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Scale Work – A Program For Getting Around Your Bass With Confidence

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Kevin Guin

For many bass players, asking them to go fully academic for any substantial length of time is like asking them to head straight to the gallows.

But when a player wants to break through to new territory on their instrument the best way is to slow things down and tackle the fingerboard and musical materials with renewed determination and commitment. 

Working with scale material and learning to get around the fingerboard with confidence is an activity that many of us think is simply too academic. But it absolutely does have something very important for the development of any bass player. 

The problem for many of us is that in professional situations the sound of scalar approaches using half or whole step intervals can easily put you into amateur territory. And that is a very difficult problem to overcome. 

Managing scale material presents one of the perennial problems for all musicians – how to sound like you are playing music instead of theory. 

Although it is beyond the scope of this article, the first step in avoiding the trap that scale materials present to the musician is to play them very well. Even playing scale material can sound musical if dynamics and solid rhythmic feel are added into the mix. 

In comparing pentatonic sounds with major scale sounds it is easy to hear the built-in advantage of playing our favorite pentatonic riffs. The scales themselves have less notes and produce an automatically less conjunct sound, ie, the lines have wider intervals. Yes, you can still sound like you are a music store hack. But try adding in any common pattern mix-up with pentatonics and you will get an upgrade to an undeniably more modern sound. 

The video lesson today presents a three-part method to learn all of your major scales in one position, in multiple positions and also on one string. 

The first part of the study is to play the major scale on one string from the root note G on the 5th fret up to the ninth degree (the 19th fret A) and back down using three distinct positions. To put it with less words: From the root up to the ninth and back on one string. 

Click to download the lesson materials – any questions, please visit me online at basslessonswithkevin.com

To start, practice with no metronome and also concentrate on becoming more accurate with position switching.

A massive increase in position-switching skills is one of the great advantages when learning to play on one string. At first you will also want to say the note names out loud a couple of times.  

Simply play in this manner until the pattern is learned and some confidence is gained. Then repeat the process from the G at the 3rd fret. At that point you will start taking it through the Cycle (Circle of Fifths/Fourths):

G, C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, B, E, A, D. 

Most players who have never previously done scale work will want to stick with this one-string major scale activity for a couple of months every single day or as much as you pick up your instrument. Doing this one-string activity for thirty minutes a day is a nice shot in the arm for your skill level! 

Again: all major scales played on one string from the root up to the ninth and back several times, taking care to work on position switching aspects, and then repeated from the same root on a different string and THEN all of it taken through the Cycle.

And whatever you do, don’t forget to say the note names at least once up and back when you start in with each new location on the fingerboard. That is a huge part of learning your instrument like a boss! 

The second part of the routine is to identify the three positions used to play each major scale.

You will take each of the three positions and “fill out” that particular hand position. 

For hand positions on the fingerboard, I recommend that you study the video presentation and also use the pdf download chart.  Use my positioning first and then modify as necessary. 

The third part of the exercise is to repeat the first part of our study for each of the modal patterns of the major scale – back to back and through the Cycle.

You can also “fill out” those positions as well, and if you do, that would be a fourth part in the whole project. 

The value in this process is extreme. Yes, it is a very academic project to undertake. But it will only take a matter of months to reach a substantial level of mastery.

A rank beginner can expect possibly up to six months of time every single day to complete the entire Scale Work study. More experienced players will need maybe as little as two months if they are determined in the practice room. 

As you go through the study you will find your ease of execution of anything that you play to be increasingly noticeable.

With that will come a solid confidence for being able to develop any musical material to a professional level much more quickly. 

That’s how it’s done ladies and gentlemen!

I truly hope that all of you find enjoyment in your musical practice and that you can find other like-minded friends and professionals to join in with you.

Want 2 Free Online Bass Lessons? Click Below:

Thanks for stopping in.

Kevin 

Remember… if you have any questions, you can always contact me online at basslessonswithkevin.com | View more of my Bass Musician Magazine Lessons | And check out my Try Before You Buy

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Bass Edu

Premiere! Bass Playthrough With Foetal Juice’s Bassist Lewis Bridges – From the Album, Grotesque

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Premiere! Bass Playthrough With Foetal Juice's Bassist Lewis Bridges - From the Album, Grotesque

Premiere! Bass Playthrough With Foetal Juice’s Bassist Lewis Bridges – From the Album, Grotesque

Bassist Lewis Bridges Shares…

“Gruesome’s sparse intro marks a stark contrast from the intensity of the rest of the album.  The original intention was to keep the bass simple but colourful, however as I worked on it, the lines grew more expressive and the more striking flourishes began to emerge.  The intensity builds into a harmonic minor passage that takes us into the drop — a signature death grind cacophony.  This is where Foetal Juice thrives.  You’re getting a full-on right-hand barrage to in the face to take you into a groove-laden mulch-fest.

I owe my throbbing bass tone to the Darkglass Alpha Omega pedal borrowed from our sound engineer, Chris Fielding (ex-Conan), mixed with the clarity of the tried and true Ampeg SVT CL.

As mentioned earlier, colourful basslines are important, especially in a one-guitar band. Chucking some funny intervals and odd flourishes here and there brings life into the brutality. There’s no point sounding brutal if it’s not gonna be fucking evil too!

Recording this playthrough was hard work. This was not the fault of James Goodwin (Necronautical), who was kindly filming and is ace to work with, but because in true Foetal fashion, we had stinking hangovers — and that jam room was hot!”

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Bass Edu

Bass Lines: The Circle

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jaime Vazquez

Bass Lines: The Circle…

Hello bass players and fans of bass! This month we’re going to study “The Circle.”

The Circle of Fourths can also be called “The Circle of Fifths or just The Circle.

Practicing the scales, chords, and ideas in general via the circle has been a common practice routine for jazz musicians and highly recommended.

It is a disciplined way of working through all twelve keys.

Plus, many bass root movements to jazz and pop songs move through sections of the circle.

Fig. 1 – “The Circle”

See you next month for more full bass attack!

#bassmusicianmag, #basslines, #bmmbasslines, #groovemaniac, #thecircle, #thecircleoffourths, #thecircleoffifths,#scales & #chords.

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Bass Edu

Approach Notes – Part 5

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James Rosocha

Continuing our lesson of Approach Notes, Part 5…

In continuing with the concept of approach notes being applied to chord tones, this lesson approaches the root, third, fifth, and seventh degree of each arpeggio inversion by incorporating a double chromatic approach from above, and a single chromatic approach from below. 

The first examples approach the root of a G major 7th arpeggio as a double chromatic from above and a single chromatic approach from below -before continuing to the third, fifth, seventh, double chromatic from above/ single from below to the root, continue to the third, fifth, and come back down.

The next example approaches the first inversion of G major 7th arpeggio.

A double chromatic from above/ single from below approaches the third, continue to the fifth, seventh, root, double chromatic from above/ single below to the third, continue up to the fifth and seventh, and back down.

The third example approaches a second inversion of a G major arpeggio.

A double chromatic from above/ single from below approaches the fifth, continue to the 7th, root, 3rd, double chromatic from above/ single from below to the 5th, continue to the 7th, root, and back down. 

This final example approaches a third inversion of a G major 7th arpeggio.

A double chromatic from above and below approaches the 7th, continue to the root, 3rd, 5th, double chromatic from above and below to the 7th, continue to the root, 3rd, and back down.

Be sure to pace yourself with these lessons to avoid burning out.

Being overly ambitious with your practice schedule can lead to unrealistic expectations. Try learning one approach note concept and one chord type a week. Change your practice routine as necessary and tailor it to your needs as a musician. Good luck!

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Bass Edu

BASS LINES – The Blue Notes (Minor Blues Scale)

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jaime Vazquez

Hello bass players and bass fans! Happy New Year 2024!

In this issue, we are going to study the blue notes.

In blues, jazz, and rock, a blue note is a note that (for expressive purposes) is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies depending on the musical context.

The blue notes are usually said to be the lowered third(b3), lowered fifth(b5) and lowered seventh(b7) scale degrees. The lowered fifth(b5) is also known as the raised fourth(#4). Though the blues scale has “an inherent minor tonality, it is commonly ‘forced’ over major-key chord changes, resulting in a distinctively dissonant conflict of tonalities”.

Blue notes are used in many blues songs, in jazz, rock and in conventional popular songs with a “blue” feeling.

Formula:

The A Minor Blues Scale

1 – b3 – 4 – (#4/b5) – 5 – b7

A – C – D – (D#/Eb) – E – Bb

The grades(blue notes):

b3, (#4/b5), b7

C, (D#/Eb), Bb

See you next month for more full bass attack!

#bassmusicianmag, #basslines, #bmmbasslines, #groovemaniac, #thebluenotes, #minorbluesscale & #bluesscale

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Bass Edu

BASS LINES: Staccato for Bass

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jaime David

Staccato for Bass…

Hello bass players and bass fans! In this issue, we are going to study the technique known as staccato.

When we talk about the staccato technique, we are referring to a form of musical articulation.

In modern notation, it signifies a note of shortened duration, separated from the note that may follow by silence.

* In 20th-century music, a dot placed above or below a note indicates that it should be played staccato.

* The opposite musical articulation of staccato is legato, signifying long and continuous notes.

Fig. 1 – An example of a normal notation.

Fig. 2 – Is the same example but now with the staccato articulation

Fig. 3 – A basic groove played and written in a normal notation.

Fig. 4 – The same basic groove using the staccato technique.

So, at the end of the day, you as a bassist will decide what type of technique you will use depending on the effect you want in your performance.

See you next year for more full bass attack!!! Happy Holidays & New Year 2024!!! Groove On!!!

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