Alberti Bass for Finger Fitness and Theory Shedding [Video]

by Ari 5 Dec 2019 2 minute read

A common question I hear a lot has to do with practice routines:

  • “What are some good exercises to improve my technique?”
  • “What should my practice routine look like?”
  • “How can I be more creative?”
  • “How can I make music theory accessible and practical?”

Well, I love, love, LOVE exercises that practice more than one topic at a time, especially technique and music theory. If you manage to make some beautiful music on top of it with that, all the better :).

Here, for example, is a Talking Technique episode where I hope to achieve all that:

The Alberti Bass Talking Technique Episode

This exercise definitely sheds your fingers quite a bit (left and right!) and it gives you a good theory workout as we are going through the diatonic cycle in minor.

In it, I  explain the “Alberti-inspired” keyboard figures that we can adapt to the bass. Domenico Alberti was a composer in the 18th century. His left hand piano figures provide inspiration to this day and also give us some heavy-duty technique shedding: string crossing, right-hand shedding, and coordination.

Exercises like these are a beneficial part of a smart practice regimen. In this lesson, we’ll go over these Alberti-inspired figures over the diatonic cycle in minor.

Be sure to download the PDF that comes with Ari’s Alberti Bass episode for this lesson and follow along with the video.

A new episode of Talking Technique is going live next week! Make sure to subscribe at notreble.com and never miss an episode.

Check Ari’s Talking Technique Episode on the Alberti Bass here

Related Topics: 2-octave triads, beautiful practice

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Hi. I'm Ari.

As a bassist, I have toured/played/recorded with a variety of rock, Jazz, and funk bands, I have worked with some incredible producers (Keith Olsen) and musicians (Paul Hanson, Muriel Anderson) and I toured Brazil with Stu Hamm as a duo.

 

As a bass teacher, I have taught at London Bass Day, Gerald Veasley’s Bass Boot Camp, SBL, Truefire, notreble… I even ran my own music school for a few years before gigs took me back on the road.

 

One thing to know about me is that I teach because I am absolutely fascinated with the learning process. And I am obsessed with helping others realize their musical potential.

 

When I started playing bass, I excelled very quickly because I had an amazing teacher who taught me using a powerful method. This method transformed my playing so quickly that I passed a bunch of high-level university auditions and even tested out of entire classes at university even though I had been playing for only a very short time.

 

That’s what, many years later turned into one of my books, co-written with Wolf Wein, called “The Pattern System for the Bass Player”. I created entire systems of learning based on some of these ideas and wrote books and created courses together with Wolf. Our bass books have sold over 30,000 copies and garnered rave reviews.

 

I started teaching online in 2009 and have embraced technology as a powerful learning tool since then, never losing sight of the importance of providing feedback and personalized guidance to learners.

 

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