
It’s also the absolute goal of these articles!! Trying with all my might to take these bass ideas that the internet is all a-flutter with, and turn them into usable, practical, entertaining beginning bass lore!
This was a GREAT article! Is there a PDF that I can add to my binder to practice when I’m away from my laptop! BTW, I’m in Module 11 of the B2B course and I love it. You guys are the BEST!
It’s relatively easy to produce a PDF from the article but you will lose the demo sound clips.
Very excellent question and idea.
Yeah - the embedded links will be tricky, but I’ll definitely keep this idea tucked away.
Sure would be nice to have a book of supplemental lessons to check in with.
Thanks!
Wow! What a great work! SUPER helpful, thank you!
I was thinking that I’d try to pop the different scales and patterns into guitar pro and make exercises out of them. I’ll give it a go this evening and see if I come up with anything interesting. I warm up every day by playing scales, so expanding out to some of the ones I haven’t touched before is pretty exciting.