C Ionian — Bass (6-String)

The C Ionian scale runs 7 notes per octave in the modes family. Below it sits on the Bass (6-String)'s BEADGC strings with every root marked, because a bassist reads a scale map as a set of targets around the root, not a row of dots.

Bright, resolved, and stable. The foundation of Western tonal music and the most common mode in pop, classical, folk, and jazz.

Heard in: Pop, classical, country, folk, gospel — the default major tonality of Western music.

In fourths tuning every pattern is movable: learn the shape once, one finger per fret, and it works from any root on the BEADGC neck. With the low B and high C in the tuning, the same fingering covers more range before your hand ever shifts.

Walk it slowly against the audio, land each root on a downbeat, then take it to the progressions in C and let the scale turn into lines.