Best of 2010: Top 10 Bass Lessons

Our Best of 2010 series continues today with the top 10 most read lessons on No Treble. Get your bass on!

1. Introduction to Bebop Scale Forms

In this lesson we’ll explore the basic forms of Bebop scales so you can start getting the patterns down and experiment with them in your music. There are times when you solo that you may want to do a scale run over a chord. Have you ever noticed that a straight descending scale run as…

2. Lesson: Slap Bass 101

Editor’s note: Help us welcome our newest contributor, Thomas “MarloweDK” Risell! By popular demand, I’ve been working on a new lesson series for beginning slap bass. This week, we’ll break down the basics. Part 1: Slap Bass Introduction This lesson covers basic thumb slapping, ghosted notes, muting, hammer-ons and plucking/popping: Next: we’ll build on these…

3. Lesson: Scale Patterns from Tetrachord Combinations

We normally think of scales in terms of eight-note patterns and treat them as a unit. There are the standard modal forms for both major and minor, the bop variations, blues variations, but all of these still cling to the paradigm of an octave based scale unit (even if the total number of notes in…

4. Efficient 20 Minute Practice

How often do you hear people claim that it’s not how much your practice but how efficiently you practice? There are always claims that practicing 15-30 minutes every day versus a 3 hour session every Saturday will have a more positive impact on your playing ability – but how do you make the most of…

5. Lesson: Minor Tetrachord Patterns

In the last tetrachord lesson we went over the concept of tetrachords and how they change the way we think about scale patterns. In that lesson the focus was the major modes and a question was posted asking about the melodic minor and harmonic minor modes. Therefore this week’s article will go over tetrachords in…

6. A lesson on live looping for bass

Guest contributor Russ Sargeant shares this live looping lesson with us, on upright bass using Mobius software and the Behringer FCB1010. Introduction Solo musicians have a new powerful weapon in their arsenal, or rather access to technological advancements on an established idea. Live Looping has been around since the days of the tape delay machine….

7. Lesson: Building an Improvised Composition for Solo Bass with a Looping Device

One exciting way of use a looping device with your bass is to enhance a composition. A recorded phrase can become a backbone over which to improvise. For example, a phrase can take the form of a tapped rhythm (e.g. using muted strings), a short rhythmic phrase lasting only one or two bars or a…

8. Lesson: Basic Line Construction Types

After doing last week’s column, I’ve been thinking more about approaches to creating lines connecting ii and V chords. I’d like to revisit the subject and delve into some basic line construction types. Each particular technique constitutes parts that become interchangeable and apply to a wide range of bass line situations. Throughout these exercises we’ll…

9. How To Harmonize Melodies

At some point in your musical career you are bound to be given a melody line… and nothing else. Maybe it’s one you have created, it might just be an idea someone else is working, or perhaps it’s the melody to a standard you have to learn on the bandstand. Regardless of the circumstances the…

10. Math and Music: Intervals

Every musician should have an idea of the foundational concepts that allow us to create music. This lesson series will explore the basis for tonal structure in Western music. I’ll warn you right now, this lesson is not for the faint of heart, or math-phobic. The purpose of this is to add to the conceptual…

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