Learn Bass Online with Ari

Killer Octave Riff Turn a simple 2-chord progression into something special using a modern take on a “disco-inspired” octave groove. This killer riff is also great for shedding your technique: Challenging string crossings, a varied rhythmic pattern, and a relatively quick tempo… enjoy! I’ll go step by step to break it down for you starting

Five Small Bass Playing Tweaks for Instant Results From years of teaching, I have identified several small adjustments you can make in your playing and practicing that will make a big difference instantly. In this mini-series, I walk you through five such jewels. All five of these tips – whether technique related or practice strategy

COVID Practicing Fatigue? The puzzling phenomenon! My students know they can always talk to me about practicing challenges, as can my Music Theory for the Bass Player cohort participants. I have been getting quite a number of emails, posts to my Facebook Group, and comments on the topic of “COVID practice fatigue” (some even go so

How Notes Work One theme I have seen over and over again as a teacher is students being very confused about how notes work: How many notes are there within an octave? How do notes get higher and lower on the bass? How many note names are there? How does note naming work in major

Practicing Tip: How Playing Bass is Like Martial Arts by Wolfgang Wein Playing bass is a lot like martial arts: There are rules and best practices The stakes are high – play a wrong note and the singer might attack you with lethal force (read: fire you from the band!) There are masters of the craft

A Quick and Useful Ear Exercise Developing confident ears remains one of the most requested items on my student’s intake forms. Below I will show you a great new Ear Exercise I have been using lately with my students below! There is a lot of misinformation out there regarding what ear training is, does, and

Getting Yourself (or Your Kids!) to Practice Without Nagging or Guilt-tripping Practicing – or even just playing – your instrument ideally is a joyful activity you look forward to. And often when you have gigs on the books, tours coming up, recording dates, auditions on the horizon – motivation will be super high and long

Expand Online Summit As many of you know I built my own teaching platform online. This is a monumental effort for which I soon discovered I needed help. I found a trusted developer named Jaime who has worked on some design and technical aspects of my setup over the last few years. As a matter

Bass Fills and Thrills (Brand New TrueFire Course!) I am thrilled (pun intended) to announce that my third course published by TrueFire is now out and humming. After recently releasing “Groove Creation Station” – a course on how to create your own grooves – we just now released “Bass Fills and Thrills”, on – you

Short-scale Shedding What’s a short-scale bass? Short-scale basses are en vogue right now and certainly a useful part of any professional’s arsenal. By way of definition, short-scale basses have a scale length shorter than 31 inches. Medium-scale basses measure between 31 and 34 inches. Standard is 34, and long-scale anything longer than that! Unsure whether

Corona Blues? Make a remote video! I am sending good thoughts to all my readers and bass friends.❤️ It’s been a challenging time for so many due to a variety of reasons, including health challenges, dealing with isolation, difficult care-taking situations, not being able to work or working overdrive and double shifts, and more. Big

Music Teachers: How to Take Your Music Teaching Online Many of my musician friends and colleagues are in dire straits right now because of gig cancellations and school closures. I understand the sentiment – I lost several awesome camps and gigs I had been looking forward to myself (Bass Boot Camp got rescheduled, Women’s Camp

** Please note that Gerald Veasley’s Bass BootCamp has been postponed and rescheduled for August 14 – 16! **   Four Reasons why I love Philly, where Bass BootCamp is about to hit!   Why I love Philadelphia Philly is special to me for a variety of reasons already… though, as you will see Bass

Do dominants, secondary dominants, or tritone substitutions have to be seventh chords? You might think yes. But really, no…. This deserves further explanation which I provide in my response to the Quora poster. Included in my explanation is how even single notes can imply the dominant effect. And a deeper dive into the all-important tritone.

Really hearing the modes It is quite fitting to use a song about the rainbow as a teaching tool for the (often dreaded but oh so beautiful!) modes… Watch my student Carmie – who starred in another student feature a while back – beautifully demonstrate a terrific ear training exercise he picked from our popular

Fresh off the printing press… This course that Wolf and I created for Truefire is now available!           Probably one of the most frequent requests I get from students is t learn to create their own grooves. And in this course, I bring you a clever formula that will get you

Is it true that when music calls for a diminished chord, it really means a diminished 7th? Ahh… the diminished chord. It does cause confusion. Because one needs to be really precise with nomenclature, it generates questions like this one from a Quora poster. Diminished chords come your way in a variety of styles of

Student Feature Jeremy: Beautiful Practice in A One of the milestone exercises I assign to almost all of my students over the course of me working with them is our Beautiful Practice Routine. Beautiful Practice is an exercise that I featured in a Talking Technique Video. Because it was so successful on that platform, I

Talking Technique: 11 Strategies for Learning an Alien Scale Okay, not that kind of alien… but rather a new or unfamiliar scale. It’s important to be rock solid with your scales. In all areas of the instrument. In all keys. Whether it is the good old major scale or a more exotic fare, spending time

Bass New Year’s Resolutions! Have you made New Year’s resolutions before about playing more bass only to break them within a few weeks? The Truth about learning an instrument is… It takes a bit of patience and discipline. Our 20 unit course is systematic and in-depth. From technique to grooves, from applying theory to fills,

Reframing your practice… Wolf Wein and Ariane Cap   A crucial aspect of learning is coming to the point (although it’s not actually a point, but rather a stage on the journey) where you know you can do something. You are aware of your skill – aware of what you can do and what you