The Creative Bass

Course information

$249

Description

What you'll learn

• Session 0 A Quick Orientation

  A short video to explain the progression of the course, and some tips on how to get the most from this experience.
• Session 1 The Downbeat is Everything

  This is where we HAVE to start on this journey: nailing the downbeat. You can play the greatest bass fill, or come up with an incredible idea for your bass line, but if you can't land those root notes where they belong, nothing else matters. Let's lock this down. Oh, and...the Downbeats in the Fog exercise is a bugger, but it's a heck of a fun challenge!
• Session 2 The Core Groove

  At the center of any great bass line is a strong (and often simple) rhythmic pattern. This is called the Core Groove. To accompany our backing track, we'll work on a graduated series of rhythms that could serve as its Core Groove. We'll then work on composing and improvising ways to flesh out the bass line using just the root, 5th, and octave. This may be a time-tested skeletal framework, but we're going to look at it in a slightly new way...
• Session 3 Fleshing It Out With Triads

  Triads are what I'd like to consider the "guide posts" of any chord in music. They set the sound and tonality of a chord, and being able to play them up, down, and around can really "unlock" your ability to freely create lines using them. They also set the stage for the rest of the concepts we will elaborate on in this course. By the end of today's lesson, you will have truly turned major and minor triads over, improvised with them and used them to construct a tasteful bass line to a 4-chord backing track.
• Session 4 Building Melody

  Being melodic is like solving a musical puzzle. Melodies can't just be great on their own; they have to fit with the rhythm and harmony of the music. They have to make sense of the music. In this session, you'll be writing your own bass melody, and taking a bass solo. You heard that right. But don't worry! We are going to frame this in a simple way that allows you to succeed and begin to pull out of yourself the melodic player that's been there the whole time. This will challenging, and this will be fun.
• Session 5 Weaving Through The Key - Diatonic Motion

  When it comes to constructing a bass line around our chords and roots, we've mostly concentrated on how to outline the chord that we're presently on. Now, we're focusing on transitioning from chord to chord using the notes in the key...AKA the scale! This is called diatonic motion, and will help you smooth out your lines and create melodic momentum and continuity. This is where we really start opening up the flood gates, and start to get choosy about exactly what tools we want to use at any given moment.
• Session 6 The Swiss Army Knife of Scales

  Because of its mixture of steps and skips, the pentatonic scale is truly versatile, and inherently melodic. Though there are many ways to play a pentatonic scale, the "Big Zig" pattern is the most versatile of them all. We'll learn and cement the Big Zig pattern on the D Major pentatonic scale. We'll also get a ton of practice using it to embellish our groove in multiple "spots in the phrase." Some of these may feel familiar, and others may be quite a challenge. Through it all, you'll be developing the three core skills we've been building from the beginning of this course: being in the pocket, landing the root notes, and developing your sense of melody.
• Session 7 Four Score

  This one is all about rhythmic phrasing. The ability to "flow through rhythms" is something we've been developing throughout this course, and this session is going to take it to the next level. Both the Rhythm Study and the Creative Study are going to challenge you to improvise rhythms like you've never done before. Oh, and I apologize for making you rehearse part of the Gettysburg Address...it's all for educational purposes, I promise!
• Session 8 Articulation = Expression

  To this point, we've practiced a lot of "what notes to play and when." This last session is all about the "how." Articulation is how you play your notes. Punchy, staccato, smooth, accented, hammered...there are so many different ways to play a note. We practice the three articulations that I think are the best to master first: Staccato plucking, hammer on's/pull off's, and grace notes. We'll go over the mechanics, practice tips, and even play through 3 different sample fills for each experience level that feature these three techniques in action. From there, it's up to you to take these new skills to the backing track. This is truly the send off. This is the start of many years of practice in refining and broadening your fingerprint as a bassist.

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