I never want to get lost on the fretboard again...
Systematic deep practice and training the musical mind gets you there
There are 12 mistakes I see players make when trying to learn the fretboard
- Practicing scales or arpeggios from root to root only
- Believing that if progress doesn't come instantly, it's because you are "not talented"
- Relying on rote repetition and never training your own creativity
- Not measuring your progress nor knowing how to measure it
- Not studying note names and scale degrees systematically
- Thinking that buying more basses will fix it
- Jumping from shiny offer to shiny offer in the hope to find "the magic one" that will make you "great in 10 days" without ever having to put in any meaningful work
- Only training your fingers, never your "musical mind" - or even believing the myth that if you have to think you can't feel it
- Believing that what they heard worked for some famous player should also work for you
- Thinking that simply "practicing a lot" will make you better
- Thinking that CAGE or Simandl are good methods to learn the bass neck
- Mostly focusing on learning songs by rote and thinking this is the best practice
Imagine...
- Never having to poke around on the fretboard chasing notes again
- Being able to "think music" in your mind and play it instantly, effortlessly
- Playing in any key equally well
- Being able to come up with your own grooves, fills, and solos on the fly
- Knowing how to improvise over chord changes
- Playing without looking at the fretboard
- Freely and confidently playing up and down the entire fretboard
- Telling compelling stories with your solos - letting creativity flow without ever fishing for the right notes
- Confidently knowing where all the notes are and how they fit, no matter the key or context
- Creating music rather than just copying it
YOU CAN NOW STUDY
The Pattern System for the Bass Player
with Ari
Join Ari and a group of your peers to learn the Pattern System!
This series of masterclasses – recorded live between 2023 and 2024 – will give you a solid foundation of the system.
It starts at the beginning of the system/book.
You will learn:
- All scales and modes in the open area and areas 1 and 2
- Triads and arpeggios
- How to make beautiful music using these devices in an entirely new way
- Being able to come up with your own grooves, fills, and solos on the fly
- How to tell a story when improvising solos
- How to play faster and with more precision than ever before
- How to fortify your practice for much faster and more musical results
- How to get much more musical muleage out of what you know
Build on the foundational chapters of the book and bring your playing to life via examples and applications!
Here's What Masterclass Participants are Saying...
I love the pattern system. I am an engineer and this approach is perfect for me.
I have done the 20-unit course and now level two of the pattern system so all I know is what you have taught me.
The written homework was like coloring-for-adults and at the same time learning the fretboard and chords and intervals and much more, I loved doing it.[...]
I loved it and I am bass-hooked for life. Thank you!
I have done the 20-unit course and now level two of the pattern system so all I know is what you have taught me.
The written homework was like coloring-for-adults and at the same time learning the fretboard and chords and intervals and much more, I loved doing it.[...]
I loved it and I am bass-hooked for life. Thank you!
Pattern 1 is precisely what I needed at just the right time. This course is definitely challenging in the best sense.
Building a strong foundation and putting the bricks where they need to be, so to speak.
Setting this foundation to be able to grow as a musician and be an authentic skilled player.
I am thrilled to be in this course and will definitely enroll in Pattern 2.
I am grateful to be learning from Ari - musician and bass player and human extraordinaire.[...]
Building a strong foundation and putting the bricks where they need to be, so to speak.
Setting this foundation to be able to grow as a musician and be an authentic skilled player.
I am thrilled to be in this course and will definitely enroll in Pattern 2.
I am grateful to be learning from Ari - musician and bass player and human extraordinaire.[...]
Just a note to thank you for the great classes in your Pattern System book.
This system really can open musical doors in the best way possible.
By structuring your playing around the 5 shapes our minds can grasp this information systematically, plus the way you drip feed the exercises I started to think more musically without feeling overwhelmed!
Thank you and the team for all you do!
This system really can open musical doors in the best way possible.
By structuring your playing around the 5 shapes our minds can grasp this information systematically, plus the way you drip feed the exercises I started to think more musically without feeling overwhelmed!
Thank you and the team for all you do!
I’m amazed how fast I progressed in the Level I fretboard class.
Ari is the real deal. My mother was a musician and teacher and those finger exercises and scaler notes sound so familiar.
What really scared me was that I found those simple exercises weren’t as easy as I thought, because I never practiced like this before.
The discipline and memorization knowledge is what I really needed, and I’m getting that from Ari’s Bass Lessons.
Ari is the real deal. My mother was a musician and teacher and those finger exercises and scaler notes sound so familiar.
What really scared me was that I found those simple exercises weren’t as easy as I thought, because I never practiced like this before.
The discipline and memorization knowledge is what I really needed, and I’m getting that from Ari’s Bass Lessons.
This was the second time I took the Pattern System Level 1 course and it was incredibly worthwhile.
I picked up on a number of aspects of the pattern system that I overlooked the first time through.
It has really helped to cement the pattern system in my brain and has improved my knowledge of the fretboard (including the 5-string).
I highly recommend this course to anyone that wants a thorough knowledge of the electric bass.
I picked up on a number of aspects of the pattern system that I overlooked the first time through.
It has really helped to cement the pattern system in my brain and has improved my knowledge of the fretboard (including the 5-string).
I highly recommend this course to anyone that wants a thorough knowledge of the electric bass.
Well that was really fun! These patterns really work for my brain! Lol!
I wanted to thank you for all you have done for so many of us!
I always wanted to do music, but it seemed like life was always getting in the way!
Now that I’m officially retired (for now anyhow) I finally have the time to focus on what I love to do! [...]
When I look back I can’t believe how far I’ve come on this journey! I wouldn’t have been able to succeed like this without your guidance!
So thanks again Ari. Looking forward to the next adventure!
I wanted to thank you for all you have done for so many of us!
I always wanted to do music, but it seemed like life was always getting in the way!
Now that I’m officially retired (for now anyhow) I finally have the time to focus on what I love to do! [...]
When I look back I can’t believe how far I’ve come on this journey! I wouldn’t have been able to succeed like this without your guidance!
So thanks again Ari. Looking forward to the next adventure!
What's in these Level 1 masterclasses?
- 10 weeks of one hour long classes that were recorded live
- Recorded in front of an awesome live audience of bassists like you
- This Series of masterclasses starts with the beginning of the method (Level 1!)
- Each week builds on the one before, going step by step
- 9 weeks of content plus a big final performance
- Weekly assignments, milestones and motivation
- Access to our private Facebook Group to post assignments to
- 36 custom composed jamtracks for drills
You will create your first diagrams of the Open Area scales!
You will also get your feet wet right away doing some improvising to drive home the idea of how deeply we need to know these notes and how to apply the deep practice musically!
You will do notename and scale degree drills to drive home the ever-important question: where is the root and how does it all relate?
You will learn the first three of the five mighty shapes!
Get started with scalar studies – groups of 2!
More open area drills and fun improvisation practice with pop and funk tracks!
Learn the “crabby” patterns – these have a shift but it’s very elegant and you can do it without looking at the fretboard.
Stylistically it is getting bluesy in the improvs!
Review of all five shapes!
So far you have only learned the five shapes in one key – now we are learning them in all 15 keys of the cycle in the so-called “Area 1”.
Practice through the cycle and why that’s so powerful
3-note groupings and a groovy improv drill that takes you up the neck in fun ways!
More ways to review and drill what you have learned so far! Always making slight changes to help you learn those vital “think ahead” drills.
This week we are adding the metronome and you learn to use “cheater beats”.
Improv: a light rock track!
Scalar studies, scalar groupings – your fingers are getting faster and nimbler by the drill!
This week you are learning a very cool pedaling technique – sounds very virtuosic and really challenges your fingers while cementing the pattern knowledge!
More Area 1 practice strategies
Learn your first interval scalar study – works your fingers, works the pattern and – sounds great!
Rootfinder pattern practice, cycle drills, more improv with a bluesy touch!
and an introduction to the amazing and famed Connection Exercises!
Also: Area 2!
Connection Exercises tips and strategies.
The power of the pattern system when improvising diatonically, meaning using chords of one key!
Review of the chromatic cycle versus the diatonic cycle.
Lots of applications of the pattern drills.
Improv is bouncy pop
You will be doing a very fun modes drill
More Pattern practice, scalar studies and of course improv twists!
Students in class had to commit to a pattern for the final…
Which Pattern, I II III V or VI?
Which pattern will you do your final in?
Enjoy the finals of our students! It is a delight to see how far they have come in just ten weeks!
Hi. I’m Ari.
Bassist, author, educator. Groove enthusiast and learning nerd.
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.
I also utilize the power of learning in groups: our first cohort with volunteer coaches ran in 2018, and Masterclasses started in 2020. Our practice memberships have been going strong since 2022.
How is The Pattern System different than the CAGED system?
The CAGED System
The Pattern System
Just shows shapes, expecting that
just moving them around is all it takes
just moving them around is all it takes
Fretboard shapes are merely the starting point of this system
Naming in CAGE is confusing in keys other than "C"
Shapes are named by scale steps and hence work in any key
No connection between theory and patterns ,
missing many shortcuts
missing many shortcuts
Patterns as shortcuts to understanding music
Limited guidance on what to do with it all
Improvisation Drills and other musical applications
Diagrams for passive consumption
Create your own diagrams with instructions - empowering!
Scalar studies written out as a reading exercises
Create scalar studies yourself with guidance, use creatively
Changing keys means moving shapes around
Systematic training enables you to change keys freely, anywhere
Presentation as diagrams without further discussion
Discussion of visual, kinesthetic, auditory & conceptual recall
No systematic practice of note names, scale degrees
Systematic note name and scale degree practice
Exclusion of modes
Modes integrated into the system
Practice = Repetition
Many effective practicing techniques (incl. mental practice)
Fretboard organization shifts with every key
Fretboard organized into areas; diagonal playing, combining of shapes
Understanding may or may not occur
Test Your Understanding Questions assure understanding
Often lack step-by-step practice plan
Blueprints for practice in every chapter
No explanation on how and when to use a metronome
Precise guidance on metronome usage
Video demos not always included
111 video demonstrations
Here's What Masterclass Participants are Saying...
I signed up for the next session less than 24 hours after the info was posted so that should tell you something.
I’ve taken in-person lessons from four local “teachers” here in the Columbus area and have learned bits and pieces from each of them.
What I didn’t learn was how to tie those bits and pieces up into a usable bundle.
I’ve learned more about that part of it in the last ten weeks than in the three or four years of combined instruction locally.
I plan on continuing with this course until I feel comfortable enough to walk into any situation, plug in, and hold my own and would recommend anybody spending some time in a class of their interest with Ari.
Randy Fergus
Masterclass Participant
Wow… I only played with C from Area 1 up to Area “Whatever we’ll call it”, but the pattern system just increments and moves up the neck? Very cool. Sorry, but it is so cool I had to ask/tell someone.
Kevin Gonyo
Masterclass Participant
I had always gotten a bit lost when it came to doing a “solo”. That method of using a common note through the changes was an eye opener for me.
Ben G
Masterclass Participant
Thanks Ari, it’s a great privilege to be part of your bass community.
Thanks so much for this. Let me share with you a little story.
The other day my brother-in-law and I decided to jam together.
First time ever; they live 500 km away and normally we spend just a day or two at their place. This time and thanks to Corona, we stayed for a week, so we had a lot of time.
He is a professional musician, guitarist, R&B forever. He knew I was playing bass but for some reason we never played together. Those guys are also on a different level … . However, I decided to use the pattern system.
After a while, he stopped playing, looked at me and said – quote ‘How long have you been playing for? I’m speechless. It took me ten years to learn the fretboard like this.’
Ha – seems to work. Thanks to you. 😊 Was super fun.
S. S.
Masterclass Participant
The other night, I was listening to a recording of a friend’s new composition. He had not told me anything about it, but I started picking out some of the melody on my bass, and almost immediately recognized the patterns lighting up on the fretboard as A Phrygian.
Having fallen in love with music later in life, I find this to be astounding. A year ago, the modes were a complete mystery to me. I got my first bass in 2016, and soon found Ari’s book, Music Theory for the Bass Player. I was learning to play bass within the context of a large ukulele group that played many different genres, and often songs I’d never heard before. I knew that if I wanted to create more interesting accompaniment beyond roots and fifths, I would need to learn some theory in order to create so many bass lines on the fly.
Over the past six years, I’ve tried many different teachers with their different teaching methods, and time after time, I return to Ari’s courses. I have come to realize that this is the only place I need to be to learn everything I need to continue growing in this journey. She has the most impressive process of instruction. She obviously loves to teach. All her courses are interconnected. No matter which piece of the puzzle you focus on, whether it be theory, rhythm, patterns of the fretboard, technique, etc., she manages to include insights into all the other aspects of what she has to offer. It’s a beautiful thing.
Laura B
Masterclass Participant
Get Instant Access to the
Pre-recorded Pattern System Masterclasses
$175
- 10 hours of video
- Jamtracks
- PDFs with TAB and notation
- Lifetime Access
- Installment plans available with Affirm
Learn a ton while having fun!
- Follow along with a group of students learning the Pattern System with Ari
- 10 pre-recorded Master Classes
- Systematic, consistent, step-by-step
- Course portal with all assets
- Relaxed vibe and steady progress
- The Fasttrack to Fretboard Freedom
- Pick up music skills without even trying
As seen on
Featured by leading bass websites and publications
FAQs
What are Pattern System Masterclasses?
Masterclasses (also known as Practice Groups) were ten-week online classes live with Ari. We used to run them several times a week, up to 7 levels deep!
We are currently not offering new masterclasses on the Pattern System but you can still learn from recorded masterclasses. This is what you see offered on this page.
These classes were recorded LIVE on zoom with a group of students.
When are the next LIVE Masterclasses?
At the moment we are not offering any new live Pattern System masterclasses. But you can learn from the archives offered here!
The classes were taught by Ari, together with an awesome group of students. You will learn from their questions and enjoy their submissions.
How are the Masterclasses structured?
Ten one-hour long live recordings plus assets (jam tracks, PDFs, diagrams).
There are various levels. Start with level 1.
Do I need the book?
Yes. Each week in the masterclass there are reading assignments and drills to do.
Get Ari’s Pattern System book on Amazon or spiralbound in our store.
How do the Masterclasses differ from the book?
As you go through the masterclasses, you will get reading assignments each week.
The book lays the foundation. The Masterclasses bring it to life. You’ll get applications, and practical ways to apply the material on your bass – with exercises that evolve week by week and go far beyond the book.
I have not read the Pattern System Book yet. Is it a problem?
Not at all. The masterclasses include reading assignments from the book, so it works perfectly even if you haven’t read it yet.
Are the Masterclasses suitable for my level?
Basic music theory and playing technique are required.
If you are a complete beginner, check out our Bass Evolution Course.
If you need help with your theory (basic theory is required, like intervals, scales, chords) then start with our Theory Course.
What results can I expect from taking the Masterclasses?
You’ll gain fretboard fluency, stronger ears, and a deeper understanding of how music is put together.
You will know the fretboard inside out and you will
More importantly, you’ll develop the mindset of a musician.
Will there be new LIVE Masterclasses?
Not at this time. We will soon be offering a Course and Cohorts for the Pattern System. But right now this is the only way to get the Pattern System taught by Ari.
What is the refund policy?
All of our self study Courses have a 30-day refund and lifetime access.
We use secure checkout with Stripe.
For more common questions about Ari’s courses, cohorts, and live practice, visit our full FAQ page:
Get Instant Access to the
Pre-recorded Pattern System Masterclasses
$175
- 10 hours of video
- Jamtracks
- PDFs with TAB and notation
- Lifetime Access
- Installment plans available with Affirm
Learn a ton while having fun!
- Follow along with a group of students learning the Pattern System with Ari
- 10 pre-recorded Master Classes
- Systematic, consistent, step-by-step
- Course portal with all assets
- Relaxed vibe and steady progress
- The Fasttrack to Fretboard Freedom
- Pick up music skills without even trying