Bass Guitar Lessons For Beginners

1. Bass Guitar Lessons For Beginners: Welcome to the Music Coach online bass guitar program, where you'll learn how to play the bass guitar from scratch. My name is Todd Quarter, and I'm a professional musician and educator, Canada, where I've been teaching and performing for the last 50 years. The Music Coach program has been designed to get you playing with other people as quickly as possible, because the real joy and music is being able to express yourself with other people and listen and interact. And so the whole course curriculum has been designed around this idea of teaching you how to play the instrument, but at the same time teaching you how to have the skills you're gonna need to play with. By the end of the courts, you're gonna have the confidence to grown up friends and family and other people who play and get a jam session Dylan, because the goal is to get you playing with other people as quickly as possible. The program starts by learning how to pick your first instrument and rent it or buy it. It helps you move through how to put it together, make your first sound and learn how to play some scales and rhythms and harmony so that you can interact with other musicians as quickly as possible. This course is designed for complete beginners who are looking for a way to get into the musical game in a fun, fast and friendly way. If you've always dreamed of playing the bass guitar and just not known where, start, you come to the right place. 2. The 4 Essential Elements Of Music: What is music? Music is the language of the planet, spoken by every society since the beginning of time. Music is a vibrational language that allows us to convey complex ideas that spoken or written language alone cannot adequately express music gives us an almost unlimited vocabulary for communicating emotional information through sound way. Are all born musicians Theo Idea. That some of us are musicians and some of us are not is so far from the truth. It's laughable. You are made of music. Your heart is beating steadily in your body, keeping the rhythm of your life flowing. Your ears and voice are constantly working together to shape your experience through the sound you make and sounds. You hear it is all music, therefore, essential elements to be able to play music on any instrument. They are rhythm, harmony, melody and your passion for music. To explain these concepts, we're going to use the analogy of a train train itself is you. And the passion that you have for music is the boiler. Inside the train, you were born with the deep passion for music, like every other person whose ever been born and come before you and everyone who will come after you now you might be saying yourself, I have no passion for music or I can't even remember a time when I did thistles just simply because it got extinguished in you. And the good news is it could be reignited and made to burn hot and passionate again. The key to starting any good fire is to start with the right amount of fuel and a little bit of air. This is the same in music. One of the biggest problems people run into is they get overwhelmed. This is like putting too much wood down and trying to light it with one match. A roaring fire always starts out small, and it's helped, along with just the right amount of fuel at the right time and a continuous flow of air fire and the boiler of your train is the single most important part of your musical journey . Now, for a train to go anywhere it needs to go along a track. You can't just have a train in the middle of nowhere, with no track and get a fire burning hot and expected to go somewhere. A railroad track has three main elements. Railroad ties, which are the wooden beams that go along the ground. And two tracks, one on either side with trains. Wheels sit on rhythm is like the railroad ties, which are evenly spaced and allow for the stability for the train to move. Once the tracks are in place, railroad ties air spaced in a way that is even and breaks up the distance between two points so that time can be felt in a consistent way. If you put your train on top of just railroad ties, you're not gonna be going anywhere, so let's have the next piece of track. Harmony is the piece of track that runs alongside the railroad ties. It's fastened securely to them, which allows the rhythm to pass freely underneath harmonies most often expressed as cords. Cords air simply a grouping of three or more notes stacked vertically. The most common use of them, his major and minor. Most people experience major chords, is sounding happy, and minor chords is sounding sad. Almost all music that you've heard on the radio or on television and in movies is made up of major and minor courts. Melody is the piece of track on the other side. Opposite the Harmony, the melody is the most recognizable and distinctive part of any song to songs can have the same rhythmic and harmonic structure, but melodies are completely unique to the song from which they come from. When you think of a famous song in your head, most likely you're thinking about the melody. A melody is just simply a pattern of notes moving up or down involving the rhythm and interacting with the harmony that is connected to once you have these three elements of track of railroad ties, which of rhythm Harmony, which is one of the tracks in the melody, which is the other track your train can now roll along. Then all you have to do is keep adding more pieces of track your train control further and further faster and onward in your musical jury. 3. Notes, and the musical alphabet: throughout the world. There are many different notation systems in music in Western Europe and North America. We use a 12 tone system with the musical alphabet toe. Understand the 12 tone system. We first need to understand how we measure the distance between two notes, their two main distances used in our system. They're tones and semi tones. The easiest way to see and understand tones and semi tones is on a piano. A piano is made up of white keys and Blackie's, and a tone is the distance between two white keys with a black in the middle or between two black keys with a white key in the middle. A semi tone is our smallest unit of distance, which is between a white key in a blackie or between two white keys where there is no black he in the middle. All scales and music are simply a pattern of tones and semi tones that repeats. The most common one is the major scale, which goes tone, tone, semi tone, tone, tone, tone, semi tone on a piano. If you start this pattern on, see, there's no need to use any black keys because the pattern is built right into the keyboard of tone, tone, semi tone, tone, tone, tone, semi tone. If you start the pattern on any other key, however, you need to use the Black Keys to maintain the pattern. This is why we have sharps and flats to make up the 12 different keys inside of the system . 4. Harmony: harmony like the universe itself, is all about relationships. We're alive right now on Earth because of its relationship to everything else in our solar system. Any two notes played at the same time are considered harmony. Sound travels in waves that are measured in Hertz hurts measures how maney waves per second a note is generating a string on a guitar, for example, vibrates 440 times per second. Lower notes vibrates slower and higher. Notes vibrate faster human ears can hear in a range of approximately 31 hurts. Up to 18,000 hertz dogs, for example, can hear a much larger range. They can hear from 40 hertz all the way up to 60,000 hertz when two or more notes air played. At the same time, the sound waves interact with each other, creating two states of dissonance and continents, more commonly known as tension and release. Imagine the sound waves are like dolphins jumping in and out of the water notes that Aaron dissidents or tension never line up evenly so that the pattern of the dolphins being in and out of the water is never in complete alignment. This is a physical event and why some people experience tension in music as very uncomfortable. This technique is often used in movie soundtracks to enhance the sense of unease. Continents or release is having the dolphins come into a pattern where sometimes or all of the time they're at the top or bottom of their pattern together at the same time, much like our preference for spicy or sweet tastes, we each have a sense of how much tension and release we like in our music. And like a sense of taste, it can evolve over time, depending on what were exposed to the fact that there are no wrong notes is not just a spiritual state of mind. It's a fact. All that exists is tension and release or dissonance and continents and how much you enjoy . He is entirely up to your own sense of personal taste. Cords are organized harmony. Harmony is used most commonly to make up chords that air called triads. They're just simply cords that have three notes in them, cords are built like houses. There is a foundation which we call the route the third, which is like the main floor and the fifth, which is like the second floor of the house. The route is the note that gives Accord its name. For example, in a C chord, the route is see. The third of the note is the third note in the scale, so see is one is to and is three. The fifth is the fifth note in the scale. See is one D is to his three, Fs four and G is five. There are several different types of chords. The two most common are major chords and miners. What makes a cord major or minor is the relationship of the third to the root of the court . When it is closer to the fifth than the route, it is major, which is like moving the main floor of your house up slightly when it is closer to the basement, where the root it's minor. The way you move a note, closer or further away, is with sharps and flats to change a C poured from major to minor, you change the third, which is E. T. Flat. Most people experience major and minor chords by hearing them as happy sounds for major on and sad sounds for minor. It's always good to remember that music is a language that you were built to speak. And even when you're working on something that's a challenging concept, just know that with enough time and practice you'll be able to master it. 5. Melody: melody is the part of songs that most people identify with, since there are so many harmonic and rhythmic combinations melodious the most distinct part of any song. Close your eyes and think for a moment of your favorite piece of music. Chances are you're hearing the melody in your head. A melody is both rhythmic and harmonic, and if it is well constructed, it could be sung or played on its own and be clearly understood. Simply put, a melody is a string of notes and rests that move up and down in relation to the harmony underneath it. 6. Rhythm: rhythm is a word that has many meanings in music. This could be the source of unnecessary confusion for students. When they first begin. You may have heard the words time and tempo used in the same way. Let's break this down into the essential elements. Tempo is like a river. Think of a river for a moment. It usually flows at a constant pace, but it's not rigid or mechanical. When humans make music, it is a goal to be as consistent as possible with the tempo. But in reality it's alive, and it has subtle shifts, like the flow of a river Rhythm is how we interact with flow of this river. Imagine sticking your hand in the flow of the river for one second and then pulling it back out. Then imagine doing the same thing for two seconds and half a second. This is the equivalent to playing notes of different lengths. The river is constant, but how long we play the notes for is what makes it in the music. Rhythm is the most mathematical part of music education, but fear not. There is nothing more advanced than simple addition and subtraction involved. Imagine your favorite type of pie for a moment. Now, the size of the pie is constant. No matter how we slice it, the pie represents a bar of music. If you eat the whole pie yourself, it's like playing a whole note, which takes up the entire bar. If you invite a friend over and cut the pie in two, you have to half notes. If you cut it again, you have 4/4 tones. Cut it again and you have 8/8 in music. All time has to be accounted for again. Think of the pie if you have a pie and you cut it into 4/4 and you only want to eat one of the quarters. The other 3/4 still exists because the whole pie was baked. This is the same in music. So wherever there's not a note played, there has to be arrest to take his place. So each of the note values in music of whole half quarter eighths and so on all have rests that last for the same amount of time 7. Bass Setup and Buyers Guide: This is the set up and buyers guide for the bass guitar. Now the bass guitar. The electric bass guitar, which is the one that I'm holding, is a fairly recent addition to the musical instrument family. Up until the 19 fifties, bases were always played as what were called double bases or upright bass that you may have seen in classical music or in jazz. And then when rock and roll came along, there became a need tohave. The bass be louder and be played in different venues, bigger venues and have amplification attached to it. And the Fender musical instrument company came up with the precision bass in the 19 fifties , which was the same form out of strings. But instead of being played upright, it was played like a guitar, which is why it's called the electric bass guitar. Now, the most common format for the electric bass guitar is four strings, which is what this one is. However, there are five strings six string, seven string all the way up, so even all the way up to like a 12 string electric bass guitar. But for now, the most common one is a four string electric bass guitar, so the strings on electric bass guitar are the same as the four largest strings on a regular guitar, which are E. A. D and G. The question I get asked a lot by my students is, Should I rent ah, base or an amplifier before I buy it? And my recommendation is, if you live in a large urban area or close to a place where there are music stores that do rental programs, definitely go ahead and rent something before you buy it. The price for a rental is usually very low, sometimes little ISS seven or $10 for a single day. And if you want to try it out for a whole month, usually there's a about a $30 charge. And if you're planning on spending hundreds of dollars, I often think it's just a good idea. If you can try it out even just for a day, get it home. Really? Try it out in your own environment because trying out things in a music store can be very challenging, especially if you're there on a Saturday when it's really busy and there's lots of people trying different things can be hard to he here really clearly what's going on with the amplifier or base that you're trying out now when you're getting into playing the electric bass? The good news is, is that the price point at the bottom is very low, and there are lots of packages now that are offered where you can get an electric bass guitar with a practice amplifier, cables, a tuner, everything you need to get started playing for a very low price, sometimes between two and $500. You can get all of that in one package, which I recommend if you're just getting started. When you get above that in price point, you can get to things like this base, which is made by fenders Lower End company, which is called Squire. And this is a remake of a very famous base called a jazz bass. And this guitar was about $400 it's a little bit, you know, it's a little bit nicer finish and a little bit better pickups than the cheapest end, but it didn't come with an amplifier cables eso That price just included the base itself on any electric instrument. Most of what's generating the sound is coming from the actual pickups, which you can change out on a base so you can start with a very low end bass and decide that you want to upgrade the sound of it just by changing out the pickups. Now the controls for the bass guitar are slightly different on each guitar. On this one, there are two separate volume knobs, which control the front pickup and the back pick up so you can blend how much of each one is coming through the signal and then a master tone knob, which is controlling how much base or trouble is coming through the signal on a lot of other bases, its the opposite. There'll be one volume knob that's controlling everything and two tone knobs, which we're giving you a bit more of a blend. And then you have the actual instrument input, which is here, which connects the cable to the amplifier in a very general sense, where money is saved when you're buying, a cheaper instrument is on things like the machine heads. The metal will be cheaper and and less durable on it on a lower end instrument and mawr secure on a hire an instrument as well as the pickups itself. There are two main types of base amplifiers there, two vamps and solid state. Originally, when basis first became electric, two bands were the Onley kind of amps. There were. So a lot of people will tell you the only real pure, great sound on the base comes from a tube AMP. However, it's mean it's up. It's a little bit of personal choice, and also there's some other factors. With two vamps. They're quite heavy, and they're also very expensive. And they don't have features like having a headphone be able to plug into it and sometimes some extra effects. So for beginner and intermediate, I definitely recommend going with solid state amplifier 1st 1 other factor you want to think about is the kind of speaker you have in your Cabinet. These air 10 inch speakers. There's two of them, sometimes with base and especially older cabinets. You'll get one large 15 inch speaker, which will give you more low end. But less high end is a very general rule. The bigger the speaker, the more Basie in bottom e it is, and the smaller the speaker, the more high end, you'll get to get a basic practice amplifier. That solid state is going to start it around $500 and go up from there. And in the $500 price point, you're going to be looking at somewhere between 40 and 100 watts. Then the next step up from there is in the sort of 600 to $1000 range. You're going to get more speakers in the cabinets and more wattage, so you might get up to 403 150 watts in that range and then above $1000. You're getting into large amplifier so that air 800 to 1000 watts. How we measure the volume of an amplifier is in wattage. This could be a little confusing, because the wattage in a guitar AMP and a bass AMP are not really the same thing. This amplifier here is 80 watts, which is for guitar, and this amplifiers 150 watts. But the guitar AMP is actually quite a bit louder, and this just has to do with how sound travels and low frequencies for just practicing at home. 40 watts for a small practice happens lots of volume. When you get into playing and jamming with friends and especially with drummers and guitar players, I recommend getting 150 to 200 watts. This will just give you enough volume that you feel like you could keep up sound wise with the other instruments in your group, whether you're getting tube or solid state. There's also one other factor to consider, which is whether you get a combo AMP, which is like. But this is where the speaker cabinet and the amplifier is all in one unit with a handle or you get a Cabinet, which is separate from the base head. Now they both have pros and cons with a combo. Everything is always all hooked up, and you just have to grab it and go the upside of ahead. And cabinet is that if you, for example, have a regular rehearsal time with your friends at someone else's house or garage, the Cabinet is the heaviest part of the AMP. And if you don't want to be lugging it back and forth, you can just leave the Cabinet where you rehearse and just grab the head, which only weighs about £5 stick it in your gig bag and away you go. And when you get home, you can plug headphones into the base head or even plug it out into a very small, basic sound system. Now, when it comes to a strap and strap locks, I highly recommend getting some kind of a strap locking system. And all that is, I've actually used just a very simple rubber casing around it. The reason is, is that especially on the electric bass, which is a very heavy instrument. When you first get a strap, it will fit very snugly around the cleats. But over time it will get worn out, and it'll pop off eventually. And because the instruments so heavy if it popped off and it dropped and hit the floor were banged into something, it would crack the finish or damage the neck. So having some way of actually keeping the strap in place is really important, and you can buy strap locking systems are very inexpensive and have them installed at a guitar store. A really important piece of equipment that's often overlooked is a good guitar stand. When you're playing the bass, you'll unfortunately often see people with their guitars or bases just resting it against an amplifier or a table like this. More like this. I do not recommend this at all, a basis of really heavy instrument. And if it slides over and knocks down onto the floor, it's gonna get damaged really easily, just cause of how heavy it ISS and a good guitar stand will only cost you somewhere between 20 and $50 guitar stands in base stands are interchangeable, and you can fold them up and take them with you wherever you go. The other reason I recommend them is that it's going to make practicing and working on your music a lot easier. It's an old saying that something that's out of sight is out of mind, and if you're packing up your instrument and putting in a case and sticking in the closet every time you're done, it's another barrier to go and get it and get out of the case and get playing again. Whereas if it's just sitting on a stand, you might walk by and think I'm waiting for someone area five minutes. I'll just pick it up and play a little bit on the electric bass guitar. There's two main types of strings. There are regular strings, and then there were called flat wound and flat wound strings will give you more of the classic rock kind of sound. There a little bit darker, and some pior and regular bass guitar strings will give you a little bit of more of a bright sound, a little more of a poppy R and B kind of sound. I personally like just regular bass strings because I find that with most amplifiers, I can adjust the tone on the amplifier to give me more of the flat wound sound. If I'm looking for that, and then I always can go back the other way and have more of a pop and r and B sound if I want it. Whereas if you have flat wound on your base, they're always gonna sound like flat rounds. So the only if you're on Lee committed to that sound or they're kind of a good option. Connecting your base to the bass amplifier is gonna be done using an instrument cable, and these are also commonly called quarter inch cables, so they have 1/4 inch input. The most commonly will come with both ends straight like this. Now, if you have a base that has an input that's on the front, or especially if it's on the bottom of the body, I really recommend getting what's called a right angle cable, which will have one side look like this now. The reason is, is that if you plug in a straight cable into the body like this, it becomes a bit of, ah, a potential danger that things can bang into this and potentially snap the cable right off in the input. Whereas if you have a right angle cable into the actual instrument, it's a little bit more flush with the body. The other thing is, if you run your cable up under your strap and around like this, it's sort of tucks neatly behind. And if the cable ever gets pulled really hard like you, step on it, you get a little bit of support here from the end pin, so it's not going to rip the cable right out. Not connecting the other ends to the to the amplifier is very simple. It just goes right into the front end that says input on the amplifier. And now let's have a closer look at the front end controls on the base head as well as the back. So here we have the front end off the head for the Fender Rumble 1 50 This is 150 watt bass head that connects to a passive Cabinet. Now all heads work basically the same way. I'll just show you some of the basic features on this, so we have our input, which is where the instrument cable goes in. Then there's a switch to lower the overall volume of the AMP. This is a really great feature. If you wanna keep your AMP settings in a certain way and just be able to play quiet or practice quieter, you just do with one click of the switch. Then we have a volume knob and again with all electric instruments. You want to make sure that this is down at zero, are very low when you plug in any instrument to an amplifier so you don't get surprised by a big, loud sound. They're moving over. We have an overdrive section. This is a little unique for an amped a size, but we have Ah, overdrive, which is we can push in and will come on. And we have a gain, which is how much distortion you get and then a blend which gives how much is actually going into the main signal. Then moving on, we get into the equalization section this and has a really great feature for, um, a push button e que So this is labeled punch. So this will give you more of R and B or slap kind of sound on the base with just one push of a button. The one next to it is a scoop, which gives you more of a classic rock big, low, bottom and sound. And what's great about that is even within a song or between songs. If you want to just quickly get a different sound, you can just do it with one push of a button than the actual e que. On the AMP has base low, mid, mid high and trouble. And these are the settings that allow you to really get your specific sound on your base. Now every room is going to sound a little bit different, and every base you plug into your AMP is going to sound a little bit different, so I really encourage people toe try it out, play around with it kind of find the right sound for your set up. Finally, all the way over on the other side is the power switch. Let's check out what happens on the back. Here we have the back of the base head. There are many different inputs on it, but there are only a couple of things that you really need to know about. 1st 1 is where the power cable goes in and on most modern amplifiers like this, the power cables are all exactly the same. Is what you'd see on a desktop computer or monitor the next thing if no boat is how to connect the head to the Cabinet. And this is an important thing. Thes little lightning bolts are telling you that these air powered outputs, which means that there is actual electrical current being transmitted through the speaker cable and into the cabinet to give it power. The reason you gotta be careful is that you want to make sure you're on Lee using a speaker cable and that whatever this is plugging into is passive and the way to know that it's passive is tha Cabinet has nothing else that's powering it. It doesn't have a power cable like this. It has two of these because we can power more than one cabinet a time. Either one will do. If you're putting into one cabinet, you only need. It doesn't matter which one of these you plug into. Over here, we have an effects. Send return loop is a bit more of an advanced function that allows you to send your base signal out to be processed and then back into the amplifier, which you might use for something like reverb or delay or some kind of compression. Next to it is a nice feature for some of these smaller amps, which is an exhilarating in these air RC A cables, which make it easy to connect to something like a smartphone or a tablet or a TV. If you want to send a signal of audio that you were practicing along with, this allows you to put it into the amplifier so you'll hear it out of the same speakers the next that your headphone input and the headphone input on this particular one does not, um, sever the connection with the Cabinet. So if you want Onley have the headphones, you have to unplug the speaker cable. Then there's a foot switch, which controls the overdrive, which we saw on the front of the AMP. And this simply will switch it on and off. You have to buy a foot switch for that and then on the far right, we have the line out, and this allows you to plug a microphone cable into a sound system. And it has a ground lift, which is something that's important to help take away some of the buzzer home that you might find on the back of the base cabinet. There's only a couple of things you have to know about. The main thing is where to put the other end of that speaker cable. So there are two inputs for the speaker cable. It doesn't matter which one you have. This also allows you to plug one into here and then also come out of the speaker cabinet, potentially into another one. Again, it's a much more advanced feature. This also has these two inputs, which are called speak on Cables, and these air newer, more modern ways to connect. Ah, head to a Cabinet. Some of some heads will have this option. Some won't just This Cabinet gives you both. Ah, common cushion I get asked about bass playing. Is, should I be playing with my fingers or slapping, or should I be using some kind of a guitar pick or base pick? It's somewhat comes down to personal preference, but the common sounds you hear most often played it on the electric bass guitar played with your fingers. And the usual technique is alternating between your pointer finger and your middle finger, which allows you if you're just using a single finger, there's a limit to how fast you can. You can do a single stroke, whereas if you're have alternating fingers on multiple strings, that allows you to move back and forth a little more comfortably and really changes the sound of the strings. And it makes it a little more cliquey and clunky sounding. I don't necessarily mean that a bad way, but just is a little bit more of a clack clack sound. Um, I tend to Onley use a pick playing the bass. If I'm playing, if I'm playing rock where I have to play a lot of really fast back and forth for a long time, like Bubba, Bubba, Bubba, Bubba, Bubba, Bubba, Bubba. But there can be it can be very hard to keep that going with just the fingers if you're playing a song that's five minutes long. 8. Learn the string names, and what all the parts of the bass are called: I welcome the week one of based lessons, really that started on a great journey today, playing the electric bass guitar. Now you may have had some experience playing a regular six string guitar before, or maybe you've had no experience at all. But we're going to start by learning the basic fundamentals today that are gonna help you become really, really solid on the base. The base is a great instrument. It usually has the role in a band of providing a lot of stability, both in terms of the rhythm and the harmony that goes underneath all the music. So it's a very powerful position inside of a band, not often tons of fanfare and recognition. But it's extremely important. And whenever you play in a band where the base is really solid and it's really working well , especially with the drums, it creates a real kind of magic. So to get started, we're going to talk a little bit about the parts of the instrument, and then how we put where we put our fingers to make notes and the names of the strings. So to start off with, like a regular guitar, we talk about the parts of it like a person. So there's the head of the instrument, the neck and the body. Now, because this instrument is electric, it plugs into an amplifier which have sitting beside me. And there's gonna be a separate video to just talks about amplifiers and cables and things like that, so that we don't have to spend our time in the lesson working on that. But if so, if you're not sure of how to connect your base to the amplifier, go check out that video. The base has four strings, and they're the same names as the lowest four strings on a guitar. So if you played a guitar before, this will be easier to remember. They r e just the biggest string, which is closest to your head. Then you one string smaller is a. Then we go. The next ring is D, and the last string is G. If you're not sure about how to use the musical alphabet, check out some of the pre course videos that explain how we use the alphabet in music. Now on the base, you're going to notice that there are some metal strips in the neck and some dots that are both on the top of the neck and in the front of the neck. Now the frets divide up the neck and allow you to play notes by pushing down a string between two frets. And wherever you're pushing down, you want to push your fingers right in the middle, not right on the metal strip, but right in between. And the reason why they have dots is because they're numbered. So when a string is played open, it's considered fret. Zero. And when we pushed down in the first Fred, it's Fred, Number one, number two, number three and so on, And the dots are on the odd numbers. So three, five, seven, nine and then there's a double dot at 12 which is an octave. And again, if you're not quite sure about how octaves work in the pre course video, there's gonna be some explanation of that for this week's practice video. What you're gonna work on is memorizing and being able to play all the strings. It might seem like a small task, but it's really important to know the name of the string that you're on all the time and to be able to do it, going both forwards and backwards. So I'm gonna do it one time so you can see again E a de g g d a. Hey, now, with your right hand, you can play the bass with a pick. The more traditional way to play it is with your fingers, and usually you're going to use your 1st 2 fingers. For now, you can even just use your pointer finger. So a common way to do it is to rest your thumb on the pick up. That's closest to your body, and this provides some balance and a place of reference so that you can feel how far away your finger is from the pick up. So we just pluck it lightly because the instruments electric, you don't need to pull very hard. And if your hands are a little smaller and reaching that far is difficult, you can just let your hand float like that. If you're ready for something leaving a little more complicated, you can alternate first finger, second finger, first finger, second finger like that. All right, we'll see in the practice video 9. Beginner Bass Guitar Practice 1: you're now gonna work on playing and saying the names of the strings going from the largest string to the smallest string. The string names are E a de and Jean. Let's try doing that again and make sure to say them out loud as you play them. E a Dean and Jean. Now we're gonna do it with the click track plea each string as a whole note. So each string will get four clicks. 12 ready. Go E to 34 a to 34 234 Jean Do 34 Now we're gonna do the same thing with each string being 1/2 note, so each string will get two clicks. 12 ready. Go E to A to the two gene to try it again. 12 Ready? Go. Okay. To a to D two d Do Now we're gonna play the strings backwards using whole notes. One to ready. Go G 234 d do 34 a to 34 A to three sports Right again. One to ready. Go G 234 d 234 a to 34 to three four. Now we're gonna play them backwards. as half notes, so two clicks reach string 12 Ready? Go! G to D To A to A to now we're gonna play the strings forwards and backwards as half notes 12 ready Go E to A to D two d to G two b to A To A To now we're gonna play the notes forwards as quarter notes, so each string will get one click And remember to keep saying the strings out loud as you play them one, Do you ready? Go E a Dean Jean one, Do you ready? Go E A de gene one two Ready? Go e a d being one to you. Ready? Go! E a me Jean. Now let's try pulling the strings backwards as quarter notes. 12 ready? Go! Jean Dean a e one to Ready! Go! Jeanne Jeanne a e 12 Ready? Go G t a a. Now let's play the forwards and backwards as quarter notes. One to ready. Oh e a de gene g p a e 12 Ready? Go Be a the gene g p a e 12 ready. Go e a The d g d a d 10. Learn the notes that make up the A section of the song: I and welcome back to weak to a bass lessons this week we're going to get into playing the notes that make up the a section of our song as the bass player. It's really important that you not only know the order that the notes go in, but rhythmically where they sit. Now all the bass notes in this program are gonna take up one bar, which means they're going to get four beats. Now if you're not sure about how that works, there's a rhythm video that starts before the course. That explains how rhythm works and different types of notes, like whole notes and half notes in Korea. But it's important to understand that for this next part, because what we're gonna be doing is playing the notes that make up the A section as whole notes and then is half notes. So the order of the notes for this part R e g see and D So we're gonna play e open is the e String G is gonna be played on the third fret of the E string with your number one finger. C is going to be played on the third fret of the a string with your number one finger and D is gonna be played on the fifth fret of the A string with your number one finger. Or, if your hands are big enough, you can play it with your third finger. So score reels again. He is open on the East Ring G is on the third fret of the E string. See is on the third fret of the A string and D is on the fifth threat of the A string. Now, in the beginning, when you're playing bass, you might find that it's harder to push down the string and hold it than you thought. It looks easy when you're watching somebody play from the front, but the distance you actually have to push the string down to hold it is further than most people think. It's why your thumb is a really important part of the technique. Your thumb is the thing that's giving you the leverage to hold the string down. And when you hold a string down on an instrument like this, what you're actually doing is shortening the length of the string. So you're pushing down so hard that the string is on Lee this long. Now it's no longer going from here to here. It's coming from here to here. You have to push it and hold it. If you're getting buzzing, you might be too close to the frets or not holding quite hard off in the practice video again. You're gonna be working on playing whole notes, which take up four beats and half notes, which take up to beats. Great work, and we'll see in the practice video. 11. Beginner Bass Guitar Practice 2: Now you're gonna play the bass notes that make up the a section of our song as whole notes . Each note will get four beats. One to ready. Go e to you. Three four a to 34 e to 34 Now try playing G one to ready. Go. She to 34 g two, 34 Okay, 234 g to 34 Now play. See? One to ready. Go. C 234 c 234 Seen. Do 34 c 234 Now play D one to ready. Go de to three four to three. Four de to 34 a to 34 Now you're gonna play half notes for each base note. Starting with E one to ready. Go. Okay. To a to be to A to strike again. One to ready. Go To Okay to B two day. Do now try the same thing on G one to ready. Go G two She to j two g to you know, try it again. Ready? Go. She to g to g two g to now. Try the same thing on C one to ready. Go. C two c two c two C two. Same thing again. Ready? Go. C two c two C two C two. Now try the same thing again on D one to ready. Go. Okay. Do de to d do de to Same thing again. Ready? Go to D two d two de to 12. Bass part for the A section of the song using different note values: I welcome back this week, we're gonna expand on what we're doing last week and play the order of the bass notes for the a section of the song, but this time in the cycle, the way they actually exist in the song. So it's not gonna be spaces in between. So the notes again R E, which is open on the E string G just on the third fret of the e string. See which is on the third fret of the A string and D, which is on the fifth fret of the A string, and you're going to be working on playing them as whole notes, half notes and quarter notes. We're gonna introduce one other piece of technique today as well, which is alternating your right hand fingers to go back and forth between the pointer finger and the middle finger. Now, the reason why this technique is important is because when you start to play songs that are really fast, there's a limit to how fast you can single stroke on one finger. Eventually, you're gonna need to death double strokes so you can go faster between notes. It also makes it easier to go between strings quickly when you're alternating fingers instead of always playing one figure. And another thing that helps, especially in the beginning, is until you get callouses on your fingers. If you're only using one finger, you're gonna end up with a blister on just one finger. If you spread it out a little bit, your fingers, your one finger won't have so much wear in Tehran. Another thing that's gonna happen is you're gonna end up developing. Its, um, blisters on the fingers on your left hand is again part of learning out of place. String instrument. It's totally natural. It actually gets less painful. The more of the blisters are on your fingers, they start to them or callouses them blisters, but they start to toughen up the skin, and the act is a bit of a protection for your finger. One of the pieces Well, which is because we have an open D string. You can play that instead of playing the fifth threat of the A string. So in our cycle you can play E g see and then the D string open that one thing to be aware of, any time you use an open string. It's gonna ring for longer than any note that you're gonna hold down. So it's and it will also tend to be a bit louder. So you have to use a bit of a lighter touch when using open strings as well as strings played on the neck. Excellent work, and we'll see in the practice video. 13. Beginner Bass Guitar Practice 3: today you're gonna work on playing four notes that make up the A section for our base part . The notes are E g see and D. We're gonna play E as the e string open g on the third fret of the e string. See, on the third fret of the A string and D on the fifth red of the A stream, Each note will be a whole note, so we'll get four clicks. One to ready. Go. Okay, 23 four Jeanne to three or see to three for de to three four. Let's try it again. One to ready Go A to three or G two three for C two three or day to 34 Now you're gonna do the same thing, but playing to half notes for each note, so each note will get two clicks. One to ready. Go okay to a to G two G two. See to see to Okay to day to let's try it again. Remember to say the names out loud as you go one to Ready Go e to be to G two. G two c two c two d two to now Let's try them as 4/4 notes. Remember to alternate your fingers back and forth on each string. One to ready. Go. Are you the G g g g? Si, si, si, si the the the D Let's try it again. One to ready. Go. Okay. The a e g g g g c c c c d the d one more time one to ready Go a the the B g d a g c c c c d j a day 14. Learn a part of the melody to connect with your bass part: I welcome back this week, we're gonna continue on working on using different rhythms in our a section base part, and also we're gonna add in apart that ties in with the melody. So the tail end of our a section melody We have a little line that connects the last chord to the first quarter. The cycle again. It's also ties in Great with another idea that I want to introduce you to this week, which is how to think a slightly ahead about what's coming while you're playing what you are in the moment. Now this is a delicate balance. If your mind is too busy focused on what's going coming up, you'll sometimes you make a mistake with what you're doing. And if you're waiting too long to anticipate what's gonna come next, you sometimes will miss your entrance. I like to use the analogy of If you drop your hat in the river and you reach down to pick it up where you dropped it, it's gone. You have to build, anticipate where it's going to be, and when you're playing in this case are a section when I'm on the E, I'm already starting to think about where I have to go for my next note. As soon as I'm on my G. I'm thinking about now. I got to get to see when I'm on. See, I'm thinking about I got to get to D. And in this case, we're gonna play it the D String Open. We're gonna add our new rift that's gonna connect the things together. The reason why we're going to use the D String open here is that it makes playing the riff that connects the two sections together much easier to play. The notes are going to be f sharp, which is gonna be played on the fourth fret of the D string with your number one finger. Then you're gonna play G on the D string, which is on the fifth Threat. Then you're gonna go back to F Sharp on the fourth Fret they were gonna play E on the D string, which is on the second fret then the d string open. So here they are again. F sharp. She f sharp. Mm de Here it is at full speed. Now, At the end of the line is E, which is the beginning of the next group of cores in the A section And we're always gonna play this song A B B when we're all done So here it is in the context of the line so deeply , e I'm gonna play G that I'm gonna play See now I'm gonna play D String open. Then I'm gonna play the line And then we're background in the beginning. One other little note about alternating your right hand fingers. This is a good example of a good place to try an alternate your pointer finger and your middle finger because the F sharp to G and back to F sharp is quite fast. See if you can try that out when you're in the practice video. All right, excellent work and we'll see you in the practice video. 15. Beginner Bass Guitar Practice 4: Now you're gonna work on alternating between old note half note and quarter note rhythms with the chord structure to start with, you're gonna play E as a whole. Note G as to half notes, see as 4/4 notes and D as 4/4 notes. 12 Ready. Go be to three or G two, g two. Seeing C c c d d the D Let's try to get one to ready. Go a to three for G two g two c b c. Seen Dean The Dean one. Do you ready? Go a to three for G two She to si si, si si Being the the thing now let's change up the rhythm by playing E as to half notes. G as 4/4 notes. See as to half notes and d as 4/4 notes. One to ready. Go Okay to to G G G G C two c two d b The the same thing again. One to ready Go A to A to g g g g See to C to d d d d again one. To ready go a to A to g g g g c two. See to the the the pain. Now you're gonna add in the end of the a melody into your base part the notes are F sure. G f sure, Hmm, De. And this ties us back into the beginning of the form. Now I want you to play F sharp on the D String on the fourth fret and G on the D string on the Fifth Threat and back to F sharp on the fourth fret of the D string, then e on the second fret of the D string and then the D String open. Let's try that slowly without the click track F sharp. She f sharp e d. Then I want you to end by playing the Big East ring open. Let's do that one more time without the click. After Sharp, she have sharp d E string open. Here's what it sounds like with the track. Now we're gonna practice that a few times by just playing this new part. Don't worry about playing the rest of the notes in the bass part. For now. Just try and play the new part. Try the same thing again. Let's try the same thing again. Now see if you can play it and play all the bass notes in the A Section one. You ready? Go 16. Learn the bass notes for the B section of the song: I welcome back to Week five based lessons this week we're gonna learn the bass notes for the B section of our song. Now, if you're not quite so sure about what a section and be sections mean, check out the Harmony video that comes before the course starts. The notes were gonna play are all the same notes that we played in the A section but in a different order. This is a really common thing in popular song. It allows us to experience the harmony in a different way. It gives the song a bit of freshness. So the notes we're gonna play RG and we're gonna play D Then we're gonna play E. But this time, instead of playing the Eastern Open, we're gonna play E on the a string, which is on the seven threat and then see on the third fret of the A string like we did before. So here those notes again G on the third fret of the e string de on the fifth threat of the a String E on the seventh fret of the a string and and see on the third fret of the A string. Now you might be wondering, Why does it matter whether we play the E string here or here? Well, they're both e. But there an octave apart. So one of them is really low and the other one is higher. And when you play bass, one of the really exciting things is you're often left to decide the shape of the base. No pattern that's going on underneath the song. And generally speaking, moving up higher in parts creates this tension before the fall. So here's what it would sound like if I didn't play it that way. So it's not wrong. It's just different. And I want you to experiment a little bit with getting used to playing the E up here before moving down to the sea. It makes a nice shape, and it also gives you a different color because we were using the open string for the E and the a section of the song. It makes the bass part in the B section of song stand out and be a little bit different again. Part of the fun of playing bass is you get to make a lot of these decisions on your own, about where you want to play it the distance. You want to travel between the notes, and so you're also gonna play along with their pre recorded track this week in the practice video. It is a great way to get used to what it's gonna feel like to play with a real band. You're gonna hear all the different parts. There's guitar, bass and drums and sometimes is gonna be saxophone playing melody and try and get used to feeling the rhythm and anticipating what's coming next, like you done so far and also seeing if you can picture yourself. Being in the band sounds like a bit of a strange thing. But when I practice apart, I'm picturing that I'm actually there with other musicians and in the jam room videos. You're actually going to really be able to do that. You're gonna see the other instruments being played and have a chance to really interact and play. And it sounds like make believe, but really it does. It does matter that you can put your yourself in your mind in your imagination into actually playing with other people. It helps later on when you really are playing with. All right, keep up the great work and we'll see in the practice video 17. Beginner Bass Guitar Practice 5: now playing bass note pattern that makes up the B section of our song. The notes are she de e and C. I want you to play the G on the third fret of the E String de on the fifth Threat of the A String. And then I want you to play E as the seventh Fred of the A string on DSI as the third fret of the A string. Let's try them asshole notes with the click Track one to Ready Go she to three for D to three or E 234 saying to 3/4 Tried again. One to ready Go g 234 d 234 b 234 c 234 Now let's try them all as half notes. One to ready go she to G two. Dean to E to e to e to see, to see. To its right again, one to ready go g two she to hey to e to e to B to C two c 21 more time. One to ready Go g two g two a to de to e to e. To see, to see to Now let's try them all those quarter notes. One to ready go g g g g the the the the B b B B C C c. Sees anything again? One to ready so G g g g g the G The B b B B C C C c. One more time one. Do you ready? Go g g g g e d d d Be the the b c c c c Now let's try playing all the notes as half notes with the track one Ready Go. - Now it's try playing all the notes is quarter notes, along with the track one go. 18. Learn the G major scale: I Welcome back. This is Week six of bass lessons. This week you're gonna be learning how to play the G major scale. The G major scale is the scale that we're gonna use throughout the entire program. It's where the bass notes come from that we've learned so far. And where the melody and the improvising that you're going to do is gonna come from as well . If you're unfamiliar with the names of the musical alphabet or sharps and flats, check out the Harmony video that comes before the course. That explains how those things work, but it gets started. We're gonna play G on the E string. But this time I want you to use your middle finger or your two finger because of what's gonna happen next. Then I want you to play the A string open. Then I want you to put your number one finger on the second fret of the A string to play be then your number two finger on the third fret of the A string to play, See then play the D string open, then play the number to fret on the D string to play E, Then play the number four Fret on the D string with your third finger f sharp and lastly, play the G String Open here Those notes again. G with your second finger on the E string on the third fret a string open first finger on the second Freddie a string, maybe second finger on the third fret of the A string to play. See? Then play the D String open and play number one finger on the second fret of the D string to play E. Then number three finger on the number four fret on the D string. Play f sharp. No, and then the G string open on the practice video. You're also going to be playing the notes backwards because, like we discovered with learning the names of the strings in music, knowing things, forwards and backwards is equally important, because when you're playing a song you're not always going to be going in one direction. You're gonna need to build to go in both directions to hear the notes going backwards. She string open F sharp d String open. See, Be a N g. You're there one more time. G string open F sharp Dean C being a she remember to keep your thumb on the back of the neck to get a good, solid grip. Keep up the great work and we'll see in the practice video. 19. Beginner Bass Guitar Practice 6: you're now gonna learn Play G major scale one octave. The notes are G, which is played on the third fret of the E String A, which is played open on the A String B, which is played on the second fret of the A string. See, which is on the third fret of the A String de, which is played open on the D String E, which is blade second. Fret on the D String F sharp, which is Blade fourth. Fret on the D String and G, which has played open on the G string. Let's try playing them as whole notes with the click track, so each note will get four beats. One to ready go g 234 a 234 d 234 c 234 d 234 e 234 f sharp 234 g 234 Let's try that again. One to ready go G two 34 a. 234 D to three or C 23 or D 234 e 234 f sharp 234 g two b four. Now let's try the notes as half notes, so each note will get two beats. One to ready go G two a to B to C two de to the do f sharp to Jeanne Moos now plea than backwards or descending as whole notes. One to ready go G 234 AP sharp to three for E 234 d 234 c 23 for D 234 a 234 G two 34 Now let's play them descending as half notes. One to ready go G to Hampshire to G to D to C to D to A to G two. Let's try it again. One to ready go, Jeanne to F Sharp to be to D to C to D to A to G two. 20. Learn how to play the A section melody: I Welcome back. This is week seven of bass lessons. This week you're gonna be learning how to play the melody to the a section of our song. When you play bass, you don't always end up in a situation where you have to play the melody. But I really believe no matter what instrument you're on, you should always have a really good understanding of the cords and harmony the bass part as well as the melody. No matter what instrument you're on, this allows you to change up the role that you're doing inside the band or if you're playing a duet with someone else, it allows you to trade off. You can play the melody, and then you could be playing the bass part and the other person be switching back and forth with you. And also it helps you to keep track of where you are inside the song when you really know the melody well and knowing the melody is also the beginning stages of getting into improvising, which is a really fun and inspiring part of playing music. To hear the notes for the melody in the A section, we're gonna start by playing be and will be again and see then the D String open. Then we're gonna go play the fifth fret of the D string, which is G Jean F Sharp e all in the D string, then e g f sharp have sharp g f sharp e d, Which is the part we learned earlier on that we added into our base part. So here the notes again being B C D g f sharp e g f sharp f sharp g f sharp b D. So in the practice video, you're gonna first work on playing. They don't slowly out of time and then along with the click track and then eventually along with the play along video. Like I said before, learning to play the melody is a great way to get deeper into knowing your song. It's eventually gonna lead you into becoming a much more versatile musician and also the knowledge that you gain learning. The melody on the base will apply to the any other instrument. You play like the guitar. If you pick up a saxophone, flute or a piano, whatever you learn, you take it with you wherever you go. Keep up the great work and we'll see in the practice video 21. Beginner Bass Guitar Practice 7: you're gonna learn notes for the a section melody They are being being C d jean f sharp knee being g nev sharp Never sharp G nev sharp Me, Dean, You're there one more time. B b c d Jean f sharp me e g ing Nashar f sharp g nev sharp ni de. Now you're going to try playing them with the click track one to ready. Go be B C d de. I'm sure me the g after FRG after e d Tried again. One to ready Go! Hey B c d g N f sharp me the g f sharp f sharp g f sharp e d Now let's try playing the melody along with the track. 12 Ready? Go! - Let's try that one more time. One to ready Go. 22. Learn how to play the B section melody: I Welcome back. This is Week eight of based lesson This week you're gonna be learning how to play the melody for the B section of our song. Now we're gonna play the whole B section Melody on one string. This is a good way in contrast, toe how we played the melody for the a section where we moved from string the string This one's going to require us to move along One string forwards and backwards It's easier in some ways because your right hand and left hand don't have to be is coordinated moving up and down this way But it means we have to move a little faster in order for all the notes to go together. So here are the notes We're gonna play E, which is on the second fret of the D string. Then we're gonna play f sharp on the fourth fret of the D string. And I want you to use your first finger here because the very next note right away is G, which is in the fifth fret of the D string. Then we're gonna play she again g one more time than back to f sharp. Then we're gonna play G f sharp e than two D's back to E. You hear those notes again in F sharp g g g half sharp g F sharp e d D e. Now one of the things that makes the B melody tricky is the entrance. So in the a section melody, the first note began at the beginning of the first bar of the A section That be section begins just before the first bar of the D section. So in the practice video, there's going to be account in off four Beats, which is one bar plus three more. And then the melody will begin. Now, when you get the backing track, we're going to get rid of the extra bar and just have a three beat count in which will work like this one, 23 and do that one more time. 123 Now playing. This takes a little bit getting used to, because in the track there's going to be a stop of the whole band. And in the space that happens, there is where the melody takes over, and at first this can feel a little bit like walking on a tightrope with no net, but it's a good feeling once you get comfortable with it. So make sure to try it lots and just be patient and keep going with the practice videos. Great work and we'll see you in the practice video. 23. Beginner Bass Guitar Practice 8: now you're gonna learn that he section melody The notes are e f sharp G g g F Sharp Jean F . Sharp, E Dean D. E. Here The notes. One more time being f sharp g g g have sharp she f sharp e d d e One of the trickiest parts of the B melody is entering in the right place. The melody begins in a pickup bar, so we're going to count four beats and then three more. And then the melody will come in. For example. 12 three, four! 12 three e f sharp g Here it is One more time. One, 2341 to three e After g Now in the backing track, there's just going to be the three beat pickup. 123 Let's try that one more time. 12 three 24. Learn how to play a one octave G major scale on one string: I am. Welcome back. This is Week nine of bass lessons. This week you're gonna be working on playing a one octave G major scale on the G string. So it's a little different than last time when we learned the G major scale where we were crossing over all the strings but keeping your left hand in one location. Now we're gonna be playing up and down the G string, but using different finger rings and changing the location on the neck. Now, a little small thing to keep in mind. You want toe, bring your some along the neck along the back at the same rate as your pointer finger. So you're moving in a pair like this. We're gonna start by playing the G string open, Then put your number one finger on the second fret, lay a Now move your number one finger up to the fourth fret to play. Be now way to play the fifth threat with your second finger, which is See that I want you to put your number one finger on the seventh. Fret by D Now put your number one finger on the ninth threat and play e now, but you're number one finger on the 11th threat and play F sharp. Put your number two finger on the 12th fret and play the high G. Were those notes again? G a Being saying day their e f sharp g on the practice video. We're also going to be playing this scale descending starting on the 12th threat. So start on the 12 threat with your second finger and play G no. Go down to your first finger on the 11th fret plate f sharp and move your first finger down to the ninth threat and play eat and down to the seventh radically de now put your second finger on the fifth threat and play. See you your first finger on the fourth fret and plate B and first finger on the second fret and play a and then open G uh, being comfortable playing your major scales up and down on one string and also across all the strings is a really important skill. And when we get into more improvising and soloing, it's a great way to explore the sounds, because when you're playing on one string, you can do things like sliding between notes either up or down, and you can also do hammer on and hammer offs, which you can't do when you're going between two strings, so it allows you to be more expressive. It does have some limitations, because when you have to jump from one string or sorry from one friend to another on the same string, the base has a really long necks. So there's it takes a certain amount of time, so it's good to be able to do both. Keep up the great work and we'll see in the practice video. 25. Beginner Bass Guitar Practice 9: Now you're gonna learn how to play a one octave G major scale. Begin by playing the G String Open, then play a on the second fret and then the on the fourth fret. See on the fifth fret. D on the seventh fret E on the ninth. Fret F sharp on the 11th. Fret and Jeanne on the 12th. Fred. Let's try that one more time. G string open a on the second fret. Be on the fourth friend. See on the fifth Threat D on the seventh Fret E on the ninth. Fret f sharp on the 11th threat on G on the 12th. Fret. Now let's try the whole scale as whole notes. One to ready go She 234 a 234 Be 234 c 234 d 234 me. 234 f sharp 234 Jean 234 Now let's try it with each note as 1/2 note. 12 ready Go G two day, too being to see, to be to being to f Sharp do genes to try that one more time. 12 Ready? Go! Jean to a two teen to see to to being Teoh F Sure do Gene. Now let's try it with each note is 1/4 note One click for each note. One to ready. Go Jiaying a being seeing me. Me f sharp jeans tried again. 12 Ready? Go! Jean being being seeing bean pain F shirt, jeans ring again. 12 Ready? Go! G a being seen dean mean Meshbesher Jean Now we're gonna try the scale descending as whole notes one to ready Go Jean 234 f sharp. 234 Jane, 234 Teen 234 c 234 being too 34 a 234 g 234 Now let's try the scale Descending as half notes. One to ready. Go, Jeanne to F shirt too. Being too Thio Thio be to a do G dude Tried again. 12 Ready? Go! Jean do f sharp dude a to d Do see too. Be to a dude G two now we're gonna play it descending as quarter notes. One to you. Ready? Go! G f turn! Need being C B being jean last time. 12 Ready? Go, Jiaying Every turn being dean. See being being June. Now we're gonna try it. Ask sending and descending as quarter notes. 12 Ready go, Jean saying, Being seeing the being F shirt. Jean Jean, after being Dean, see being day jeans again. 12 Ready. Go G A B c b Being after jean being after being D C B A. 26. Learn how to take your first solo: I welcome back. This is Week 10 of bass lessons. This week we're going to get into one of my favorite things about music, which is improvising at the improvised or take a solo. It's something that comes naturally to all of us. It's just simply expressing emotions and feelings through sound and musical language in the moment. Now, if you don't have much experience with this or none at all, which might be the case, it's totally okay. We all had to start at the beginning. It's a lot like learning how to speak a language and express yourself in it. There's a big difference between learning how toe read and write a language, and to be able to freely express yourself in that language, think of Children for a moment, and when they're learning to speak a language, they're often unable toe have enough vocabulary to really express what they're feeling, and they struggle with it a bit. It can be a little bit frustrating when you're starting out improvising. It can feel a little bit like this when you're really just in the beginning stages, but I encourage you toe be brave and bold and stick with it and really try and continue on with it until you start to feel comfortable. So in this week's practice video, you're gonna be improvising sometimes in first position, with the G major scale starting on the E string and other times I'm gonna get you to improvise just on the G string, using the G major scale one octave going up and down the G string. And then at the end of the practice video, I want you to practice playing the melodies for both the A and the B sections by yourself, without the saxophone part being in the recording as well. All right, great work, and we'll see in the practice video. 27. Beginner Bass Guitar Practice 10: this week, you're gonna work on improvising with G major scale over both the A and B sections of the song. First, try improvising using just the G string with the G major scale one to ready. Go now try improvising using the G major scale in first position with G On the third fret of the e string one to ready Go now try playing the melodies to both the A and B sections on your own with the track one to ready, Go a second time. Go be Melanie. One go the second time. 28. Learn how to connect your bass parts to each section of the song: I Welcome back. This is week 11 of bass lessons. This week we're going to start putting all of our pieces together is we get near the end of the program. Now that we're playing the full form of the song, which is a a B B, we're gonna add a couple little things to complete the form and also talk about how you can do different things in different parts of the form, depending on the size of the band and the different musicians that you might be playing with. So to start out with, let's add our last few pieces to connect the second a to the first be we're gonna play three g bass notes and then there's gonna be a stop. So here's how the 1st 2 days we're gonna sound e see, de, they were gonna play G g g and stop now to do this Stop. You're gonna play your note G, and then you can let it go and use the rest your fingers to mute the strings. It's important that this stop happens to create the space for the melody and the B section to begin now, in the end of the second be we're gonna add Aguilas well, the very last time to end the song. So here are the to be sections with the ending G de e Minor, See second time G de e Minor C with a G and Stop. And that's how the whole song ends now in terms of what we call arranging, which is what's happening in the a section than the second day in the first B In the second , be has a lot to do with how many musicians you're playing with and what instruments they're playing. For example, if I'm playing bass and I'm in a band that has bass drums, guitars, saxophones, flutes, piano, there may not really be a need for me is the bass player to ever play the melody? So I may be playing just the bass parts all the way through and maybe taking a solo somewhere. But if I'm playing a duet with, say, a guitar, it would be great if on one of the sections I played the melody, so I might play the bass part for the first day and then play the melody in the second day . Well, the guitar player plays the melody in the first a and placed chords in the second day, just a Zen example. So that's why being really comfortable with all the different parts of the melody, the bass part, and understanding the form really helps you construct your own way of playing this song or any song. And how you arrange things is a really personal thing between you and the other people you're playing with. And the fun exciting thing about music is you can make it up different every time you get together to play. All right, keep up the great work and we'll see in the practice video. 29. Beginner Bass Guitar Practice 11: you're gonna work on playing the bass notes for the A section and the B sections and playing the melodies for the A section in the B section. First, play the bass notes for a a B B 12 Ready Go now play the melody for a a B B one to Ready Go. 30. Learn how to connect your bass parts to each section of the song: I and welcome to a week 12 of bass lessons in the music Coach program. You made it. Here we are at the end of the program. I want to say a huge congratulations to you for getting all the way through to the end of this program. You've just mastered a really important skill that goes way beyond music, which is the ability to follow through. And it's something that will serve you no matter what you do from here on out. Learning how to take things in small pieces and follow through on the action and get a little bit better each day is what takes you from knowing nothing about music. To be able to play as many instruments and styles as you want to be able to play in this file weeks lesson, you're gonna work on putting together all of the different elements which are playing the bass parts for the A sections and be sections. The melodies for the A sections and be sections and improvising using the G major scale. And that could be the one octave G major scale on the G string or the first position G scale that starts on the E string and I really want encourage you to get into the jam room and try the videos. And if at all possible, see if you can get together with some friends and actually place a music together. And remember that that's really what the point of all this program is about. It is to get you ready to make music with other real people in real time. One last thing I wanted to talk a little bit about was volume and projection, which is on the base a unique thing because the bass frequencies are so low that they travel in a very different way than all of the other frequencies from the other instruments . So try and be sensitive to how loud you're keeping your amplifier and the volume on your bass guitar. It could be a little misleading. You might be standing right next to your amp and feel like it's not very loud, but it's actually projecting differently out into the room than you might think. So walk around a little bit if you can. If you're cables long enough to check out the sound, nothing we want to talk about this week is matching up your rhythm with the kick drum on the drum kit. Now the relationship between the bass player and the especially the kick drum of the drum kit is one of the most intimate musical relationships there is in a popular song because the kick drum and the bass, if they're playing the same rhythms, are holding something that we just call a musical pocket. It's like a tightly knit musical relationship, so I want you to start listening for the kick drum pattern that's being played on the drums . Now in this program, in the a section is very simple. It's just kick kick. It's going on the first beat and the third beat of every bar. When you get to the B section, it's going kick, kick, kick. Okay, kick, kick. So an example of how I might want to lock up with that in the B section is to play like this base base, base, base, base base. I want you to listen for that, not only in the song that we're playing, but in music in general and start to become aware of that relationship between the kick drum and the bass guitar. Again, a huge congratulations on coming to the end of the program, and I'm so happy to have helped you get going on this great musical journey. A police keep continuing on, and we'll see in the practice video. 31. Beginner Bass Guitar Practice 12: gonna work on playing different things in different sections of our song. In the first a play the Bass notes as quarter notes. Then play the melody in the second day, then play base notes in the first Be part, Then play the melody in the second. Be part section one to ready Go Now try doing the opposite. Play the melody in the first a, then play bass notes in the second day and Melody and the first Be and bass notes in the second Be This Time without the melody being played in the track. One to ready Go now try taking a solo over the whole form 12 Ready go. 32. Jam Room Slow 60bpm: 33. Jam Room Medium 80bpm: 34. Jam Room Fast 100bpm: 35. Welcome to the Music Coach Duo Series: either. It's taught the music coach, and I'm so excited to invite in my good friend and colleague Kenny Kirkwood to come into the music coach studio to help with the special duo Siri's. Now. You may not know this. Makeni was one of my first music teachers, and he's been a mentor and I've taught at his music school. He played gigs and recordings together, and I'm so excited to have thanks a lot for having me. And that's Boston to be here. And, you know, I'm really proud of everything you've done. I think music coaches a great program, so so many of the lessons that I've worked on a year over the years. You've already got done here. So, you know, thanks for having me for the duo sessions, especially because for me, I remember starting out practicing solo for a long time. But there's nothing like getting to the duo century, actually making other people. So enjoy the program. Call up a friend, and no matter what levels your you'll be able to work it out 36. Bass Piano 1: way. Uh, that's a nice court. I like that G chord on G scale. I feel very comfortable to me. Yeah, so we're starting out with just a really basic level improvising and a duet between the bass and the piano. And the bass and piano have a lot of ground in common in terms of the note, so it could be a really powerful thing to play together. And traditionally it gives the piano player a nice break because the piano player, when there's no bass player, is usually playing on Lee accompaniment because it has the range. But as soon as you have a base involved, it frees up the piano player to think about playing a piano differently. So what is something we do? You think, Well, you're exactly right on with the with the left hand. Usually I'm playing. But he's taking care of that rule now, so my left hand becomes Accord player. Just play a court here might be in a level of clothes cord made, and then that frees up my right hand to explore simple melodies. And at first I just was playing simple door Amy stuff just actually repeated the G itself a lot time, a long time so that it would help us really anchor to what it's like. We're building G train station before we before we leave the station, right? So were you really established with your friend like that that you run the same culture in the same keys and you can practice up your scale so you know, and make sure that you know you're got the right notes visually ready to go for the trip. Yeah, and in a beginner level with playing in a duo as a bass player, I'm thinking a lot of Oh, just sticking on the lowest G that I can play because sound really works a lot the same way that gravity does in the universe. So, like the sun is the heaviest thing in our solar system and everything is spinning around it . And if the sun all of a sudden wasn't the heaviest thing anymore that every planet's rotation would change, everything would change about sore system. So I don't I don't have to think about being super busy. It's just sort of again laying that foundation where were are years and everything are kind of centering around this idea in a place of different rhythms. So we hear the G as if it's the son and the other planets would be like the other notes the Raman adult, the door aid the Remy fall. So la ti and eso as he's as the base players laying down the sun, frees me up. I feel like I'm on a spaceship flying around to different planets. Thuh end of usually at the beginning and ending of ah, beginner improv the You gotta want to start on G and we're gonna wanna and on me on G so that it's, uh, it's like you've come full circle back home. And what were largely doing is something called a soundscape, which is like painting a picture but very abstract. So we might be painting with both hands and shapes and circles and sort of coloring outside the lines so you don't have to think too much about do I know enough to be ableto to make music with another person. It's just a matter of making a sound and reacting and listening and expressing your feelings through sound, and that doesn't have to be all that complicated 37. Bass Piano 2: way, way, Theo. Way. All right. So this example, we've added some or intermediate elements off playing. Ah, predictable court progression were just using two chords and moving back and forth between them. And what this does is it allows us both to express over top of a structure. And this is the simple structure. You can make it to court structure. And when you're doing this at home, you can sort of make it doesn't even matter what the cords are. You pick. As long as you both agree on what you're gonna be playing, it's all you need to do. So anyone. You tell him a little bit about the court pleading for Well, each chord lasted for two bars. We have geek or way, way todo two bars of Jean. Two bars of C get these building blocks and we just keep putting them back and forth. And it's a lot of fun. It's simple. You can always slow it down if you're not ready for the rhythm or it's moving too fast on. It's always okay to just play the sound breathing. Just listen to it without any rhythm, you know, and, uh, and then left wait a second that way, As a piano player, I could actually just play those cores like that. And Todd could take a turn exploring his scale notes. In that last example, I was exploring my beginner level melodies, using a lot of repetition and trying to stay relaxed. Yeah, and in this example will do an even simpler version where we're going to switch back and forth between the G chord in the C chord. But we're not gonna be counting the bars or anything, can he's just gonna que me. So I'm gonna watch him. And when he does use me a que were just that's gonna be the q b moved to the next court try , right? Yeah, keep it a simple as you need Teoh and as a bass player, The nice thing the base has a nice little box in the key of G. So you may have heard that I was playing some other notes other than GNC, but I was just using the notes from the G scale. So I was going playing a G, and then sometimes just playing a on my way up to see and then before going back to G. Sometimes I would add a D and base gives you this opportunity toe sort of. You have these two places in time, and you get to connect them in your own unique way, and you can make variations on them. And whether you move up or down creates these feelings of lifting or sinking down, you have a lot of power and bass player, one of my favorite You may have heard of Bank called the Police and there was a guy playing bass and it was named Sting. Good nickname. Rock Norman. But he always people used to ask is he was a really good guitar player to They said, How come you didn't want to play guitar in the police? And he always said, Because when I play a C, it's a C chord, and if I play different notes, it's not a secret anymore. And he liked to have the power off of deciding what harmonically, because he's the heaviest thing in the universe. Andi has got the most amount of say, and he was the one writing the songs, and I always think of that quote when I playing bass, it's really that's a good one. Not a lot of glitz and glamour to playing bass, but in terms of how important it is, it's really important to what's actually happening in the Army. 38. Bass Piano 3: - way . - Thanks , man. Trade back and forth. So in this video, we're adding a few more advanced concepts about playing a longer court structures. And now we've got a forecourt structure, is moving by a little bit faster and were also trading back and forth. And this, between bass and piano creates a really interesting opportunity in terms of the sound and where we each play when each other is soloing. So can you want to explain what the corporation that we played was and how it works? Sure, the court progression was four chords C g c g D G C G D. And I really pay some. Memorize these court progressions I find over the years like I'd be dreaming on a bus or something are waiting in a line up. And sometimes our brains get all frustrated with with worried about other other things, you know, and sometimes you can't just can't do anything about that. But I became a much better musician by using my thinking speed wisely, my thinking time wisely and finding those times when I'm away from my instrument that could memorize these structures. So as an advanced level player, uh uh, this is a great core progression to use because it's using a lot of songs, and so it's quite straight ahead that way. Excellent. Now, in terms of queuing each other and understanding form, it's really important toe sort it out ahead of time so that you know what to look for when you're queuing someone else. So in this example, I knew that Kenny was gonna be soloing first. So while he's soloing, I'm aware that at some point he's gonna be flipping it back over to me. And then also, when I'm finished soloing, I'm thinking about how I gotta I can't just stop. I have to be thinking about where the ending is and how to flip it back. It's kind of like switching roles the same way that four actors who have to play eight parts might do on a stage. You know, when when an actor was backstage and now you come back out of something else, you have to switch rules. And so, traditionally, if I'm playing with if I don't have a bass player in the band in my left hand eyes, you, Gino for the base? No. But since I have a bass player. I can free up my left hand to play the chords in my right hand to play melodies up here. So usually I'm exploring melodies there found within the chords themselves. So if I play my G voicing just basically switched to the reward shape, that's all I'm thinking about. And then I'm just are Pesci ating off of the nose there in the courtroom, So my role changes when Todd starts to solo, he's got a low register instrument, so his notes are all down here. So when he took his solo, I ended up playing something that was lightened soft up here so he could really stand out because our job, as's friends and as musicians is to support each other. This is especially important when you have a singer. Anyone who might be singing either 11 of us could be singing as well as playing and the voices particularly fragile and the softest instrument in any band. So always make sure that even whatever instrument you're playing, you can hear the voice and you're not making that person shout too hard. Otherwise, tuning can be really affected for the voice they have to push, too hard a good thing to I can't remember who told to me and I have been a band teacher. But they said, Always think of whatever the quietest instrument is, and if you can hear it, then you're not playing too loud. But if you can't hear it your place, so it's kind of a simple thing. I always think, What's the quietest instrument in the band and can I hear? 39. 7 key steps to starting a band: I'm Todd, the music coach. And right now we're going to talk about how to start a band with either your friends or family. Playing music with other people is truly the richest experience you can have in music. So it's a great goal when you're just starting to learn an instrument to try and bring more people in. It's the same. If you play a sport you're gonna wanna do with your friends, you're gonna wanna do with your family and social time, a way to really express yourself. So unfortunately, for a lot of people they have no experience with how to put a band together, how to make it function properly. In a way, a bands no matter who's in it, is like a little mini tribe. And there are dynamics between people and how people communicate to each other that are important. There's also some accountability which is great to learn in terms of if you're deciding on some goals, like we're gonna learn the songs, everybody has to go out on their own and learn their own thing and come back and be accountable to the group that they're in. The first step is to choose what instruments and what kind of banded is you'd like to have. Some big decisions that you're going to want to make right away is, what do you want to have a drum kit, for example, depending on the style you want to play. Now, a drum kit is an amazing instrument, but you may not have the physical space or the ability in terms of volume to play music that loud. And a full drum kit also influences. For example, if you're gonna play an acoustic guitar with a drum kit, it's very limited how loud you can play on the drum kit without having to have the guitar amp through a guitar, through an amplifier. So that's sort of 1 first big decision you have to make. Then beyond that, you might want to think about what kind of style of music you're moved by and what kind of instruments maybe are already in that style of music. So if your favorite band is made up of, you know, electric guitars and bass and drums. And it's big and it's allowed us raucous, and that's what you wanna do. Then you probably want to organize yourself in a way where those instruments are part of the picture. But if on the other hand, you're like, I really like, you know, classical woodwind instruments. You know, I like flute and clarinet and oboe. And so those are things to think about and finding friends and family who can share a common vision of what kind of music you want to do is your first step. Once you're into choosing instruments, it's important to make sure that they're divided up in a way that will allow you to make good music and have everybody's voice be clearly heard. So you may find out that you've got two people who really want to play guitar and you might be able to make that work. What has to happen then is you have to adjust what parts everybody's playing so you can hear each other properly. But you may decide that, you know, somebody else really wants to play the guitar and I kinda wanna play the guitar, but I've always thought about playing the bass or I've always thought about playing the saxophone. And it's a chance to challenge yourself and move into new instruments. The great thing about learning second, third instruments, if you already know one, is that all of the musical knowledge that you've gained on the first instrument comes with you to the second one. So it's never really like starting over. And the more instruments you learn, the easier they get to learn, because you're just taking more and more information with you to the next experience. Just like with your own personal practice habits. Having goals as a band is really important. And every band has different goals, even professional ones. So if you may have a goal where you say, I really want to be able to play at a talent show at my school in a year. Like we, that's our, that's our goal, that's what we wanna do. Or I want to be able to play at this fundraiser or maybe the goal is I just want us to be able to once a month get together and perform just for ourselves and the songs that we really, really like. Or we want to be able to play together on holidays. Or there's certain colony music we really want to be able to play whatever those goals are. It's important to just have them be clear and have everyone understand what they are so that everyone can draw their focus and attention towards getting yourself to those goals. It's also important to make time to reset your goals when you get to where you wanna go, don't just stop. Go. Well, now that we're here, where do we wanna go next? Whether you're in an amateur band or professional band, it doesn't really matter. Scheduling time for your own practice is equally important as scheduling time for the bands practice. One of my teachers has a great saying that I love. He always told me, said, a rehearsal is not where you go to learn your part. It's where you go to learn everyone else's part. So in that sense, when you come into a rehearsal, you should already know the parts that you're going to play, at least to a general level so that you can see how they plug in and go together. And for that to happen, you'll need to schedule time on your own to practice. And generally speaking, the ratio of rehearsal time to practice time is somewhere around two to one. So if you're planning on having a half an hour rehearsal, you're probably going to need a half an hour to an hour of total practice time to make yourself ready for that rehearsal. And change a little bit depending on, you know, you might choose a song that you actually really know. So you don't really need to do too much to get ready. But as a general rule, you want to keep that in mind. Scheduling time for the band to rehearse, and also picking a place for that to happen is the next key step. The location is really important because you're going to want to be in a place where you can make the amount of noise that your band is going to be making comfortably so that you're not disturbing your neighbors or other people who aren't involved in your musical project. So a couple options are, you've heard of the classic ones. You know, garages can be great if you have one because it's usually a separate from the house enough that you can make a little more noise of the bothering people. Basements tend to be pretty good for the same reason because most of it is underground. If you are in an urban area, it can be very challenging because so many apartments and buildings are close together. But there are rehearsal rooms that you can rent by the hour, and they often have everything you need in them to play. They'll have a full drum kit. They'll have guitar amps, base amps, they'll have keyboards, even they'll have a sound system with microphones if you want to sing. And you pay by the hour. So you sometimes pay about $15 an hour and you just walk in and you play as loud as you want. They're usually soundproofed and made in a way that you can play as loud as you want. So it's a good option. And if you have three or four people together, if everybody chips in a little bit of money and you're doing it once a week or once every two weeks. It's not that expensive and it's a nice option. Scheduling the time for rehearsal is similar to scheduling your own practice time. You're going to want to check in with everybody about what their schedules are and when ideal times r. And depending on what stage of life you're in, this is going to have a huge difference if you're planning on starting a band with a bunch of 16 year-olds like year 16 and all your friends are that age. You have different schedules than somebody who's in their forties or fifties. So you want to think about when it's going to make the most sense for everybody and when it can be convenient, where everybody can be present and focused and enjoy the process and not be waking up too early, going to bed too late, trying to rush there in a real hurry. Inevitably, in any kind of tribal situation or band situation, there are gonna be conflicts. People have strong opinions about music and about their own parts, and about how the music should go and should fit together. So it's good to have a plan in place for how to resolve those conflicts. And when he combined this plan with a general sense of an agreement between people about how to communicate in conflict, this can alleviate a lot of unnecessary tension. A really simple example I'll give you is, if you're playing a part that I don't like and I communicate to you in a way that implies that I'm also not liking you at the same time. You're going to feel defensive as soon as I talk, even if my eyes, even if you agree with the idea, you're probably going to defend yourself because you're like, Hey, you're telling me you don't like me. And this is just primal human to human stuff. So learning how to talk about the music without talking about the person is a really important skill. And if you think about the language you're using, you can really become skilled at this and say, I'm feeling like the part that you're playing isn't fitting together with this other part over here. As opposed to, I don't like what you're playing because it's not working with this. So I'm talking about the same thing, but you can probably feel even through the video, there's a different energy to it. And how everyone communicates has to be carefully negotiated so that everyone feels safe and they can really express themselves clearly. Because ultimately you got to remember that making music together as a very vulnerable experience. And people need to feel like they can take chances and that it's safe. And one last thing, also, remember to take the time to really cheer each other on, makes a huge difference if somebody speaks up about something that you're doing in a positive way, this doesn't have to be manufactured or phony. But if you hear someone playing something and you're really digging in and it's like you're feeling it may start to tell them like that's a great, you're like you're playing that amazing and like what you came up with his sounds great. And I'm really digging in. This kind of positive real reinforcement just creates this sense of everybody is rowing the boat together in the same direction, which is part of what makes playing in a band feel so amazing. You feel like you're part of a team and everybody's working together towards the same goal. So learning how to do that is also important. You may come from a cultural background or a family background where there just wasn't a lot of encouragement. So I know you have to use something that sometimes you have to cultivate and learn how to do. But it's really important and it makes a huge difference in the sense of togetherness that you have in a band. 40. General gear guide: Music coach. And this is a bonus feature where I'm going to talk about some general tools that every instrumentalist should have with them. They're not very expensive, but they're gonna make a huge difference to the quality of your practice. And also if you're rehearsing with other musicians, the things I got in front of me are two different music stands and a tuner and a metronome. So first, let's talk about the music stands. There are two basic types. This one is a solid music stand. It does fold up. They're a little bit more expensive, but there are a lot more practical to use, especially if they're just going to live at your house. I'd recommend spending a little more money getting something that's a little more durable. Because the other option are these wire foldable stands, which are great for traveling with. But because they're not solid, things can fall through the screws and everything on them are usually a little bit cheap and it'll sometimes bend easily. So the difference in price, these wire ones are going to be sort of 20 to $30. These are going to be closer to a $100. But in the long run, I recommend getting a good solid music stand. If you're going to be in one location. A chromatic tuner. If you're playing an instrument where pitch is going to be an issue, which is almost every single instrument, with the exception of the drum kit and the piano. You're gonna need to know whether you're playing sharp or flat and how to make adjustments. And the only real way to do that is with a chromatic tuner. These will cost you around $30 and they have basic functionality. They take a AAA battery. One nice thing that's happened in the last few years is most apps stores for smart phones have some kind of a free tuner. And even for like a dollar or two, you can buy a more advanced version. So if you don't feel like having a physical one, I have owned these for a long time, so I've got them. You can download something to your smart phone and make sure to use it to be constantly checking in to see where you're at or you playing sharp or flat and certain registers. And a note for guitar players, you might think that a guitar tuner, which is something that's sold in stores, would be the right thing for a guitar or bass. And in fact, the guitar tuner isn't really useful at all because it's always checking to see what string you're on. It's trying to figure out, are you on the sixth string, on the fourth string. And we actually want us to be able to know is that string I'm playing, playing the right note. The other reason this is important is if your guitar gets really at a tune, a guitar tuner won't really give you a relative sense of where you are. You'll have to get a close before it's even usable. So I don't even recommend ever even buying a guitar tuner. Metronomes track time. And this one looks like the same as the chromatic tuner, but it basically is set, you can set it to how many beats per minute. Which a simple way to think of it as 60 beats per minute is like the second hand on a clock, because it's 60 clicks in a minute. And if you had a 120 beats per minute, you'd have two clicks for every second. A good metronome, we'll have a couple of important features. You want to make sure you get one that has the ability to plug headphones into it. Especially if you're a drummer, because the speaker on this is never going to be loud enough for you to hear it while you're playing drums or even to be honest, playing most instruments. So you want something with a headphone adapter and you also wanna make sure that you have something where you can easily change the tempo. So they all have the ability to change the tempo, but some of them will go up in increments of three or four. Just make sure it's something that you can adjust the tempo evenly. And last but not least, it's important to have one that you can clearly, visually see as well, that it's easy to see the display because sometimes when you're playing, you're going to want to just check and check on visually where you're at in terms of the time. And much like the tuner, you can download these off of most apps stores, there's almost always a free one. Sometimes they're not great. But for a dollar or two, you can upgrade and get a more advanced metronome, which will work great. And this is going to cost you about $30. So a dollar or two on an app store to upgrade the free version is often what I recommend for my students. 41. How to create a furtile musical home: I'm Todd, the music coach, and welcome to this video where we're going to talk about how to create a fertile ground for a musical home to grow. I'm sure that you've had the experience of walking into someone else's house for a party or a holiday. And it seems like everyone is musical, like people picking up guitars and sitting at pianos and singing along. And it just seems like it's all natural and it's happening and it's really beautiful. And you may have wondered like, how does that happen? How do those homes happen? And unfortunately, you might think, well, those people are, that's a musical family. And their, their musical, and I'm not, and that's the reason why we don't have that. And that's a complete and total lie. The truth behind it is that those people found a way to create a fertile ground for people to feel safe and express themselves and challenge themselves and set goals so that they could play music together. And they probably did all of this without even really knowing that that's what they were doing. So I'm going to lay it out free, explain how this actually happens. So in my family home, there were no musicians. My parents loved music, but they didn't play. I didn't grow up watching people play. And both my brother and I ended up being professional musicians. So you might go, How did that happen? And there were a lot of things that my parents did that I think they didn't even realize that they were doing. One really simple thing is we listened to music and we talked about what we liked about it. And hearing them share that with me was really invaluable. And we took long car rides. We would listen to, I know that my parents, there was an oldies stations that they really liked, which was like fifties and sixties rock. And we had dialogues about like who is that artists and when did you first hear that? And they would share stories with me about where they were when they heard that song or what kind of meaning it had to them. So a great way to set this up for yourself is in your own home, you can initiate it. And a great way to do it is to allow everyone a chance, even if you've got little people in your life to share a piece of music that they feel moved by. And feeling moved by music can be all sorts of different feelings. It doesn't have to just make B the song makes me feel happy. It can be this song makes me feel sad or the song makes me feel like agitated, or it's just what you're looking for, something that makes you feel something. And a good forum for that is to go to the living room and decide that we're going to we're going to spend a half an hour doing this and everybody gets to pick one song. You might wanna set some ground rules where, you know there's not gonna be any songs with any swearing editor inappropriate, whatever for your family, you feel as appropriate. And then while you put your song on, everybody agrees to be in silence and really listening. And this just developed so much good ability, not just for music, but just the ability to sit for three to five minutes at a time and really listen to what's going on around you is such an important life skill that will really have a huge impact on everyone. And you might want to set some other very simple ground rules, which is, it's like the everything I learned, I learned in kindergarten, which is if you don't have anything nice to say, you don't have to say anything. It's better not to say something really negative. Because. People are sharing something that means something to them. And learning how to have that dialogue is important to be able to say, it's not to my taste, instead of it's socks or I don't like that song or it's the same way that we teach each other how someone prepares a beautiful meal for you and it's something you don't like to eat. You can talk to them about that in a way that's not going to hurt their feelings in music is the same way. You can then expand on this game by adding in some other artistic elements. One really fun one that I like to do is do the same thing, put on a piece of music. Everyone gets to bring something that they feel moved by. And everybody just takes a piece of paper and during that time, they just draw or sketch something that they feel is connected to their experience of that music. And then everybody can share that with each other and talk about, well, I shaded this thing this way because it made me feel good to think of a cloud, or it made me think of a tree, or it made me think of this or that. And again, it's, it's an exercise in not being critical. It's just expressing yourself through art while listening at the same time. And another variation of it can be to do the same thing of having a listening circle and have everyone write down an idea for a short story. Something that they either through the lyrics, if it has that kind of thing in it or if it's instrumental, just talk about ice. You know, I'm seeing a story about somebody walking their dog in the woods when I hear this. And again, as long as no one is being harsh with each other about it, it's a really neat window into how we all experience music differently. Making time to watch movies that are about famous musicians are famous music is also another great way to help get a really fertile ground for music going in your own home. There are tons of great documentaries about all sorts of things, about the backup musicians in Motown or you know, even about famous composers like Mozart and Johnny Cash and Ray Charles. You can watch and discuss and talk about what their music, the music of that artist, or what the story of that musician, how it, what you thought about it and what it meant to you. The more you share your own experience with other people about how music moves you, the more it grows inside of you and more passion that you have for it with all of us traveling and car so much these days. Another great musical fertilization that you can do is to plan on having music on car trips and really having people listen for a lot of us. Actually, the best stereo that you're going to own is going to be in your car. Car stereos are usually quite high-quality, So it's a great way to experience music. One thing that's happened, unfortunately, as we've gotten into more individual devices of smartphones and mean it started with Walkmans and CD players and things like that is we tend to experience music isolated. Each person will have earphones in and be in their own world experiencing music, which in a way is great. It's nice to have some personal time with music. But one of the things we've really lost is the connection and the sharing of our joy with each other. So trying to set that up on, on travel, times together with your family can be great or with your friends and just talking about and sharing it and letting everybody have a turn with the stereo and okay. 42. How to create a sucessfull practice routine: Hi, I'm Todd, the music coach. And in this video, I'm going to be talking about how to set yourself up for long-term success when you're practicing music and learning an instrument. The biggest challenge I've found, not only for me personally, but for most of my students. It's not the technical requirements of whatever instrument they are playing, or even how much innate ability that they have when they start. The biggest challenge people have with consistently making progress in music has to do with their practice habits. And for most of us, we have a negative reaction to that idea. Even practice habits, discipline these things. We feel like we get tense about it. And adjusting your relationship to those ideas will open you up to being able to fully embrace all of your abilities and really take giant leaps forward in your playing. I know for me personally, I realized early on I had to change my relationship to what I thought practicing meant, how it worked, what I thought discipline meant. And I had to really re-frame in my mind what it meant to play an instrument. This has a lot to do with where the way we're, we're perceive learning a musical instrument and society unfortunately is largely negative. You've probably seen this mostly what you get fed in the outer surroundings is that some people have talent and some people don't have talent. And when you go to a concert and you watch someone play, you think, well, they're just have it. And that's why they sound amazing. And this doesn't in any way reflect reality. It may be that they had some natural ability, but there's thousands of hours that went into what you're seeing when you see someone performing in a professional context. Then the question becomes, well, how did they get from not playing it all to having the discipline and the patients and learning the right things to get all the way through that process. And although musicians will give you a variety of different answers, I think the best way to do it is to find a healthy way that's realistic and is repeatable. So what first key to having real success in your practicing is to set goals. Because like anything else in life, if you have an idea of where you wanna go, It's a lot easier to tell where you are in that journey. Rather than just a loose idea of like, I want to learn how to play this instrument. And if you have that thought and it just sort of dissipates out into the air. When things get difficult, you're more likely to quit because it's like, where am I in the middle of that journey? As opposed to you could say, my goal is I want to, for example, I want to play the piano and I want to learn how to play these three songs in the next year. And he may have no idea how you're gonna do it, but even just having that goal is going to help propel you along. And when you hit rough patches, you can check in with yourself and your goals and you go, Am I doing the things that I need to get to my goal? A good goal to think about when you're playing a musical instrument is how to get to a place where you can make music with other people. Music throughout human history has always been a community event. It's only in the last few 100 years that it's sort of moved into conservatories and into school settings. And we've isolated from each other. And somehow we've lost the idea that the point of it is that you can actually make music with another real life human being. So my suggestion, if you're not quite sure what goal to set, I'd pick a goal that involves eventually playing with other people. Whether that's joining a band or just playing with a friend and going like my friend also plays the guitar and I want to be able to play the same song so we can play together. Another really big key to long-term success with practicing is finding a consistent time of day that you're the best frame of mind and being to practice in. And this is different for everybody and which is why there is no one answer of everyone should practice like at five o'clock or I mean, that's not helpful for anybody. We all have different lives and different schedules and commitments. I suggest you experiment around with it a bit. I found for me personally, I feel the best practicing early in the morning. And for me it's just I find my mind is very clear and relaxed and I haven't been sort of inundated with emails and phone calls and other commitments. And I set aside a small amount of time, not every day of the week, but four or five days a week. Because I'm a professional musician, I have to work on a lot of things, but for you it might be one or two times a week and I block off that time and when I'm there, I'm as present as I can be and I'm working on my goals to get me closer to where I wanna go next. Some things to think about, about when the time of day is going to be, when you're gonna practice, are make sure you have had enough sleep. So waking up too early if you're going to bed too late is not going to be ideal. Make sure that you've had something to eat. If you're really hungry, like if you get home from work or school and you're starving, it's not going to be ideal for your nervous system in your body to be in a calm place. So make sure that you've had something to eat. But you also may find you don't want to play right after you eat something because you might feel a bit full. So these are things to think about about where in your day you're going to plan to have your practice time. When it comes to practicing, quality is so much more important than quantity. Unfortunately, you may have even already heard from other music teachers that you gotta practice for an hour every day or half an hour every day or so many hours per week. And this information isn't really helpful because the quality of the time you're putting in is what's really important. If you were to take the same approach to eating food and say, well, the way you get nourishment and your body is you sit at the dinner table for 45 minutes. It's missing so much of the point. There are so many other factors. Are you eating too much or you are not eating healthy foods? Are united eating at all? Are you just sitting there and practicing music is the same. You can sit down with your instrument for an hour and not only make no progress, you can actually regress because if you're reinforcing bad habits, then you're not actually you actually making your playing worse. So what I like to tell my students is focus on the quality. Five minutes of really focused practice can change your life forever. I know for me it's that way. I had this. I had to start out by getting the routine working first rather than trying to figure out what I was going to even practice. So picking a small thing and being consistent with it. And when you're there, challenging yourself to do a little more of it each time is the best way to go. Now in life, things are gonna come up. You're gonna get sick. You're going to have to travel places. You're going to have holidays, all of these things. And it's important to be flexible with your practice routine and to think a little bit into the future. And so for me, for example, when I'm planning, when I'm going to be practicing, i'm taking into account some of those factors, the ones that I can control anyway. So like if I know that I've got family coming to visit and I'm going to be busy entertaining people and doing things. I will suddenly is put my practice routine on hold to give my full attention to that. Knowing that when the time is right, I'm going to come back and be fully focused rather than trying to ram in practice time when you're distracted with other things. The same can be true of getting sick, having a cold and flu, something like that. I would say it's good to have a break from things. And always when you're practicing, you want to be in a good frame of mind and being. Because you're not just practicing musical information, you're training your body to have a relationship with the gaining of musical language. And if your body is in a frenetic state, every time you do that, when you go to touch your instrument, it literally will reset your brain to feel anxious and upset. Now the other side of that is that if you can train yourself to be calm and presence every time you're with your instrument. Pretty soon after a while, you'll just go over and pick it up and your body will come into a calm place. Before I practice, I like to take a moment and before I even touched the instrument or put it together and just see if I can get myself. I sometimes close my eyes and take a few deep breaths and try and get myself into a very calm place because I want to reinforce that with everything that I'm learning. If you don't have any experience with meditation, I highly recommend that through whatever form you can find, you find a good practice that's small and to the point where you can get yourself into a calm and relaxed place before you start. Another key element to actually getting towards your goals is to make sure to always be challenging yourself. There's this fine line when you're learning new things between going over what you already know and challenging yourself to do something new. And the balance, you might think, well, once I learned how to do a few things, I'm only just going to ever wanna do those things over and over again. But what will happen is you'll start to get bored with what you can already do. And a good thing I like to tell my students is you should always be feeling a little bit uncomfortable when you're practicing. And I don't mean like nervous and agitated, but you should be doing things where you're not getting it right all the time. Because you want to be that's a sign that you are actually working on something that's making you better. It's the whole point of practicing in the first place. I work on things on my own so that when I go play with other people, I can have more things that I can express. Not so that I can just repeat the same things that I already know how to do over and over again.