Iconic Rock Riffs… at your fingertips!

I am excited to welcome Rob Smith, an amazing bassist, as a guest teacher on our Practice Group platform! If you are not familiar with Rob’s work, do yourself a favor and get to know him.

Rob Smith cover of Steve Vai’s “Freak Show Excess”

Here’s a little bit about Rob… in his own words:

Before I ever even picked up a bass, I was drawn to songs with amazing riffs. My uncle was a singer and he would always play me songs by bands like Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Black Sabbath, and Rush. So, when I bought my first bass (for $75!), all I wanted to do was learn all of those classic riffs. 25 years later… I still love learning riffs! Every time I hear a song with a great riff, I have to go grab my bass and figure it out. You too?

Learning 100s of incredible riffs has shaped everything I do when playing with Rock Bands. Having a foundation of many of the greatest bass lines ever has prepared me not only for cover gigs but also for originals projects where I’m often required to create my own bass lines.

In this short video, we’ll check out one of the first riffs I ever learned: Cream’s Sunshine of your Love written by the phenomenal bassist Jack Bruce. It is an instantly recognizable and singable bass line that uses the notes of the D Blues Scale. (D F G Ab A C) It has a great syncopated rhythm featuring a ton of upbeat 8th notes.

One thing I love doing after learning a riff is creating riffs of my own using some element of the original. For example, try taking the notes from Sunshine of your Love and rearrange them to create something new. Or, try taking the exact rhythm but completely change the notes. You could spend hours and hours creating original bass lines inspired by the building blocks of classic riffs.

In the video, I play an original riff using the D blues scale and the rhythm of Sunshine of your Love. I then change the tempo and key and demonstrate how that changes the feel of the riff. As a last step for advanced players, I created a riff using a more exotic scale. Try learning the original riff and then experiment with creating your own bass lines.

PDF included for your learning pleasure!

Some browsers seem to struggle with the PDF embed above, so if you cannot see it, here is a link to download.

Hope to see you in class on Feb. 26th!

Rob’s Class on Iconic Rock Riffs

What:

Rob will be teaching a practice group focused on iconic Rock Riffs – 50 of the greatest – where you will not only learn the riffs, but also use what you learn from the riffs to create your own (similar) bass lines.

When:

This practice group will meet on Saturdays for 10 weeks at 11AM (Pacific time) beginning February 26th.

Tuition:

Save with Single Pay – $370
2 Monthly Installments – $195 x 2

Sign up:

Just what are Practice Groups?

An extremely motivating and fun learning experience
10 weekly 1-hr sessions live on zoom with a small group of peers, led by Ari or a special guest teacher
Reruns available if you miss a live session
All you need is your bass and a decent internet connection.

Why Tapping?

There is so much to learn from studying Tapping. Of course, there’s no denying the cool factor of playing two parts of a song simultaneously. It’s just not something people see everyday from the bass player. But the real power in tapping, beyond simply the cool factor, is the deep dive into the construct of the song to pull out the essential notes and rhythms to create an arrangement that evokes the song’s full band sound.

A typical tapping arrangement may use two fingers tapping harmony in the higher register – but which two notes in a three or four-note chord? That’s where the “magic” happens, deciding the two notes that the listener will recognize as the chord. Then you add the bass line with your other hand to fill out the chord. So in my example, maybe the 3rd and the 7th win the upper register with the root and scale notes driving the rhythm and bottom.

And so many other ways to create a working arrangement, including using the upper register for a melody and the low end for chord tones and rhythm. That’s where the “gold” lies – in tapping (pun intended!) into your knowledge of theory and the journey in creating an arrangement.

Josh Cohen – Our Guest Tutor!

As part of our Guest Series of Practice Groups, we present Josh Cohen’s “Tapping Grooves for Beginners”. Josh’s first practice group was a huge success and everyday bass players spent 10 weeks with Josh learning the fundamentals of tapping. And from square one, these participants were able to create and perform their own arrangement of a song they selected. Take a listen.

Find out more about Josh at Josh’s website

For this course, you will need Josh’s book!

Month: February 2022