Power up with Geddy Lee!

by Ari • 8 Oct 2020 — 2 minute read

I got a kick out of this YouTube comment: “She even looks like Geddy!”

Maybe you start looking like the master if you study his tunes long enough, so get ready for your glasses and curls… and while you are at it:

Learn the theory behind power chords and more…

Empower – quite literally! – your bass lines using power chords.

In this episode of Talking Technique, I show you how Geddy Lee masterfully used root-fifth power chords to drive the well known Rush tune, “Dreamline”. We’ll talk optimal fingerings, plucking, and where on the fretboard to drop these. You’ll also hear the difference between a single note groove vs. the power chords used by Geddy. (*And just for fun, anyone know his real first name, and how he wound up with the nickname, Geddy?)

So power up your bass lines and level up your bass toolbox with the power of fifths on your bass!

Download the Transcription PDF here

* It’s Gary, and as the story goes, his Grandma had a thick accent and couldn’t quite enunciate the “r”, so “Gary” became “Geddy”!

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Rhythm Matrix and Groove

Bassist, author, educator.

Groove enthusiast and learning nerd.

Joined by 15,000+ Bassists

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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.

Read more…

Power up with Geddy Lee!