Pimp Your Bassline

Have you ever been asked to come up with a bassline on the spot? And do you have a hard time coming up with different basslines over the same drum beat? Most likely the problem is too much focus on the notes. Although, we should be fine playing nothing but the root note, we often think of notes first when it comes to parameters of a bassline. 

The Secret Sauce

The truth is, the notes are really just a tenth of our arsenal. We have nine other parameters at our disposal to create a fitting bassline to any drum groove or complete song. The notes should be the last thing we think about. The root note always works. I'm sure you know the saying "Don't change the winning team". 

In my "Pimp Your Bassline" tutorial I challenge you to come up with a bassline focusing on everything else besides the notes you play. You will learn about the nine under appreciated elements of music and how to use them consciously. So you can come up with capturing basslines for days without ever playing more than one note.

The Root Note Curse

Someone put a spell on us bassists. Somehow whatever we play, we always start with the root note. Which makes a lot of sense, because let's be honest, it's our job. But what if we want to play a solo or a bass fill? What if we want to play a melodic bassline in the breakdown of a song?

The Secret Sauce

One thing that helps us to get out of this rut is the concept of triad inversions. In particular the inversions of the 3-string shapes. In "The Triad Inversion Hack" I show you how to avoid only thinking of chord tones in relationship to the root note. With the knowledge of the 3-string shapes of the major and minor inversions you can let go of your addiction to root notes and come up with melodic lines by focusing on voice leading. 

Just think of any chord progression. Moving from one chord to another every note in a triad will dissolves into another note of the following triad. There are only three options. Either you will have to shift it a whole step, a half step or not at all. Using this knowledge when improvising every chord transition will sound smooth and let the melody live on. The typical jump to the root note makes it impossible to play melodic phrases that last longer than one chord.

The Learning Struggle

Have you ever been inspired to learn a new skill like double thumb or two handed tapping? You started out really motivated, but the more time you put in, the more your motivation decreased. This is actually a totally normal phenomenon.

Learning something new often feels like a setback. Either we give up or we are muddling our way through it, telling ourselves that we’ll get it right next time. Therefore automating bad technique, that will backfire later on. 

The Secret Sauce

In "The Four Stages Of Learning" I explain how the process of mastering a skill works and how all stages have different effects on our motivation. Once you know the principles of the cycle of competence, it will be very apparent why we sometimes have trouble following through with learning something new. Further, in "The 4 Stages Of Learning" you'll learn why there are only two blissful states of learning and how to shortcut the cycle to keep that motivation going.

This tutorial might be one of the most important ones you will ever watch, when it comes to progressing on your instrument. Because, only when you know what causes motivation to drop can you work against it. 

The Problem With Metronomes

We’ve all heard it a million times before “If you want to have good timing, you have to practice with a metronome.” A couple of times I did hear the opposite, and it made sense in the context. But generally playing along with the click is supposed to make us play more steady and precise. No slowing down or speeding up, every 16th note right in the pocket.

But what if I tell you that practicing with the metronome can have the opposite effect. Sounds funny, but is true unless you know how to use it for strengthening your inner clock.

The Secret Sauce

In “Metronome Hacks” I show you three different exercises to train yourself not to have to rely on a drummer. The thing is, most people put the metronome on a quarter note pulse, set the tempo and start playing on top of the click. To be honest, it’S how I did it through most of my bass playing years. I could tell whenever I was speeding up or slowing down and I had a rough idea of how precise I executed every single note.

The Curse Of The Flying Pinky (or why you can’t play fast)

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to move the pinky and ring finger independently? At first it seems impossible. The reason is, they are attached to the same tendon. But with a little bit of dedicated training, we can program our fingers to do what we want them to do. I know I have been ignoring this problem way too long. But then Anthony Wellington gave me an exercise that was perfect for fretting hand independency. After just 30 days of doing it I managed to get rid of my flying pinky. 

The Secret Sauce

In "Economy Of Motion" I show you the exact exercise that Anthony showed me when I took lessons with him. This exercise makes sure that every single finger will get the same amount of work out.

In total there are only 24 four-note permutations if you use every finger only once. It is up to you to find out which patterns you have been overlooking up till now. And there are a few patterns that work exceptionally well for eliminating the dreaded flying pinky.

Incorporating this economy of motion exercise into your practicing routine, you will not only be able to play faster and cleaner, though. Having played all possible 1-2-3-4 permutations will ensure that you will never stumble over fretting patterns that you haven’t used before. Which will level up your sight reading skills.

The problem with realistic goals

Do you ever feel stuck when practicing? You're not sure what to practice next or lack the motivation to keep pushing to break through the wall you just hit. Well, then you might have a case of grown-up syndrome. Realistic goals are very effective when it comes to short term, actionable goals. But the problem with them is that you have to set new ones all the time. Which can take a considerable amount of time by itself. In "The Purpose Of Unrealistic Goals" I show you how to set goals that inspire you and help you to keep your focus on the important stuff.

The Secret Sauce

When we become adults our brains change. When we set out to learn something new, we want to understand the mechanics and theory behind it. We want assurance that what we are trying to do is actually possible. A young kid (1-5 years) on the other hand mostly learns through experience. They haven't been taught the big lie that "Failure is bad!" If they fail, they get up and try again always focused on the big picture goal. Until they succeed or get so exhausted that they need to take a break.

The Polyrhythm challenge

Want to add an element of surprise or another level of complexity to your solo or composition? Then you should check out polyrhythms. We all are familiar with simple cross-rhythms like 2 against 3 and 3 against 4. Even in pop music they are quite common. And there is a lot you can do with only these two polyrhythms before things start to get boring. Nevertheless, they can be quite a challenge to execute well. Especially, when picking more complex ones like 5 against 6 or 23 against 4. The risk of losing the "one" and not being able to dissolve your cross-rhythm gracefully is always present. "Winging it" becomes a sure way to messing things up.

The Secret Sauce

In the "Top 3 Polyrhythm Hacks" I show you my three favourite methods to playing polyrhythms with confidence. Each of these approaches brings you one step closer to mastering polyrhythms. 

Three Is The Magic Number

The 3 finger technique is quite well known in around metal bassists. It's the easiest way to play the "Gallop". If you don't know what the gallop is, you need to listen to more "Iron Maiden". Jokes aside though, the 3 finger technique can be used to play fast without having your arm fall off.

The Secret Sauce

Learning how to play anything with three fingers is not an easy task. Most of us are used to playing with two fingers that adding a third finger will send us to a dark place, where all our automated movements won't work anymore. That's why it's important to go at it in little steps. To make this process go as smooth as can be I want to share my 3 step approach to how to get started with "The 3 Finger Technique". By the end of this episode I also let you in on a concept that Rhonda Smith shared with me.

In this video you'll learn:

- How to get started with your 3rd finger
- why polyrhythms are important for playing with three fingers
- Rhonda Smith's unconventional 3 finger concept

Why do you even care?

Is playing jazz chords on bass really that necessary? The truth is that understanding the mechanics of building chords and voice leading helps you in many ways to be a better bass player. Particularly if you like to jam, improvise or compose your own basslines. Being able to play jazz chords on bass is like having a cheat sheet for melodic ideas and finding musical connection points from one chord to another. It doesn’t matter if you want to improve your solos, bass fills or basslines. All three will benefit from the fretboard knowledge and harmonic understanding that you gain by figuring out this chords on bass thing.

The Secret Sauce

As always, I give you a couple of exercises that can help you every step of the way. You can start out with just learning the chord shapes and exploring the sounds you can create or you can start by playing guide lines to understand the concept of voice leading.

But the magic happens when you bring the two together. This is where the “What The Fuck” experience (yes, this is a scientific term used in neuroscience) turns into an “Aha” moment. You start seeing maps of possible routes to take as well as all the available target notes. 

One thing that you can immediately take advantage of is creating your own backing tracks. I found this to be priceless when I’m teaching. Whatever comes to mind, I can record it and have the student play over it. Not to say that I don’ use it for myself. I agree with Victor Wooten that you should practice in a musical way. So even when I’m practicing scales or arpeggios, I always create a backing track that I can jam to and make the exercise sound like music.

Ever feel stuck with your playing?

Did you ever have that feeling where you know something isn't quite right with what you are playing, but you can't seem to pin point the problem?

Or do you ever run out of ideas of what to play when improvising a solo?

Or did you ever compose a song and somehow it sounded like something was still missing?

The Secret Sauce

In "The Infinite Inspiration Hack" I share with you Victor Wooten's concept of the 10 elements of music. It's his way of breaking down music into small manageable chunks, so you can work on each of them one by one. A side effect is, that you will never run out of ideas. It's almost like a cheat sheet for playing music that satisfies you and the audience.
For the first few years I always carried a list with the 10 elements around with me. whenever I felt stuck, I knew I only had to go through the list once and the answer would be obvious. 

In fact, this concept helped me so much that all of my lessons are based around it. I teach students of all ages from 3 - 70 and up. I coach music teachers around the world (USA, Canada, Germany, Greece, Lebanon, etc.). Using the 10 elements as a guide has made this job a piece of cake. If you play music, you got to check this concept out. If you teach music, you will love this video.