Hey fellow bass player!

Would you wear cement blocks for shoes? Probably not. Why? Because it wouldbe impossible to walk around or do anything, right? Well let me ask you this:Would you rather play bass the easy way or the hard way?

The point is this – learning bad bass playing technique will slow you down big time.It’s also hard to stop playing that way once those bad techniques become habits. If you start out the right way, it makes it much easier to get better at bass quickly.In this video I’m going over some basic fretting hand technique that will get you set up for success on bass.

The first thing to be aware of is where you place the thumb of your fretting hand. If you simply move your thumb down to the middle of the back of the neck, you can spread your hand out to cover much more fretboard real estate. When you have your thumb wrapped over the top of the neck of the bass, then you lose almost all the mobility in your fingers. Wrapping your thumb over the top of the bass neck is comfortable and everyone does it sometimes. It’s just hard to play more than one note in a row.

To fret the notes, it’s good to use the same part of your fingertip as you use to type with. It’s good to keep a slight arch in your fingers, and not let the palm of your hand touch the bass neck. Also, to get the best tone, fret the notes close to (or even touching) the fret-wire closest to you on that note.

At first, it’s a good idea to get used to spanning four frets in a row – one for each finger. It’s a good warm up exercise to play the four notes in a row up all the strings and then back down. For a beginner it will really help you get a feel for the strings and fretting notes, and also for developing your tone and ability to sound the notes clearly. Practice with a drum machine or click for it to be really effective.

If you wanna be a good bass player, then knowing proper technique will help you get more out of your practice time. I’m sure you don’t wanna waste a bunch of time and effort, right?

Right.

Till next time,

Jonny

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Hey fellow bass players,

Bass monster-dom is calling to you in the form of your picking hand.

Yes, this hand unleahses it all.

If the fretting hand sets ‘em up, then the picking hand knocks ‘em down. When you build up more power, speed and dexterity in your picking hand, you can articulate ideas easier, and they will sound better.

It all starts with a good basic setup. First, the forearm goes down on the back of the bass body. The way I prefer to play, it can make contact with the bass anywhere between the wrist and middle of the forearm. Your arm hangs down so your hand is over the pickup area(for instance). Your fingers curl slightly to meet the strings. Your fingers should be pretty much perpendicular to the strings.

Keeping your fingers completely relaxed, make contact with the string with the same part of your finger that you use to type with and (keeping your finger totally relaxed and letting it straighten out and bend back a bit) let the string roll right off the tip of your finger. Make sure the string rings out evenly and clearly getting a nice full tone.

**// H2 SIZE //**

One way I think about it is that the string isn’t even there and I’m trying to tap on the pickup – like I’m playing right through the string to tap my fingertip against the pickup.

—————–

That’s one way to think about it. Mostly it’s about making sure your getting a full tone out of the note you pick.

Next you’ll want to start alternating picking between your index and middle fingers. These are the two main picking fingers. If you wanna use more or less its up to you – I play using my index, middle and thumb. Try to get as steady as you can with this alternating picking. It’s best to practice with a drum machine or some kind of beat or click from a metronome.  It will help you develop really solid time without even trying – big bonus!

There are a ton of exercises you can do to build up your picking hand skills. I’ll try and make up some vids to show you. In the meantime, lemme know what questions you currently have about playing bass in the Bass Vids On Demand form on the upper left hand side of this page.

Thanks to you all for the help to keep this rolling…

Jonny

Technorati Tags: bass guitar basics, beginner bass guitar, beginning bass guitar, learn bass guitar, learning bass guitar, picking hand setup basics, video bass lessons, video guitar bass

Hey, your Video Bass Coach here!

Do you want some serious Bass Chops?

Well of course you do! And you know what? It doesn’t have to take as long as you might think to develop.
What really matters is what you practice and how you practice it.

And my Video Bass Lessons are here to hand you some of my 25-year experience as a bass player.

One of the best things to practice is arpeggios. Arpeggios are the chord tones of a scale. The chord tones
of a scale are the first(root) note, third note, fifth note, and seventh note of any scale. When you play the
chord tones one after another in a line, it’s called an arpeggio. The most basic type of arpeggio is the first,
third and fifth notes of a scale. This is called the “triad” of the scale. That’s what I’m dealing with in this
video.

The exercises in this video serve two purposes. The fretting hand is playing a triad off of each note of a
Major scale and moves up the neck stepwise with each triad. This will give you the feel for playing the
notes of one Major scale all the way up and down the fretboard. It’s also tricky for the picking hand, since
it’s just one note per string. These are tough exercises. If you can get some speed built up doing this,
you should gain a lot of control.

There’s a million different ways to practice arpeggios so there’s more to follow…

Jonny

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Technorati Tags: arpeggios on bass, bass guitar basics, bass guitar video lessons, beginning bass guitar, how to play bass guitar, video bass lessons, video guitar bass

Attention Bass Players!

Do you ever feel stuck in one spot on the fretboard? It sucks when you want to move around on the fretboard but feel locked in one spot. Sometimes if the music is going by really fast, you may not want to lose the groove by making some radical shift. Then there’s the problem of getting confused over which notes are which.

No sweat, because my Video Bass Lessons are here to help!

Using pentatonic and Blues scales is a fast, easy way to get a visual map of the entire fretboard. The patterns are simple, and they contain mostly chord tones which makes pentatonic scales really useful for bass players – and super quick to learn and apply! Once you get them laid out in one key, you’ve taken a big step toward total fretboard domination. A fast, easy way to get a visual map of the entire fretboard using pentatonic and Blues scales. The patterns are simple, and they contain mostly chord tones which makes pentatonic scales really useful for bass players – and super quick to learn and apply! Once you get them laid out in one key, you’ve taken a big step toward total fretboard domination.

A big part of what I want to show you is how to memorize the fretboard and have instant recall, control and confidence.
An easy way to jumpstart this process is by learning to map out an often overlooked (but EXTREMELY) useful scale: the pentatonic scale. They are mostly made up of available chord tones, which are (usually) safe notes to play for bass.

A lot of times when you’re covering chord changes on bass, only the chord tones from the scale are going to work. The other scale tones don’t really fit and may muddle up your bass part if you try and jam them in there for the sake of playing more notes. Over the years, I’ve found that using pentatonics scale patterns work perfectly for creating and expanding on bass lines in lots of different styles like Rock, Blues, and even Jazz/Bop.

In this video I talk about just covering three frets at a time. With this setup, you can mostly use your index and pinky to fret the notes. Once you see where all the little “boxes” are, you can get some serious mobility going.

Turning a pentatonic scale into a Blues scale is a really great way to add some flavor to your bass parts. It’s just one little note – and a weird one at that – use it as a passing tone for awesome results. Using that Blues note can also work really well for quick licks at the end of four bars.

This is mostly just an intro. I got more to say on this in a bit… till then – lemme know what area you need help with by entering your questions in to the form on the left and you’ll get a free video bass lesson made specifically for you!

Rock on -

Jonny

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Technorati Tags: bass guitar basics, BassGuitarStarter, beginner bass guitar, learning bass guitar, play bass guitar, video bass lessons, video guitar bass

Don’t Be The Guy Who Makes These Simple Mistakes!!!

In this vid I just wanted to be clear on a couple things. They are simple and kind of subtle – but they make a HUGE
difference in your bass playing!!!

The first point I’m attempting to make is that when you cradle the neck of the bass in your hand so that the palm of
your hand touches the back of the neck, you are robbing yourself of all your mobility. On the other hand, if you only
need to pedal one note for a while, then it doesn’t really matter. If you have to play a fast scale type lick or riff,
its way easier to play if you simply drop yur thumb down to around the middle of the back of the neck.

The other thing I wanted to mention involves keeping the fingers of your fretting hand planted after you fret them. If
you’re fretting a note with your pinky, then the other three fingers should (normally) be planted down on the strings.
There are plenty of exceptions, but this is typically the rule of thumb.

These are simple but they make a big difference in your overall technique – especially the thumb thing -

Well, until the next lesson, hold down that low end and make me proud…

Jonny

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Get The Skills To Fly Through Octaves With Your Picking Hand!

Hey there boss,

Have you ever gone to pluck a quick note on the high string of your bass but fluff on it, or miss the string entirely
with your picking hand? It happens when you’re looking at your fretting hand and your picking hand doesn’t have the
distances between the strings memorized.

Playing octaves is a good example of this. Its extremely common for bass players to hit the octave note above the low
note they’re playing. It’s a good idea to get your picking fingers used to the distance between the strings so you can
pluck the different strings quickly and cleanly. That’s the focus of this vid. I go through the different note groupings
playing an octave starting on the E string and an octave starting on the A string.

The exercises in this video are just an example of some of the things you can do to practice octaves and sure up your
picking hand. As always, I encourage you to look for as many ways to practice this as posible, and create your own ways
to practice. Using a drum machine can help keep your practice sessions musical and easier to get creative.

Anyway, it’sa good idea to get good at hitting those octaves and the exercises in this lesson should help get you going.

Please leave your comments and let me know if this vid helps. These are the same exercises I did (and still do) to
develop my picking hand skills. If you come up with any other cool exercises, let the rest of us know about it!

Until next time…hold it down and keep it tight!

Jonny

Technorati Tags: bass guitar basics, beginner bass guitar, beginning bass guitar, crossing strings, learn bass guitar, video bass lessons, video guitar bass

Learn How To Get Your Picking Hand Flying Across All The Strings!

Hey there bass slinger!

Do you ever have trouble picking notes cleanly and clearly when you need to go from string to string? Do your picking
fingers ever get jumbled up when trying to play fast across all the strings? In the beginning its a common problem, but
not to worry – you can put a fix on this in a jiffy!

Did I just say “jiffy”? Whatever -

I want to take a couple minutes to talk about building up the ability in your picking hand to jump from string to string
and skip over strings with ease.

Most of the time, when playing in a band context, bass players will be playing on the E or A string. This makes sense
since that is where the lowest notes are located. But there are (at least)four strings on our basses, and for various
reasons we find the need or desire to play on them all.

At first it can be a little tricky to start skipping around the strings. It helps to develop some dexterity and muscle
memory in the picking hand to maintain control. That’s the idea of this video. It shows some exercises you can do to get
your picking hand to remember exactly where the strings are so you can jump around and pick notes on the different
strings accurately. These are just examples – there are infinite ways to practice this kind of stuff. It’s a good idea
to try and come up with your own patterns note groupings to use as exercises. Practicing with a drum machine can help
make it a bit more musical and keep the creative juices flowing.

With a little practice, it shouldn’t take long to get a good feel for it. Its not something you need to practice for
hours and hours at a time. If you just work it into your warm up routine, it’ll start to become second nature after a
couple weeks.

Well, thanks for watching – and please be sure to leave your comments and let me know if this vid helps. Also, if you
come up with any other good ways to practice crossing or skipping strings please share it with the rest of us!

…Keep on truckin’

Jonny

Technorati Tags: bass guitar basics, BassGuitarStarter, beginner bass guitar, beginning bass guitar, crossing strings, fingerpicking for bass, video bass lessons, video guitar bass

Right Now You Can Learn To Quickly And Easily Visualize Scale Patterns All Over The Fretboard!!!

Hey there fellow bass thrasher,

I have a really killer tip I want to share that easily goes undetected by many bassists.

I didn’t realize this for a long while, and it would have made it so much easier if I had!! That’s why I want to share
it with you now -you’ll be way ahead of where I was before this dawned on me…

For a long time I thought of pentatonic scales as the “dumb” version of Major and minor scales. This is far from the
truth. A lot of Rock, Blues, and RnB/Soul music are made up of nothing but pentatonic scales. Pentatonics outline a more
skeletal version of the Major and minor scales, and when play through two octaves, it can help make mapping the
fretboard a little more clear. It can make it a little simpler to remember where those notes are when you want to make a
large leap to a different part of the fretboard.

In this video, I go through a handy fingering pattern for a two octave minor pentatonic scale and where to shift
positions. I quickly go over the Major pentatonic pattern and typical fingering, but I just realized I never played it
in two octaves. Lemme know if you wanna see that.

If you play a Major pentatonic scale(or a regular Major scale for that matter) starting on C, then you can play the
scales “relative minor” scale by playing all the same notes starting on the A(the sixth) a step and a half(minor third)
down.

See, turns out pentatonics aren’t so dumb after all – in fact, they are a great tool to have sharpened up and ready to
bust out!

Please leave your comments and let me know if this vid helps – and be sure to catch the latest EasyBassVid updates

Jonny

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Hey there boss,

If we’re gonna play this beast, it helps to know what its made of and a little about how it works. So I wanted to do a
quick video to explain the different parts of the electric bass.

It helps to be familiar with the terminology and design to make communicating about the parts of your bass easier

At the top of the bass is the headstock. The headstock contains the tuning pegs(the things you wrap the strings around),
machine heads, and tuning keys/paddles. The point where the headstock turns into the neck is called “the heel”.

The neck contains the fretboard and all the frets. The neck and headstock are made from one piece of wood, and sometimes
the headstock, neck and middle section of the body are made from one piece of wood. That’s called a “neck through body”
design. On most basses, however, the neck is bolted or glued to the body in a fitted joint.

The fretboard is a thin piece of wood that is glued on top of the neck piece. The frets are then inlaid on top of that.
The body is the biggest part of the bass and contains the pickups/electronics, knobs, pickguard, output, and bridge.

The elctronics are encased in a cavity routered into the body. The bridge holds the “ball” end of the strings and props
them up just enough to clear the frets without buzzing.

Congrats…you can now talk about the various pieces of your bass and know what you’re talking about!

Hopefully this video does some good. Let me know if I forgot anything -

See ya on the bandstand!

Jonny

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