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Most of us have encountered the situation where a fellow musician plays a riff and expects us to copy it. What do we do? Look at his/her hands in an attempt to "see" the notes. This technique might seem useful at the time, however it is a BIG MISTAKE. When we fall into the BIG MISTAKE trap, we are immediately blocking our aural senses. In this lesson we will cover rudimentary aural skills. Don’t let the word "rudimentary" fool you. If the rudiments are not in place, nothing is. As mentioned in many of my other lessons, it is important to vocalize what we are about to play. First, DO NOT PICK UP YOUR BASS. Step 1 - Vocalize the riff you are trying to copy. Don’t be at all concerned if your pitch is off. Just vocalize anyway. What about the rhythm? Are you vocalizing that correctly? If not, concentrate only on the rhythm for a while. Step 2 - Vocalize with these three words: Low, Mid, High. Imagine "seeing" the pitch levels of notes relative to each other. Step 3 - While vocalizing, show each pitch level with your hand. This creates an even more visual relationship to what your are hearing. (This is not the same as seeing someone play.) Now pick up your bass and find any of the notes you have been hearing. It does not matter if you find the last note first, because you can use logic to then go in the right direction to find the other notes. VERY IMPORTANT TIP (You will use this for the rest of your life): To find any note on any instrument, first hum the note as a drone. Next, play any note on your instrument and decide whether you have to go higher or lower to find the "drone" note. It does not even matter if you go in the wrong direction, because eventually you will find the note an octave higher or lower. To make sure you don’t skip any notes YOU MUST MOVE CHROMATICALLY. Play every fret (half step/semitone) until you reach the "drone" note. That’s all there is to it. This video will show you how to use the concepts addressed above. In addition, the beginning of the video gives some tips on melodic bass playing. In this video I workshop a real example, taking you through the steps of working out a bass riff. The video is an actual Consolidation Video from my Beginner to Intermediate series of Bass Lessons Online, available at http://www.creativebasslessons.com
George Urbaszek © 2010 |
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Online Bass Lessons
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Besides being an innovative and highly respected music educator, George Urbaszek plays double bass, guitar, bass guitar and bassitar. His background includes almost all genres of music, from classical to funk, from jazz to country, from various world musics to the yet-to-be-categorized. He has over 3000 performances and 120 recording sessions to his credit and has toured Australia, Central Europe, Canada, USA and the Pacific Islands.