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Columns: How Tos, Advice & Lessons for Bass Players

Forked Fingering: A Guide to Comfortable Double Stops for Bassists
The Lowdown with Dr. D

Forked Fingering: A Guide to Comfortable Double Stops for Bassists

Playing fourths across strings on the upright bass can be fraught with problems, especially when we are playing double stops. Sometimes it is appropriate to “bar” the notes using the same finger like this: However, this can create a clamping of the hand and needless tension, which in turn limits our facility and ability to adjust quickly. Intonation can also...

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Custom Shop: BNA Audio
Custom Shop

Custom Shop: BNA Audio

Great things often come out of solutions to problems. For example, bassist Mark Robertson noticed that amplifying an upright bass to really loud levels was an issue that got overlooked by most manufacturers. He eventually discussed it with friend and electronics guru Justin Herlocker, and BNA Audio was born. The team got into building hi-fi bass cabinets and is an...

Playing in One Position: A Workout Guide for Bass Players
Ask Damian Erskine

Playing in One Position: A Workout Guide for Bass Players

Q: Do you have any exercises that might help with playing in one position on the fretboard? I have a hard time getting away from reorienting myself from root to root. A: I would suggest starting with exercises you’re already familiar with, and adapt them to a single position. I frequently have my students do this, and have them force...

Listening Back: Get a New Perspective on Your Playing
I Wish I Knew That

Listening Back: Get a New Perspective on Your Playing

A few days ago, I happened to be “shuffling” through my music library and stumbled upon a long-forgotten EP that I played on in high school, just a few years into picking up the bass. I took a short break from my day and decided to listen with a hint of skepticism, a dash of personal critique, and a boatload...

Playing Fast (and Cleanly): A Discussion for Bass Players
Ask Damian Erskine

Playing Fast (and Cleanly): A Discussion for Bass Players

Q: When I hear you playing I think how amazing your technique is and the way you apply it to whatever you want to say through your bass. In the past I didn’t mind about the sound of the notes I was getting. I tried to play fast and didn’t really see or hear what the hell I was doing....

Enclosure Tone Exercises for Bassists
The Lowdown with Dr. D

Enclosure Tone Exercises for Bassists

One way to give more interest to your improvisations is to add enclosure tones to otherwise simple note choices. Enclosure tones are two tones which “enclose” (i.e. one higher, one lower) another note. Generally, but not always, the note which gets “enclosed” is a chord tone. For example, if we begin with the root of a C7 chord: …and precede...

Learning Theory: Recommendations for Resources and Steps to Making it Happen
Ask Damian Erskine

Learning Theory: Recommendations for Resources and Steps to Making it Happen

Q: What would you recommend as great resources for learning theory? I’m not someone who lacks in imagination or creative drive or even feel. I’m more of a groove player, and I’ve never stopped to get any formal grounding with modes, harmonizations, relationships of scales and arpeggios and putting that together for a given tonality. I’d appreciate any recommendations for...

Play Other Instruments! Such as… Any and All of Them
I Wish I Knew That

Play Other Instruments! Such as… Any and All of Them

Welcome to the final part of the “Play Other Instruments” series. In the last few columns, we took a look at playing piano, guitar, and drums, and I got to describe some of the benefits of noodling around on each of those. Then, I took a step back and decided it was a bit unfair to only address the instruments...

Putting the Chart Before the Horse
The Business of Music

Putting the Chart Before the Horse

Or, The Grateful Dead and the Top 40. I wonder if Jerry ever got jealous of acts that were able to put songs on the radio. (The Dead had exactly one hit record…) I hope not. Jerry was in a different business. Sure, he played music. Elton John also plays music. But they were in different businesses, performing for different...

On Modes and Getting Away from the Root
Ask Damian Erskine

On Modes and Getting Away from the Root

Q: I have question about how to practice and apply modes that is killin’ me. We are constantly being being bombarded with the concept of getting away from root in our playing and practice. For instance, scale finger pattern 4 starting on the 3rd fret of the E string is like G A B C D E F G A...

Diatonic Arpeggios: A Guide to Better Improvisation
The Lowdown with Dr. D

Diatonic Arpeggios: A Guide to Better Improvisation

One way to quickly become fluent in a key is to familiarize yourself with that key’s diatonic arpeggios, i.e. the arpeggios beginning on each note of the scale. Facility in diatonic arpeggios is also necessary for true improvisational freedom and fluency. I don’t suggest attempting this until you are comfortable with the originating scale. In today’s examples, that is C...

New Beginnings: Exploring New Bass Tunings (and String Counts)
Ask Damian Erskine

New Beginnings: Exploring New Bass Tunings (and String Counts)

Q: I have been playing bass professionally for over 15 years, but I’ve recently decided to expand my horizons by tuning one of my 5 string basses E-C. I decided to do this after playing a six string bass in a music store one day and realizing how easy it was to play lines across the fingerboard in a lower...