Essential Slap Bass techniques- Jason Kishander
Jason Kishander (Bass Faculty of Nathaniel) demonstrates a few slap bass techniques to introduce you to the world of all things groovy. These exercises are useful for any musician looking to advance his/her skills on the bass.
Jason teaches Bass at Nathaniel School running a unique performance based course called “Music Method”
Nathaniel Vocal Tips- London’s Burning Exercise
Lillian Zachariah, vocal teacher at Nathaniel School of Music gets the class to sing “London’s Burning” in 3 part harmony with syncopation. This is a clip from an in-class session at Nathaniel’s Music Method, a 10 week performance based course. She is playing piano as well in this session.
The Fundamental 3s by Ryan Colaco (Kryptos)
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Exercise
Originally a tune composed by Mozart himself and then redone as a French folk piece, this rhyme for me has got to be one of the good ways to make inroads into music or find newer ways of growing as a musician technically and theoretically. I have chosen exercises which can be practiced on Piano, but this could also apply if you play other instruments as well- Guitar, Bass, Drums, Singing & Hand Claps! The techniques are pretty much the same. So here goes…
“I can play music”
How to count:
If you count the syllables, there are 7 per line. however the last syllables- “star”, “are”, “high”, “sky” are all observed a beat extra. Treat it as a half note (minim) or a note having 2 counts. Every other note has 1 count (Quarter note pulse) and the method of counting is 4 beats per bar. I put bar lines to show you each count.
If you do the math: 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 | 1 + 1 + 2 |
Twin- kle Twin- kle Lit- tle star
Same applies for the remaining lines of the song.
Exercises:
Play the same tune with the following variations:
- Play the melody with 2 notes played in the time of 1 (Eighth notes) {Eg: By the time you say “Twin” ->> you would have played 2 C’s}
- Play the melody with 3 notes played in the time of 1 (Eighth notes triplets) {Eg: By the time you say “Lit-” ->> you would have played 3 A’s} TIP: To count triplets, try saying 1 & a 2 & a etc… as you play along.
- Play the melody with 4 notes played in the time of 1 (Sixteenth notes) {Eg: By the time you say “Up” ->> you would have played 4 G’s}
- Play the melody with 3 notes played in the time of 1 but omitting the middle of the 3 ->> 1 _ 3 (Swing- in simple words) {You may at this point feel the swing groove}
- Play the melody with 4 notes played in the time of 1 but omit any of the 4 notes as you wish and create a rhythmic pattern {Eg: 1 _ 3 4, 1 2 _ 4, 1 _ _ 4} TIP: To count 16th notes try saying 1 e & a 2 e & a etc… as you play along.
- The trick is to SING along and play at the same time. The goal is not to sing in key but to get the words to sound with your voice in time.
- Advanced: For more ambitious musicians especially drummers try ¼ note triplets in one hand and ¼ notes in the other hand. If you are a drummer then probably use the hit hat to keep time. If you play piano, then use the left hand to play C constantly as ¼ notes and then practice all the variations listed above. Go for quintuplets, sextuplets, septuplets if you feel confident enough but remember to keep time. Use a metronome if you feel the need (About 60 bpm works nicely)
- Harmony: As a pianist or a finger-style guitarist, try playing some harmony. I have composed a bass part as follows. Use your left hand for the same (Piano) or a free string on the guitar. Feel free to change the notes as you wish. I have composed all quarter notes for simplicity except for line 3 where E-F are played as eighths.
C C E E F D E__
D B C A F G C__
E C# D B C (E-F) G__
E C D B C G C__
Hope you guys find this useful in your practice. It could mainly be used for:
- Developing hand/ finger independence
- Achieving a better sense of timing
- Understanding voicing
- Finger strength
- Key familiarity
Thanks for reading. Watch this space for more tips coming your way from Nathaniel faculty.
Please spread the word if you like what you read to other folks as well ::
http://www.facebook.com/nathanielmusic
Cheers,
Jason Zachariah
Please also check out my bands and LIKE our pages for all of our music:
Allegro Fudge (Folk Rock) :: http://www.facebook.com/allegrofudge
Bhoomi (Heavy Metal) :: http://www.facebook.com/metalbhoomi
Ceaser’s Palace (Blues Funk):: http://www.facebook.com/cpindia
News::
Allegro Fudge :: Our debut video- “Colors Fly”
Bhoomi :: Our first album to be launched shortly. Stay tuned..
Ceasers Palace :: Buy “Mindfields” our EP: http://caesarspalace.bandcamp.com/
Tip from the Swarathma Axeman- Varun Murali
This is one of the few exercises i use to warm up my fingers before getting on stage, or before my practice sessions with the band or before starting my daily routine
e — 1 4 2 3————————————————
b ———- 1 2 4 —————————————–
g —————— 1 2 3 4 ——————————-
d —————————- 1 3 4 ———————–
a ————————————- 1 3 2 4 ————
e ———————————————– 1 3 5 —-
This is a very simple exercise which helped me develop better control over my right hand as I am playing different patterns on every string and also the picking would differ as you move from Chromatic to triplets. In order to make the exercise more interesting, play this with a metronome or by tapping your foot and experiment by playing on different counts like quarter/eighth/sixteenth notes per count.
Remember to go as slow as possible to achieve good clarity and do not hurry up!
You can discover about Swarathma and our music by visiting our website www.swarathma.com and also our Facebook page. You can also find us on myspace. Join our group and stay tuned with all the updates, backstage fun and more stuff. Be a part of the swarathma family by helping us spread the music.
Bass practice the Leslie Charles way
Hello,
I’ve been asked to share with you some of the tricks of playing the bass. Honestly speaking, the only trick I use is practice and the only tip I can give you is to ask you to practice. Since an hour of practice a day can make a huge difference for any musician I’ve come up with a simple plan for beginners. All it need is an hours time.
Pick a scale, arpeggio and technique that you want to work on. Concentrate on only these for the week.
5 min – Warm up – simple chromatic runs over the fretboard to get your fingers moving.
20 min – Scale & arpeggio exercises – Practice playing patterns of these different positions of the fretboard
15 min – Technique – Pick one technique and try to apply the scale and arpeggio.
15 min – Learning a bassline of a song – try selecting a song which applies the scale/arpeggio and the technique learnt previously.
5 min – Planning next day’s practice – Note down the things that can improved so you can work on it the next day.
Dedicate this one hour exclusively for practice. This works best when done without any distractions. Practice with patience, develop clarity and always ALWAYS USE A METRONOME. But most importantly keep listening to music. 90% or practice is just listening to music.
“If I don’t practice for a day, I know it. If I don’t practice for two days, the critics know it. And if I don’t practice for three days, the public knows it.” – Louis Armstrong
Peace. Leslie.
My Band “Allegro Fudge” :: http://www.facebook.com/allegrofudge
