Talking Technique: Groove Creation Workout

by Ari • 3 Feb 2017 — 1 minute read

Are you looking for a formula to create grooves over a chord progression? Check out this episode of Talking Technique! This lesson features an exercise that helps you hone your technique while building grooves from triads.

I have a I-vi-IV-V chord progression for you. Let’s use a formula that has two main ingredients: rhythm and triad notes. That’s your tonal material: the triad notes and you can play them in any order you like.

The second ingredient is a rhythm. I will break that process down for you by starting you out with a formula that stays consistent and creates a groove.

Once you get the hang of it, can add more ingredients such as dynamics, phrasing, variations, various playing techniques, and much more. Follow along this PDF with examples.

Click through to notreble to watch or watch below.

Consulting, audio, mixing: Wolf Wein at wolftrackaudio.com
Played on my Marleaux Consat Straight five string bass.
TC Electronic for amplification and pedals!
SR 2000 Dean Markley.
I use gruvgear fretwraps.

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Bassist, author, educator.

Groove enthusiast and learning nerd.

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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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