Posted on

Prepping for Bass Camp

SKB Hard shell case

Roy Vogt’s Fantasy Bass Boot Camp is a little over a week away and I have been prepping my gear in eager anticipation. I decided to make the journey with my Fender Jazz Deluxe as I have been preferring the thinner neck lately. One of my big worries was how to safely transport my bass from San Francisco to Nashville and after much deliberation I decided to go with a good hard shell case. I picked up an SKB 44Pro case which fits my Jazz like a glove. It has a nice plush lining, reinforced TSA locking trigger latches and is fairly lightweight for a hard case. Ultimately I would prefer to gate check it, but if not I can at least have the piece of mind that it is well protected.
 read more

Posted on

Working With Backing Tracks

Backing tracks

So I’ve calmed down a bit since last week and have come to realize that I have retained a bit more than I was giving myself credit for.  While learning songs for Roy Vogt’s Fantasy Bass Boot Camp it became painfully obvious to me that my weakest area is soloing.  Personally I’m a throw a cool lick in here and there sort of player, not a bass soloist.  However, the idea of being able to play a killer solo when the opportunity arises does have a certain appeal.  Therefore, this past week I have been working with backing tracks in hopes of jump starting my ability to do just this. read more

Posted on

Feeling Technically Challenged

playingbass

I have a confession to make, sometimes I wonder why I continue to play.  I think I may be technically challenged.  I feel like no matter how much I study or practice, all I am really doing is maintaining my current level.  I study theory for a month then move on and forget 95% of what I learned, I work on scales and triad for a while then move on and forget 95% of what I learned.  I don’t know why but I seem to have very low retention for musical studies.  I feel like for every step forward I take 6 steps back, which frustrates me to no end.  Working my way through Teach Me Bass Guitar has certainly improved my playing immensely, but still I feel like my retention is low.   read more

Posted on

Countdown To Bass Camp

Bass Camp
Bass Camp

Roy Vogt’s Fantasy Bass Boot Camp is just one month away and I still can’t believe I’m going!  Although I am obviously excited, and look forward to it, I must admit I’m a bit nervous.  I haven’t worked on the songs Roy sent us back in April as much as I wish I had.  So far I have one of the songs mostly down, but would like to add at least one more before I head off to Bass Camp.  Now, more than ever before I need to focus on the task at hand.
 read more

Posted on

Roy Vogt’s Fantasy Bass Boot Camp – Prep Work

FBBC2013LogoNashville

The official student prep work has begun for Roy Vogt’s Fantasy Bass Boot Camp, which I am excited to be a part of this July.  Back in December Roy Vogt and the good folks at The Learning Dock and Teach Me Bass Guitar, sent out a survey to us campers to learn a bit more about each of us in order to help craft the lessons/music for Bass Camp.  While we’ve been waiting for our pre-camp materials, we have received a few housekeeping emails to keep us informed along the way, as well as tips and suggestions on what we need to bring with us, such as a strap, cables, a headphone amp, and of course, a bass!
 read more

Posted on

Review: Lesson 13 – Teach Me Bass Guitar

IMG_6038

Lesson 13

It has been a long time coming, but here at last is my humble review for Lesson 13 of Teach Me Bass Guitar.  Coming in at just under an hour, Ashley kicks us off by telling us we will learn all about Diatonic Modes, how to use them, plus how to transpose into any key.  From here Roy shows us a new warm up exercise which consists of tapping notes and pulling off, starting on the 5th fret.  This warm up is similar to the 4×4 exercise we learned early on, but with a bit of a twist.
 read more

Posted on

Teach Me Bass Guitar Progress Report – 2013

vogt_tmbg

As you may have noticed, I have slowed way down on my progress through the Teach Me Bass Guitar course.  While I admit I have been a bit lax as of late on my studies, I am indeed still working on my lessons, specifically lesson 13. 

A few months ago I decide it was time for me to get out of the woodshed, and as such, went out and joined a band.  While it has been a great thing and I am definitely seeing some marked improvement, it has, alas, cut into the limited time I have to practice, or blog for that matter.  As would be expected, as I progress the lessons are getting more and more difficult.  Furthermore, I realized a while back that I was pretty much just zipping through the lessons, learning the example songs for the given lesson then calling it a day and moving on.  I came to realize that in doing this that I was really short changing myself, and not fully learning everything that I needed to learn before progressing.  Now I am trying to take my time through these lessons and really absorb what is being taught.  In lesson 13 for example, I am taking the time to work through the scales and concepts presented, in every key, not just the two or three Roy uses in his examples.  read more

Posted on

Where the Twain Shall Meet: Returning to Teach Me Bass Guitar

Funny thing happened to me while studying music theory, after a certain point things stopped making sense to me. I was fine with Intervals, Triads, Seventh Chords, and have even improved my music reading ability, but when I started studying modes I began to feel lost. After reviewing modes a few times, and still not really getting it, I decided to crack open my Teach Me Bass Guitar book to remind myself what Lesson 13 had in store for me. You may recall that upon completion of Lesson 12 I had decided to take a break from TMBG to go back and shore up my music theory knowledge via the International Institute of Bassists Music Theory course as well as a couple of other books that I have picked up along the way. Well, low and behold, what you know, Lesson 13 of TMBG is all about the Diatonic Modes! read more

Posted on

Recap – Lessons 9 thru 12 – Teach Me Bass Guitar

Recap – Lessons 9 – 12

The good news is, I’ve past the half-way point,  having more lessons behind me than in front of me.  Which is a great feeling.  The bad news is, these four lessons were tough on me.  It took me more than a year to complete them and I must confess, I freaked out a bit towards the end.  Fortunately I managed to pull it together and get through it, coming out stronger on the other side.   read more