8 posts
Running one-octave scales up and down forever isn't how you'll actually use them on the bass. Scales match chords, and the real job is knowing where every scale note lives on the fretboard. This post walks through my number system — scale degrees 1-7 organized into box shapes that transpose to any key — so the neck opens up.
Slap is a technique, not a style — you can play funk with a pick or with your fingers. The real constraint is the double-thumb angle, and once you let that be king, your regular thumb, pops, and hand position all fall in line. Here's how Russ sets up the right hand for efficient slap playing.
The 6-string bass adds a low B and a high C, which means two more strings ringing out while you're trying to play cleanly. Most of the noise problems on this instrument come down to right-hand form and thumb-muting habits. Here's how to set up the hand so the strings you aren't playing stay quiet.
The extra string on a 5-string bass makes string noise your biggest enemy, and clean playing depends almost entirely on your right hand. Here's how to set up your thumb, finger mechanics, and left-hand damping so the strings you aren't playing stay quiet — plus three exercises to drill the form on open strings.
Triads are the basis of every bass line — chord structure, harmony, and the notes you choose. I used to teach scales first; I've come to see triads are the real key, and scale notes are just ways to connect them.
I look at music as a language, and notes as its alphabet. Scales are how musicians organize that information so they can catalog their harmonic choices. In chord-scale theory it's a match game — the notes you choose come from the scale that fits the chord. Knowing every note of a scale across the fingerboard matters, not just a couple of pattern shapes.
What is music? It's a language — a system of sound with its own vocabulary, grammar, and meaning, as Victor Wooten has shown many players. Treating music that way changes how you practice: you're not memorizing notes, you're learning to say something. Far too many musicians still don't treat it that way.
When working on a bass exercise, get the mechanics right — fingering, timing, coordination — but don't spend too much time on the exercise in isolation. Balance academic work with applying the exercise inside real music. At some point you need to trust that you know the alphabet and start forming sentences.
Online bass lessons via Zoom for students of any level. Reach out to talk through your goals.
