Dmin sus or “D minor sus” Dmin means a D minor triad, the root, flat three, and perfect fifth. D sus means a triad without a third. The third is suspended, in favor of the 4 (or, if specified as sus2, the 2), so typically root, perfect fourth, perfect fifth. Or, in the case of

Bass Player Magazine Article It is a huge honor to find myself in this month’s Bass Player Magazine with a great interview that Joel McIver conducted.   Other players featured in this edition are: Shez Raja Jeremy Lenzo Bill Wurtz David Friesen Max Moran Horace Panter Jeff Hughell Stuart Clayton Heike Mueller Andrew Taylor-Cummings Gabe

Why We Want You to Create Your Own Basslines Right From The Start Have you been playing for quite a while and been mostly copying basslines and learning songs instead of being able to create your own basslines?? Get me right that is a valid way to learn but it is quite limiting if that

A Quoran asked whether it matters to call the middle note of a C minor triad D# or Eb D# or Eb? Oh, yes, does it ever matter. Read my answer below. It is comprehensive, yet as always I like to give you shortcuts and immediately usable tricks. You can skip straight to the tricks

Sweet Emotion Bass Intro The iconic Aerosmith song “Sweet Emotion” boasts a killer bass line. And because the bass starts the song – you must do it convincingly straight from the very first note with a consistent feel and at tempo! No margin for error, as all eyes and ears are on you laying down

It’s a fair question… after all, we learn to identify which key a piece of music is in, and we carefully think about functions of chords… there are all these rules in music theory and then it seems music itself breaks them left and right. So, why do some notes stray from the family and

Take it from my student Stephen: This is how you know… that you know modes! My student Steve was kind enough to let me post this from a recent lesson. This is him presenting a homework assignment on modes. And as he was doing that I asked him to turn into the teacher. When we first

Got a request to answer this question about pick use. What do you think? Do you play with a pick? Your fingers? Both? Why?   Read Ariane Cap‘s answer to Why is it looked down upon when a bass player uses a pick? on Quora

Check it out, one of the questions I get a lot is “How much time do I need to devote to practice?” Most folks expect my answer to be something like “6 hours/day minimum, 7 days/week… ya know: eat, sleep and drink the bass, right?” But the truth is a lot can be achieved by

Grab your gear, we’re headed to the gym! This workout does your fretting fingers good. Especially the little one of the bunch… The Pinkie! We cannot address the fourth/fifth finger separation problem often enough! They just do not like to move separately! And to make matters worse,, the pinkie is by far the weakest of

In case you haven’t heard yet… Music Theory for the Bass Player – The Course now comes in a bit of a more relaxed version: you get more time per unit.   When you sign up for our Course, Music Theory for the Bass Player, you receive new material at a weekly schedule. We set

I have heard these sentiments about the magic of music over and over: Doesn’t “knowing” get in the way of pure “feeling”!? Aren’t you constantly analyzing when you know theory? Doesn’t knowing what you are doing take the magic out of playing? And on and on people go, assuming that somehow knowing what you are

Is “Practicing More Bass” one of your New Year’s Resolutions? It’s that time of the year again when we once again decide that “next year” will be the year we: shed a few pounds hit the gym three times a week eat more veggies and of course, practice five hours every day and sound like Jaco

Strapped for answers about strap length? How low can you go? Down Low for Maximum Cool Factor Picture this: Headbanging on stage, the bassist pounding the strings hard – sometimes with his fist – he’s loving it and the audience is feeling it! The bass hangs low – so low you can barely see his

My favorite Christmas song – Silent Night – for solo bass Learn it now! Enjoy my solo bass rendition of my favorite Christmas song which also happens to have been written by a fellow Austrian. I have two versions for you – an easier one and a tougher one. First, here is the tougher one:

It’s that time of the year again… sales everywhere. I get the allure (and often necessity) of them, believe me! We used to offer them, too, for the course: Black Friday, Memorial Day, July 4th… …but we don’t do these types of sales anymore. For a bunch of reasons. The main one being that this

A Quoran asked about pentatonic scales in instrumental solos, I answered. It is a good question. Did you, for example, know that the pentatonic scale is a slice right out of the cycle of fifths? Just stack four fifths on top of each other and there is your major pentatonic (well, you have to put them

Practice with a Purpose! Related article: Why “Just keep playing is not working!” Are you a “weekend warrior” looking to up your game, but always pressed to find time to practice? Or maybe you’re just starting out and not sure where to begin when it comes to practicing?  In both situations, you may find yourself

Okay, so let’s say you are learning a song. Here is the usual approach: You decide to figure out the right notes as a first step to learning the song. So you: check out the TAB (a discussion for another time), or have the guitar player show you, or find a bass cover on youtube.com