31Hz.com » technique

Jaco Pastorius “Modern Electric Bass”

rmrfus — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 04:25:52 +0000

Just found on YouTube copy of Jaco Pastorius “Modern Electric Bass” instructional video. I recommend to everyone to save all parts of it using “Download Helper“, because legitimate of this video there is questionable.

3 Paths to Big Bottoms

rmrfus — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 15:24:46 +0000

Nice guide about bass doubletracking recording “3 Paths to Big Bottoms” in December EQ Magazine.

What is “pocket player” and “playing in the pocket”

rmrf — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 14:27:05 +0000

I’ve heard this hundreds of times – good “pocket player” or “oh, yeah, this was in the pocket”. This discussion may explain what is this.

Standing and sitting position

rmrf — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 07:21:24 +0000

Finally, I think I got it. The difference between standing and sitting position is not only in angle of neck, position of bass itself… Just do this: sit down with your bass. Do you see the fretboard? The whole fretboard? Yes? This is the problem. Stand up and check what you see now. This is only 4th (5th, 6th) string and small dots on the side of the neck. Maybe part of fretboard. The problem is in this lengthwise angle. Remember it and practice sitting with the same angle.

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what is wrong – leg, angle of bass towards horizon, height… I tried to maintain this things the same while sitting and standing and failed again and again. I’m standing up and my speed and accuracy reduces. And I’m doomed to practice it from the beginning. And finally I got it. I’m happy.

Sitting position – answer of pros.

rmrf — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 22:56:12 +0000

This is repost from my old blog, but I think it will be useful here.

This week I asked on talkbass.com about sitting position. Today I’ve reviewed several videos and here is answer of bass pros.
All of them (except Gary Willis. He keeps bass on central position) use right leg.

To switch or not to switch…

thelibster:bass

rmrf — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 19:12:56 +0000

thelibster:bass is the great site with tons of transcriptions, lessons and sounds. Excellent reading, chord and ghost notes lessons. I spent a lot of time with them and all lessons, exercises and samples are perfect and balanced. They are leading you to success step by step. There are also a lot transcriptions of bass lines with mp3 samples.
I cannot remember any other site with such selected and carefully presented free material. Be patient and attentive and you’ll definitely increase your skills.

How to create your own exercises

rmrf — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 17:58:46 +0000

Everyone, ok, almost everyone know about “Spider” from John Patitucci, this is nice exercise which increases your speed and dexterity, but you can enable your own creativity to create your own exercises based on it.

For example, this is classic “spider”:

  i r m p p m r i
----7---8---6---5----7---8---
--5---6---8---7-------------- and so on...
-------------------5---6-----
-----------------------------

You can add to your practice schedule exercise like this:

------7-8-5-6----------7-8---
--5-6---------7-8------------ and so on...
-------------------5-6-------
-----------------------------

or this

------6-8-5-7----------6-8---
--5-7---------6-8------------ and so on...
-------------------5-7-------
-----------------------------

Every hard piece of music you learn to play could be nice excerice. No pain – no gain.

Once in the store I’ve found this book. It is full of exercises placed in difficulty groups. There are plenty of stretch and dexterity increasers. I stole a lot of pieces from there to may daily warmup. Recommend for everyone from beginner to megabassguru.