Articles by Ryan Madora - Page 24

Believe it or not, I’m a huge fan of the blues. This particular genre caught my attention at a young age and it has taken years (and, I expect, will require many more) to appreciate some of its subtleties. If you’ve had an opportunity to check out my series on blues bass playing, then this column acts as a quintessential...

Do you have five minutes of free time? Yes, you do. You may say that you don’t, but really, you do. It’s easy… wake up five minutes earlier than you usually do and pick up your bass before work. Or, go to bed five minutes later. Or, DVR your favorite TV show, watch it and fast forward through the commercials,...

I’m sure than we’ve all heard the saying “it’s all in the hands.” Many of us, myself included, are willing to support this statement. But is that really all there is? Is our musical voice the same regardless of what we play or what we play through? After all, we’re the one picking up the instrument, and our years of...

When it comes to music, we all have our favorite bands, our favorite songs, favorite singers, bass players and maybe even some guitar solos. Some of us develop a preference for certain genres; they shape our music library, our concert expenditures and our playing repertoire. It’s easy to know that we like something, mainly because we find ourselves singing along...

Do you ever get nervous about performances? I certainly do. I’ll spend hours and hours learning material, charting it out, listening to it in the car, and getting everything in order for the gig, and even after all of that, I’ll still be nervous! For some reason, I think that everyone else will be cool as a cucumber, right? Wrong....

Technology is a wonderful thing. Compared to a century ago, our day-to-day lives are completely different; we no longer need to hand wash our clothes, build a fire to eat, or take a horse and buggy to visit friends in an adjacent state. Instead, we can simply purchase magical devices such as washing machines, microwaves, and Toyota Corollas. While all...

Whether you’re embarking on a long distance run, sitting down to a delicious plate of food, or facing a mountain of material to learn, keep one thing in mind: pace yourself. Establishing a good pace for learning material or practicing a new technique is extremely important, especially when you’re looking at a deadline. It’s easy to let time slip away...

I’ve just spent the past hour tearing apart my room, searching through notebooks and drawers, on top of shelves and beneath the bed, and I still can’t find what I’m looking for. Frantically, I called a friend to create a distraction (secretly hoping that what I’m looking for will magically appear right in front of me), and his response was,...

If you’re a fan of the Rolling Stones, you’re probably familiar with the story of Keith Richards coming up with the lick to “Satisfaction.” If not, here’s the story: the classic guitar riff came to him in the middle of the night, and luckily, he had a cassette player by his bed and was quickly able to record the idea....

It’s 6pm… time to get the gear in the car, enter the club’s address into the GPS, and get on the road. It takes exactly five minutes and three trips to pack: one trip for each cabinet (the two fit side by side in the trunk), and one trip for the amp head, bag o’ stuff, and bass (all of...

As we grow and develop as bassists, we tend to go through different stages of learning. Sometimes we feel inspired and creative, other times we feel as if we’ve plateaued or burnt out. During the good times, it’s easy to find new concepts to work on, specific ideas to write about, or ways to make headway during practice sessions. During...

Photo by Quinn Dombrowski In Part 1 of this series, we looked at two different types of earplugs, the over-the-counter ones as well as the custom molded ones, and some of the benefits of each. Now, let’s think about when to use them and how to get comfortable playing with them in. Before we jump in, let me say that...