Some of today’s done play list.
Steey Dan, FM, Do it again, Black cow
Stevie Wonder - I wish
Rush, La Villa Strangiato, yyz
Style council - walls come tumbling down live.
Herbie Hancock- chameleon
and easily around 10 ish more.
Sure, one song I am working on for fun is “Sunrise”, by New Order. Give it a shot, it’s not too hard, solid intermediate level really.
You are unlikely to find a tab so will need to figure the riff out by listening.
Another practice standard for me is “Disorder”, by Joy Division. We did cover that.
Forgive the vocals there, I suck at singing
Buddy that’s totally all good, you sing just fine and it absolutely sounds 1979ish.
If the songs are on songsterr I’ll give them a try tonight. Thx. always looking for new tunes…
Freddie–
If you’re looking for some offline materials, allow me to recommend Patrick Pfeiffer’s Bass Guitar For Dummies and its companion volume, Bass Guitar Exercises For Dummies. I got mine at Barnes & Noble. (Fun Fact: Barnes & Noble will be opening a store in Rapid City this summer, their second location in my state, just a quick 350-mile drive from their other SoDak location. Lots of wide-open spaces up here…)
Yes, these are of the famous (infamous?) “For Dummies” books published by Wiley. Don’t be put off by that. Patrick knows what he’s talking about, teaches it well, and both books cover a lot of ground in the conversational tone that the For Dummies series is known for. Additionally, both books have companion web pages—you don’t have to pay anything to access them—where you can hear exercises, and see some of the techniques, performed. It’s not in the style of B2B, but it’s there if you want it.
Working through these you’ll get a good amount of the theory you’re looking for. For me it’s been the best explanation of modes, how they relate to chords, and how to use them that I’ve come across. And the exercise book is quite comprehensive. Patrick even lays out how to structure a good practice routine using materials in the book.
One complaint though: Someone, I’m guessing some sly typesetter at Wiley, decided to make the notation / tabs in the exercise book rather smallish. If you read the notation it’s not bad, but if you read the tabs you might want a powerful set of reading glasses.
Also, if you want a deeper dive into theory as a stand-alone topic—and good on you if you do; knowledge is power—you might consider Alfred’s Essentials Of Music Theory Complete. It’s a workbook-style book that you progress through in conjunction with two ear training CDs that come with it.
You actually sit down and pencil in parts of the book, which I usually hate because I am no longer five years old. But, in this instance, I found it helpful for reinforcing what was being taught. This book isn’t bass-specific—it isn’t specific to any instrument—but it will give you a pretty good grounding in theory via 75 lessons spread over 18 chapters. I found my copy at Guitar Center (their only location in South Dakota, in case you were wondering) but Amazon has it because of course they do.
My best for you moving forward. Cheers.
Yes, I am quite heavily invested in SBL (via their top-tier Blueprint program) and I don’t regret it at all. It’s a bit like being in music school (while still having a day job etc.).
However, since I am no longer a beginner, I am not following acutely what SBL offers for beginners. I will still claim that its main purpose is NOT for beginners. If you’ve never played the instrument before, SBL is NOT the place for you. (That place, quite obviously, is BassBuzz - hands down the best option for beginners).
The main challenge for all sites offering advanced courses is that - given the wide variety in backgrounds, skill levels, interests, and so on - it is almost impossible to offer something for everyone or to offer a progression that one can follow, or implement systems for accountability and follow-up. At some point, all this is really only possible in tailor-made one-on-one lessons. However, there comes a price tag with that…
For some, choosing and purchasing one specific course at a time (according to your own goals) is the preferred way. Others like the possibility to have many options available to them and the possibility to sample various courses, as is often the case in subscription-type platforms.
Especially if you start throwing them back!
@jimmyWishbone after B2B I also moved on to Talkingbass on the recommendation of @MikeC. The material is excellent with an abundance of structured practice material that is presented in a very progressive manner. I’m actually doing Sight Reading, Chord Tones and Theory all in parallel and they are all excellent courses that complement each other nicely. I’m only just over half way through sight reading, and it’s been 9 months to get to this point so the volume of content is huge. You can’t go wrong with any of the courses Mike has recommended IMO.
Thanks for the input, that’s the experienced opinion I am seeking.
Mark will soon be my new guy…
I’ll be doing one course to start since its that loaded with material.
The pay once and own it is the way for me, as the weather gets brighter there becomes much more out of the house things to do and things that must be done.
I play/practice daily however the joy of winter at home is bass as its easier to get extra play time when the duties of a sunny day don’t get in the way.
I’m definitely getting pumped and ready to attack another structured learning program.
I totally loved the BB course and slammed it out in 3 weeks while being busy in the real world. However, I did around 3 months of massive youtube with Josh being the guy I watched the most before joining BB. Learning from Josh for 3 months before joining made it doable faster for sure.
I did a fair bit of Mark also but not lately, so I’ll be doing a bunch of Mark vids starting today then boom its course attack time again., that sounds like fun.
There is a course on line called Study Bass. by Andrew Pouska. It free as in free beer. He teaches Bass but he strongly promotes theory. I to am
working my way through B2B cos its f…ckin fantastic.