Bass Lessons - Page 40

Today’s lesson is a preview from Jon Burr’s forthcoming “Physical and Mental Programming for the Improvising Bassist”… In order to gain an understanding of how to practice effectively and efficiently, it is useful to have some understanding of the structure of the brain, mind and nervous system. It is possible to “practice” and not get better-or, even, to get worse,...

Another Look at Melodic Construction in Improvisation What do we play? Where does it come from? How do we make our own melody? The melody of the song or tune The rhythmic structure An alternative positive melodic statement derived from the harmonic or rhythmic environment, or a melody from another song that fits the “changes” The development, embellishment, and ornamentation...

It’s time to focus on the guitar aspect of bass guitar and learn to play chords. Why bother with this technique? First, it will improve your ability to hear the chord structures other band-mates play and give your ear a head-start on making a strong line. Second, you’ll get to learn a lot about what goes on above the root...

This lesson is derived from Jon Burr’s The Untold Secret to Melodic Bass. Be sure to check out the complete method book in downloadable PDF, Kindle Book and the all-new paperback formats. This is the final chapter of “The Untold Secret.” We’ll be continuing the column by posting excerpts from “Another Look at Melodic Construction” beginning next week. As chord...

This lesson is derived from Jon Burr’s The Untold Secret to Melodic Bass. Be sure to check out the complete method book in downloadable PDF, Kindle Book and the all-new paperback formats. One way of developing rhythm is through the use of accent overlays on the substrate. Overlays can come from the rhythm of the song’s lyric, or some other...

This lesson is derived from Jon Burr’s The Untold Secret to Melodic Bass. Be sure to check out the complete method book in downloadable PDF, Kindle Book and the all-new paperback formats. Internal Dynamics is an area that seems to be largely ignored in the teaching of Jazz, while at the same time is one of the most essential components...

This lesson is derived from Jon Burr’s The Untold Secret to Melodic Bass. Be sure to check out the complete method book in downloadable PDF, Kindle Book and the all-new paperback formats. I’d bet that you, the reader, have written something, and then later on felt like you found something else that really should have been in there. Well, this...

If you’ve been keeping up with this lesson series and having focused practice you should be getting pretty comfortable with the fretboard layout. Remember that the drills in Part 1 and Part 2 should be practiced regularly to get the full benefit. In this lesson we’ll work on something really fun: the blues! As a note to those who are...

This lesson is derived from Jon Burr’s The Untold Secret to Melodic Bass. Be sure to check out the complete method book in downloadable PDF, Kindle Book and the all-new paperback formats. So far we’ve covered Anchors, Pivots, and now Lead-Ins… This is all fine for jazz, you might be thinking, but what the heck does this have to do...

David Ellefson, bassist for F5, continues with his Rock Shop series on YouTube with “The Discipline of Practice”. Ellefson explains the many benefits to disciplined practice and ways to make the process enjoyable as well as productive.

This series has been dedicated to learning the fretboard, the previous lesson covered the major scale. In this lesson we will cover an applying the major scale to a basic chord progression, the II-V-I. There are a multitude of ways to think about music. For this exercise we will focus on thinking laterally and vertically. When we think laterally we...

This lesson is derived from Jon Burr’s The Untold Secret to Melodic Bass. Be sure to check out the complete method book in downloadable PDF, Kindle Book and the all-new paperback formats. So far we’ve covered Anchors and Pivots in previous columns. Roots and fifths – the bread-and-butter of the working bassist. Now we start to get into the really...