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Flea’s bass warm-up explained
Flea’s favourite bass warm-up exercises A student recently advised that I should watch Rick Beato’s excellent interview with Flea (in my head, they should’ve titled it Rick Fleato). The part that really grabbed my attention was Flea’s demonstration of his practice routine. Flea starts by talking about his main bass, a 1961 Fender Jazz, along…
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Bass triad exercises: 15-minute daily workout
How to learn and practise triads on bass This video takes you through some of the best triad exercises that I developed for my personal practice and use all the time in my teaching. I’ve condensed everything into a 15-minute routine that you can follow along with and incorporate into your practice schedule. If you’re…
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Triads for bass guitar: the ultimate guide
Since March 2020, when the UK went into COVID-19 lockdown and all my gigs disappeared overnight, I’ve been teaching people from all over the world about music as it applies to the bass guitar via Zoom. This is one of my favourite things to do; I love hearing about my students’ musical goals and enjoy…
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Ray Brown F Blues Transcription
Ray Brown’s Half Position F Blues Here’s a great excerpt from an old video called ‘Ray Brown Presents the Art of Playing the Bass’. Ray is talking about the importance of foundational skills and having solid sound and time in half position: for non-upright players, that’s the area between the open string and the third…
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John Patitucci – Stella by Starlight
John Patitucci’s walking bass masterclass Here’s a great clip of upright and electric bass virtuoso demonstrating some foundational walking bass concepts during a clinic. In the video, he plays though the standard ‘Stella by Starlight’ several times – first unaccompanied, and then with guitarist Jay Azzolina – to illustrate the different concepts he uses when…
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Boss BF-2 Flanger Bass Demo
What is it? It’s a flanger. It, well, flanges things, you know? Flangers belong to the same family of modulation effects as chorus and phaser. The Boss BF-2 was produced by the company between 1981 and 2002, after which it was replaced by the BF-3 pedal which is still in production today. What Does It…
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How Joe Dart Got His Groove
Imagine my excitement in discovering Joe Dart’s Berklee College of Music bass clinic on YouTube; over 100 minutes of potential wisdom and grooves to steal! Now, imagine my disappointment in discovering that the whole thing had been mixed by the drummer’s right foot. But fear not, funk bass fans, for poor audio fidelity will not…
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100 Albums In A Year?
In spite of the fact that it’s 2020 and we’re in the era of being able to instantly stream almost all of the world’s recorded music from a mobile device, I’m still scouring charity shops and Amazon for second-hand CDs to fill out my collection.
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How Much Music Theory Do You Need To Know? (Bass Player’s Book Club #3.1)
How Much Music Theory Do Bass Players Need? Music theory tends to be an area that confuses a lot of bass players, often resulting in the following questions: Do you really have to learn music theory? How much theory do you need to know? Is music theory really that important? Do you need special books…
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Bass Player’s Book Club #3.2: Harmony and Theory
The Best Theory Books for Bass Before diving into this post, it’s worth taking a look through part 1 of this voyage into music theory: How Much Theory Do You Need To Know? Looking for the best books on music theory for bass players? There are hundreds (if not thousands) of music theory books on…
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When to say ‘NO’ to gigs (Gigonomics 101)
The Agony of Choice In spite of advances in modern technology, it’s still not possible to be in two places at the same time. As a freelance musician — or freelance anything, come to think of it —you have to constantly decide which gigs and projects to accept and which to decline. Sometimes, it can…
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10 Years to Learn a Lick?
Confession time: I’m a terrible student. March 2019 marked an entire decade since I took a lesson with the great Dr Richard Niles, a guitarist/producer/composer/arranger who studied under Pat Metheny at Berklee in the 1970s and has subsequently worked with Paul McCartney, Ray Charles, Tina Turner, James Brown and a host of others. I met…
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Taking the Sting out of Odd-Meter Playing
For many, the very phrase ‘odd-meter’ brings us out in a cold sweat. Chances are that unless you’ve had a very eclectic musical upbringing then you’re most comfortable in 4/4 time and anything that involves cramming more beats into a bar is rather stressful. The matter is complicated by the fact that opportunities to practise…
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MXR M288 Bass Octave Deluxe
What is it? The MXR M288 Bass Octave Deluxe is a dual-voice analogue octave pedal and some neat additions that give bass players an expanded take on the tried-and-tested octave pedal format. What Does It Do? The pedal can be used to generate an additional signal one octave below that of your bass; you can…
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5 Wonder-ful Pentatonic Unisons
Five of Stevie’s best 5-note lines Stevie Wonder’s vast body of work is rightly revered by musicians (and, indeed, non-musicians…) for its harmonic and melodic invention; Stevie has managed to seamlessly weave jazz-based ideas, such as chromaticism, extended chords, and tritone substitution into his tunes and still sell vast numbers of records. One of his…
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Double Bass Technique on the Electric Bass
Is it possible to use double bass fingerings on the bass guitar? Actually, forget possible, is it even useful? The short answer is yes. The long answer is that including left hand principles from double bass method books resulted in the most significant improvements to my playing in many years: better tone, more consistency and…
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Is the Boss OC-2 still the best analogue octave pedal?
Why would you want to use an octave pedal with your bass? If you want to be able to keep up with synths without having to go anywhere near a keyboard, or you want to access lower notes without switching to a 5-string or detuning, then an octave pedal is the way to go. Introduced…
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“No Need for 5-Strings if You’re Good Enough.”
Occasionally, I see things on the Internet that are so insanely idiotic that I feel compelled to set the record straight. Here’s a Facebook comment on a fellow bassist’s page that made me despair for the future of humanity: The reason that this incensed me so much – aside from the lack of grammatical awareness…
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The Best Sight Reading Books for Bass
This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. If you choose to purchase a product that I’ve recommended, then I receive a (very) small commission. The price you pay remains unchanged. Bass Player’s Book Club Part 2: Sight Reading Have you ever wondered what the best sight reading books for bass are, or how to practise sight…
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The Bass Player’s Book Club #1: Chops
I’m a musical self-improvement addict, a condition which has manifested itself in my tendency to buy – and hoard – tons of books, instructional videos (including some very dubious Hot Licks VHS tapes) and apps in the hope of getting my playing to sound the way that I want it to. I use each one…
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DOD FX25 Envelope Filter
The DOD FX25 envelope filter pedal has become something of a cult classic – a simple, two-knob auto wah that gives bass players a variety of tones ranging from subtle vowel sounds to a full-on funk ‘quack’. The straightforward user interface and low price point make the FX25 a good starting point for bassists looking…
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How To Transcribe Bass Lines
As someone who runs a bass transcriptions site, you’d expect that figuring out bass lines by ear and notating them is something that comes naturally to me. It doesn’t. After over a decade of regularly transcribing everything from bass lines to vocal arrangements, the art of plucking sounds out of the air and turning them…
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How Habits Happen: 7 Ways to Maintain New Behaviours
How To Form Positive Habits (and Make Them Stick) One of the things that I have consistently tried and failed to do is adopt and maintain a set of positive behaviours that would improve my day to day life if I actually stuck to them. These include meditation, exercise and – of course – practice….
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Electro Harmonix Bass Micro Synth
The Electro Harmonix Bass Micro Synth gives bass players who are looking to dive into the murky waters of synth bass sounds an opportunity to access a range of classic synth tones without having to go anywhere near a keyboard. Although far more limited in its scope than more recent synth pedals, like the Future…
