Andrew Ford’s Blues Bass Survival Guide {Video}

Blues is that one style of music that every bass player should aspire to play well. Bass players need to know how to play shuffles, funky blues, rocking blues, New Orleans-style blues, jazz-style blues, waltzes, soulful blues and many, many other varieties. With the blues, bass players drive the bus — we’re not only holding down the groove rhythmically with the drummer, we’re also playing melody and harmony in our bass lines.”

Andrew organized Blues Bass Survival Guide into two sections. In Section 1, you’ll work through 30 essential concepts and techniques that are prerequisite to mastering the blues: Basic 12 Bar Form, Triplet Rhythm, Shuffle Triplet Rhythm, Long & Short Shuffles, Simplified Notation, Simple Triad Patterns, Dominant 7th Chord, Mixolydian Mode, Basic Box Shape, Connecting the Dots, Adding the 6, Adding the b7, Walking Shuffle, Pentatonic Scales, Blues Scale, Muting, The Pivot, Chromatic Leading Tones, Double Stops, Alternate Forms, Intros, Breaks, Endings, Turnarounds, Straight 8th R&B Feel, Rock Feel, Jazz Progressions, Minor Blues, Rhumba Patterns, 12/8 Feel, 2 Beat Feel and the Funk Slap Style.

In Section 2, you’ll have a blast applying all 30 of those essential concepts and techniques across 19 Bass Studies covering the full spectrum of blues feels and grooves.

For each of the 19 Bass Studies, Andrew first overviews the concepts and techniques that will be employed in the study, and then demonstrates the bass part over a rhythm track. After the performance examples, Andrew breaks down the bass parts technique-by-technique, line-by-line. Use the performance video, breakdown and supplied tab/notation to learn the part as performed. Next step is playing the bass parts by yourself over the supplied rhythm tracks. The final step, and the mission of this learning experience, is to integrate Andrew’s key concepts, techniques and grooves into your playing.

Available now at www.andrewfordbass.com for $19 download