Blogging About Bass
If you ask me 2016 seemed to be a bit of a musical disaster. We lost way too many incredible musicians and had the craziest election year I have ever witnessed. I myself started the year with several well-intentioned musical goals but sadly did not manage to achieve any of them. Let this be my attempt to kick things into gear again for the new year. I’ve dragged my heels for far too long working through Teach Me Bass Guitar. 2017 is the year that I finish it!
Lesson 16 of TMBG takes us into what Roy refers to as “The Working Bassist’s Toolkit” which focuses on skills a bass player will need to have if they want to play professionally. The first lesson in the toolkit stresses the importance of learning to sight-read. Roy discusses Tablature (TAB) and while it can be useful for beginners, it is not something that you will encounter in an arrangement or professional working situation.
Lesson 15 of the Teach Me Bass Guitar focuses mainly on the technique of two-handed tapping. Roy refers to this technique as a “Spice”, meaning a little is okay, but too much can be a bad thing. Two-handed tapping is more of a “Look at me” style of playing, not something you would make a living out of doing.
Before I get into my review of Lesson 14 of Teach Me Bass Guitar I would like to talk a little about my journey so far. Looking back I am realizing that it has been more than 5 years since I started My Journey with Teach Me Bass Guitar. In that time I have had numerous ups and down in my life, but have continued to work through the course at my own pace. Upon completing Lesson 13 and returning from Roy Vogt’s Bass Boot Camp in 2013 I decided that I rushed through too many of the lessons and that I would start the course over. Working through the course a second time I feel I had a greater understanding of the concepts presented and thus got lot more out of it than I did the first time. This journey has taken me longer than I ever anticipated, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I have learned so much about music and playing bass, and met so many incredible people along my path, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Today I am proud to say that I have worked my way back through to Lesson 13 and am close to completing Lesson 14. To some it may seem long over due, but to me it seems just about right.
Teach Me Bass Guitar, Roy Vogt’s comprehensive, effective and entertaining self-paced bass guitar instructional course is now available for Streaming and Digital Download.
Several options are available to get you going right away. You can order the full course, bundles for beginner, intermediate, or advanced players, or purchase one lesson at a time. No matter which option you choose, once purchased, you own them. No recurring fees or subscriptions are needed to maintain access to your content. You buy it, you own it. Downloads are available for Mac, PC, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch , Android devices, and can be streamed online via a web browser.
Our last day of TMBG Bass Camp came much too fast. I can’t speak for the others but I feel like I’ve learned more in the last week than I have in the past 6 months. It’s been such a great week, I don’t want it to end.
We started out the morning with a great wrap session with Roy and Tim talking about things we should be working on and thinking about, as well as tips on how to take our playing to the next level. Both Tim and Roy are such a wealth of information, it was awesome to just pick their brains for a while.
The last two days of TMBG Bass Camp were so jammed packed that I am just now getting the chance to sit down and blog about them. Day 4 started out with a very informative session with Tim Smith talking to us about groove and feel. From there we moved into a discussion about our current practice habits and why it is important to set goals for ourselves to keep us focused on improving our skills. Next Tim had us play through the songs we will each play at the Rutledge, giving us tips to improve upon our playing. We finished up with some ear training exercises trying to play along with something Tim would come up with, without watching him play it. It was great to get some immediate feedback on the song I plan to play on Friday, and the ear training really made me realize that I have a some work to do in that regard.
Last night, after an intense day of learning, I decided to stay in my room for the evening to review all that I had learned and work on the song I plan to play Friday night at The Rutledge. The first two days of camp were jammed so full of information I really needed to take some time to process it all. When I finally decided to turn in for the night I found myself lying in bed running through the modes, so I guess you could say I had a very musical day!
Wow! Today was only the second day of Roy Vogt’s Bass Boot Camp and my mind is crammed so full of information, it’s going to take me a month to process it all. My day started out with an intense session on understanding modes with Anthony Wellington. Anthony used his 7 string bass to demonstrate an easy way to learn mode patterns, after which he had us all take a turn working through the modes, on the 7 string! This was the first time any of us had even held a 7 string bass, but with Anthony’s instruction, we all ended up playing it fairly effortlessly. I still can’t believe I was using modes to solo over chords playing a 7 string today. Incredible!!
I'm back in Nashville this week for Roy Vogt's TMBG Bass Boot Camp and we had a stellar first day. Roy, Adam Nitti & Anthony Wellington gave us each a quick evaluation this morning to get an idea of our skill levels, then quickly split us up into 3 groups of 4. From there each group split off with a different instructor to work on a variety of topics.