Here’s some practical information on some common issues when playing bass in a band. I’m not trying to be like mr. all knowing bass guru or anything. I definitely don’t claim to be that. I’m just talking about things that I’ve had to tighten up and get better at in my own performance skills. And they’re the things that stood out most recently as I was preparing for my current gig. It’s a Blues/Rock (power) trio.

As far as the bass playing duties (haha, I said “duties”) in this particular band, there’s some improvisation, but mostly I’m playing through arranged parts. There’s usually only three of us so the bass parts have to be nailed and right on time. Plus there are tons of cues for the sections and changes that come at random times so I really have to pay attention to what’s going on around me and be ready for someone to signal for the changes.

To make matters worse, for this band I have to set up and stand to the left of the drummer. That means in order to look at my fretboard, I have to turn my head and look away from the band, since I’m right handed. I had to get used to looking at my fretboard as little as possible and be ready for cues the whole time on this gig, so I made up this video to talk about it.

If anyone else has anything valuable you want to add from your own experience, go right ahead and comment like I say, I don’t have all the answers, but we can all learn from each others experience!

Technorati Tags: bass fretboard, bass lessons, bass tips, blues bass, video bass lessons

Here’s some more ways to practice fretboard memorization. It builds off of part 1 where I played single notes all over the fretboard, but here I’m playing the rest of the notes of a Major scale. The idea is to play the scale off each note everywhere on the fretboard. Start with the E’s, then all the A’s then go through the rest of the circle of 5ths(E A D G C F Bb Eb Ab Db Gb B) It’s a ‘note drill’ type exercise and not real musical, but it can really help you to start being able to quickly go to an Eb Major scale(for instance) anywhere on the fretboard without having to think about it! You can/should run through this drill using minor, Dominant(mixolydian), min7b5(locrian). Also could run through it playing the arpeggios of each chord type listed above. Have fun, don’t forget to use your metronome haha

Technorati Tags: bass fretboard, bass notes, video bass lessons