Creative Bass eMag Number 19

Compiled and written by Bass Player and Music Educator George Urbaszek of CreativeBassLessons

Happenings

Although I am “toning down” my live performances and face-to-face teaching to create more time to be involved in the ever-expanding success of Bass Lessons Online, I am still gigging often enough to keep me musically happy.

Gigs have been (as usual) a blend of Blues, Rock, Jazz, World Music, Pop, Folk and Funk. On these gigs I use 4-string and 5-string bass guitars, plus the double bass (upright bass) occasionally with the bow (arco). Amps, too, are suited to the gig and venue. I usually use a 27-year-old Polytone MiniBrute III for smaller gigs and an Eden WT 500 with a D – 210 XLT speaker box for larger gigs.

I have just completed recording the upright bass tracks on an upcoming album with Tommee. I’ll let you know about the album release when it becomes available. Tommee is an Indonesian vocalist, composer and multi-instrumentalist who blends influences from so many places that his music can truly be described as World Music.

A required discipline with Tommee's music is to feel the spirit of the music, to lay down a groove and hold it for up to twelve minutes, adding dynamics "as required". Such a discipline involves both mental and physical stamina, especially on upright bass. This type of "minimilism" is often a bass player's key to success.

I got into recording and gigging with Tommee through an exceptionally talented and versatile drummer friend from the UK (now residing near Byron Bay, Australia, just like Tommee and me) Guy Anderton. Guy and I do Blues, Funk and Jazz gigs together.

The Channon Jazz Trio (sometimes “Collective” depending on who else joins us) recently did a Jazz Insight Clinic for U3A members. The University of the Third Age (U3A) invites artists for Concert/Insight sessions where the artists explain and demonstrate some of the inner workings of their creations.

We collectively had a blast, with everyone coming out of the session enormously enriched. Long live learning!

Bass Effects

Although I use bass effects judiciously, I do own and use heaps of effects whenever the music calls for them. To that effect, I have acquired a Bass Wah Pedal and loved it so much that I did a video review of the pedal and posted it on You Tube.

Click HERE to see my review of the Bass Wah

How to Learn Bass … and Beyond – Part One

In this lesson we will learn how to learn.

First, you must realize that the best teacher in the world is with you right now. No, its not me – it is you! How so? It is because your learning is in direct proportion to your desire to learn. Desire is the operative word. Desire instigates investigation. And investigation instigates learning, be it theoretical or practical.

Let’s get practical. Say, for example, you want to learn the bass line to a song. Moreover, you want to work it out from a recording. Ask yourself which skills you require for these tasks. Are they technical, theoretical, aural and so on. I will use these three skills – technical, theoretical, aural – in our example.

Ask yourself, and answer in the most truthful way you can:
1. Do I have to improve my technique to play this bass line?
2. Do I have to research chord structures to understand why this bass line works or to tell the guitarist which chords to play or to make up my own bass lines in the same style? (You may think “who cares, as long as I can play it” which may suffice for the moment - but not forever.)
3. Do I have sufficiently developed aural skills to work out this bass line on my own?

If your intellect cannot answer your questions accurately, your playing certainly will. Consider that your playing is what everyone hears; most people (except for you and me) don’t really care how you got there.

What kind of learner are you?
• Visual?
• Tactile?
• Aural?
• Analytical?
• Do you learn by making associations?
• Do you learn by rote?
• Do you learn through mistakes?

The list goes on … Make sure you put some thought into this. Use your strengths, but develop your weaknesses. Eradicating your weaknesses should be a daily task. I will show you how.

VERY IMPORTANT: Your Mindset. The way you think is the way you are.

Here is an example of what I get all the time with new bass students: They say things like “I’m not good at that” … “I suck at such and such” … “I’ll never learn that” etc. Notice how all these statements have negative implications. With a positive mindset, all these statements can be turned into something like “I will learn that!”

Sounds easy? It is. The “secret” is LITTLE STEPS. You’ve heard it, you’ve said it – have you applied it?

Between now and the next Creative Bass eMag, you are well guided in reading this article again (a few times) and making notes (not just mental – put them on paper) about all the issues addressed here, and how they apply to you. This will already bring about a (subtle, at least) change in mindset, leading to better bass playing.

Enjoy your bass playing!
George Urbaszek
Bass Player and Music Educator
Serving Bass Players Worldwide since 1996
CreativeBassLessons