Reviews

Axe Handler Product Review8

Axe Handler Product Review

I could start this review off writing how no one has free time, but you don’t have the time to read it! Most of us don’t have the luxury of locking ourselves in a room for 4 hours at a time to practice, so we grab 5, 10, 15 minutes here and there to learn new tunes and keep our [...]

Interviews

Interview with Legendary Bassist Ralphe Armstrong Part 20

Interview with Legendary Bassist Ralphe Armstrong Part 2

Welcome back for part two of my interview with the wonderful Mr. Ralphe Armstrong. In this segment Ralphe talks about his favorite electric basses, the need for us all to embrace new technology and lesson times with and the inspiration he recieved from Ron Carter, Ray Brown and Buster Williams. JS - Tell me about your times with Ron Carter. Ralphe - Ron Carter was [...]

Lessons

Variations on a Theme0

Variations on a Theme

Young students often ask me why they need to practice this material. I always reply “because you’re a sum of all your parts”. Imagine if you will a car company that only focuses on transmissions. Well, what about the rest of the car? You wouldn’t get very far on just a transmission alone. In today’s age of music, you need [...]

Perspectives

Approaches to Music Practice Time0

Approaches to Music Practice Time

Okay, you’ve made up your mind to learn an instrument. You’ve bought a guitar/drums/keyboard/bass/trumpet, or whatever instrument you’ve fallen in love with, and you’ve signed up for lessons. Now what? Time to start a practice routine. When you join a sports team, it’s imperative to practice regularly. You’re trying to train your muscles to perform duties that may not be [...]

Guitar

Identifying the Notes of the A String0

Identifying the Notes of the A String

As we’ve been covering barre chords in previous articles, Here’s a way to memorize the notes of the A string, so we can identify the barre chords all over the neck. First, we’ll come up with a “Fifth String Tune”. Memorize the following pattern of notes, taking care to notice where your fingers fall in relation to the dots on [...]

Bass

Analyzing Bass Lines0

Analyzing Bass Lines

Just like I would want to taste and know every ingredient I would use in my favorite chili recipe, I like to know what I play in my bass lines. It could be chord tones, scale notes, passing chromatics. All of these things are helpful in being able to identify. Why? These are our tools. Guitarists have chords (which I [...]