Here’s an old premium lesson I’ve made free to celebrate Christmas. I hope you enjoy it!

Oh, and here is a link to cool chords as mentioned in the video: Cool chords

 

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Hello, Fat Stringers!

This lesson is for intermediate to advanced players, or beginners with good hand strength!

Ok, here we have a Jazzy little number, that uses some nice chords. We go through the whole piece of music, explaining the chord shapes and how we go about playing them.

The video is 16 minutes long, and is a .MOV

At the end of the video, I mention alternatives for you to play with!

You will be learning this Jazzy little number, right here:

 

DURATION: 16 MINS
PRICE: £2.50 (Approx 4 dollars)
FILE: .M4V (Can be opened with Quicktime or VLC – Both free)
PAYMENT TYPE: PAYPAL/CREDIT CARD
CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS!

Not Just another Bass tuition Book!

(Click image to purchase!)

Book one

 

These series of short books aren’t similar to most other Bass tuition books.  They are a small archive of the things and ideas that have helped me become the Bass player I am today.  A little insight into my way of doing things, if you will.

All those people that have asked me how I use the techniques used in my solo bass guitar songs have the information right here. The questions are answered.

Why “Not just another Bass guitar book”?  Well, there are plenty of books out there that teach you how to play music, and a Bass, theoretically.  Although these books are important (and I’d still recommend them!) they are quite lifeless, and seem to lack practical ideas. A lot are just repeated content from another book that was written the year before. Copy and paste tuition.  This is more a book of practical ideas, and therefore not just another Bass guitar book.

So, You might call it a book of notes and ideas.  Hopefully, something positive for everyone of all standards.

The book is aimed at intermediate players, but there is a lot of stuff for beginners in there as well. I didn’t want to just make it at one level, so i’ve tried to mix it up a bit, so everyone can benefit. This is certainly the case with the 61 free bass riffs.

 

What you are getting with the first book:

 

61 original Bass riffs to learn. all created by me, in all manners of genres and difficulty levels.  Punked, funked, slapped, tapped, strummed and more!  There are loads of riffs to play with for beginners and upwards!

An extra folder full of beats for you to practice with, in all different BPM’s and time signatures.

An e-book, with original and practical lessons, and video examples. The first book chapters chapters include:

 

Introduction.

On Technique.

Role of the Bass.

Bad habits you’d do well to avoid.

Playing with three fingers.

Jedi Bass tricks.

Downstrokin’ and upstrokin’.

Finger picking.

Composing simple Basslines.

Some timing and rhythm exercises.

 

The text files will be as PDF’s. Most modern computers will have a PDF reader. If not, there are plenty on google to choose from.

To view the videos, I’d recommend a free bit of software called VLC. Movie files are mixed between .MOV’s, and .M4V’s. I’m not sure if standard players will play both types of files, but if they don’t, get yourself a copy of VLC:

http://www.videolan.org/

 

*The files themselves come as four .ZIP files.  I had to do this, because the file was WAY too big by itself.  So, I had to split them, just so it’s easier for you guys to download.

If you have any questions about the book.  Any questions at all, please ask them in the special category I set up in my forums.  If we keep all the questions in one place, other people can benefit from them.  Click HERE to be taken to the forum category (You’ll need to join)

 

 Here are some quotes from people on my forums who have purchased the book:

‘This really is some pretty damn good stuff. You’re encouraged to mess around with things and be creative, and that I think should be exemplary of all other bass books – but in my experience it sadly isn’t. This is one-of-a-kind. Most of the ideas in the aforementioned ‘Jedi Bass Tricks’ section can be applied to anything else you do as well.’-Pippynip

‘The encouragement to be creative is something that has been missing in pretty much most “learn how to” type books simply because they are trying to put a strict format on the books which the student is supposed to be following and exactly that just takes away any chance to be creative .. Thats why i really like the approach of a “collection of thoughts” as it just gives so much room to play around and experiment … ‘-Accipiter

 

 

 

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And here is part two. That bothersome Bass solo!

 

The Penthouse project.

A UNIQUE learning opportunity.

My new bands’ songs, broken apart for you to learn composition, writing and musicianship skills.

Learn unique and original riffs from myself, and more importantly, why I write those specific riffs to the music being played.  In some instances I write the main part to the song, and sometimes it comes from jamming.  This will all be explained in the videos!

So, how does it work?

Well, Penthouse is a band that covers many styles and genres of music. So the lessons featured here should interest a wide variety of musicians. Typically, each “Piece of music” is around ten minutes long, with lots of interesting changes. Each piece describes a situation from my cartoon towers block, ‘The Towers’.

 

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We will go through the songs, part by part, and I will teach you what I am playing for that part.  Whilst I’m teaching you, I’m explaining WHY I am playing those parts.

All in all, I’m hoping that this will be a really educational experience for my online (and off!) students. I have been writing music and Bass lines since 1993, and have lots of experience I can share.

Why am I doing this?

Well, I’ve been teaching Bass guitar online for a few years now. Although thousands and thousands of people have benefit from these lessons, I wanted to start teaching something with a more practical matter concerning being in a band, and writing lines.

What shall I play here? Why would I play it? How shall I play it? All these questions will hopefully be answered when I break apart these Bass lines.  I’ll also be covering issues like overplaying, specific techniques for specific genres as well.

Ok, here is the first song you will be learning:

And here is the video how to play it:

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Here we have a “How to” on the twelve bar blues! We start simple, and then get a little harder as we go on. This lesson is PERFECT for beginners, wanting to gain hand strength. It s also good for intermediate players that want a basic understanding of how the blues is made up.

I hope you enjoy the lesson!

DURATION: 30 MINS

PRICE:  £5.00 (Approx 9 dollars)

FILE: .MOV

PAYMENT TYPE:  PAYPAL/CREDIT CARD

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS! 

This, for example is the 12 Bar Blues in the key of ‘E’  I’m only messing around here!  Bass has an important function in Blues playing…

 

 

We also talk briefly about ‘Bars’ in this video, as well as “Roots”, “Fifths” and “Major Thirds”.  The intervals and Major triad that make up this Blues playing!

 

 

And here are the Blues beats with a shuffle, as mentioned!  They start off slow, and then Progress.  Start with the top one, and work your way down.  Start on the beat…

 

 

 

 

And here is the second part of this lesson.

In it, we cover 1:08 to 3:05 of my Bass composition, ‘Sleep Melody, Sleep’, which is below:

This Lesson is aimed at intermediates to advanced players. It ll be a tough one for beginners to get through I recommend you take a look at my Cool chords videos. IF, you can sustain the chords in those videos, you should be fine to learn this one

In this second part, we cover chords, tapping, pull-offs, finger picking, finger and thumb picking, downstrokes, as well as a small chat about feel and crescendos…

DURATION: 44 MINS

PRICE:  £5.00 (Approx 9 dollars)

FILE: .MOV

PAYMENT TYPE:  PAYPAL/CREDIT CARD

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS!

 

 

Here is a link to the first lesson!

This Lesson is aimed at intermediates to advanced players. It ll be a tough one for beginners to get through! I recommend you take a look at my Cool chords videos. IF, you can sustain the chords in those videos, you should be fine to learn this one!

Here is the explanation vid:

 

You will be learning from 0:00 to 1:08 from this video here:

In the first part, we cover tapping, finger and thumb picking, as well as a small chat about ‘feel’ in the composition.

 

DURATION: 36 MINS

PRICE:  £6.00 (Approx 10 dollars)

FILE: .MOV

PAYMENT TYPE:  PAYPAL/CREDIT CARD

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS!

And here is a link to part two!

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The Evolution of our free YouTube riffs!

These exercises have been created by me, and have been tried and tested with all my students. A lot of those guys (and Gals!) are now out gigging, and are at a very good standard…

In this lesson are eight exercises to get you slapping and popping like the pro’s! They come as one video file that is about fifty-five minutes long. This package also comes with seven drum tracks that progress in speed.

Here is a brief summary of what we cover:

Exercise one:

Similar to our youtube video, but with a lot more groove, and a little harder. We start with a double slap, and incorperate pops, hammer-ons and mutes later. Also advice on the psychology of practice, featured here.

Exercise two:

An exercise designed to gain finger strength. More slaps and pops but also double popping as well as barring (or bridging) with the fretting hand. More advice on muting and the economy of motion, here.

Exercise three:

A cool line with a nice use of slides. A funky one, which is one of my personal favourites. Has a primus-like feel to it.

Exercise four:

A great exercise that can be changed to the users personal preference. Again, this exercise was created to build strength, but it’s main purpose is to build up speed and efficency!

Exercise five:

An exercise and discussion on the role of the Bass player, and how slap and pop fits into that role. Also, an exercise with a pocket played slap and pop groove, and how it applies to the role.

Exercise six:

Another groove based exercise that we move around onto different frets.

Exercise seven:

A percussive exercise that will speed up your slap and popping! A cool little exercise that also covers timing.

Exercise eight:

Another percussive lesson/exercise.

DURATION: 55 MINS

PRICE: £8.00 (Approx 13 dollars)

FILE: .MOV

PAYMENT TYPE: PAYPAL/CREDIT CARD

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS!

Here we have the tutorial of my Bass only song, snow…

This lesson is for intermediate to advanced players. Beginners with good hand strength, and that can play all the chords in my “cool chords” series, may like to have a go at it though.

We cover some rarely used techniques on the Bass in this video. Techniques that I use a lot in my personal playing, and also feature in my song “Mourn his youth”.

You will be learning this song, here:

 

Included, are:

Finger picking chords.
Thumb and finger picking.
Down strokes.
Upstrokes.
Finger plucking.
Percusive mutes.

Enjoy!

 

DURATION: 45 MINS

PRICE:  £6.00 (Approx 9 dollars)

FILE: .MOV

PAYMENT TYPE:  PAYPAL/CREDIT CARD

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS!

In this lesson we learn my bass version of Jeff Buckley’s version of Leonard Cohen’s classic! I tried to make this lesson as accesable for everyone, by not going into too much technical jargon, and keeping it as simple as possible. I would say that this lesson would be aimed at intermediate to advanced players, as there is a lot of chord work. Beginners that have done cool chords one and cool chords two maybe ok with this if they have gained the hand strength to hold those chords.

Here is the version you’ll be learning:

Enjoy!


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