Welcome to Thunder Row, where bassists from around the world connect, collide, confer, conference, compose, collude, and communicate!
Don't be shy, jump on in!
Roy's Blog
*Teach Me Bass Guitar, the most comprehensive, effective, and entertaining program of bass instruction anywhere.
Guaranteed.
www.teachmebassguitar.com
Published on 03-01-2010 07:55 AM
Number of Views: 2639
After looking at the Nashville Number System, I've decided to write a bridge column between our earlier article on Triads and our Diatonic Modes and Four Note Chord study in the Intermediate Bass articles.
Published on 03-01-2010 07:50 AM
Number of Views: 2954
The Nashville Number charts are a standard way to write out chord progressions and arrangements for songs that do not require reading music.
This approach came about in the 1950s as the studio crew known as the A Team was recording around the clock in studios like the Quonset Hut and RCA Studio B with artists like Elvis, Brenda Lee, Roy Orbison, Marty Robbins, and countless
...
Published on 03-01-2010 07:45 AM
Number of Views: 2899
For this lesson, I've taken the Left and Right Hand exercises from the last two lessons and created a bass line that I might use in a real life gigging situation. Notice that there is a lot of repetition in the idea. Measures 1, 3, 5
Published on 03-01-2010 07:40 AM
Number of Views: 2243
Now that we've had some time to get used to the Right Hand (RH) position for Slap bass (this is assuming you're a right-handed bassist, if you're left-handed reverse the hands in the description), let's move on to adding notes with the left hand.
...
Published on 03-01-2010 07:35 AM
Number of Views: 2080
NOTE: The size of the sheet music image came out too small to use in its present form, but it you click on it and then click again once it opens, it will open in a new window. You should be able to zoom in on it and see a bigger version. Enough to see the notes, though the
...
Published on 03-01-2010 07:30 AM
Number of Views: 2858
Now that we've had some time to digest 8th note syncopation, let's use the same foot-tap system for 16th notes. Most beginning bassists look at 16th notes and assume that they are: (A) hard to play and (B) fast. They may be
...
Published on 03-01-2010 07:25 AM
Number of Views: 2258
Before we continue our studies of bass lines and patterns, we need to get comfortable with the various syncopated rhythms that bassists encounter in Jazz, Rock, Funk and other music styles. My experience is that most bass students are intimidated by rhythms when they stray from the steady
...
Published on 03-01-2010 07:20 AM
Number of Views: 1875
The next step in our study of the Blues is to add two more notes to our triad. I've added the 6th (a scale tone above the 5th of the chord) and the b7th (a half step above that). The LH fingering would be 2-1-4-1-2 for Root-3-5-6-b7.
...
Published on 03-01-2010 07:15 AM
Number of Views: 2729
The next step in our study of triads is to use them to play a chord progression or tune. For this exercise, I've chosen the time-honored 12 Bar Blues form. Once again, using our scale (A this time) as a model, I've come up with the I-IV andV changes of A, D, and E. Here is the twelve bar form in numbers:
Published on 03-01-2010 07:10 AM
Number of Views: 3542
Once we've gotten our hands working in sync, the next task will be to make some music with them. One of the easiest and most useful ways to create a functional bass line is to use the major and minor triads.