Two-Handed Tapping on the bass: Get started with Chords

Here are a few ideas to get you started tapping chords on the bass.

A29

Two-Handed Tapping on the bass: Get started with Chords

Video Transcript

Want to try some chords, tapping style?

Here’s a good way in. Groove gear fret wrap engaged. One hand has the root and the tenth. A tenth is a third up the octave. This is major [ 🎵 Ari plays example 🎵 ] and this is minor [ 🎵 Ari plays example 🎵 ]

Good fingers for that are one and four for the major and one and three for the minor but other possibilities exist. The other hand – fifth and octave. Root 5 8 10. You can let them ring – or lift them.

And it gets cool when you start coming up with a cool pattern. Here’s a good one to get started: [ 🎵 Ari plays example 🎵 } Just up and down one two three four five six seven and then wait.

Or you can do one two three four five six seven eight and then repeat lower. [ 🎵 Ari plays example 🎵 ] Get the motion started with the metronome and get comfortable. You can play them all in order [ 🎵 Ari plays example 🎵 ] or you can break them up.

Come up with a cool pattern. [ 🎵 Ari plays example 🎵 ] Make it speak. Focus on speed when you attack that string. Lower action and thinner strings are helpful. Chord progressions

[ 🎵 Ari plays example of all major chords 🎵 ]

[ 🎵 Ari plays example of major and minor chords 🎵 ]

August 10, 2023August 23, 2024

One finger per fret bass fingering in lower register

Two tips if one finger per fret is hard for you in the lower registers.

Small hands? No problem!

#A28

Free TABS and diagrams for you here: https://righton.arisbassblog.com/courses/microbass

Look for lesson #A28

One finger per fret bass fingering in lower register

Video Transcript

I love having the one-finger-per-fret position under my belt – but that doesn’t mean I always use it.

If I have a groove like this, for example: [ 🎵 Ari plays groove 🎵 ] I’m not gonna bother… to play that. I don’t need any other fingers and if I should need them my hand’s right there.

However, I do train myself to be able to do one-finger-per-fret in case I need it. And permutation drills are wonderful for that.

If you have a hard time doing permutations like one, two, three, four in the lower register, first of all make sure you’re not over-gripping. The next thing you can do make little micro shifts. [ 🎵 Ari plays permutation 🎵 ] My hand is very soft when I do all of this.

When I drop my hand and bring it up, it’s in the perfect position. Hit a low F – and see how few calories you can potentially use on this – which tension can you let go of – breathe into it and be gentle.

August 3, 2023August 23, 2024

The Best Gadgets and Drills for Strengthening Your Bass Fingers

Many popular gadgets exist that are designed for strengthening your bass fingers. What I recommend may surprise you, though.

Free TABS and diagrams for you here: https://righton.arisbassblog.com/courses/microbass

Look for lesson #A27

The Best Gadgets and Drills for Strengthening Your Bass Fingers

Video Transcript

So you want to strengthen your fingers. I’m sure these grip masters are wonderful for climbing, but for guitar and for bass there are better ways. Our biggest problem is not the lack of strength. Our biggest problem is coordination and feeling and finding those small little tendons and muscles that need to operate when we play bass, that in our daily life don’t operate.

We are born and we can grip. This is easy for us to do, but to move fingers separately – have coordination for each finger -that’s hard. If you’re looking for gadgets, I recommend things that support having feeling in the hand – things like these fidget toys. This is a personal favorite of mine. I have no idea where I got this, “fi-dil-ing”. It’s stimulating to touch and move. Cupping the hand together and finding each individual finger.

If you’re looking to do finger strengtheners on the bass, here are a few good ones, For example, let’s say I want to strengthen my pinky finger. Do pull-offs, hammer-on, pull-offs, hammer-on, pull-off. My right hand is doing nothing but muting the strings. This helps you find coordination and exactly those parts of your hand that you typically don’t use in everyday life.

You can do that with a variety of fingers you can even do permutations this way look one two four three. You just pull-off, into whatever finger number is lower and what you’re doing. One two four three – so one is pulled off in two – two is hammered on – four Is hammered on because they’re higher and then three, I pull off into two. Do that on several different strings. To get a good tone on the pull off, think pulling down. Don’t just lift the finger and hope for a tone, pull it into the fretboard.

When you feel any kind of discomfort try not to shake your hand you can actually injure yourself if you shake it just right. I see people stretch and coerce their fingers into position… don’t! Just let it drop and let the blood return into your fingers.

August 2, 2023November 25, 2023

Practice an A major scale on bass | Sounds great!

These scalar drills off the A major scale not only get your fingers moving and that scale embedded in your mind, they also sound really neat! Hear me use them in a musical context…

#A26

Practice an A major scale on Bass

Video Transcript

Scalar practice tip with Ari.

When you practice the scale, break it down in the various intervals. For example, I’m starting with the easiest interval, thirds. Here’s an A major scale. [ 🎵 Ari plays scale 🎵 ]

I’m going to extend it to include all of the notes that are part of the scale in this area. [ 🎵 Ari plays scale 🎵 ]

Now, I’m going to break down the scale in thirds [ 🎵 Ari plays scale 🎵 ] Essentially you can think: start the scale, skip a note, go up two and go back to what you just skipped, And you weave that through the scale. Now, I recommend you do that on your own rather than read this transcribed.

There are several variations of this you can do. I’m playing ascending thirds up through the scale. I call this variation ascending and up and when I turn around and go back from the top I call it descending and down, because we’re now playing descending thirds down the scale. [ 🎵 Ari plays scale 🎵 ] The formula now is two back, one up, two back, one up, two back, one up, two back, one up.

Here’s a variation, You can switch the starting point. Rather than going up a third, I can start by going down a third and weave that up the scale. Now we’re calling that descending and up. [ 🎵 Ari plays scale 🎵 ] And turning it around it becomes ascending and down. [ 🎵 Ari plays scale 🎵 ] Try to make them nice and connected because as you go down, you notice you have a lot of these shifts. [ 🎵 Ari plays scale 🎵 ] …that are not so easy to get clean.

Now when you have both of these variations under your belt you can combine them. I call these mixed motion. Up a third and then down a third and now you weave that through the scale. [ 🎵 Ari plays scale 🎵 ] These are ascending, descending up. [ 🎵 Ari plays scale 🎵 ]

And there’s another way you can do this. Turn around the starting point. Rather than going ascending/descending up, try descending/ascending up. [ 🎵 Ari plays scale 🎵 ] Musical applications [ 🎵 Ari plays several examples 🎵 ]

August 1, 2023November 25, 2023

Minor Third Down – Song Beginnings

Be wary of internet searches that lead you to believe that the descending minor third at the beginning of a song means the song is in a minor key. Here are a few examples to make the point that full context is always necessary to determine whether a song is in a major or minor key.

#A24

Minor Third Down – Song Beginnings

Video Transcript

One of my pet peeves is that on many, many lists that you find on the internet that tell you about the minor third descending, the context of the song they reference is actually in major.

Fine that’s a minor third but – not so minor anymore.

Minor third. It’s as major of a context that you can be.

A descending major triad once again.

It’s not wrong. These are all minor thirds, but they happen in a major context. It’s much more important to hear things in context. I’d much rather you hear that’s the five to the three rather than hearing it’s a minor third, because music doesn’t happen in isolation and the moment where we need it – you need it in context.

Month: August 2023