The blues is one of the oldest of all musical styles, and many of today’s most popular musical genres take their origins from it. As bass players, it’s a style that we will be called upon to play often, so it’s important to have a solid grounding in the basics. To that end, this video […]

Learning scales tends to be one of the least popular parts of learning a musical instrument. Regardless, they are essential building blocks for harmony/music theory and whatever your aspirations as a bass player, you’ll need to have some familiarity with them. This course covers the basic major and minor scales. Don’t forget to hit the […]

At various points in these courses you’ll have heard the term ‘arpeggio’, which as you might already know, is the name given to the notes in a chord played one at a time rather than all together. Arpeggios are incredibly important to us as bass players and are the foundation of all good basslines. This […]

This study piece is the first of five longer pieces that will enable you to put everything you’ve learned on this course to the test. This piece is a rock bassline that for the most part, is built on simple eighth note patterns. You can play this piece with either your fingers or a plectrum. […]

This study piece is the second of five longer pieces that will enable you to put everything you’ve learned on this course to the test. This is piece is a melodic reggae bassline that makes use of some eighth note-sixteenth note combination rhythms. Don’t forget to hit the Download Resources button above in order to […]

This study piece is the third of five longer pieces that will enable you to put everything you’ve learned on this course to the test. This is piece is a funk bassline that makes use of some sixteenth note rhythms. Don’t forget to hit the Download Resources button above in order to download the PDF […]

This study piece is the fourth of five longer pieces that will enable you to put everything you’ve learned on this course to the test. This is piece is another funk bassline that makes use of some sixteenth note rhythms and hammer-ons. Don’t forget to hit the Download Resources button above in order to download […]

This study piece is the fifth of five longer pieces that will enable you to put everything you’ve learned on this course to the test. This is piece is a blues in E that calls on many of the elements covered in the 12-Bar Blues course. Don’t forget to hit the Download Resources button above […]

‘Master of Metal’ was written to represent Cliff Burton, the legendary Metallica bassist who recorded with the group on their first three albums. Cliff was an integral part of the band and was largely responsible for their use of irregular time signatures, harmony guitar lines and the use of different musical styles within one composition. […]

This song was recorded by Extreme back in the nineties and features the band’s unique mix of rock and funk. It is known for its extended unison section, which occurs late in the song in place of a guitar solo. Extreme bassist Pat Badger plays with a plectrum, making this song an excellent study piece […]