Melodic Lead Bass

Former NBA Star, Wayman Tisdale is one of the better and few bassists that play melodic lead lines throughout the whole song. Wayman Tisdale is a left handed player. If you like smooth jazz and sweet bass lines, than check him out.

The album "Way Up" is what he consider one of his most fulfill title so far.
For more information and sample of the album, please visit www.waymantisdale.com

Grooving for Heaven series

Hi,

For those who do not know Norm Stockton, you probably also didn't know that he produced 4 instructional DVDs called the Grooving for Heaven Series.

I encourage all beginners to grab volume 1 and learn the basics techniques and theory. If you have benefited from it, then try vol 2-4.

Do note that the notation are sold separately.

You can take a look at the video example from http://www.normstockton.com

Have fun!

Bass Floor Pod

Hi,

Want to get a cheaper Line 6 effects?

Check out the new Bass Floor Pod.

The effect comes with 5 different bass amp model and the knob make it easy for you to choose.

Not only that, the Bass Floor Pod has an OPTO compressor and effects like octaver,envelope filter and chorus, making it possible to get a variety of sound.

The in-built pedal definitely make it an essential tool for live performance.

Check it out at http://line6.com for demos and more information.

Any comments? Value for money?

Simple Hammer on Tap

Hi,

Will like to share with you a simple hammer on tap technique that can sound real fast and not difficult to execute.
Basically, it is just a hammer on with your left hand and a right hand tap.

A right hand tap is achieve by simply pressing the string onto the fingerboard with the tip of your finger.
We will use the G string for this example.

Place you left hand index finger on the 9th fret( E) followed by a hammer on the 10th fret( F) with your middle finger followed by your right index finger tap on the 12th fret (G).

Subsequently, you just hold your left index finger down and alternate between your left hand middle finger(hammer on) and right hand index finger(tap).

When you are comfortable with this position, try moving your right hand index finger to the 14th fret and back to 12th fret. Left hand remain in the same motion.

Give it a try.

Cheers,

Slap Pop Exercise

Hi,

This is a nice and not too difficult slap pop exercise.

You can loop it over and over til you get a nice slap tone and also slowly increase the tempo.

Just note that the G and A are triplets.

Slap G on the 3rd fret twice and pop the octave G on the 5th fret.

You can break it into 3 parts

1. TTPT
2. TTP - triplets (123)
3. TTP - triplets (123)










Ok have fun

Rub Alcohol

Someone once asked me if it will improve his bass playing speed by rubbing alcohol on his hands.

My answer to him was practice, not rubbing alcohol or drinking.

Anyway why some people rub alcohol on their hands is to prevent the strings from rusting. By doing so, it will keep your hands dry.

You may also use it as a string cleaner.

I have dry hands so not a problem for me.

Sweaty palms, this is your helping star :)

Adjusting Intonation

To adjust your bass's intonation is as important as adjusting the neck action, but slightly easier.

The tools required are screwdriver and a tuner.

When tuning the screw at the bridge, it will move the saddle either forward or backward.

1. Now hold a note at the 12th fret and check it with your tuner.

2. If the note is too sharp that mean the string is too short. Move the saddle away from the neck.

3. Tune again to check if it is accurate.

If you are not confident to do it yourself, do send in and get the pros to do it. Also get them to adjust your action as well.

Cheers

Arpeggios

What are arpeggios?
Arpeggios are chords pluck note by note instead of pressing all at the same time.

When guitarist mention 'play arpeggios', they usually pluck string by string on the chord that they are pressing.
For us bass players, we do the same as well.

As we already know, a chord is formed by pressing root 3rd and 5th together.

So just press note by note of the chord now. e.g G arpeggio - G B D (3rd fret on E string, 2nd fret on A string and 5th fret on A string).


This is useful when your band is playing one bar of G, instead of just holding the G note, you can play the G arpeggio - G B D G.

Now trying going further up the fretboard.

Starting with:
G B D (3rd fret on E string, 2nd fret on A string and 5th fret on A string),
followed by:
G B D G ( 5th fret on the D string, 9th fret on the D string, 7th fret on the G string and 12th fret on the G string).

By doing this exercise, you won't be restricted to just play within the first few frets(obtain different tone) and it also help you to be more familiar with the fretboard.

Try reversing back from the high G ( 12th on the G string) back to the low G ( 3rd fret on the E string).

Have fun!

Scales in C

Hello,

Today, I will list down 7 scales in key of C which is often used.
I have mentioned some of the scales before in my previous post.
If you are interested to scroll through, just subscribe to my RSS and place it on your browser's toolbar. :)

Ok, although it is more easy for you to practice the fingering if I post the tabs,
but I think it is good that you can find out the position of the notes this time.
You can either use the C on the 3rd fret of the A string or go further up the fretboard.

C Major - C D E F G A B C
C Mixolydian - C D E F G A Bb C
C Dorian - C D Eb F G A Bb C
C Natural Minor - C D Eb F G Ab Bb C
C Major Pentatonic - C D E G A C
C Minor Pentatonic - C Eb F G Bb C
C Blues - C Eb F F# G Bb C

There are lot of good articles out there to explain how you can apply the above scales.

Have fun!

Slap Bass DVD

Hi, usually the good slap materials out there are pretty dry and those fancy ones we can't learn much.
I would like to recommend this Dvd by Ed Friedland - Slap Bass (The Ultimate Guide).
This Dvd provides the essential of playing slap style(beginner, intermediate) and it's not boring.

You will learn the techniques of playing triplets, 16th notes and more using the slap style. Very useful material to guide you play like Louis Johnson, Marcus Miller, Victor Wooten and etc.

Go for it man!!

Basic Rhythm and Note Duration

Thought this might be useful. You can read up from the web for something more complete.
I'm just giving a brief explanation. :)

Play on the "Bold" only and count out loud.
e.g Playing a whole note with G - G 2 3 4 G 2 3 4 G 2 3 4 G 2 3 4


Whole Note - 1 2 3 4 1 2 34 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

Half Note - 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

Quarter Note - 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

Eighth Note - 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 1 & 2 & 3 & 4

Sixteenth Note - 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a


Hope that will give you a headstart.

Are Tabs evil?

Hi,

I came across quite a few beginners who learnt by memorizing the notes position without knowing what notes they are pressing.
Some learnt by reading using tabs.

So is it wrong or not very musically inclined to learn a song by reading tabs instead of transcribing with your ears?

In my opinion, one should strike a balance. Firstly, you definitely need to know what notes you are pressing and not just memorize by position (i.e 5th fret on D string is a G note).

Tabs are good tools for beginners to kickstart, but as you grow musically, you should try to use your hearing and figure out the notes.
You may occasionally referred to it when certain songs or bass lines are difficult to transcribe.

After you look at the tabs, see if you can derive the theory behind it and not blindly follow. Maybe from the tabs you learnt that by pressing this note and that note it form a certain chords. See, you are learning something.

Be the master over your learning tool and instrument! :d

Cheers

Hartke Bass Attack

Hi,

Just a short sharing of how I use the Harkte Bass Attack VXL Tone Shaper Pre Amp cum DI(Direct Input) if you have no time to read the manual.

1. Plug in your bass to the input and adjust the "Bass" and "Treble". 5 is neutral. My "Bass" is 3 and "Treble" is 6.

2. Step on the "ON/OFF" switch and adjust the "Harmonics", "Mix" and "Brite". " My "Harmonics" is at 4, "Mix" at 1 O'clock(not too dry) and "Brite" at 3.

3. Step on the "SHAPE" switch and adjust the "Shape" knob. I set mine at 850Hz frequency.
For "Shape", it can affect your slapping tone.

For this setting, it depend what sound you want and how you adjust your output's EQ. It also depend how you adjust your bass's preamp(if any). You can get the pure sound of the bass attack by connecting to the effect loop of your amp.

If your bass has a built in preamp, adjust the sound you like first before setting the "Harmonics", "Mix" and "Brite".

Take some time to explore and experiment.

A typical set up propose by the manual is, your bass to input of Bass Attack,the XLR output or line output to mixer and parallel output to amp.

For me, instead of using the parallel output to amp, I used the line output and set the amp as my monitor.

Harkte Bass Attack is designed and engineered in the US by Samson Technologies. Made in China :)

Rugged Aluminium Chassis. You can use a 9V battery or DC adaptor.

Cheers

Warm up exercise

If you are planning to play in a gig or practice for a longer duration, you can start off by doing some simple warm up exercise.

There are probably hundred of exercises for warm up, but today I'm going to introduce the spider scale. Most people will know it as chromatic scales.

On a 4 string bass starting from the E string.
Postion your left hand on the fretboard. One finger per fret and for right hand just play normal alternate fingering.
Start from the first fret, F(fore) F#(middle) G(ring) G#(pinky) than move to the A string and press the Bb B C C#.
Do the same fingering pattern for the D and G string.
Reverse the pattern. On the G string, B(pinky) Bb(ring) A(middle) Ab(fore) to D string and all the way back to the E string.

Now start from the 2nd fret on the E string and repeat what you have done. Once you reach the 12th fret your fingers should be warmed up.

You do not have to do it very fast. Start slow and build up the speed. Objective is to stretch your fingers and also get a clear tone. Speed is not the objective of this exercise, but eventually it will help you play fast.

Have fun and explore other patterns. As usual, you can also practice your slapping with the chromatic scale.

Cheers

Ghost notes

Hi,

A simple ghost notes exercise to help you "feel" the groove.

Ghost notes are produce when you place your left hand lightly on the fretboard of and pluck with your right hand. Try to place your left hand in between the frets and not on the fret if not you will get the harmonics out.

Now try playing the G major scale as followed where "x" is the ghost note.

GxGGx AxAAx BxBBx CxCCx DxDDx ExEEx F#xF#F#x GxGGx. Simple?
you can also try slapping the exercise if you want.

You can also imagine the "x" to be like the snare drum. and the note to be the bass drum(ask your drummer friend if you are not sure which is the snare).

Try the above pattern on different scales and experiment other patterns.

Have fun!

Cheers,

Ben

Relative Minor

For those who have been grooving around might have come across this term 'relative minor'.

How I remember or recognise the relative minor of each key? Simple!!

For me, I know that the vi is the relative minor.

e.g. The relative minor for A is F#m,also because both keys have 3 #

So what do we do with this relative minor? Let's use Key of C to explain.

The notes in the Am scale are A B C D E F G A. Hmmm isn't that the same notes in the C major scale? Correct. Am scale in key of C is also called A Aeolian scale.

So when someone play a C chord, you can solo within the Am scale or C major scale.

Have fun!

1 3 5

Hi,

After you have memorize the fretboard on the bass guitar, it's time to create some simple bass lines.

If you have a song with chord progression like G Em C D, you should have no problem playing the root note (i.e G E C D )

You will sound right just playing the root note but now you also want to start playing a bit more. You can use 1 3 5 (notes inside a chord) to create something more interesting.

Let's write out the 135 in each chord:

G - G B D
Em - E G B
C - C E G
D - D F# A

Say I start with G and want to link to the next chord Em, I can play G B D E.
Next from Em I can play G B B C then E G G D

This is just the basic idea of creating bass line using 135. You can take it from here and explore which note sound better and try to get a nice line.

Cheers

4,5,6 String Tuning

For those who are new to bass playing, you might want to know what are the common tuning for the 4,5 6 string bass. There are 7,8 12 string bass as well.
Anyway let's not stress ourselves.

4 string bass - E A D G ( E is the thickest string)
5 string bass - B E A D G ( B is the thickest string)
6 string bass - B E A D G C ( Same as 5 string but with additional high C)

Some people said that for beginner it is better to start with the 4 string bass as it is more easy to handle.
I think it is up to individual.
There are many people who started out playing 5 or 6 string too.

With the additional strings, you will have a wider range of voicing. A person who played 5 or 6 string bass does not mean that he or she is more superior than a 4 string bass player.
You can decide which bass to start with and put in effort to control it.

Here are a few famous bass players that you can listen and learn from.

4 string - Victor Wooten(He plays a tenor bass too A D G C), Marcus Miller, Jaco Pastorius.
5 string - Nathan East, Abraham Laboriel, Richard Bona
6 string - John Patitucci, Gerald Veasley, Jimmy Haslip

Victor Wooten plays in a band called Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. He has his own solo album as well.
Marcus Miller is more of a solo artist. For Jaco, you can find his solo album or some of the old Weather Report album. Jaco Pastorius Big Band is a tribute to him.

You can find Nathan East playing in some of Eric Clapton's album and the Fourplay.
Abraham Laboriel Sr has his own solo album and he played for many artists including Lee Ritenour, Stan Turrentine, George Benson and etc.
Richard bona was featured in Jaco Pastorius Big Band and has his own solo album.

John Patitucci has his own solo album. He played for Chick Corea in the akoustic and elektric band.
Gerald Veasley was featured in Jaco Pastorius Big Band and has his own solo album.
Jimmy Haslip is in a band called Yellowjackets. He was featured in Jaco Pastorius Big Band as well.

There are too many good bass players like Chuck Rainey, Stanley Clarke, Louis Johnson, John Myung, Stu hamm and etc. Take your time to listen to their music.

Right Hand Technique

I guess there are many ways to increase one's fingering speed. One of them is to practice your scaling, plucking near to the bridge area.
Reason is simple since the tension is greater at the bridge area, it require more strength to pluck.
So as you practice more, your finger will be strengthen and hence can play faster and longer duration too.

Billy Sheenhan make use of his bass pickup and his 3 finger technique in order to play fast. You can check out his DVD to see his live examples.

Victor Wooten uses his unique thumb and finger technique. The concept is thumb down, thumb up, pluck with forefinger and pluck with middle finger. He teaches that on the bass Day 98 DVD. That is a "must watch" DVD for those who are interested to explore bass.

Abraham Laboriel uses Thumb follow by pluck with forefinger and middle finger. You can also learn about chords and thumping at his Beginning Funk Bass DVD.

Bass Strap

This is a simple but useful tip about bass strap.
Some people asked why when they practice a bass lick at home and it is smooth but when they jam with their friends, that bass lick has more difficulties to come out.

One possible reason is that the bass strap is not adjusted to the comfortable length when you stand and play, while at home it rested nicely on your lap.

If you want, you can practice at home with the strap on as if you are standing.
Many rock and heavy metal bass players like to put the bass near their waist. For people with long arms you can do that but might face slight difficulties when slapping.

cheers