Bass Lessons - Page 2

With producer and mentor Chas Chandler in control, and holed up in Olympic Studios in London, the early sessions for the album had been relatively straightforward, and the band had recorded basic versions of “Crosstown Traffic” and “All Along the Watchtower” before setting off on their early ’68 North American tour. On a break from their schedule, a short recording...

Welcome back to another column, and today we’re diving further into jazz-related harmony with a look at starting to get inside two of the most useful modes from the melodic minor scale. The full line is demonstrated right after the opening title credits, with a little backing groove, and then during the video, I dissect and explain it for you....

Here is a cool modern retro disco funk riff that will help you optimize your octaves. A cool slide in the middle inspires more ideas for creative explorations and technique shedding. The transcription will help you out, but follow the step-by-step way to break it down and make it manageable. Practicing technique the groovy way!

Ewen Vernal was born in 1964 into a musical family in Glasgow, Scotland. His mother was a vocalist, and his father played saxophone and also led a local choir. Ewen’s early musical experiences focused on playing the piano and singing, but this changed during his teenage years after he found an old acoustic guitar in his loft. Although only the...

The Jam was a very successful British band that achieved considerable chart success, with 18 top 40 singles and four number ones. They also released six top 20 albums and gained wide critical acclaim for their song-writing. Although their early hits were considered New Wave, the band blended a wider range of influences into their material than many of the...

Short-scale basses have recently enjoyed a bit of a resurgence – be it as an alternate tool in a pro’s kit or as a main axe chosen for its sound, lightweight, easy playability and hip factor. In this episode, we’ll explore some right-hand, left-hand, and coordination drills that will help you wrap your mind around the shorter scale. I’m using...

Anthony Jackson is one of the most versatile bass players in the music scene and a real innovator in the 6-string bass (or contrabass guitar) that he developed in the seventies. He is known as a session musician working with artists like Diane Ross, Chaka Khan, Steely Dan, and Steve Khan, but he made a very important body of work...

Culture Club is a very successful British band that had immense popularity around the world, selling over fifty million records. They were formed in 1981 and were led by vocalist Boy George (George O’Dowd) whose flamboyant androgynous style and sharp tongue attracted huge media interest. The band was considered to be part of the British “New Romantic” movement of the...

Do you know what the Byzantine Scale is? How about Double Harmonic Major? Gypsy Major? Well, after this episode of Talking Technique, you will. But this episode is about so much more than just a scale – in it, we’ll cover 11 strategies to get a new scale under your fingers. The goal here is to embed the scale so...

In our last series of lessons, we had a look at a chorus of a Bob Mintzer blues over four episodes. Well, today we are putting just two bars of music under the microscope. This line is from a Cannonball Adderley solo on a tune called “Limehouse Blues.” Now the line itself isn’t super tricky, but in this pretty intensive...