Now grab your bass and get in the shed!  Scott ;)

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Within this tutorial I’m going to peel back the layers of a slap groove and highlight where I’m using these ‘secret triplets’ to really enhance the overall groove and vibe of the bass line!

Now grab your bass and get in the shed!

Scott ;)

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Well in this bass lesson I’m going to show you how to break that mould! With a little hard work you’re going to be able to slap in any key!

Now grab you’re bass and get in the shed!

Scott ;)

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Now grab your bass and get in the shed! Scott

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To find out what that bad habit is, and how you can stop yourself from falling into the same trap, check out this lesson!

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Grab your bass and get in the shed! Scott

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In this bass lesson I’m going to introduce you to ‘Shape Shifting’. You’re going to learn how you can alleviate some of the issues you’ll have when playing over chord changes by simply shifting patterns on the fretboard. This technique can be used on many different chord sequences, but for this lesson we’re going to concentrate on shape shifting over the Major II V I turnaround.

Grab you’re bass and get in the shed! Scott     

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When you listen to a great bass player soloing it can seem effortless, almost like the notes and ideas are just flowing out of them. Well that’s true to a certain extent, but there is ALWAYS method behind the madness ;)… everything they’re playing within there solo is interval related and I guarantee they’ll be either thinking of that while playing, or more likely be ‘hearing’ that while playing. Either way, there is a thought process behind it. Imagine if you spoke without actual thinking about what you were speaking about about… it’d sound pretty strange wouldn’t it! Just random words! Well soloing or simply just playing the bass is just the same – there needs to be some sort of thought process behind it otherwise it would just sound like a random mess of notes.

Using intervallic ideas within your soloing lines can really start to open up the sound and texture of your solos and help you break away from just running up and down scales aimlessly. Getting these types of ideas into your soloing lines is a must, and once you do you’ll start to hear that EVERYONE… sax players, piano players, you name it – they use these same techniques!

This lesson will take your bass soloing to the next level!

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It’s one of the best exercises I ever give to my personal students so I know you’re going to get some great tips within this tutorial that you’ll be able to implement within your playing straight away!

Now grab your bass… and get in the shed!

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Unfortunately this is often forgotten, and students spend 99% of their time working on harmonic exercises such as scales, arpeggios and such.

I’m sure you can relate to this feeling… ‘If I can learn just one more scale!’… ‘If I could only play that bit faster!’… this is what I call ‘chasing your tail’. You’ll always want to play faster, you’ll always want one more scale!

It is important to understand that rhythm and harmony are the pillars of all music. Therefore, when you study them separately, and then bring them together, your bass playing will sound infinitely more mature and… BAD ASS! ;)

Now grab your bass and get in the shed!

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Because the electric bass guitar is such a new instrument, as yet there aren’t really any true ‘study pieces’ within the ‘bass repertoire’. For this reason I love to get my students to use be-bop heads as study pieces. Because they were originally composed for horns such as saxophone and trumpet they can be challenging on so many different levels. Fingering position, speed, technical fluidity and dynamics all need to be taken into account.

Within this tutorial I discuss why we, as bass players need to use ‘study pieces’ within our practice time, and how they can have a huge affect on your overall technical ability and fluidity upon the bass.

Now grab your bass and get in the shed! ;)

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Some of you were even wondering if I had anything against slap bass! I don’t, really, and I do have fun with it, occasionally. The only reason I’ve stayed away from uploading bass lessons on this style, is that I know that bass students can easily get stuck in what I call the “slap bass void”: it’s fun, it can sound great, you can impress your friends relatively easily… ;)

The risk is that you forget about the rudiments of music, i.e. chord tones, scales, arpeggios, harmony, etc. and never become a well-rounded bass player, able to play with other musicians in a variety of styles –or in any style of music.

And do you think a great slap bass player like, say… Victor Wooten, knows all the stuff I mentioned above? You bet he does!

Now, after these words of caution and wisdom ;), let’s slap it!

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In this new bass lesson, I’m showing you a very simple bass lick that does exactly that: the reason why it sounds so good is that it adds an element of surprise –that will probably get you a lot of ‘wows’ by the way!

The surprise comes from the fact that it includes a lot of notes that don’t ‘fit’ in the expected harmony: most of the notes are not directly related to the G minor chord that we’re playing over. As a result, there’s a ‘tension and release’ effect that makes us feel good. Well, check out for yourself! ;)

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You know what I mean… You wish you had a super-modern tone for some songs and a vintage tone for others…

Well, I’ve got a trick up my sleeve!…

Want to know how to get around this ‘issue’ without breaking open your piggybank? Then watch this new video lesson I’ve made for you!

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First of all, I wanted to say a big thanks to all of you who left such nice comments and spread the word regarding the first part of this bass lesson about using simple shapes. That means a lot to me –and is a real boost when “the going is hard” because I’ve got sooo much to do! ;)

Next, I want to make it clear that I’m in no way suggesting that you shouldn’t be thinking notes or intervals! What I’m saying is that it’s often simply not possible –if useful to do it all the time while you’re playing, and that learning to assign simple shapes to those notes comes in very handy.

In the previous lesson, you’ve noticed that starting from our little 4-note “boxes” and then putting them all together, we end up with a full Em pentatonic scale. So we are learning our bass scales, only in a slightly different way, that many of my bass students find easier. Less “academic”, hence less scary… ;)

The other big plus I see in this approach is that it enables us to realise how much we can do with just four notes, before we expand on that.

That being said, in this second part of the lesson, I’m introducing those little ‘sexy’ notes that have a special ‘flavour’ to them and sound really good when used properly. Find out what makes you tick! ;)

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