Bass Lessons

This week in The Brown’stone on No Treble, Rich Brown talks a bit about fretless bass and tuning. Here’s a great exercise to help you if you’re struggling with tuning and intonation.

Here’s Part 2 of Ryan Madora’s “Blues Endings” bass lesson series. Here are a few more options that you can use when listening to, learning, or jamming a blues.

The Brown’stone is back, friends and neighbors! And this week, Rich Brown shares a great lesson all about making the most of your pentatonic scales.

Ryan Madora kicks off a new two-part “Keep It Groovy” lesson series today, focusing on a handful of common blues endings to help you tie up the loose ends and land on the one with the rest of the band.

Today we’re keeping it groovy by learning the classic funk bass line to LaBelle’s “Lady Marmalade.” Ryan Madora walks us through a simple part that perfectly outlines the harmony and creates a particularly memorable and easy-to-play bass line.

Tim Fletcher and Troy Hughes’ epic project “Kansas: Leftoverture – The Complete Basslines” has, at last, reached its final chapter, featuring Dave Hope’s work on the eight minutes and twenty-five seconds album closer “Magnum Opus”.

In this new “Keep It Groovy” lesson, Ryan Madora takes a look at a fast, funky blues with the Albert Collins tune, “Honey, Hush.” It’s a fun groove to add to your arsenal for any time you’re called upon to play a fast, funky blues.

This week in The Brown’stone on No Treble, Rich Brown has a great scale exercise to help you with melody and rhythmic phrasing. This exercise is based on a simple concept that can be applied to any scale.

Olivier Babaz is back with another “Bass & Creativity” lesson. He covers how we can progressively build chord changes, starting from a static modal section and adding modulations and harmonic movement to it while keeping a consistent groove.

One of the most common phrases spoken at a jam session is “it’s just a one, four, five!” Long story short, it’s a very helpful hint... if we know how to find our ones, fours, and fives.

This week in The Brown'stone on No Treble, Rich Brown takes an in-depth look at major scales and how to play them in ways you might not have considered before. This lesson could be a real eye-opener.

Today we feature another blues bass lesson with the classic Muddy Waters tune, “Got My Mojo Working.” We’ll follow a classic 12-bar blues progression and use a quintessential descending line for the turnaround at the end of the progression. This is definitely a must-know tune if you want to get into the blues.