European Wall Owners - Rejoice! Shipping to Europe - Now Awesome! I am fully aware that even the lowest shipping costs I could obtain to ship to our European friends from California were still - ridiculously high. Of course I have no control over that, it's not like I am a big warehouse or Amazon,

Help Being Accountable? A question I just got in: I read that one of the reasons you created the 20 unit program was to help folks be accountable with practice/studies.  My question is, how does the program actually do that? Here is the reply I wrote on email: Hi Derek, Quick answer to your query:

White keys, black keys… Got a question, wrote an answer. This is a very fundamental one on black keys on the piano, but nonetheless important to the bassist. Without a clear understanding how notes relate to each other it is too hard to understand theory and use it. Get the fundamentals under your belt, it’s

If you want to remember something, make it emotional Very often we can vividly recall times/moments of our lives that were very dramatic; or loaded with emotional (good or bad) responses. This means to me that we were very deeply involved with a given situation. We were living it with great intensity. And this imprints

Tritone Tricks – using ’em for big effect on the bass I got a question about the tritone. What is it and what can it do for me on the bass? Oh, it is all about tension and resolving it in wicked ways. Unless it’s a blues context, then we quite like that tension. I show you

Upright Bass… I received a question today about how to get into upright bass. My journey started on the electric bass, and a great entry point for upright it was for me: I remember picking up the upright for the first time and – bam – it connected instantly! I remember my classmates being astounded: even

Always on the hunt for the biggest pay-off for your practicing time… I am taking on an important and often overlooked aspect in this Talking Technique Episode: Feedback! We learn effectively (and unconsciously) through feed-back loops all the time. And we are excellent at it, whether we know it or not! After all, this is how

Three Awesome Tools to Spice up Your Practice TrueFire Live video seminar – if you missed it, watch it here! 3 Awesome Tools to Spice up Your Practice (for Guitarists and Bassists) There is a good reason scales and arpeggios are essential mainstays of any meaningful practice regimen: they will improve your playing and understanding

What to use – over a blues – when you are tired of blues scales… I got a question in  about scales to use for soloing over a blues but not just using blues scales. I could not help but add a bit of a caveat; because sometimes thinking only about what notes to use

Tune in, Ask Questions, Connect! Truefire Live is an interactive live broadcast  - a seminar with live Q & A. Since this is my first one, I cannot tell you exactly how it works, but knowing Truefire, the tech end will be super easy, clean and smooth! Bookmark the link on the bottom! I have a

E# – Maybe not so Sharp? Got a question, here is my answer. The short answer is, well sort of: musicians would know what to do when encountering an E# triad, but a knowledgable musician would not use this naming and there are some great reasons for that. These reasons all go back to understanding intervals

Well, yes, BUT: there is a crucial difference to understand…. and that difference lies in chord functions. It is all in how notes relate to what is perceived as “home”. In this article I lay out all the reasons why it is very important to distinguish between major and minor key signatures, even though the

Is your Bass sounding Timid and Quiet on one particular string? In a bass we want as balanced a sound as possible. If one of the strings is by its nature on the skimpy side, that can be a problem, especially for the fat E. Or the low B on a five. Keep in mind that

Beautiful Practice in Minor Remember Beautiful Practice? I did this exercise in major and it made a favorites’ list on notreble. So I thought I bring it back, this time as Beautiful Practice in Minor. One of my personal favorites, it is so cool because it is a heck of a mental workout, as well as

Online is great - but in person is best Big thanks to Shaana and Bananas at Large  in San Rafael for putting today's clinic on! Cheers to everyone who came out to join me for two hours straight of music theory talk, technique talk, pedal talk, "beautiful practice" talk... We went through a lot of topics and playing

The wall chart – AKA the Music Theory Cheat Sheet – has arrived on walls all over the globe… New orders are pouring in every day. We have shipped to 17 countries and 35 US states so far. The pre-order phase has passed, but you can order on amazon now, or for international or signed copies, click

The Interval Formula started with me calling an octave a “2 by 2” and a fifth a “2 by 1″… A “2×2” is a mnemonic for one great way of fingering the octave on the bass: two frets over, two strings over. Same principle for the fifth… Mnemonics rock my world when teaching because they drive complex

Hi Bay Area Friends, I will be doing a rare in-person clinic with Q&A, book signing and wall chart signing at one of my favorite Bay Area Music Stores, Bananas at Large in San Rafael. Some FAQs about the event: Bring instrument? Come to just listen or bring your bass to play along, plug in or not, up to

I just saw another heart breaking question from someone who is troubled by their ears: I have trouble taking a bass line off the recording. Am I tone deaf or just dumb? What to do? Some people are less than helpful and say well meaning things like: “Just listen to it and you will get

Enharmonically Speaking a #11 and a b5 are the same… What this means is that a #11 and a b5 lead you to the same note: The #11 from C is F#. The b5 from C is Gb. Same difference, different naming. Why is it important? Bit of an advanced theory answer below – it involves

Bass Player Magazine acknowledges the Music Theory for the Bass Player Wall Chart A super big thank you to Bass Player Magazine for acknowledging the wall chart! I always read that magazine cover to cover when it arrives in my mail box. I am really old fashioned that way – when it comes to that particular mag! With