…making better bass players with Kris Rodgers A.K.A Dmanlamius
Song of the week: Pow! – Graham central station
30Aug2010 Filed under: Bass inspirations, Song of the week! Author: KrisAnd here we have a tune from Larry Graham, THE inventor of the slap and pop technique.
I love this. Especially near the end where everyone gets their groove-on in a boogie nights-esque funk down.
2:57 is where the funk lands.
I was born in the wrong era.
Sergio
September 4th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
When you said you were born in the wrong era Kris, did you mean you love the outfits ?
That was pretty damn awesome funkiness !
Kris
September 4th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
Ha Ha! They don’t make ‘em like they used to…
I’d love an outfit like that. Oh, and some platforms with goldfish in the heels, and a big ginger afro. Ach…I can but dream….
Sergio
September 4th, 2010 at 7:10 pm
They sure don’t make ‘em like that any more – there’s more cloth on show there than a transatlantic yacht. If someone in the studio had sneezed there’d be 9 human shapes holes in the wall…
Have you ever listened to any Jaco Pastorius ?
Kris
September 6th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
LOL!
Yea, I’ve listend to a lot of Jaco in my time. Great innovator of the bass, and was someone that pushed it to new places. Whilst I’m not a HUGE fan, I appreciate what he has done for the evolution of the bass.
zach
September 6th, 2010 at 11:44 pm
haha, its the length of the video is 4:20
Rach
September 7th, 2010 at 1:23 am
What an awesome website to stumble upon late at night. Was bought a much wanted Bass for my birthday, and at 29 years old, i can’t wait to learn how to play my first instrument. Although I think i’m too keen and need to learn how to pace myself :-/ watching ur vids and lessons have def’ made me realise tho, that you have to start slow in order to improve, and that it can be hard at first. I was starting to think i had to be born a bassist (though i’m sure SOME are) Cheers mucho!!
Kris
September 8th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
I taught a bass player at 55 years of age. Within five years, he has become a professional musician, in a gigging jazz band! When it comes to music, its never too late to start (I want to take piano lessons soon).
Learning Bass is like learning anything. All those little paths have to be made in your brain, and repetition causes them to become bigger and bigger. That is how we learn. So go slow, practice as much as you can, and most important of all, have self belief, and a bit of fun!
And if you ever feel you can’t do it, I’m here to tell you you can.
Enjoy the lessons
Sergio
September 9th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
I feel the same Rach. Just picked up a bass for the 1st time in 20 years, though I was pretty awful back then. Tried some of Kris’ funk lines thinking (hoping) I was a bass god, but I just don’t have the hand speed.
So I’m grinding scales, doing repetitions and exercises, and practising as many bass lines from tabs as I can, and that I recognise.
Over the past few months I’ve had little moments of clarity though which has made me grin like a fool, and feel like I’ve accomplished something – an example is how HARD it really is to walk the bass. If I play air-bass (and I assume most people here do
) to songs I easily walk the strings, until I get a bass in my hand and try and play along to a song, then I revert to 1 finger… but the other day it just clicked and I was wallking.
Admittedly my timing isn’t great yet, but I’m using 2 fingers to play more often than not. That itself is also making me concentrate more trying to co-ordinate, which is helping the timing