Bass Matter Blog

        Let me start this blog off by saying, it’s a bit long. So if you’re in the mood, grab a cup of coffee and lets dig in.

Okay, the internet is loaded with “what is a professional musician?” blogs, forums, etc etc. The tone of these often times bring to the surface good discussion and sometimes controversy.

Let us first take the big picture look here.

The Starving Artist If you’re a musician you’re an artist. Welcome to a bitter sweet world filled with passion, competition, a lot of loose rules, a lot of opinions and some fragile egos. How come you never see a movie about a starving Doctor? He’s couch surfing from place to place, just waiting for the right place to apply his skills, borrowing money from friends, maybe a bit behind on a shower and more often than not lost in day dream and refusing to give up his passion. Society generally sees him as a mooch, scraping by and family is tossing out subtle or even very loud hints that it’s time to grow up. Then he gets his big break and gets to be a famous Doctor at some fancy hospital making tons of cash. His family tells him how lucky he was because only about 1/1000 of 1% of Doctors will ever be able to pay the bills doing it after all the time, money, effort and school involved, but….he was just that good. Wow! That movie would suck! However, replace that with a guitarist, writer, painter or general artists and now we’re talking about some good cinema! Wait..I think they’ve made that movie once or a 1,000 times already.

My fellow artists, please let us call it like it is. Our art is difficult, takes enormous dedication, education, practice, skill, is highly personal, ingrained in cultures world wide and the majority of non-artists will never understand. This doesn’t mean they won’t appreciate it, but they won’t understand. There are few non artists that would even care if you called yourself a professional musician, this label really only matters to well…..other artists.

Now, I feel as though each person to some extent either wants to be an artists or is one. This is why there are movies about starving artists, starving Doctors….mmmmm, not so much. You see, the story pulls on the heart strings of almost everyone. Everyone..well most everyone I would guess would love to do what they love and have it pay all the bills.

Define a professional?

You must have gone to school __________. You must make this much % of income ___________. You play this many instruments __________. You must have played for __________ years. You must have toured ___________ countries. You must have played on ____________ albums. You must have played in a venue with at least ___________ people. You must have ___________ endorsements. You must have _________ students.

Okay, here’s where things get delicate. Because we just observed above what kind of a unique niche we’re in, this gets a little slippery. If you define professional in a dictionary it has plenty of examples. The one I see most debated is “one that seeks to gain or has a livelihood”. Ohh boy, so, for some this means that if you made a nickel ten years ago playing your guitar you are and always will be a professional musician. That’s a tough claim and will encroach on the active highly trained highly successful musicians making 100% of their money playing their instruments…..and they’ll probably tell you so. The one that seems to be ignored is “one that follows and adheres to the practices specific to the profession”. Ohh Snap!! I play my bass 25 hours a day, have an amp, gear, (tools of the trade) and play out for free all the time! I must be a professional right? Ohh and yes, I said 25 hours a day, pretty funny right?

Enter the next dilemma we have as musicians..

What type of professional musician? Professional Teaching Musician. Professional Studio Musician. Professional Live Play Musician. Professional Pit Musician. Professional Stage Musician. Professional Ensemble Musician. Please, apply what ever title you would like and add professional to it, I’m sure it’s on a business card somewhere.

Okay, I think we can all agree that when we hear the word “Doctor” as a profession we will probably surprisingly agree on many of the foundational qualities of their skill set. I’m talking about an MD here, not like a Doctoral in basket weaving. Most of them can check your blood pressure, stitch you up, put on a band aid and take your money. These are the things we apply to them as a professional MD. The cool thing about doctors is there are specialist. This specialist can do all the same stuff as the other doctors at the basic professional level but they went to school and are experts of the feet, or also know as a Podiatrist. Well, if you have wicked headaches, this dude might not be the right guy to go to, so his specialty within his profession is pretty worthless right now. But he’s got the basics down, if you pass out on the floor, he’ll prob know what to do. So, you’re off now to the Neurologist to get your head scanned. This guy has all the answers, knows everything you need and you love it. The quick answers, the wealth of information and a clear defined plan to get you better.

So, what makes a professional musician? You do. Honestly, anyone can call themselves a professional musician. Those non artists will probably think you’re broke anyway regardless of how much money you make and those that make their living off of music saying they just play here and there probably have a similar opinion from the non artist community as well.

There’s more to this so stay tuned for the next Starving Doctor Blog where we’ll discuss “what a professional musician looks like”. Things like showing up on time, rehearsing the work, furthering their skill set, applying business acumen oh and…making some money too.

TTFN! Keep the groove.

         Okay.

So the bass is what is known as a “chromatic” instrument. What an instrument means to be chromatic, is each note has it’s own little permanent home on the bass. Pick a string and fret, now move up or down one fret. This movement of one fret up or down is a difference called a “semitone”.

Okay, so this one little motion has a whole new meaning to a lot of players out there. This is often explained as a half step. Although, correct more often than not, pausing there really keeps hidden some of the magic the bass brings to the voice of a song. Let’s grab our magic wands and investigate two of them.

The Jazz Note (oops)

Now, if you’re like me, you’ve hit a note wrong maybe once……………………… if you ever have, we correct and chalk it up as a Jazz Note. Now, Mr. Wooten and many others explain that in almost any Key, if you’re ever on the wrong note, all you have to do is move up or down one fret and you’ll be on a correct note. =) SAAAAWWWWEEEEET!!! How cool is that? These little slip ups are easily corrected by moving up or down one fret. Now, it doesn’t mean you’ll make it back to root in each case, but you are only a little block away from playing something that does sound nice.

Also, most players will hit the wrong note and run. You’d be amazed at how a wrong note can really add something to a song. (It can really mess it up too, but it’s worth exploring)

The Modern Sound

If we look at almost every genre of music. There are those bass players that stand out in the mix. A little bit of dissonance for just a fraction of a second. Or some cool sounding line that’s got a nice layer of frosting on top of the root. What seems to be the trick?

Well, if we listen closely, we hear a lot of Maj7′s tossed in that often times sounds like a nice lead in to a progressions. Let’s say you’re playing in the key of G Major. You’re playing a 1-3-5 progressions. So we’re spending a bar or two in G, then B then D. Simple enough. We’ve got a nice groove going with some cool 8ths and 16th’s tossed in there, but we’re staying on root. The song doesn’t really call for a lot of bass work here and we’re doing our job in the pocket. After the first verse we’re a little bored but don’t have much wiggle room. How about when we make it back to 1, we do a little hammer on from Gb or F# back into the 1? Ohhh yeah, that fits, sounds nice and adds to the sound with just a little sprinkle of groove.

Why does this sound good? Well, when we lead back into the 1 and hammer up to it, we’re actually playing the lower octave of the Maj7 in that key. Pretty cool eh? Have you been doing this technique for a while and never really knew why it worked? There ya go. Now, what if you’re doing something in pentatonic. Well, Pentatonic scales omit the 7 from the scale (and the 4th). Major, Minor, Harmonic etc. It’s gone. Well, depending on the song, it’ll either still fit right in or give a little bit of dissonance to the over all sound. Either genius or a gross error, you’re still only a half step away from a right note.

So, during your next practice, give it a shot! You may have just stumbled into a whole new world of playing. If your next play time is a show, try it out. If it’s a paid show, well, use at your own risk. =)

Keep it Funky!!!

          Practice Tuning My Bass? Why Would I Do That? (Part I)

Even to beginners that have been taught to tune their bass last week, this blog may seem a bit boring. The reality is, tuning your bass can be boring, until you turn it into part of your practice.

Bear with me on this, I hope this unlocks some potential new studies for some. Tuning instruments is nothing new and thousands of words of copy are available for you to read about Musical Tuning for the dedicated. Even many of the non-instrumentalists out there are aware that there are predetermined notes and pitches strings are supposed to be set to prior to playing. Tuning your bass may just be one of the most effective ear training practices you can do quickly, effectively and in a number of ways.

Remember, this blog is about practicing tuning, not how to tune.

First, let us review some of the more common ways we tune our instruments to standard tuning, and how we can really exercise our brains into some ear training.  (Don’t worry, more blogs to come on alternate tuning later)

Electric Tuner- These are fast, accurate, cheap, easy and most of us use them. If you change your tuner (if it’s an option) to Chromatic tuning, you can sing. That’s right! Sing and begin to test your ears and see where you’re flat, sharp or just plain off. (I’m lucky to even get it to register my hideous voice)

Pitch Pipes and Tuning Forks- These are fantastic ear training tools and old school. Many don’t use them anymore as they do take a solid ear to get things in tune. I carry in my gig bag an A440 Tuning Fork. Not only do I use it (occasionally) to tune, but I will strike it, and DO, RE, MI my way to a scale degree then hit the note on my bass or keyboard and see how close I am. With these tools, try tuning you bass to them, then contrast to an electric tuner. It’s been my experience, we will either have tendencies to always be sharp, or always be flat. Knowing what this tendency is will help you with you ear training. Over time, you will develop stronger relative pitch and these exercise will help enhance your playing.

Here’s a cool thing to try. If you have your pipe of fork that has a pitch that aligns with an open string on your bass, (usually A). Tune that string, then sing DO, RE, MI, FA and tune to FA. The bass is traditionally tuned in 4ths so from there try to tune all the way up and then the E. Use an electric tuner to check how close you were.

Team Tuning- Tuning as a group is very common, fast, good ear training for some reasons and bad for others. Team Tuning is simply all the instruments tuning up together. The Guitarists hits an A or any other note and everyone else tunes to it. (If it’s a keys player, you should be close to the correct pitch) You’d be surprised how fast your ear gets an idea of the correct range of frequencies for your strings. You may not be as accurate as a tuner, pipe or fork, but if all are in tune, the sound is and can be very pleasant. This is fun place to try to work on alternate tunings. The bad comes from being tuned up to the wrong note. Even though the whole band is in tune and sounds good, you may stretch your vocalists by being tuned to high or to low. But hey, they need a workout too right?

        There is so much information online for electric bassist (and even more for upright players) on proper technique, how to hold your instrument and so on. All of this information is very useful and helpful. There’s one thing I’ve noticed, there’s only a few very basic things that this information agrees on.

I’m not referring to using your pointer and middle finger to pluck with or you push down the strings with your fretting hand. I agree with all of that, but it’s the insight on where to hold you bass, such as on your chest, abdomen or below the belt etc. Or don’t use your pinky finger to walk a line and so on. What about posture? What about finger pressure? What about popping with my middle finger and not my pointer finger? There are so many opinions out there and they are all correct. That’s right, they all work.

Now, what works for you is something completely different. It’s funny to see the bass masters out there, pick any three and compare. Notice how they don’t all hold, press, posture, shift, slap, tap, sweep and so on exactly the same? Pretty weird huh? Even for beginners it won’t take long to figure out what is “comfortable”. There’s the magic word. “Comfortable”. If playing isn’t comfortable, many won’t stick with it for long.

There’s two big approaches to this, force your self to be comfortable with something or play how you want and adjust your technique in a way that is comfortable for you. I know that during some bass lessons, I’ve observed technique that didn’t sit right with me. It wasn’t normal, traditional or generally accepted, didn’t mean it didn’t sound good or groove. If you’re a stickler on “proper technique” I urge you to learn about Quintin Berry. Yup. I’ll just leave that there.

Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t learn the basics and learn to play in ways that allow for future growth, but after you get down the brain capacity to separate your left from right hand and some muscle memory knowing how hard you need to press on the strings without over exerting yourself you’re cut free from the basics shackles. If you’re not comfortable you have no reason to figure out how to do what you’re looking to do and be uncomfortable. Please, don’t confuse being uncomfortable and needing to practice something. They are two different things all together. If you’re physically comfortable while practicing you’re on your way. You may get tired and this don’t mean bad technique necessarily, perhaps it’s just a little chops building that’s needed.

There’s more than one way to play the bass and sound great and most importantly sound the way you mean to. Mix it up, you might just stumble into something new that no one else has yet. =)

Good luck! Keep it funky!

          I’ve watched a few videos on youtube recently that were well thought out and very meaningful.We all have our inspirations as bass players. Some want to play like Wooten, or Miller, or Clarke, or _________________? You name it, we often times are chasing down someones style, technique, sound, tone and so on.This is perhaps one of the best ways for us to go through the discovery process of identifying our long term sound. There seems to be different opinions on copying other musicians for sound and style. It’s pretty common for us to know the notes and how to play our favorite bass lines from our favorite players, or striving to anyway. In my opinion, if you never move on from only knowing your favorite bass lines that’s okay. If you’re having fun you’re doing something right. We figure out pretty quickly that the farther down the low frequencies rabbit hole we go the more we “must” learn. It’s pretty cool, when we’re motivated to learn something, we find new inspirations and visa versa.

I’ll tell you one thing. If you have all the bass lines memorized and sounding solid from your inspirations, you’re doing pretty good. Now comes the fun part. There are at least two really cool things that begin to come from this. 1) You can easily play and sound like some awesome bass player out there. That’s pretty cool. and 2) You have a great opportunity to take a specific sound from a player and add your own flavors to it.

Okay, lets take a step back here. I recognize that sometimes we have to step out of the box and play something that isn’t our style. Maybe this happens a lot. If you’re into Jazz and play in a rock band, do you get to whip out your 3,000 chords and lay them down? Not often times, but does it help? Of course it does. You’ll find the most creative ways to take bits and pieces from your inspirations, styles and techniques and begin to find little homes for them in your music. This is what makes you well….you. No one holds the patent to Slap and Pop, or finger style funk, or tapping etc. There’s plenty of pros out there that have their specialties but none of them belong to that person. So, no that we know Wooten and Miller can’t sue each other over encroaching on the others technique, don’t be afraid to take your own work that may be a copy and become someone else’s inspiration.

I know I’ve got bits and pieces blatantly copied from multiple sources, repackaged and bingo! I’ve got my own sound. Most of those bass masters out there have their inspirations, several of them, found a zone, grew within it and carved out their path. You can do the same and don’t worry. If you ever run out of content, there’s plenty more out there to inspire you, starting with the one holding your bass.

Hold it down and good luck.

          Alright alright. The title of this was pretty funny right? =)

  Onward!

  I used to pride myself on how “fast” I was at some things on bass and ignored all of the other stuff. Have you noticed how so many musicians are “graded” on how fast they do something? I’ve sure noticed. How fast can one triplet, walk a line, tap a chord etc. Ohh yeah, the faster the better because it always makes for a face melting experience! (There’s a lot of truth to this too, just saying)

  It wasn’t until I had a Classical Music curve ball thrown at me that some things became pretty clear. As a student of jazz, classical music was boring, dry, soulless and without a groove. With a general distain for Classical Music, being forced into it was perhaps one of the best musical trials I’ve been through. You see, Classical music is planned, structured, layered with synergy and intention, even if it is chaotic at times and very beautiful. I didn’t really understand this until I was handed a Bow and thrown into the pit playing my double bass. I had all of these notes on the page in front of me instead of a chord progression. My mind filled with a dark cloud that blanketed my freedom of expression and restrained my artistry. This was unacceptable and I wasn’t having even a gram of fun. 

  So with all of my frustrations at the surface I began to play the assigned music. I quickly noticed small cringing from some of the other instrumentalists in my section. A few polite comments “Hey Ry, you’re just a bit behind. Hey Ry, a tad flat buddy. Hey Ry, your drowning the Cellos. Hey ry…….” It never ended. So leaving Orchestra that day, head hung low, pretty embarrassed and not really understanding why I struggled the way I did I went home, grabbed my sheet music, my nome, Rosin and a fresh dose of ego. “This is the easiest thing to do. Pre determined patterns, volumes, notes, movements and parts all laid out for me. No prob!” I really focused on precision and playing clean. Hitting the right note spot on the first time, play it at the right volume, get the right tone and so on. This exercise was surprisingly difficult. Not nearly as “forgiving” as most other genres. I had to bring that metronome down to a a third of the designated tempo just to have the time needed to be very clear and ready for what I was supposed to do next. A light bulb went off. “Cleanliness is Next To Awesomeness”. Playing clean and specific is something much more difficult than playing fast and stuffing in as much stuff into a small space in my opinion. The bass masters out there can do both but I’m pretty sure many of them would say “I’m still working on it”. 

  This is where the inspiration for my “Chops Burner Chart”  came from. Not only is it something to help you keep track of your fastest licks, but also your slowest. This is something that I think will really help with developing ones “cleanliness” of playing. With as much time as you have to think about what you’re doing at 10 BPM rocking 8th notes, you get plenty of time to get your placement right, volume, attack, no buzz and the chance to be very very clean. 

  You’ll be surprised how much more difficult it is for many musicians to play slower than it is faster. This may be because there is more going on and slip ups are less noticeable or there are more places to hide if something goes wrong at faster paces? When you have to hold a whole note in 4/4 at 60 BPM, if you hit it wrong it gets to be displayed for a whopping 4 seconds, and we all know how that is really a lot longer than 4 seconds in stage time. =) 

  So, where to go from here? Practice slow, focus on being super clean, have no shame in taking your time and reap the rewards of being to be able to play even faster and cleaner. You’ll turn more heads, be more versatile and sound more efficient. 

  Good luck! Keep it funky!

         Often times our art is…misunderstood. The criticism come out from others that just don’t seem to get it. You know what I mean, that mild irritation when someone has a firm opinion about our art that is something less than “WOW! YOU’RE AWESOME!”. Sometimes, a full blown ego gasket pops and it’s all downhill from there.

This is normal and something to try not to take too hard. Who knows why your art wasn’t well received? Taste, style, genre, hair style and my favorite scapegoat, jealousy. In the end, regardless how I try to justify why someone didn’t like something all the accountability falls back to me with one question, “Did I sound the way I intended to?”. Yup, we must face the fact that we cannot satisfy 100% of the people 100% of the time. Also, we must recognize that we can always continue to fine tune our craft and grow. I do not believe there is a max level one can reach as an instrumentalist.

Okay, so now we know we’re not perfect, not everyone will like what we do, appreciate it, enjoy it and so on. As much as this may irk us we must take a deep breath and know that it’s going to be okay. You think you’ve got problems? Check out Joshua Bell  playing his 3.5 Million Dollar violin during rush hour and few even caring or noticing. Ohh sure it’s setting and timing and so on, but it points out that to those that don’t care, won’t care. So what are we to do?

I take responsibility as an artists to make my sound and my art intentional. Sure, I get the ego bruises here and there, but as long as what I play, how I sound and how my art is presented was and is intentional, I’m doing just fine and have no shame. Of course Ive got some missed notes here and there and a slip or two that happen. This strange phenomenon of people that appreciate my art really don’t have much to say about the missed notes and mistakes and of course those that don’t appreciate it have pleanty of opinions even if I played at 100%. The other strange thing, the people that appreciate our work that have a thought to share get put in a different category. Criticisms suddenly feel like great feedback and thoughtful suggestions. Huh. Go figure. =)

So, what can we take away from this?  Play what you mean to, sound the way you intend to and enjoy your work. Others will too, and there will always be those….who are jealous. =) Hehehe.

Good luck!

          Artists have the luxury of being….well, artists. 

  With any talent that we have, especially ones that come really easy to us, because of how simple it is, we may take a step back from it and say “I can get back into this anytime” and it’s often true, knocking the rust off doesn’t take long and we pick up where we left off pretty quickly. 

  It is with this situation above that many artists get bored, don’t find an outlet to continue to pursue their craft as the competition with the other fish in the sea is brutal. I’m no Angel, I’ve done this with music on many occasions. I’m not the best bass player in the world or even a household name. I’m confident in my chops and abilities and have the skills to fit into many situations, so I feel pretty good about myself. 

  About 5 years ago after taking some time off from the bass, I came back in to the low-end world feeling froggy and a little cocky, but the other fish in the sea that stayed with it got bigger, stronger and suddenly I found myself being eaten alive by the competition. With new techniques, cleaner chops, more music theory tricks, better tone and newer innovation with technology, I reentered the seen to quickly acquire my bumps and bruises with even a couple of serious blows to the ego. 

  So, what’s the lesson here? Yes, as musicians can we have confidence, pride, passion and maybe a drizzle of ego? Sure, we may at one point have been a bigger fish feeling pretty good about ourselves and said, “maybe it’s time I get back into this”. Great!! Welcome back!! Now it’s time to get back to work. A word of caution for simply an exercise in mental preparation, be prepared to take a little bit of a sideline approach, by choice or even…….by force. You may reenter the music seen and discover some kid with smoking chops has taken first chair and you’ve got some catching up to do. Don’t panic, take a deep breath. I know I personally took this pretty hard, and hat in hand I had to recognize it was time to go home, grab the bass and theory books and get back to work. This is the “death window”. So many artists get upset and abandon their art right here at this point. Out of embarrassment, frustration and sheer humiliation it happens too many times that artists hang up their gloves and submit to “I was once an artist”.  

  Now, in summation I ask all of my fellow artists out there regardless of palate to stay the course. Taking a break is needed from time to time and that’s okay. Take one. Please know that your talents are loved and respected by many more than you think. It doesn’t matter if you are, were or will be the best, the artists communities in general need passionate people. I promise, there’s a slice of pie for every one of us, it may not be the flavor or the size you’re wanting but hey, you still got some pie. =) 

  Let it also be known you are never too old or too young to be an artist. If you just can’t find the community you need to fit in with I promise, there are many more for you to be able find hiding in the shadows having passed through the death window and there’s an opportunity for resurrection. You may just be Yoda, and not even know it. =) 

  That being said, the best thing to do if you’re still passionate is to never have quit in the first place. Just saying…

  Thanks! 

          Okay. Let’s talk about being a bass player for a minute. In my first ebook I describe the role of bass to be something easy, simple and perhaps something that is “minimal”. If this offends you other bass players out there, please hear me out. I didn’t say it wasn’t complicated.

Yup, a good bass player needs to be able to count and play the root notes of the progression. Easy enough. This keeps the groove, helps the voices of the other instruments come out and builds a solid foundation, I mean really, how often to you seek out the foundation of say….your house? Surprisingly, a lot of really good music out there carriers this “sound”, just root. You should try to have some non musician friends listen to a song and focus on the bass and be able to point it out. You’ll be surprised at how many people simply can’t separate it from the rest. If it’s gone, they know something is missing but can’t quite put a finger on it. (similar to a foundation of a home, if it’s gone, you’d know pretty quickly) I don’t know why this happens but I have some opinions. You should try it and see for yourself. After you help someone “find” the bass, you’ll be amazed at how it opens new doors to their appreciation of music. It’s like a light bulb went off.

One of the reasons this could be happening (expecting that the mix is good) is so many bass players play root, A) because they have to and/or B) they just don’t know what else to do. This is soooooooo common, and you know what? It’s okay. So why is the bass hard to find? Well, perhaps it’s because the rhythm guitar, the lead and maybe the left hand on the keyboard are all playing the exact same note. It all blends together and the bass is simply the lower frequencies of the root. The lead guitar is easy to find, the rhythm guitar can be found usually easier if there is one and the keys are usually found. I don’t know for sure, but I think it’s due to the higher pitch of the instruments as they “cut though” the mix and stand out more and a keyboard is usually pretty easily identifiable as, well, keys. Synth, Pads, Piano etc. You’ll notice that a detailed bass line is much more easily pinpointed by non-musician ears than just root note. Hhhhmmmm.

Alright, so now we’re way down this rabbit-hole with “where’s the bass?”. As bass players, do we ever feel like we just can’t seem to get into the spotlight? Sure, I know I have. What do we do? We all of a sudden want try something new, weird, maybe throw some slap or tap into it just to get some attention and with this, it’s pretty easy for us to take the song places we didn’t mean for it to go. No doubt, only the fearless can be great, but it doesn’t mean we don’t get ourselves in a big mess along our ways of experimentation. Hehehehe.

So how do these “big names” if bass get to where they are? They get solos now, people listen, fans chant their names and can’t wait to see them cut loose. I absolutely guarantee you these bigs names have learned and figured out how to make “root” sound good. Unless they’ve got a solo, 99 times out of 100 they are the silent partner in the band, laying low, doing their job, holding it down, playing root, ALOT, and just as easily made invisible to the non-musicinas ear, but by choice not by being stuck in a rut.

So, where do you go from here? Do you have this problem? Don’t know what else to play other than root? Want to spice it up and distinguish the bass without taking the train off of its tracks? Great!!! One simple word, Arpeggios. Let me type that again. Arpeggios. Do you know what an arpeggio is? It’s a chord played one note at a time in an ascending or descending manner.  I can hear it already, “Ahhh man!! Not more music theory!! I just want to play.” It’s a drag huh? Ohh well, unless you’re a virtuoso and have a perfect ear, you may have to pay the piper just like the rest of us. Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as you think, nor as hard either and you’ll be able to add the most tasty licks to your bass lines, easily, on the fly and with ease after just a little bit of practice. There’s even some easy tricks out there to learn to speed up the process. If you want to get your spotlight, I suggest this as a starting point (assuming you know your scales, if not, you can learn those too).

Okay, so how do I learn arpeggios? I’m glad you asked. I have a free arpeggios chart posted on the website here. Take it slow, look at your chord chart and is you see a “min” Maj7″ “Aug” ” Dim”  and the list goes on, see if there’s a shape for you to learn to add more notes to your “root” and inject as wanted to spice up your bass lines and get noticed a bit more and maybe even some more gigs. =)

Keep it funky,