Notes From A Bass Guru (Vol.9, Jul.10)

"Blues Scales"

Blues is a form of music that has influenced many other genres outside of it. It was spawned from jazz, it became its own genre, then rock was spawned from blues, and then blues came full circle to re-influence its own father jazz again in later days! Many jazz players, like Charlie Parker, started off playing blues while others commonly crossed genres with blues. Rock certainly never escaped its touch of blues either, as there are more rockers that cross genres with blues and use blues technique than anyone else today! Artists like Jimmy Page made use of blues in rock evident. So, what is it that gives the blues its signature down-home and dirty, yet ruggedly sad sort of sound? That, my friends, is the blues scale!

Do not under estimate this! I've heard some people say that blues is very simple, doesn't need to be studied anymore, or its just pentatonic or chromatic scale simplicity, but this is very misguided and cruelly stereotypical ignorance that only people that know little to nothing about blues would ever say. Do you think BB King and Eric Clapton are simple? If you think yes, you need to read on, theres much you are missing.

The blues scale has the following in it: a root (1), a flat third (b 3rd), a fourth (4th), a sharp fourth (# 4th), a fifth (5th), and a flat seventh (b 7th). You can also add a second as a passing tone for variety, but seconds aren't very powerful in a blues scale.

The shape of a blues scale on the neck of your bass is pictured here (in Bb):

You should eventually get used to blues scale in all 12 keys, but for now it would be best to learn it in Bb and F.

Now for playing chord progressions, the most commonly used progression in blues is I, IV, V. This would mean the first of the scale (the root), the fourth, and the fifth. A good rule of thumb is, when in doubt, stick with the I, IV, V chord pattern!

Now go jump on that train and start singin the blues!,
Mark McAnaney, Solo Bassist

Notes From A Bass Guru (Vol.8, Jun.10, #2)

A Good Practice Routine For All Around Improvement

A good practice routine should basically be approached as a workout. You work out to get faster, stronger, increased endurance, flexibility, and all around fitness. Just as a workout, you should be practicing to improve in ALL areas! To practice well and work out all areas of your musical "body", you will need to come up with a routine where all areas are used. A simple hour long jam session is not enough for some areas. Doing this, you will limit yourself. Your routine should start with warmups, then the areas you need to work out are technique, theory including scales and modes, timing, improv, reading, songs you may want to practice, then end with something challenging all areas! You read my first article on "Effective Practice Methods", if not please do, we will use those concepts here too! This is just a bigger organization of those ideas with additions!

I will outline a good effective practice routine.

WARMUP: Start with finger stretches,they will increase flexibility and dexterity. Then play one or maybe two pretty easy songs off the top of your head that you can play without trying too hard to get you loosened up and ready to go.

TECHNIQUES: Do some slap. Work on doing it to a fun improvised tune, pick a scale or mode and keep within it, and go at it maybe 5 minutes or until you feel the tune should end, just DO IT! Set a metronome to help you, it will work your timing! If you know any songs using slap, play some! If not, start learning them, playing songs requiring you to do it will enable you to work.

Work on tapping next. Again, start up an improv tune. Set a metronome. Pick a scale or mode and focus on keeping it within there! Keep it going until the tune should stop or until youve reached beyond the pinnacle of your tapping game (just as with the slap part!).

SCALES: Pick a scale. Play through the scale until you feel you know it without reading it from a book thats in front of you. Now start playing an improv tune, keeping within the scale. This wil make you learn this scale inside and out with ease, and you'll have fun doing it! Repeat with different scales playing with 3 scales per practice session, you don't want to overwhelm yourself!

MODES: Pick a root, pick a mode, and figure out the mode in that key (use my Modes Made Easy! article to help!). Play through this until you know it well without reading it in front of you. Now improv within that mode! You will learn it with ease! Pick another mode and repeat this process in a new mode! Play with 2 modes per practice session so you are not overwhelmed.

READING: Grab 2 pieces of sheet music, any skill level will do. Sight read them! Do the best you can and dont stop when you make a mistake.

END: End with a freestyle improv using everything you've done so far! Pick 3 different scales and 1 mode in the same key as one of your chosen scales and incorporate them throughout the piece. Also, throw in some slap and tapping parts. Example: (Part 1) F# scale, (Part 2) Bb scale, (Part 3) A# scale, slap, (Part 4) F# in Mixolydian mode, (Part 5) Bb, tap.

This will challenge you every step of the way, but that is exactly what you want! It will not go stagnant after a while if you play according to this routine. All areas are challenged in one session and if you are persistent and make it through an intense practice session of this style you will improve constantly!

Keep challenging yourself!,
Mark McAnaney, Solo Bassist

Notes From A Bass Guru (Vol.7, Jun.10)

Why Learn Standard Notation?

Why should a modern player, or musician , learn standard notation when there are ways around it in today's music world? After all, you can use tablature or just play everything by ear or along with videos to learn songs, right? You can even write your own music without standard notation! But, isn't learning theory something only advanced players can do that are more advanced than anyone should be? Well, no actually! That was a ridiculous statement! In fact, learning standard notation will make learning the rest of theory, or explaining it to others, or visualizing it to truly understand it MUCH easier! It will allow you to grow astronomically as a musician! After learning theory, you will laugh at the pre-theory version of yourself that came before!

But why is all of this so great? What if you can learn theory without notation? Well you may be able to learn some precious little, but to REALLY get it, you will need standard notation. First off, it will enable you to actually visualize in comprehensive picture form all of the things you learn dealing with theory. You will have real pictures in your mind of notes and lines representing tones and chords instead of formless, shapeless confusing concepts. This will change your theory work into working with easy to understand mental pictures of everything! You will know what a chord looks like, or what a scale looks like, or where things are in relation to other things. The pictures of all those complex theory ideas in music will have an appearance, and thus appear more elaborate, more full and complete. Yu will not have to think as hard about all the smaller concepts when you are figuring out a larger idea!

Next, notation gives you a much larger arsenal of ideas and symbols to use and play. It has much more to offer you than the limitedness of tablature, which merely gives you a map of what frets to push down to play one song. Yes, notation just gives you the notes to play to play a song, but WORKING with notation will enable you to comprehend theory and many other musical concepts, whereas tablature and video cannot even touch those areas. It is true that you can make a tablature picture of scales or modes too, but you will never truly learn how they work with just that. What will you do when you are figuring out how to build a chord, or many kinds of chords, or if you are trying to make a major scale into a minor scale, or if you are trying to figure out how to build a mode offparticular root, or if you are trying to work out an odd time signature? Tabs won't give you the information you need to work out these problems, notation provides all you need!

Even if you are having trouble applying standard notation reading to your instrument, you can still learn it aside from that instrumentless, with a good theory book! I recommend William Duckworth's "A Creative Approach to Music Fundamentals" (I own a copy in my personal archives!) It contains very thorough explanations of everything in it as well as exercises to help you learn! Remember, learning notation, and learning to sightread are two entirely different skills! It is possible to be able to read music but not be able to apply reading to your playing! You will still have the skills to comprehend notation for theory, writing, and thinking about musical concepts. Sightreading can come second to that for sure!

So, if you want to be a complete, all-understanding musician who fully understands everything, you will eventually need knowledge of standard notation. Being able to picture everything and anything you will ever use eliminates the need to really have to reconstruct and think about every little detail. It is definitely worth the work!

Keep bassing the night away,
Mark McAnaney, Solo bassist

Notes From A Bass Guru (Vol.6, May 10)

"Modes Explained!"

Some people cringe just hearing the word "mode". They are complex musical theories to learn and many people do not even try to use them or to learn them because of this. I am going to break them down and make them usable to anyone who practices them!

Modes are used for creating atmospheres and moods in music. There are seven modes, and they each have a different feel to them entirely. By not using modal theory, you are limiting yourself and if you do use them, they are powerful tools that can really bring your pieces to life moreso than always using major and minor sounds all the time.

This brings us to major and minor sounds, did you know those are modes too? Now suddenly maybe the idea of modes does not seem so terrible and overwhelming! Everyone knows that anything major sounds bright and happy, while everything minor sounds dark and sad! Those are the first two modes I am going to list actually, which are Ionian (Major) and Aeolian (Minor). See, you know more about modes than you think if you know those! But by learning the other 6 modes, you have MUCH more available to you!

For instance, Lydian mode has a dreamy feel to it. Mixolydian has that mexican feel to it, hence why I think "MEX"olydian to remember that! And Locrian mode has the darkest, tensest feel to it, so to remember that I think "Lycan..Locrian", because Lycans are dark creatures. Phrygian mode has that exotic, almost Egyptian or Middle Eastern feel to it, so I think "PHaroah...PHrygian" to remember that.

Now heres what I should charge you all a lot of money for; I am going to write the interval patterns for ALL of the modes! You start at any root note you want and follow these interval patterns and that's the mode! When you know them, practice hard!

IONIAN (major)= root, whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half
AEOLIAN (minor)= root, whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole
DORIAN= root, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half, whole
PHRYGIAN= root, half, whole, whole, whole, half, whole, whole
LYDIAN= root, whole, whole, whole, half, whole, whole, half
MIXOLYDIAN= root, whole, whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole
LOCRIAN= root, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole

Hope you enjoy this! When I first unlocked the secret of the interval patterns, it really felt like the holy grail of music! Use these to practice them hard and learn them musically, then it will be fun learning modes instead of painful and discouraging!

Keep playing!,
Mark McAnaney, Solo Bassist

Notes From A Bass Guru (Vol.5, Apr.10)

"A Basic Funk Formula"

This is a simple concept to explain that will make your playing tighten and your slap game more powerful and will make your audience dance! It will also help you keep everything together and it makes improvising easy if you follow this formula. Its referred to as "finding the 1". The "1" I am referring to is the first beat of the measure. You can attack it with the same note or pattern whatever, as long as the 1 is apparent and defined! Your 1 will have a lot of power to it, and its the main groove you always come back to! Play the "1" and then go about grooving, when the first beat comes back in the next measure, hit the same note or just attack it so that its more defined than any other beat!

An easy way to start is to hit the open E on the "1", then play whatever you want to (make it to scale to keep it challenging and you will get a lot out of this!), and when you get back to the first beat of the next measure, hit the open E again! Thats a nice little drill, and you may even make a song or two..or a hundred that you like! Work with it!

So it will be like:
ONE, play..play..play..ONE..play..play..play..ONE..play..play..play..ONE!

Now get your funk on!,
Mark McAnaney, Solo Bassist

Notes From A Bass Guru (Vol.4, Mar.10)

"Time Signatures Made Easy!"


Sometimes, no matter how long you've been around music, time signatures can be a pain or tough to explain or comprehend. Even seasoned musicians sometimes have no idea how to even begin to talk about time signatures, even if they do understand the idea for themselves! Then, there are most people in general who only understand basic 4/4 count and nothing else. So, how can you possibly make these easy?!

You have to break it down! You obviously have a top and bottom number. The top number is the number of beats per measure, which is easy to grasp. If you see a 4, then there are 4 beats. If you see a 3, there are 3 beats. If you see 15, there are 15 beats! but what about that god awful bottom number that puzzles everyone? Don't get so hung up on it, all it is is the type of note that equals one beat! If you see a 4, its a quarter note! If you see an 8, its an eighth note! A 16 means a 16th note takes up one beat per measure! Not as bad as you think!

To simplify more, just count to the top number when youre counting along with your song! A bottom number of 4 should tell you not to even really think about that number at all. If its 7/4, a fairly odd time, count to 7 every bar! 1,2,3,4,5,6,7..1,2,3,4,5,6,7! Now if your bottom number is 8, its still not bad! An eighth note is one beat instead! So instead of counting 8th notes as "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7" (cause thats 14 beats..double of a 7/8!), each 8th note counts as 1..no ands! Just as in 4/4, 16th notes count as "1 e and a, 2 e and a, 3 e and a, 4 e and a", but if your bottom number is 16, they count as "1, 2, 3, 4".

The point is, rule of thumb says to count to the top number each bar, and use the bottom number as nothing more than to tell what kind of note counts as ONE! After that, ignore the bottom number and put it out of your mind unless you're counting the wrong note as being ONE!

Hope this helps, Solo Bassist Mark McAnaney

Notes From A Bass Guru (Vol.3,Jan.10)

"Small Things That Make A HUGE Difference"


Even the smallest things can make a massive impact on your playing. The small things may appear insignificant and simple at first, but they are really the toughest things to pull off consistently when you are playing. Little things such as the way you pick and what part of your fingers you use and where on the string you pluck make a big impact, and they are tough to control..at least until you practice them.

Take the way you grasp the neck, for example. You should try keeping your thumb of your fretting hand on the centre of the neck as opposed to not paying any attention to it. Most people grip too high and leave their thumb lay all across the neck, which will shorten your finger range and make it difficult to reach the top strings amd when your finger tips are touching the notes, the rest of your finger will be all over the other strings and in the way. If you grip too low, you will cramp your fingers all together and not have any flexibility with the lower strings and you may not even reach the top strings. Hold your thumb int he centre of the neck! you will have maximum flexibility and reach and an always comfortable coil to your fingers and nothing will be in the way!

Another thing to do is to use your thumb of your picking hand as a stopper instead of leaving it sit up top above the strings or letting it hang in the way. As you move up and down the strings, rest your thumb on the string below the ones youre playing. This will cut down on a LOT of unwanted noise and make you sound very clear! It also makes transitioning to slap much easier. You will have a much higher sensitivity to what you are doing too! WHich is HUGE! You always want to feel exactly where you are.

If you like to tap, try pulling the notes up toward yourself! It sounds much crisper and tighter than if you just push the tapped note down straight. Just put it down straight and push the fret down and pull the activated note up at your face, when you release it will sound much tighter!

You like to slap? Then slap the strings at the bottom of the neck, it will sound tighter and crisper and have more punch to it! Also, hit the string with the side of the thumb knuckle, this will add more volume and give you more sensitivity about where your thumb and string are and it will give you consistency! ALL of your notes will sound equally powerful and crisp!

Pop goes with slap, so heres one I used. If you switch to a 5 or 6 string or more strings on your instrument, try popping with your index finger as opposed to your middle finger primarily. The strings are closer together, andwhen your fingers are closer together, it makes things tighter and easier for you! Then youll be able to pop with 2 fingers easily for double pops from being used to doing it the textbook middlefinger way!

if you get good at all of these, I PROMISE you your bass game will get tighter and more consistent and your endurance will go up..but you will get some hand crampos and have work ahead of you if you add all this to your arsenal..it is wirth it though! Use these subtle tricks..they will raise your game a thousand fold!

Stay Bassing!,
Mark McAnaney, Solo Bassist

Notes From A Bass Guru (Vol.2,Nov.09)

"Creating Atmosphere"


This month's topic is creating atmosphere! Music is a universal language where words should not be needed to portray a certain mood. In order to portray a certain mood, you have to create the right kind of atmosphere to get it across! For example, if you wanted a melancholy, dark mood in your song, you'd never want to use bright happy tones to do it, and you might not want to use too much angst either. Start here!

What does your song feel like? More importantly, what DOESN'T it feel like? From here, you'll want to choose the right TONE. Creating atmosphere is all about choosing the best tone to get the job done! For slow songs, the songs where mood is the biggest challenge, you'd never want a hard, aggressive punch of a sound. Instead, take the trebley punch down a notch and go for more of a mid to low tone. For heavier material, you definitely want a hard punch to it! Add a little more treble than bass in there, but use enough bass to have serious POWER!! Use the mid to balance it out.

What if your song is mellow and you want powerful emotion to it? This type of song is PERFECT for using a fretless bass! Again, more low tones with no punch at all, and just enough treble so that it doesnt sound boomy will do the job nicely. A heavy chorus effect seems to always be amazing in this situation too! If you want to play it clean, use the smoothest possible fretting you possibly can, make it sing. Slide between the notes! Hold them that extra millisecond longer! Use bended notes! You can still use this style with a fretted bass too. But a fretless will sing for you even more.

Want a funky sound? Of course the classic funk slapping willnever fail, but it doesnt have to be done. You may want the same trebley punched sound you'd use for a heavy song and the same power! The difference will be in the groove. This will come with practicing grooving, and any good bassist will be able to groove, if you cant groove, youre missing a huge part of what it is to be a bassist. Funk bass is about POWER and GROOVE. Its a heavy sound but you want to dance to it. Wahs are nice at times too! But make your wah very boomy when you use it.

Want that classic old school swing jazz/fretless sound? Turn the bass up all the way and the treble almost all the way down and mid pretty low, maybe at 2 or 3. If you have a wah, turn the treble mid way and open it! It will sound low and incredibly boomy, just like an upright bass! You dont have to spend 2000 dollars on a real upright, just get a wah pedal and open it but leave the pedal up and keep playing!

Do you use distortion? Well its best to over flod it, use as much power as your distortion will allow you to have but use the same tones as for any rock/metal song, a little more treble than bass for a trebley punch, but turn the treble up a little more so you don't sound like mud when you use the distortion. And use the mid to balance them out.
Mid is very important for balance and filling out your sound. Without it you sound empty. Usually, rule of thumb says to put your mid range right in between where your treble and bass are set, or turn it up high if your treble and bass settings are mid or low. You almost never want to turn it all the way down. Bass is a power instrument and should be a full sound all on its on, after all!

Hope this helps! A song without mood is less than half a song, or it may just be empty noise. Mood can be portrayed with words, but rue atmosphere MUST come from the music. Atmospere can never be effectively be portrayed JUST in words, the singer has to create atmospere too, but its the music that has to do it first!

Keep Playing!,
Mark McAnaney, Solo Bassist

Notes From A Bass Guru (Vol.1,Sept.09)

Effective Practice Methods

Practice is extremely important for anyone who actually wishes to get better at anything they do. But, the act of practicing something OVER and OVER and OVER again can be a daunting task. If you don't get it somewhat quick, most people tend to get frustrated and try out bad habits to make it quick and easy, only to fail anyway or get worse at it and give up eventually. It is because it is in human nature to want instant gratification. There's not many ways around that, except learning patience, but that's not what this article is about!

So, how can you practice more effectively and not seem like you're actually working? How can you make practice seem FUN even? It's easy! If you don know any fancy tricks, are just a beginner, or have a limited arsenal, you can still pull this off at any level regardless. You will even be unwittingly practicing many, many other areas you did not even intend on working on today! You have to practice in a musical way!

Start out first by picking a scale and/or mode you wish to work in. If you want to do a chromatic scale free-for-all and focus more on other things, thats fine! But to realy learn your theory and scales and modes you will need to choose them sooner or later. Next, pick the specific types of technique you wish to work on, be it a slap technique, a fingerpicking technique, tapping, chords, etc. Or again, mix it up and use em all! Like a free-for-all! Next pick a tempo (or speed), and groove with it, do not leave this feel once you get a feel for your song. Then, go right to town in that selected scale or mode, playing your heart out isolating whatever techniques you want to use. Keep going and going wherever you feel the song going! You will end up also working improvisational skill without even attempting to, which is great for songwriting, your groove will get better, and you will end up memorizing the patterns of the scales and modes rather quickly! Just remember, if you play a wrong note, keep going with the tempo as if it didnt happen! Always go as if you made no mistake and it will not be obvious! Now you're practicing musically, in a song form! It's much more fun than playing mary had a little lamb out of a lame book that you may not understand well anyway. And it's not a dry and dull way to practice..youll even enjoy it more!

So to recap:

1) Pick a scale or mode, or a scale IN a mode.

2) Pick the specific playing techniques you plan to work, or free for all and use whatever you want!

3) Pick a tempo you can easily groove to.

4) Play until youre blue in the face!

Hope this helps make your practice a lot more productive and fun!,
Mark McAnaney, Solo Bassist