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The 8 sure steps to take your bass playing to the next level !!!
1- Set your Goals - set short and long term goals, Organize your tasks,manage your stress, The best way is to identify and list three important tasks you need to accomplish,divide the time you going to spend on each, be effective,don't rush,if you choose to practice on 3 note pattern Ionian accomplish that and don't jump to the next
thing, spend more time on the things that are hard and master the things that are not easy to the same level as the easy ones. You will accomplish a lot More by spending 15 min a day on one thing.there is always tomorrow and that is the only true way to really master your Playing and accomplish your goals.
2- Consistency, Self discipline - create a routine, don't practice on different things every time, work on your routine and be consistence, it's a good way to warm up before you practicing new stuff,new song,solo etc... Write down what you need to practice and once you can really play it add new things to your routine.
3- Play More - Play with other musicians, find someone to play with, it can be a friend, some one you see play and you like what you see and you feel at the same level, put ads,look for ads to find bands,musicians, everybody needs a bass player, don't be scared, go to as many auditions as you can,jam sessions, most of the time you don't have to be fast,smart or flashy in your playing, if you have good rhythm and feel you can play with most bands and that's what most bands want.if you ever face any kind of situations you are not comfortable with musically you can always work and practice at home, most bands will send you before a song or two,sometimes a cover so you will have time to learn the music, do your home work, come ready.
4- Practice with practice tracks - it is very important for us bass players to hear the harmony (the chord), when we practicing along to a backing track with harmony we can really hear how what we are playing works and sounds,you also get to work on your time (drum beat is better then a metronome) and on your ear training, after listening for one month to Maj7 chord you might start recognize it when you hear it.
5- Record Yourself - so you can hear mistakes, get ideas, remember ideas, it is very important, so many times I was listening Back in the studio to what we just recorded and I did changed something in my bass playing,feel,sound.
6- Get inspired and creative - Listen to different styles of music, different time signature, different drum beats, check the best and famous bass players out there, go to gigs, concerts, open mics. try different bass effect pedals, music production software.
7- Work on new techniques-Slap,Tap,pick Playing,4 finger technique,Thumb 'mute' playing, work on different techniques by choosing one, practice minimum of 5 minutes a day on that technique, practice the same stuff you practice in your regular routine, you won't believe how much you can achieve after spending Only 5 minutes a day for one month.
8- Find a teacher or a mentor - I've done that a lot in different times in my career, I still remember all of them.They all have a special place in my heart,some where better then others but they all inspired me from week to week, I learned a lot about bass playing, teaching and how to deal with life as a musician.
Do you have a practice routine ?
Very important lesson for beginners,Intermediates and advanced bass players. if you want to improve your bass playing this is for you.
I would like to discuss some very important points we musicians in all instruments and levels needs to deal with.
Lets start,
Do you have a practice routine ?
if we want to be the most effective when we practice we need to practice some of the same stuff for weeks,months and even years, you should create your on practice routine and i can help you with that.
How do you practice ?
Do you practice with a metronome,click,drum machine,backing track,with music or just by yourself?
It is very important to practice a long to metronome/click/drum machine, but it's just as important to practice a long to
a backing track, lets say you practice Ionian on Gmaj7, it's very important that you can hear the Gmaj7, that way you can
hear how every thing you play fit to the chord and also after playing for a wile listening to Gmaj7 you will start to recognise
the chord every time you hear it.
On what do you practice?
There is so much information out there that sometimes we feel confuse and we not
sure what is more important, it is crucial to spend a lot of time on each of the basics,
The basics are the 7 modes,we need to practice each of the modes in all 12 keys, if you are advanced in your
knowledge/bass playing you should know all the 7 modes and the order + the chords,
The modes in the key of Cmaj7
C Ionian (I) Cmaj7
D Dorian (II) Dm7
E Phrygian (III) Em7b9
F Lydian (IV) Fmaj7#4
G Mixolydian (V) G7
A Aeolian (VI) Am7b13
B Locrian (VII) Bm7b5b13
What to practice -
The Scale 1 Octave,2 Octaves, From the lowest note to the highest note.
Patterns: If you not sure what it means please check my Article "My scales concepts" ,
3 Note pattern - Forward,Backwards,and one Forward one backwards or one back words one forwards.
4 Note pattern - Forward,Backwards,and one Forward one backwards or one back words one forwards.
5 Note pattern - Forward,Backwards,and one Forward one backwards or one back words one forwards.
6 Note pattern - Forward,Backwards,and one Forward one backwards or one back words one forwards.
7 Note pattern - Forward,Backwards,and one Forward one backwards or one back words one forwards.
Intervals:
3rds - Forward,Backwards,and one Forward one backwards or one back words one forwards.
4ths - Forward,Backwards,and one Forward one backwards or one back words one forwards.
5ths - Forward,Backwards,and one Forward one backwards or one back words one forwards.
6ths - Forward,Backwards,and one Forward one backwards or one back words one forwards.
7ths - Forward,Backwards,and one Forward one backwards or one back words one forwards.
Octaves -Forward,Backwards,and one Forward one backwards or one back words one forwards.
9ths - Forward,Backwards,and one Forward one backwards or one back words one forwards.
10ths -Forward,Backwards,and one Forward one backwards or one back words one forwards.
Triads - Forward,Backwards,and one Forward one backwards or one backwords one forwards.
Sept Chords. Forward,Backwards,and one Forward one backwards or one back words one forwards.
Arpeggios:
Triads 1 Octave,Triads 2 octaves, From the lowest note to the highest note.
Inversions.
Sept Chords 1 Octave,2 octaves, From the lowest note to the highest note.
Inversions.
Arpeggios + tensions ( 1-3-5-7-9-11-13 for X7 chord)
where to start !!!
You should start with Ionian, play the scale 1 octave for a minute or two,then play the two octaves for a few minutes,
after we warmed up a bit we can play 3 note pattern forward,3 note pattern backwards,3 note pattern one forward and one backwards ect...
make sure you are playing each of the exercises in rhythm,that you are playing right(left&right hand), are the notes consistent?
start slow and don't move to the next exercise until you master the first,
don't rush, it should take a bit time, if you don't have to much time there is always tomorrow, it is way more effective to
stick to one exercise until you master it, then move to the next one and bring it to the same level as the first one,
each of this exercises is part of our practice routine,our goal is to run all of the exercise every day on one scale in one key,
The day after the same scale half step up,move up half step every day for 12 days(12 Keys) and then move to the next scale(mode).
7 scales for 12 days (each scale) is 84 days of effectively improving in all aspects of our bass playing, rhythm,ear training, theory and Technique(speed and sound),
of course we have more scales/chords(arpeggios), Pentatonic scales,Minor 6 Pentatonic, Diminished,whole tone,harmonic minor + 7 more modes from the
melodic minor (melodic minor.alterd,lydian b7 etc...), Sus4 chords,Augmented chords etc..
we also have more thing to add to our practice routine like , 2-5-1, soloing, writhing and reading, ear training,
subscribing,approaching notes,different bass bass techniques - slap,tap,pick playing,4 fingers etc...
Take it slow, in slow pisses , like baby steps, start with the first exercises and master it,
after you got the first one in your daily practice routine you already accomplished one, only a few more to go :))
it means you in the right way on the right track and you can't fail.
all rights reserved,copyright - London Bass Lessons by Nim Sadot
My sacles method
This method is not for beginners, i usually teach some of it in the first lesson
but if you are just starting it's not going to make any sense unless you have been playing some other instrument.
The basic idea is that we need to know all the chords and the scales,
For each chord we can fit a few scales, once we know the right scale or scales there are
many things we can play, for example i will take Cmaj7,for any xmaj7 chord we can
play Ionian,lydian and major pentatonic scales but for now i will stay with Ionian,
In Cmaj7 Ionian scale we have the notes C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C
strings A-A-D-D-D-G-G-G
i will give each note a number so the first note (C) is 1 and the second Note (D) is 2 etc... so i have 1-2-3-4-5-6-7+-8,
i named the seventh note 7+ because it's a Xmaj7 chord and not X7,
Ok now for the fun stuff,We can play 3 note pattern
1-2-3 C-D-E and going back 8-7+-6 C-B-A
2-3-4 D-E-F 7+-6-5 B-A-G
3-4-5 E-F-G 6-5-4 A-G-F
4-5-6 F-G-A 5-4-3 G-F-E
5-6-7+ G-A-B 4-3-2 F-E-D
6-7+-8 A-B-C 3-2-1 E-D-C
We can play the same thing backwards
3-2-1 E-D-c and going back 6-7+-8 A-B-C
4-3-2 F-E-D 5-6-7+ G-A-B
5-4-3 G-F-E 4-5-6 F-G-A
6-5-4 A-G-F 3-4-5 E-F-G
7+-6-5 B-A-G 2-3-4 D-E-F
8-7+-6 C-B-A 1-2-3 C-D-E
we can be more creative by playing one forward and one backwards,
1-2-3 C-D-E and going back 6-7+-8 A-B-C
4-3-2 F-E-D 7+-6-5 B-A-G
3-4-5 E-F-G 4-5-6 F-G-A
6-5-4 A-G-F 5-4-3 G-F-E
5-6-7+ G-A-B 2-3-4 D-E-F
8-7+-6 C-B-A 3-2-1 E-D-C
or two forwards two backwards
1-2-3 C-D-E and going back 8-7+-6 C-B-A
2-3-4 D-E-F 7+-6-5 B-A-G
5-4-3 G-F-E 4-5-6 F-G-A
6-5-4 A-G-F 3-4-5 E-F-G
5-6-7+ G-A-B 4-3-2 F-E-D
6-7+-8 A-B-C 3-2-1 E-D-C
Ok, so now we can mix it as we like, for example one forward two backwards or two backwards one forward
3-2-1 E-D-C and going back 6-7+-8 A-B-C
4-3-2 F-E-D 5-6-7+ G-A-B
3-4-5 E-F-G 4-5-6 F-G-A
4-5-6 F-G-A 5-4-3 G-F-E
5-6-7+ G-A-B 2-3-4 D-E-F
8-7+-6 C-B-A 1-2-3 C-D-E
So we can create our own patterns with in the 3 note pattern, we can play anything, four backwards and one forward but you get the idea,
now we need to do the same thing in 4 note pattern,5 note pattern,6 note pattern,7 note pattern etc ....
and we can also use it in the intervals-3rds,4th,5th,6th,7th,8th,9th.
we can play triads and septa chords plus a few more things.
Now we need to play it in all the 12 keys, the system stays the same,the first note is all ways 1 and the second note is 2 etc...
After we play it in all 12 notes we can move on to the next scale.
The good news is that there are only 12 notes and 10 important scales for most music styles,pop,rock,soul,RnB,funk etc...
and 7 more important scales if we want to play jazz.
We can use it for our bass lines or solos and you will find it very effective.
Enjoy
Nim Sadot
all rights reserved,copyright - London Bass Lessons by Nim Sadot
Pop Melodies
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Have you ever tried to play only the melody in any music style? Pop, rock, reggae, funk etc ...
Have you ever tried to play what Michael Jackson or James Brown sing?
I know that that's what we do when we practice jazz,
sometimes we learn the whole 3 minutes solo,
I think that not a lot of bass players/ musicians apply this in their lessons/ playing.
I found that it's one of the best ways to develop a good strong melodic sense.
Some singers use only 1-3 notes in their melodies but they have such a strong
rhythm that you don't need more, and in that case LESS IS MORE.
Some use their vibrato and dynamics in an inspiring way,
as deep as you go the harder it gets but you can learn a lot.
Have a try, pick up one of your super pop/rock
albums and play a long to the voice, it might be hard but you can do it and it's fun!