Bass Lessons - Page 20

Today we’re bringing the thunder! We’ll be borrowing from AC/DC guitarist Angus Young by playing the opening riffs from “Thunderstruck.”

British singer-songwriter Elvis Costello has had a long and varied career, and although his early hits were in the new wave era, with songs such as “Watching the Detectives” and “Pump it Up”, he could also create subtle ballads (“Alison”), cover jazz standards (“I Don’t know What to do With Myself”) and would later release an album of country standards...

Ever play a bass duet? It is actually super fun to do and of course great for your technique! In this episode, we have some Bach for you, but don’t worry; we are taking it easy for starters. We have a variety of charts (including TAB) and easy instructions on what to do with all these markings – phrasing and...

As musicians, wouldn’t it make sense to focus exclusively on musical applications and learn by practicing mainly songs? Why isolate technique drills and put so much focus on the mechanics, seemingly devoid of any musical context? Why waste an opportunity to build ears and creative skills at the same time and instead reduce practice to apparently mindless, non-creative and non-musical...

Today, we dive into something new – superimposing Major triad pairs derived from Lydian Mode Harmony over a Major 7th chord. The examples on the video are over an F Major 7th chord, and I am using a neat little looper for this. It’s a great practice tool. In the video (and transcription) I take you through the basic major...

Ready to apply all this hard work in a song? In part three of this mini-series on Talking Technique we are putting all this hard work to good use in a blues. If you haven’t been following along, be sure to check out the past two Talking Technique episodes! So far we’ve been working on using pivot permutations with their...

Up for part 2 of our challenge? In part 1 we explored pivot permutations and using the mirror image of permutations. As if that wasn’t tough enough, we are going for speed in this episode! You know I love the power of slow and recommend practicing slowly with your attention rotating (my PORA technique), but in this episode it is...

The unfortunate passing of Chris Cornell is a devastating loss for music. It is especially poignant for those of us that grew up listening to grunge music in the ’90s and 2000s. “Pretty Noose”, the first track from Soundgarden’s Down On The Upside, is a personal favorite of mine. On this track, Ben Shepherd performs a bass line that consists...

This episode is part one of a three-part challenge. Those time tested permutation exercises (you are doing them, right?) are getting two fresh twists in this episode: descending by their mirror image for an additional right-hand alternating challenge, and what I call the wicked “Pivot Permutations” – a great fun way to spice up that vital practice. I have a...

Continuing our series on increasing fingerboard knowledge, here’s the accompanying Minor Arpeggio Exercises to play all across the fingerboard. This is the same principle as the Major types. I’ve given you a number of variations to try, and you’ll see this gives you more options when playing over a minor chord type. As usual, practice everything slowly, paying partucular attention...

Let’s start with a simple exercise. I say, go ahead, get your bass and just do it – that way you get the full benefit from this article. To start, let’s play a simple shift, such as C to D on the A string with the first finger on both notes (this is not the fingering I’d usually recommend, but...

We have not one, but two lessons for you this month! In this lesson, I’ll talk you through major 7th, then 9th, ?11th and 13th arpeggios, which follows part one (“Triad Visualization”). I am a firm believer in learning these concepts in multiple ways/fingerings – it all goes to increase our overall knowledge of the fingerboard, and that’s a good...