Tag Archive for 'bass lessons'

Electric Bass Instructor Available in West Ghent

Published
by
Justin
on Monday June 9, 2008
in Hidden
. 0 Comments

I have over 15 years playing the electric bass, which includes 4 and 5 string as well as fretless instruments and a Bachelor’s of Music from Berklee College of Music. I have been teaching privately for about 5 years, including teaching bass and leading combos for the Virginia Governor’s School for the Arts’ Jazz Band from 2005 to 2007.

As a teacher, I focus on fundamental music skills that enable students of all ages and playing levels to form a strong musical foundation that will last them a lifetime. I stress fundamental concepts such as groove playing, rhythmic interpretation, ear training and harmony to familiarize the student not only with the traditional role of the bass guitar with other instruments but to act as a springboard to reach all following levels of proficiency. But I don’t follow a rigid lesson plan. My goal is to craft lessons around each student’s interests and needs. I often spend time with students studying great bassists from Pop, Rock, Jazz, and R&B idioms so that they gain a sense of history from their lessons as well.

I am based out of my apartment in West Ghent, available on nights and weekends. Please contact me via email for scheduling and payment details.

Scale Talk

Published
by
Justin
on Friday July 7, 2006
in Music
. 10 Comments

The hardest part about writing out lessons has been the lack of dialog in this medium. It is much easier for me to discuss musical concepts with another person than it is to write out an inclusive lesson that explains any potential questions. It is difficult to assume the aptitude of the reader on given the subject matter. My solution for the time being is to write lessons on basic concepts without dwelling too long on the details. If there is any confusion let me know. This is as basic as it gets.

Scale Formulas

The Major Scale and the Minor Scale are both made up of a series of whole steps (W) and half-steps (H). On the bass or guitar, a whole step can be played by moving from any fret up two frets. Obviously, a half-step is achieved by moving up only one fret. Since some of my beginning students get this confused, up is toward the body of the bass. We’re talking up in pitch, not up in physical space.

So by arranging these steps in a sequence we can create these scale formulas:

Major - W W H W W W H (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1)
Minor - W H W W H W W (1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 1)

Applying the Formulas

We can also create a million other scales, but right now let’s just stick with just these two. If we pick a starting pitch, G, for instance, and move up a whole step to A, another whole step to B, a half step to C and so on. We would get the following results by applying both formulas to the starting pitch of G.

G Major Scale: G A B C D E F# G
G Minor Scale: G A Bb C D Eb F G

This is pretty straight-forward, but there are numerous ways to play these scales on your fretboard and I am doing you good by not writing out any tabulature patterns. You will discover reasons to play scales in many places on the fretboard, music does not occur in one position or on one string. Experiment.

Just remember that these scales begin and end on the same pitch so if you start on G and end up on G# then you messed up somewhere. Also, remember that, on the piano, there are no black keys between B and C or E and F, meaning that the notes in these pairs are a half-step apart.

Practice the scales all over the fretboard, and try to recite the names of the pitches as you play them. A lot of self-discovery can take place even at this rudimentary level. When you apply these formulas to different starting pitches you will see where the notes to all of the keys come from. Take a look for yourself. Not only will you improve your knowledge of the scales themselves but you will also find that your understanding of the fretboard will improve.

Triads

The next thing you can do with these scale is build triads from them. Triads are simply three note chords made from the first, third, and fifth degrees of a scale. From the G Major scale we will retrieve G B & D, which create, you guessed it, the G Major Triad. From G Minor we will find G Bb D. So a rule of thumb to any beginnger is this: you can make any major triad into a minor triad simply by lowering that 3rd by a half-step and vice versa.

G Major Triad - G B D (1 3 5)

G Minor Triad - G Bb D (1 b3 5)

At this point we have only built triads from the first note of each scale, but there is no reason why we couldn’t build them from every note in the scale. I will talk more about this, the details of the triads themselves, and the application of these triads in the next lesson.

Practice

Published
by
Justin
on Sunday April 23, 2006
in Music
. 10 Comments

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am going to start posting online bass lessons. Before I get into anything technical, I wanted to attempt to answer two basic questions that can offer a lot of problems for musicians if they go unanswered. These questions were not answered for me when I was a beginner, and it was not until I was very deep into my musicial education that I finally found some great teachers than taught me some of these fundamentals that I feel like I should have known all along.

Going Solo

The first thing to keep in mind when learning to play a musical instrument is that no one can teach you anything. That’s right, no amount of private lessons, instructional books, videos, or fancy gadgets will yield you any substantial results if you do not put time in on your instrument. Sometimes, practicing untutored can feel like you are beating your head against the wall, and it can be difficult to find the answers alone, but realize that a teacher is really just a guide. A private instructor is simply someone who has been where you currently are and can show you the way.

Bottom line: You still have to do the work.

Question 1: What do I practice?

This question can have many answers. A popular practice session among musicians is sitting down and spending hours playing music we already know, jamming with our favorite CDs, and noodling while we watch TV. After we’re done we brag to our friends that we practiced for hours and we congratulate ourselves incessantly. I am not bashing this kind of self-gratifying performance, because we all do it, it’s fun, and I strongly believe that it needs to be done. However, we need to stop lying to ourselves. This is not practice. This is simply playing. Practice, in my opinion, is working on music you know. Practice is concentrating on weaknesses and developing skills. A regular piece of advice I give my students is that if a concept feels uncomfortable it means you are learning something. Practice is not always fun, and not always easy, but if we learn to acknowledge our weakenesses (which can be the hardest part of practicing) then we have a better grasp of how we will make efforts to improve.

If you are studying with a good teacher then, hopefully, they are giving you material that hones in on your weaknesses, and that is what you should be concentrating on. If you are not currently with a teacher, try to be honest with yourself and acknowledge your faults and find some ways you can go about improving them.

Here are four basic concepts I recommend that you practice (if you do not currently) and my reasons as to why. I believe these are fundamentals that musicians of all levels can stand to improve on:

1. Sight-reading Not simply because I believe that all musicians should be able to read music (though I do). I discovered that when I started to really practice sight-reading, other weaknesses improved because of it. You will find that as you improve as a reader that your knowledge of the fretboard, your internalization of meter, your relative pitch and your basic understanding of rhythm all improve exponentially. So, don’t disregard sight-reading because you are a rock guy and don’t think you need it, because I guarantee you that learning to read will improve the way you play rock music.

2. Scales / Arpeggios It is astonishing how many students I have had that want to solo like Victor Wooten but fail to see the importance of these basic rudiments. I’ll put it in SAT format:

Not learning your scales and arpeggios is to a musician what refusing to look in the dictionary is to an author.

Scales and arpeggios are like words and make up your musical vocabulary. Not knowing these rudiments does not mean you won’t play them, it just means you are not aware that may already play music incorporating these basic rudiments. Being able to understand the music you play and communicate with the musicians you work with is a valuable asset to both professional and amateur musicians alike.

3. Ear Training Ear training can be as simple as learning your favorite song from a CD or sitting in front of a keyboard and matching pitches. The key with ear training is to practice critically, and really work towards remembering what the different intervals sound like, and associate them with music you already know. Most of the time, our instincts are much better than we realize, because even if we are beginners to playing music, we have been listening to music most of our lives and– even if we are unaware of it– know what “in tune” sounds like. At the very least we know what “out of tune” sounds like and that is just as great of a place to begin learning.

4. Playing With Other People So let’s say you’ve got all of this other stuff down and you head out to jam with some friends. The problem is, you’ve been playing for 5 years but have never actually worked with a band and, when you finally do, everything just falls apart. You can’t find “one,” the band plays every song in a different key and you can’t even hear the vocals to follow along. It can be difficult playing with other musicians if you are used to zoning out with your favorite CD. Everyone is capable of making a mistake in the performance environment– a variable that just doesn’t exist when you are rocking out to Sabbath in your bedroom. Playing in a band requires a different kind of listening, and, truth be told, some guys never learn how to do it right. Even at the beginner stage, take every opportunity you can to play with other musicians no matter much better or worse they are than you

Question 2: How long do I practice?

One thing that gets a great deal of controversy is the amount of time spent practicing every day. Some teachers will tell you that you need to practice several hours a day if you expect to be any good. I do not doubt that they are right, to some extent, but I think that this statement can be misleading. Several hours a daydoes not mean several hours in one sitting, or a single hour at a time of intense practice. The adult brain can only take 30 to 45 minutes of concentration at once, so it is important to take breaks. My advice to my students– particularly beginners– is that duration is not as important as consistency. Developing good habits and practicing every day, even if it is for a mere 15 minutes, is better than practicing for an hour on one day and not picking the bass up again for three more days. Much of the learning process is based on repetition, and when you are studying a musical instrument it will be important to remember that you are working towards implementing skills and concepts into your vocabulary to the extent that they become second nature. Most of us cannot accomplish this with a sporadic practice routine.

Treat learning music as though you are learning a foreign language. You cannot expect someone to practice a new language for five hours in a sitting and retain much from that study session. Most likely you will remember only a few things from that session. So, promise yourself to spend 15 to 30 minutes a day practicing, as an absolute minimum. If you spend more time than that, great! Some days you will not want to practice and 30 minutes will feel like a lifetime, but it is important to maintain a routine to keep your skills sharp.

More advanced players will, without a doubt, require more time to digest their workload. However, the same principle holds true. Four hours of non-stop forced practice can be a miserable experience, and if you are not properly organized you can easily overlook essential details. If I am planning such a marathon practice routine (and I am one of the least organized people ever), I jot down a quick outline of what I want to practice and how much time I will allow myself for each task. I treat it, basically, like an exercise routine, including a warm-up and a cool down which may incorporate jamming with a favorite CD. Here is an example of what such an outline might look like:

  1. Warm-up 15 minutes
    1. The Meters - “Look A Py-Py” (or any song I like to play along with that will give me some momentum)
    2. Two Octave Scales / Modes in all keys (5 min)
    3. Four-Part Arpeggios with chromatic approach (5 min)
  2. Core Practice Session
    1. Bach Cello Suite Bouree I & II 20 minutes
    2. James Jamerson Book 20 minutes
    3. Jazz Standards 20 minutes
  3. Cool-down 15 minutes

While attending Berklee College of Music I received the following great advice from Professor Danny Morris:

Enjoy the Process!

What I have taken this to mean is, that we should enjoy the process of learning and creating, and not be hung up on finding the answers and completing the journey. There is always more stuff to know, so that feeling of completion can be fleeting and empty. Just try and have a good time!

I’ll have a ‘real’ lesson up sometime in the next two weeks.