Monthly Archives: January 2012

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Finding the Right Bass Instructor For You

Figuring out which local bass guitar teacher is right for you can be really difficult if you’ve never taken formal music lessons in your life.

Why?

I had a lot of success with a local instructor so I am a little biased, but there is no denying the fact that one-on-one lessons are the best way to figure out what you need to work on for bass guitar. Having an expert in the room with you is great because they can diagnose and issues you are having and give you custom tailored advice right away.

How to Find a Teacher

There are a couple of ways you can go about searching for the perfect instructor.

1. Local music shops or instruction halls have lots of flyers for one-on-one instructors in your area.

2. Online – Use google to search in your area or look on Craigslist. Make sure you are comfortable meeting a stranger before you take this step.

3. Through referral – Ask all your friends that play bass and just ask them who taught them. Then try to get a referral discount!

Selecting The Teacher

Make sure the instructor fits all the qualities you are looking for. Here is some criteria you can use to pick the right teacher for you:

- Experience playing in a band / playing shows / touring

- Lots of music theory knowledge

- Excellent at bass (technical skill)

- Flexible hours

- Affordable

And anything else you may want to use as a factor in your decision.

Conclusion

It’s very important you pick a teacher that will instruct you in a way that you enjoy since you may spend a year of seeing this person once a week.

Best of luck in finding your bass guitar instructor. Have any tips about picking a bass guitar teacher? Please comment below.

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Bass Guitar Arpeggios Guide

In this bass guitar music theory guide we will cover major and minor arpeggios and how you can add them to your bass playing.

What is an arpeggio?

A bass guitar arpeggio is basically 3 notes of a full chord that all fit into that chord very nicely. The reason why arpeggios matter is because they will help you creatively and spice up your bass lines.

Major Arpeggio

The major arpeggio follow the pattern below. The example is a C major arpeggio repeated twice. They are the exact same notes, just pick what pattern you like to play more.

C major bass guitar arpeggio

Minor Arpeggio

The minor arpeggio follows the pattern below. The example is a C minor arpeggio with 3 different playing positions. Pick the one that is most comfortable to you (but you should know them all).

C minor bass guitar arpeggio

So What Now?

Now that you have the two patterns memorized for major and minor, it’s time to apply this to an actual bass line. Here is a basic, boring rock bass line:

boring bass line

Really boring right? Well try playing it with these arpeggios:

arpeggio bass line

While it may seem like a simple thing, arpeggios are “glue” when it comes to repetitive bass lines. Sprinkle these in, but don’t go crazy. Too many arpeggios is just as bad as 0 bass guitar arpeggios.

Hopefully this article about bass guitar music theory helped you out and made you a better bass player. Please leave a comment or question below and I will get back to you shortly. Keep Playing!

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Pentatonic Scales for the Bass Guitar

In this article I demostrate the major and minor pentatonic scale for bass guitar. The pentatonic scale is very useful for playing in the background to add “spice” to your bass riff or can even be applied to soloing very easily.

C Major Pentatonic Scale

C Major Pentatonic scale for bass guitar

Slowly practice this routine until you feel more comfortable playing it faster and faster. My suggestion is that you evolve into using hammer ons and pull offs to play it quicker.

The pattern is: root – whole step – whole step – 3 half steps – whole step – octave.

“3 half steps” is just a fancy way of saying 3 frets difference.

C Minor Pentatonic Scale

C Minor Pentatonic for bass guitar

You can see and hear the slightly different pattern for the minor scale. Just like the major scale make sure you take it slow until you have the pattern down.

The pattern is: root - 3 half steps – whole step – whole step – 3 half steps – octave.

The Beauty of the Pentatonic Scale

The best part of the pentatonic scale is that once you learn the pattern for the major or minor scale you can play any note’s pentatonic scales. If you still don’t understand the patterns above please read the whole steps and half steps music theory post I made a month or so ago.

It means you can take the C and change it to D, E, A, C# or any other note! Pretty awesome if you ask me.

The Take Away

Hopefully this article has helped you master the major and minor pentatonic scales for bass guitar. The take away is that you will be more prepared to solo or improvise now that you have a very popular chord pattern in your pocket.

Questions? Suggestions for improvement? Please leave it in a comment below.

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Crafting Brilliant Bass Resolutions

It’s time to make the new year an even better progression in your bass journey. Are you going to take it up to the next notch in 2013?

Here are some ideas for resolutions:

- Set out to play an impossibly hard song. Work yourself up to playing it by practicing hard this year and learning each section note by note. When you finally accomplish the perfection of the song you will be a much better bass player and ready to take on another “impossible” song.

- Set goals for your band to play shows or go on tour. Some other ideas you can use are recording the new CD or trying to get an interview with a famous publication. Also consider trying to reach a higher level of facebook fans or get more downloads of your song.

- Pick a bass product that you want that you can not quite afford yet and start to save up money. By the end of the year you should have enough to buy that piece of gear.

- Think of a skill you want to master. It might be jazz, funk, rock, metal, or anything else; all that matters is that you stay dedicated to it.

- Take BeginningBass Reader Survey - it’s only 5 questions and will take you less than a minute. It’s also completely anonymous and will BeginningBass write articles that YOU WANT TO READ!

So what are your bass new years resolutions?