D Melodic Minor Scale

Hi,

Most of us are familiar with the Natural Minor Scale (Aeolian) but seldom practice the Melodic Minor Scale.

The formula for Melodic Minor Scale is 1 2 b3 4 5 6 7

Therefore the D Melodic Minor Scale will be D E F G A B C#





A simple exercise to try this scale is over the II V I progression in C

The chords are Dm7 G7 Cmaj7.

When the musicians play a G7 chord, try playing the D Melodic Minor Scale.

It is equivalent to a G dominant Lydian Scale. Sound even more jazzy now!

Have fun.

Minor Pentatonic Exercise

Hi,

If you are bored of playing the same minor pentatonic scale over and over again, try the below exercise.

It is quite a good stretch and breaks away from the standard pattern.

This is the C Minor Pentatonic Scale.




Try reversing the exercise from the 15th fret back to the 3rd fret.

Have fun.

Walking Bass Without Root

Hi,

Before reading this lesson, you might want to review Basic Walking Bass and Simple ii V I Progression Using Chord Tone.

As I already explained before about using chord tone to construct our walking bass lines, today's exercise is similar but no root note is used.

To avoid using the root note is challenging but the bass lines produced is more interesting.

Below is a simple ii V I IV Jazz progression in key of D.








I used the 3rd as the first note of the chord.

E.g. The notes in Em7 are E(root) G(3rd) B(5th) D(7th).

The first note I used for Em7 is G.

You can choose to play the line on a lower register.

Hope this is clear.

Cheers

Bass Clef

The first step to sight reading is to know the notes within the staff.

Some music books use phrases like Good Boys Don't Fight (G B D F) and All Cows Eat Grass (A C E G).

For me, I recognize by chords.

G B D F is a G7 chord and A C E G is an Am7 chord.

Whichever works for you, use it.

Start reading something simple before going into complicated rhythms.

Cheers

Minor Chord Substitution

Chord Substitution is common in our music today.

We can replace a chord with another related chord.

Often the substituted chord differs by one or two notes from the original chord.

Before you read this post, it will be good to take a look at my previous lesson - Introduction to Chords Substitution

For example, we can replace an Am7 chord with a Fmaj7 chord.

The notes in the Am7 chord are: A C E G

In the Fmaj7 chord the notes are: F A C E

There is only one note difference between these two chords.

If we have an Em7 chord, we can replace it with a Cmaj7 chord.

You can also replace the Em7 chord with a Gmaj7 chord.

The notes in the Em7 are: E G B D and G B D F# for Gmaj7.

Again the difference is only in one note. You can call this a relative chord.

Hope this helps.

Universal 9 Volt DC Power Supply

Recently I bought an effect pedal and realize that the adapter that comes with it supply only 120v but my country uses 220-240v.

To get a transformer to step up could be quite troublesome and bulky.

I found out that we can use an Universal 9 Volt DC Power Supply.

The auto-sensing circuitry runs off 100-240 volts and can use it anywhere in the world.

Take up only one outlet space and makes it easy to travel.

You can check out '1 Spot' by Visual Sound or 'Power All' by Godlyke.

Hope this information is useful.

Improvise using the 5th

Hi,

We are going to take a look at using the 5th of the chord tones when we improvise.

This lesson helps us to break away from landing on the root especially during solos.

For example if the chord is a Cmaj7, you can land on the G since it is still within the chord tones.

Now try playing the G Arpeggio.

The notes in the G Arpeggio are G, B and D (end with G octave).

G is the 5th of Cmaj7, B is the 7th of Cmaj7 and D is the 9th of the chord.

Have fun.

Right Hand Technique ( 3 fingers)

Hi,

I would like to share with you the 3 fingers technique which I am trying to improve and apply.

The plucking concept is similar to that of playing on a classical guitar.

You can check out Bass players like Dominique Di Piazza and Damian Erskine for more applications and examples.








T - Thumb
m - middle finger
i - index finger

Practice slow and gradually increase the speed.

Have fun!

Playing Chords on Bass (3 positions)

Hi,

We know that a basic chord is formed by 1 3 5.

For example, the notes in an A chord will be A (1) C# (3) E (5).

I have tabbed out three different positions of an A chord.

Some of you will know them as inversions.







Remember the shape and shift it around to play other chords.

Hope this is clear.

Have fun.

G Major Scale Exercise

Hi,

The exercise below is an alternate way to practice the G major scale.

Sometimes when you improvise in the key of G, this pattern can be quite useful.





This will help you to be more familiar with the fretboard.

You can practice playing backward as well.

Have fun

Choosing a 4, 5 or 6 String Bass

Dear all,

This video by Russ Rodgers is a good introduction for beginners who are deciding what basses to get.



Hope this is helpful

Cheers

C7 Chord Arrpegio

Hi,

The dominant chord is very common in most genre of music like blues, funk and gospel.

It is important as bass player to know the pattern and notes of a chord.

The chart below shows the notes in a C7 Arrpegio.






The notes in a C7 chord are C (root) E (3rd) G (5th) Bb (b7).

Practice this pattern and slowly move up the frets to find the other notes in the chord.

Have fun.

Double 5th Exercise

Dear friends,

If G is "I", the "V" is D

If D is "I", A is the "V"

The exercise below is useful when you are playing a lick in G.






All the notes are from the G major scale.

From the G on the 3rd fret of the E string to the G on the 12th fret of the G string.

Try this out and play some variation.

Cheers

Basic Bass Chords Chart

Hi,

Playing chords on the bass is easy, fun and nice.

We know that a major chord has a formula of 135.

Example in a G major chord, the notes that formed the chord is G B D (135).

G minor will be G Bb D (1 b3 5) and G Dominant will be G B D F (1 3 5 b7).

The 5th is not necessary when playing a bass chord.

The chart below will give you a good introduction of playing chords on bass.











Have Fun.

Funk and Blues using Dominant 7

Hi,

This is a simple exercise for those who are exploring funk and blues.

The dominant 7 chords are frequently used in these genres.

The exercise below can be played over a A7 and D7 progression.






You may want to add some bending and sliding to create more feel.

You can practice the above as a slapping exercise as well.

Have fun.

Introduction to Chords Substitution

Hi,

This post is an attempt to understand basic chords substitution.

This is useful when the chords for both the verse and chorus of a song are the same.

Let's list down the chords in G major.

I II III IV V VI VII
Gmaj7 Am7 Bm7 Cmaj7 D7 Em7 F#m7(b5)

For example, the chords of a song uses I VI IV V progression.

The chords will be Gmaj7 Em7 Cmaj7 D7.

We can substitute I with III.

Instead of playing Gmaj7, we change to Bm7.

The new progression will be Bm7 Em7 Cmaj7 D7

The notes in a Gmaj7 are G B D F#

The notes in a Bm7 are B D F# A

Out of 4 notes, 3 are the same, therefore it will sound correct.

Hope this helps.

Have fun.

Arpeggios 3rd

Hi,

When we are playing bass, sometimes it is good to start on the root but end on the 3rd (10th)

How do you do it?

Let say you want to improvise over a G chord.

You can follow the notes below:

--------------------------------------------
-------------------------5(root)---9 (10th)-
---------2(3rd)--5(5th)--------------------
-3(root)------------------------------------

You will be surprise by this simple technique.

Cheers

Power Chord Slap

Hi,

A Power Chord is a chord that consist of the root and the fifth.

For example, to play a F Power Chord, you press the F note (root) and the C note (5th).

Now the exercise below is a triplet slap exercise.


---------5(p)--------7(p)---------9(p)-------
--0-(h)3------0-(h)5------0-(h)7------------
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------

Practice slowly and gradually increase the speed.

Have Fun.

Open Hammer Pluck

Hi,

Just to follow up on the previous post.

If you gave it a try, you will be surprise how fast you can play with little effort.

Now let's try another technique called the open hammer pluck.

All you need to do is add a pluck after the open hammer.

------------6(p)--------8(p)--------9(p)---
--------------------------------------------
----0-4(h)-----0-6(h)------0-7(h)---------
--------------------------------------------

Have fun!

How to sound fast?

Hi,

There are many ways to sound fast in your bass playing but what I would like

to share is to make use of the open hammer-on.

You may like to use your thumb (slap) to play this exercise.

----------------------------------------
-----------------0-5-7-----------------
---------0-5-7----------0-5-7---------
-0-5-7-------------------------0-5-7--

The above is a simple Em Pentatonic Scale.

Use your thumb to strike the string, than you can use your left index finger to fret the note followed by the hammer-on using your ring finger.

Have fun.