Roy Vogt's Bass Ed Think Tank

[Eminentbass]

Break each exercise down into 1 or 2 measure "bites", and move through them that way, and then put it together. This isn't a race, and will take time. It's worth it. I like writing things out; it helps my reading, and understanding. It also helps me find other ways other than rote "patterns" for attacking these.

To get started, try moving through each of the Jeff Berlin chord tone exercises through the cycle first. That makes the Chord Studies book easier to manage. If you need the Berlin article, PM me your e mail and I will get it to you.

Great, thanks. I don't currently own a pc(all tb activity is on my cellphone) but I'll pm you an email address when I can convince a friend to let me use theirs.

 

[chadhargis]

Don't own a PC! Holy cow man!! That's an abomination.

Telling an IT guy like me you don't have a PC is like telling us you play electric bass but don't use an amp, "I just watch the strings vibrate man." LOL!

Seriously, if you want the Berlin article, I can post it on my website and you can view it on your phone. I don't know squat about music or bass, but I've been a computer nerd since I was 10 (28 years now). When you guys were gigging, getting all the girls, and learning music....I was sitting in front of a 12" monitor for 12 hours a day trying to get my computer to do stuff that it was never designed to do.

 

[John Wentzien]

Don't own a PC! Holy cow man!! That's an abomination.

Telling an IT guy like me you don't have a PC is like telling us you play electric bass but don't use an amp, "I just watch the strings vibrate man." LOL!

Seriously, if you want the Berlin article, I can post it on my website and you can view it on your phone. I don't know squat about music or bass, but I've been a computer nerd since I was 10 (28 years now). When you guys were gigging, getting all the girls, and learning music....I was sitting in front of a 12" monitor for 12 hours a day trying to get my computer to do stuff that it was never designed to do.

I never even touched a computer till I was 40 years old!

 

[Eminentbass]

Don't own a PC! Holy cow man!! That's an abomination.

Telling an IT guy like me you don't have a PC is like telling us you play electric bass but don't use an amp, "I just watch the strings vibrate man." LOL!

Seriously, if you want the Berlin article, I can post it on my website and you can view it on your phone. I don't know squat about music or bass, but I've been a computer nerd since I was 10 (28 years now). When you guys were gigging, getting all the girls, and learning music....I was sitting in front of a 12" monitor for 12 hours a day trying to get my computer to do stuff that it was never designed to do.

Haha, my ex-wife(an aspiring author) got the pc and I got my basses. I haven't bothered to replace it yet because of a potential gaming addiction that might just land me on the Dr Phil show.

 

[etoncrow]

subscribed

 

[Roy Vogt]

Great, thanks. I don't currently own a pc(all tb activity is on my cellphone) but I'll pm you an email address when I can convince a friend to let me use theirs.

I have also gone to a public library and accessed their printer for a nominal charge before. I would hope that libraries in South Africa would have the same resources or if not that perhaps Internet Cafes are alive and well.

 

[chadhargis]

Haha, my ex-wife(an aspiring author) got the pc and I got my basses. I haven't bothered to replace it yet because of a potential gaming addiction that might just land me on the Dr Phil show.

I used to be a big computer gamer, and I have to say, I've spent hours playing Call of Duty, but I couldn't live without my computer.

You need to buy a computer for nothing more than the fun of running your bass into GarageBand and applying effects to it. I run it in through a MIDI device, and if you want to hear some strange stuff, tell GarageBand your bass is a set of drums or a synth. WHEEE!

John, you sound like my Dad. He passed away back in 1995 at 64 years old and never touched a computer in his life. The strange thing is, he recognized that the world would be grossly dependent on technology and he bought me my first computer for Christmas when I was 10. From there, I learned to read schematics, soldier, and build many of the peripherals that people take for granted today. Just to be able to print back in the early 1980s was an expensive proposition. Money a 10 or 11 year old kid didn't have. So I would get an old printer and repair it, then build an interface for it.

That being said, playing music is the HARDEST thing I've ever tried to do.

 

[Jim Campbell]

I have also gone to a public library and accessed their printer for a nominal charge before. I would hope that libraries in South Africa would have the same resources or if not that perhaps Internet Cafes are alive and well.

i upload onto a memory stick and the ups store prints off anything i want,same price as ordinary copies

 

[Eminentbass]

I have also gone to a public library and accessed their printer for a nominal charge before. I would hope that libraries in South Africa would have the same resources or if not that perhaps Internet Cafes are alive and well.

Yup, we got all that. I hadn't even thought of the public library, I tend to collect books and re-read them over and over.

On the subject of regard vs performance, what kind of speed do you recommend getting any given exercise to before moving on? I continue with running previous exercises for a while once I've started on the next. Am i correct in thinking that technique is a byproduct of lots of regard of a lot of material over time?

 

[Roy Vogt]

On the subject of regard vs performance, what kind of speed do you recommend getting any given exercise to before moving on? I continue with running previous exercises for a while once I've started on the next. Am i correct in thinking that technique is a byproduct of lots of regard of a lot of material over time?

That's how I see it-regarding the material slowly and out of time allows it to play it eventually at whatever speed you choose. I used to try to play all of the Chord Studies for Electric Bass at quarter note = 160 which is totally nuts and not the point at all! I realized that if I knew where to go it was no problem to eventually get there as fast as I wanted.
Most of the time I'll practice anything I can't do, regardless of whether it's a Vic slap lick or a Be Bop solo extremely slowly at first and then gradually speed it up. I used to use a metronome for this but have since realized it's not necessary if I really know the material.
Chord tone exercises need not be played fast to get good results. The goal is to get the information stored in your conscious and subconscious mind where it can start to show up in your playing.

 

[Roy Vogt]

i upload onto a memory stick and the ups store prints off anything i want,same price as ordinary copies

I've actually requested that my college kids get one for their private lessons so I can upload play alongs from BIAB, pdfs of lessons or whatever else and I can save CDs and paper. They will likely rip whatever I give them onto their computer anyway so that's one less piece of plastic in a landfill....

 

[chadhargis]

They will likely rip whatever I give them onto their computer anyway so that's one less piece of plastic in a landfill....

This is true. I scan in everything Adam gives me. He hand writes most of it that he doesn't have already published online somewhere. He emails me links to some stuff.

 

[Eminentbass]

I used to be a big computer gamer, and I have to say, I've spent hours playing Call of Duty, but I couldn't live without my computer.

You need to buy a computer for nothing more than the fun of running your bass into GarageBand and applying effects to it. I run it in through a MIDI device, and if you want to hear some strange stuff, tell GarageBand your bass is a set of drums or a synth. WHEEE!

John, you sound like my Dad. He passed away back in 1995 at 64 years old and never touched a computer in his life. The strange thing is, he recognized that the world would be grossly dependent on technology and he bought me my first computer for Christmas when I was 10. From there, I learned to read schematics, soldier, and build many of the peripherals that people take for granted today. Just to be able to print back in the early 1980s was an expensive proposition. Money a 10 or 11 year old kid didn't have. So I would get an old printer and repair it, then build an interface for it.

That being said, playing music is the HARDEST thing I've ever tried to do.

I'm beginning to see the necessity of one. Now that I'm aspiring to try write, I need something on which I can hear the chord and melody interaction of whatever I'm messing around with.

Playing music can be hard but rewarding on so many levels, be it getting something difficult under the fingers or even seeing the nostalgic appreciation in someoone's eyes when you've just taken them down memory lane by playing an old favourite in a bar.

 

[chadhargis]

Playing music can be hard but rewarding on so many levels, be it getting something difficult under the fingers or even seeing the nostalgic appreciation in someoone's eyes when you've just taken them down memory lane by playing an old favourite in a bar.

I can't wait to sit down with my bass each night. I have my first "jam" with some friends on Saturday. I didn't know they played music until I mentioned I was learning to play.

I am really excited to get to play with other people. Hopefully they will play song I'm familiar with so I won't be forced to just sit there and listen.

 

[Eminentbass]

I can't wait to sit down with my bass each night. I have my first "jam" with some friends on Saturday. I didn't know they played music until I mentioned I was learning to play.

I am really excited to get to play with other people. Hopefully they will play song I'm familiar with so I won't be forced to just sit there and listen.

Good luck with that. Informal jams and soundchecks are sometimes more fun than gigs because there's no pressure other than being there for yourself and seeing what unexpected things happen.

 

[chadhargis]

Good luck with that. Informal jams and soundchecks are sometimes more fun than gigs because there's no pressure other than being there for yourself and seeing what unexpected things happen.

Yep...I plan for lots of unexpected things to happen. Such as me actually being able to play something. LOL!

 

[Eminentbass]

That's how I see it-regarding the material slowly and out of time allows it to play it eventually at whatever speed you choose. I used to try to play all of the Chord Studies for Electric Bass at quarter note = 160 which is totally nuts and not the point at all! I realized that if I knew where to go it was no problem to eventually get there as fast as I wanted.
Most of the time I'll practice anything I can't do, regardless of whether it's a Vic slap lick or a Be Bop solo extremely slowly at first and then gradually speed it up. I used to use a metronome for this but have since realized it's not necessary if I really know the material.
Chord tone exercises need not be played fast to get good results. The goal is to get the information stored in your conscious and subconscious mind where it can start to show up in your playing.

I've never had any aspirations to really shred but rather just to be equipped to handle any situation I'm put in, so the regard thing is something that really sits well with me.

Just slowly going through chord tones with standards has improved my fingerboard knowledge but what's really been an epiphany is that it's slowly giving me insight into chord relationships, leading notes and how some non-diatonic passing chords occur. It's not just about bass anymore, it's now about music in general.

 

[Eminentbass]

Yep...I plan for lots of unexpected things to happen. Such as me actually being able to play something. LOL!

Haha, the first song I ever learned on bass was "sultans of swing". I remember going along to my dad's band practices week after week just to play that song with them. I didn't know any other songs and I had no idea what the notes on the bass were to follow the charts they used, so it was a hair raising experience one week when the bassist couldn't couldn't make it and they asked me to fill in.

 

[chadhargis]

Haha, the first song I ever learned on bass was "sultans of swing". I remember going along to my dad's band practices week after week just to play that song with them. I didn't know any other songs and I had no idea what the notes on the bass were to follow the charts they used, so it was a hair raising experience one week when the bassist couldn't couldn't make it and they asked me to fill in.

LOL! Now THAT'S what I'm talking about.

Reminds me of a story I read about Louis Armstrong once. He used to say that he went to the "University" to learn to play. That "University" was a riverboat on the Mississippi River.

 

[CDweller]

Thanks for picking up the baton, Roy.

Does it make any sense in the song "Blue Bossa" to play a Dorian scale against the opening C-7 (key signature is 3b's- Cmin or Ebmaj) vs an Aolian? The issue is the min 6 of the Aolian sounding harsh against the perfect 5th vs the maj 6 of the Dorian sounding a little less harsh against the perfect 5th.

Thanks

edit- I hope I'm not learning a bad lesson here- that lesson being that something might be diatonically "correct", but it still doesn't sound good.