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TMBG Bass Camp 2014 – Day 5

Stanton_Rutledge_2014

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. read more

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TMBG Bass Camp 2014 – Day 4

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. read more

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TMBG Bass Camp 2014 – Day 3

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! read more

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TMBG Bass Camp 2014 – Day 2

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!! read more

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All Basses Go! TMBG Bass Boot Camp 2014 – Day 1

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. read more

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Roy Vogt’s Fantasy Bass Boot Camp 2104

It is almost here!  Roy Vogt’s Fantasy Bass Boot Camp 2014 is only one month away! I Can’t wait to head back to Nashville to spend an entire week solely devoted to playing bass.   Looking at the agenda it looks to be a phenomenal week;  Technique, Theory, Style, Jazz, Ear Training and more.  So much to learn and absorb in one week, but with Roy, Adam Nitti, Anthony Wellington and Tim Smith as our instructors, I know we will be in good hands. read more

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Roy Vogt’s Fantasy Bass Boot Camp – Day 6

Anthony Wellington

Our last day at Roy Vogt’s Fantasy Bass Boot Camp had us breaking into two groups with half of us heading to class with Anthony Wellington and half heading to The Sound Emporium to record.  My group spent the morning with Anthony digging deeper into our knowledge of music theory.  We started out by talking about how many notes are available on our basses and that we should know where every note is.  For example, how many C’s are on a Fender Jazz bass and what strings/frets are they on.  He showed us how to make flash cards to help us memorize this information. read more

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Roy Vogt’s Fantasy Bass Boot Camp – Day 5

Tim Smith

My last couple of days at Roy Vogt’s Fantasy Bass Boot Camp were so jammed packed that I didn’t have time to blog about it.  Fear not though, I have decided to pick up where I left off and finish out the week now that I am home.

Thursday our group spent the day with Tim Smith focusing on groove and discussing ways to get our hands and ears at the same playing level.  Tim is a great guy and superb teacher!  He gave us some practical tips on things we should be doing to develop our ears and suggested that we go back and review the earlier lessons of the Teach Me Bass Guitar course to make sure we haven’t forgotten some of the earlier concepts.  As a homework assignment, Tim suggested that we learn one new song everyday as a way to help develop our ears and hands. read more

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Roy Vogt’s Fantasy Bass Boot Camp – Day 4

What an incredible day we had on Wednesday! We started off our morning at fantasy bass boot camp with our guest instructor, Stu Hamm, discussing the importance of warming up before you play and how to avoid injury. Stu gave us a packet of materials which included excerpts from his True Fire instructional series as well as a few other goodies. He then reviewed ways to increase our dexterity before talking about how to play slap and how to tap. We finished up our session talking about rhythm, band dynamics and the bass players role. The rest of the morning was spent with Roy, continuing on with the discussions we started with Stu as well as working on playing tritones, and using scales to play over chords. read more