Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction
About This Book
Conventions Used in This Book
What You’re Not to Read
Foolish Assumptions
How This Book Is Organized
Part 1: Preparing to Practice
Part 2: Scales (Modes) and Chords
Part 3: Rhythm and the Groove
Part 4: Turning Exercises into Music
Part 5: The Part of Tens
Part 6: Appendixes
The Website
Icons Used in This Book
Where to Go from Here
Part 1 Preparing to Practice
Chapter 1: Reviewing Practice Fundamentals
How to Approach Practicing Your Bass
Dividing your practice time
The importance of noodling
Making a fool of yourself
Exercises for a lifetime
Getting into Position
Your posture
Positioning your hands
Tackling Notation
Note names on the neck
Traditional music notation and tablature
Using the grid
Breaking down rhythmic notation
Chord notation
Chapter 2: Warming Up Your Right and Left Hands
Stretching without the Instrument
Getting a feel for each finger
Stretching your hands
Getting blood into your fingertips
Stretching your shoulders and your back
Crossing the Strings with the Right Hand
Alternating up and raking down
Referencing each string
Exercising One String at a Time
Striking the staccato way
Accenting any note
Using dynamics
Keeping the Left Hand Stationary
Left-hand permutations
Walking spider
Getting a buzz
Cutting down on excess finger movement
Shifting the Left Hand
Shifting with any finger
Cutting down on string noise
Part 2 Scales (Modes) and Chords
Chapter 3: Playing Scales (Modes)
Playing the Primary Modes
Major scale — Ionian
Minor scale — Dorian
Dominant scale — Mixolydian
Half-diminished scale — Locrian
Playing the Secondary Modes
Phrygian — The exotic minor scale
Aeolian — The natural minor scale
Lydian — Major scale with a twang
Making Music
Chapter 4: Playing Mode Sequences
Lining Up Major and Minor Sequences in 12 Keys
Getting into the majors
Practicing minor sequences
Playing Sequences in Triplet Rhythm
Major scale sequence — triplets and seconds
Major scale sequence — triplets and thirds
Major scale sequence — triplets and fifths
Minor scale sequence — triplets and seconds
Minor scale sequence — triplets and thirds
Minor scale sequence — triplets and fifths
String Crossings with Interval Exercises
Major scale sequence — referencing the root
Minor scale sequence — referencing the root
Dominant scale sequence — referencing the root
Rockin’ Out
Chapter 5: Working with Arpeggios
Triads: Outlining the Harmony
Major arpeggios
Minor arpeggios
Diminished arpeggios
Getting Down with Chord Inversions
Major chord inversions
Minor chord inversions
Shifting with Two-Octave Arpeggios
Two-octave major arpeggios
Two-octave minor arpeggios
Using Triad Accompaniment in a Song
Chapter 6: Combining Seventh Chords
Structuring Seventh Chords
Major seventh arpeggios
Minor seventh arpeggios
Dominant seventh arpeggios
Half-diminished arpeggios
Combining Seventh Chords and Modes
Major seventh tonality
Major seventh groove, chord, and mode
Minor seventh tonality
Minor seventh groove, chord, and mode
Dominant seventh tonality
Dominant seventh groove, chord, and mode
Half-diminished tonality
Half-diminished groove, chord, and mode
Using Seventh Chords in a Song
Part 3 Rhythm and the Groove
Chapter 7: Building the Groove Skeleton
Playing with Eighth Notes
Dotted quarter followed by an eighth
Quarter notes
Eighth notes
Rockin’ out with a song
Zipping with Sixteenth Notes
Dotted eighth followed by a sixteenth
Sixteenth notes
Getting all funked up
Shuffling with Triplets
First and third notes in a triplet
First and second notes in a triplet
Trials, tribulations, and triplets
Chapter 8: Accessing the Groove Apex
Isolating the Sixteenth Notes
Sixteenth-note groove apexes in beat two
Sixteenth-note groove apexes in beat three
Sixteenth-note groove apexes in beat four
The rise and fall of the apex empire
Isolating Triplets
Triplet groove apexes in beat two
Triplet groove apexes in beat three
Triplet groove apexes in beat four
Having triplets
Chapter 9: Setting Up with the Groove Tail
Preparing a Groove with an Eighth-Note Feel
Two-note setup
Three-note setup
Four-note setup
Anticipatory setup
Tailing a song with an eighth-note feel
Approaching a Groove with a Sixteenth-Note Feel
Two-note setup.
Three-note setup.
Four-note setup.
Anticipatory setup.
Song with funky tailing sixteenth-note feel.
Setting Up a Groove with a Triplet Feel.
Two-note setup
Three-note setup
Anticipatory setup
Happy tails for a song in a triplet feel
Chapter 10: Combining Rhythms
Mixing Triplets with Eighth and Sixteenth Notes
Scales in sixteenth notes and triplets
Arpeggios in sixteenth notes and triplets
Arpeggios and scales using sixteenth notes and triplets with a sixteenth-note groove
Arpeggios and scales using sixteenth notes and triplets with a triplet groove
Song using triplets and eighths, with bass playing the melody
Mastering the Master-Maker Etudes
Diatonic chord movement using eighth notes and triplets
Diatonic chord movement using sixteenth notes and triplets
The ultimate exercise
Song with a rhythmically complex groove
Part 4 Turning Exercises into Music
Chapter 11: Feeling the Eighth-Note Groove
Harnessing Country Grooves
Traditional country bass
Contemporary country bass
Caught between a Rock and a Hard Bass
Pop goes the bass player
Rockin’ and rollin’
Embracing Worldly Styles
Ramping up reggae
Looping Latin
The whirled beat of world beat
Chapter 12: Working the Sixteenth-Note Groove
Getting into a Funk
Traditional funk bass
Funk-a-di-gunk
Funkifizing R & B/soul
Be on Your Mettle with Metal . . . and Prog Rock
Steeling yourself for metal
Progressing to prog rock
Chapter 13: Trippin’ on Triplets
Shuffling the Eighth Notes
Shifting into shuffle mode
The slinking shuffle
Swinging the Funk and Making It Swunk
It don’t mean a funk if it ain’t got that swunk
Hipping and hopping
Part 5 The Part of Tens
Chapter 14: Ten Essential Elements of a Great Practice Session
Inverting Triad Arpeggios
Arpeggiating Seventh Chords
Playing Scale Sequences with Grooves
Moving the Modes
Doing Right-Hand Exercises
Doing Left-Hand Exercises
Practicing Master-Maker Etudes
Grooving in a Genre/Style
Freebassing
Reading Bass Grooves
Chapter 15: Ten Famous Tunes That Incorporate the Exercises in This Book
Weaving through Scales and Chords — Jaco Pastorius
Perfecting the Groove Tail — Pino Palladino
Inverting Triad Arpeggios — Cliff Burton
Swinging the Triplets — Berry Oakley
Hitting the Groove Apex — David Hood
Arpeggiating the Triad — Paul McCartney
Nailing the Groove Skeleton — Anthony Jackson
Using the Seventh-Chord Arpeggio — George Porter, Jr.
Running the Mode — Bernard Edwards
Mastering the Swunk — Francis “Rocco” Prestia
Part 6 Appendixes
Appendix A: How to Use the Website
Relating the Text to the Website Files
Stereo separation
System Requirements
Tracks on the Web page
Troubleshooting
Appendix B: Extended Range Basses and Practice Goals
EULA