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I had the pleasure recently of interviewing Berklee College of Music Bass professor Joe Santerre at his home in Massachusetts. Anytime I am in the presence of Joe and his bass, I immediately want to dust off my 6 string bass and hope that after much practice I could gain even a small percentage of his mastery. Whether it be [...]
In this weeks training lesson I want to work through a few exercises in multiple keys. I typically present one key a week but I think it is good practice, especially if you hope to play certain genres of music, to generalize the techniques. Let us begin with the key of C major and then proceed to the first two [...]
The key of Db major! I can hear you all groaning now. Just remember it is merely a hiccup away from C major, everything is up one fret. I very rarely see this key but it does happen and therefore is helpful being acquainted. The Db major scale includes the first 5 flats in the order of flats, Bb Eb [...]
In this week’s training session I want to cover the Ab major scale and exploratory exercises. For beginner players, focus on memorizing the notes of the scale and where they are on your fretboard. More experienced players can play through the exercises, the scale in 5ths, rhythmic variations and sample bass line as well as add the scale exercise ideas [...]
Spring has sprung and training has begun! Just because we use our fine motor skills and not the gross ones does not mean we don’t work as hard as any of the ball players out there. They run laps and throw balls, we drill scales! In this weeks lesson I am tying in some old and introducing some new scale [...]
In this weeks lesson, I want to cover one of the most commonly used scales, the Pentatonic Minor. This scale comes from the natural minor scale. If you have never heard of the natural minor scale, that is the scale formed when you start any major scale on its’ 6th degree. For example, take the notes of your Bb major [...]
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 [...]
Transposition in music is when we move notes exact order to another starting point. This new starting point could be a scale, chord or key. What can be transposed is anything from a simple groove to a complex melody. Most of us have transposed to some degree in our playing careers. If you’ve played blues bass lines before then you [...]
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 [...]
A chord is defined as any two or more notes played together. As bassists we are accustomed, most of the time, to playing in a linear fashion. It’s fun and important also to aquaint ourselves with the different chord qualities that emerge when combining 2 or more tones played simultaneously. The way I like to start this is with the [...]
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