Bass Edu
Slow Bass… It’s A Thing
Remember that great bass line you keep coming back to year after year and yet it’s still not where you want it to be?
Your fingers turn into pretzels and you start to think it must be bad bass genetics.
You need Slow Bass!
What is Slow Bass? It’s a concept that can transform your practice habits and help you get great results. It’s all about learning how to take your time to develop your playing skills in a careful and conscious manner.
In the recent generation of bass development there is a new breed of extremely able technicians of the instrument on the scene.
In plain English – there’s a lot of hotshot bass wizards running around. I’m not saying that’s in any way a bad thing. Realize that the learning of music itself probably hasn’t changed that much over the last few centuries. Every musician still needs to shut everything else out and learn. Deeply.
The thing that definitely has changed is that with instant information ruling the day, now you absolutely know that the moment you step out your front door in the morning that you might be ground into dust by the shockwaves caused by furious bass fingers working in concert all over the hemisphere. These maniacs are out there!
Don’t laugh. Structural engineers call it “destructive harmonic vibration”.
You can think of it as Chinese water torture for bridges. Just as the drip, drip, drip finally causes an unruly brain to melt, a series of vibrations add up at the exact right moment to cause the bridge concrete to crack or the steel cables to snap. Not good when you’re on the way to your gig.
Remember that guy who plays in the Devo tribute band that told you he hates blues bass lines? He’s going to be making bank at your funeral in his jobbing band while you get lowered down into Mother Earth.
All kidding aside bass people.
In a very chaotic world with endless waves of destructive harmonic vibrations, if you can cut out distractions, concentrate on basic musical materials to start, and bring everything you are playing to mind consciously, methodically, and slowly many times over in an effort to learn the material deeply then one day as your live playing continues you’re going to wake up a much better bass player and you’re going to have a lot more confidence as a musician.
In an effort to prevent any of the previously mentioned bass destruction I have produced a video lesson especially designed to bring a modicum of success, peace, and musical knowledge into your life and the guiding principle is Slow Bass and an F minor blues.
The lesson requires you to play the 4 or 5 triads of the F minor blues up and back in the first position while grabbing the next appropriate triad tone at the chord change. Scaled way back, it’s the same type of thing that you will need to accomplish harmonically if you are constructing a walking bass line or blowing a solo.
All that you have to do is take your time and work with the process of learning this chord progression and note-names in this particular position while getting your fingerboard hand to behave as you take it all in. Make sure that at sometime in this process you start to sing the roots so that you can get started with driving those notes down into your bass soul. That’s how it works.
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Slow and easy does the trick. Every time.
In fact, I am developing the Slow Bass concept to help players to experiment with more long tones in their playing. It’s great stuff, so please stay tuned.
You might want to check out my playing clip once again, too. I threw in a bunch a Slow Bass long tones just for you.
I truly hope that you enjoy this video lesson and that you can appreciate the Slow Bass concept and also the beautiful sounds of the minor blues. That’s one of my personal favorite chord progressions and it’s a great way to get going learning your bass inside and out.
Thanks for stopping in everyone!
Kevin
Remember… if you have any questions, you can always contact me online at basslessonswithkevin.com
