HOW TO PRACTICE ARPEGGIOS

[devinebass]

Hi there, just uploaded a new tutorial on to my website... 'How to practice Arpeggios'. [url="http://scottsbasslessons.com/video-tutorials/tutorial-6-how-to-practice-arpeggios/"]http://scottsbasslessons.com/video-tutoria...tice-arpeggios/[/url]
You can get a massive amount of mileage from these exercises. Check it out and give them a go!

Scott.

[url="http://www.scottsbasslessons.com"]http://www.scottsbasslessons.com[/url]

[url="http://www.scottdevinemusic.com"]http://www.scottdevinemusic.com[/url]

[Oscar South]

Will have a look - need a fresh approach. Much appreciated.

[stevie]

Looks really interesting, but I can't find the PDF you mention ....

[crez5150]

Thanks Scott, as usual loads to be getting on with there..... really useful. Really bugs me that you make it look sooooo easy.

[devinebass]

Lol, everything is easy when you've done it a million times before! This has been a big part of my practice routine for the last 8 years so i've done it a few times

The PDF download will be up there by Monday, i've just got a crazy schedule at the moment so it's tough fitting it all in.

Thanks for checking the tutorials out.

Take it easy,

Scott.

[url="http://www.scottsbasslessons.com"]http://www.scottsbasslessons.com[/url]

[url="http://www.scottdevinemusic.com"]http://www.scottdevinemusic.com[/url]

[Faithless]

Could I suggest using some sort of looper (or something like that..) in your vids, when you're soloing/showing examples?

I believe, for a beginner's ear, it is a bit confusing, when he doesn't know, 'where you're at', if that makes sense...


Just some food for thought, mate,

easy
Faith

[devinebass]

I've actually been looking at different looping systems over the last week so it's definitely something i'm looking into.

Easy man,

Scott.

[url="http://www.scottsbasslessons.com"]http://www.scottsbasslessons.com[/url]

[url="http://www.scottdevinemusic.com"]http://www.scottdevinemusic.com[/url]

[devinebass]

Hi guys, a player over in the Talkbass forum was loving the arpeggio tutorial i've put out there into cyberspace. I replied back to him, but decided to post my reply up here too as i think some of you might find it interesting.

"Hey Fountain boy, your bang on when you state that learning arpeggio's is super important. When a student comes to me for lessons, more often than not their mind is tied in knots with lots of different scales and modes etc and they're confused about how and where to apply them. Straight away i get them studying the continuous arpeggio exercises as arpeggio's are the foundation of all scales. By this i mean, lets take a C major 7th arpeggio (C E G . The correct scale for this chord/arpeggio is C Ionian/major, but the arpeggio notes within this scale are the real fundamental of the sound created. The C, E, G and B notes are the foundation where as the D, F and A are the icing on top.

Obviously students are going to want to learn scales etc and apply them in solos or whatever and thats cool, but, the arpeggio's are the real key to opening up and learning the fretboard in its entirety. Then people should move onto the scales. Once people have got a good grip on the arpeggios there knowledge of harmony upon the fingerboard is so much better, the scales end up being so much easier to learn, understand and apply.

I'm not trying to play down the importance of learning scales in anyway (i love superimposing all different types of scales all over the place as you'll be able to tell if you've checked out my other tutorials), i'm just trying to promote the learning of arpeggio's and more importantly studying them using the correct exercises etc."


Happy sheddin',

Scott.

[url="http://www.scottsbasslessons.com"]http://www.scottsbasslessons.com[/url]

[url="http://www.scottdevinemusic.com"]http://www.scottdevinemusic.com[/url]

[Annoying Twit]

I'll look forward to the PDF on Monday. I get confused as to what's being played without the "little dots". I'll give it another go now though.

Edit: Ah, it all makes much more sense upon repetition. For the jump from 3rd to 5th in the "2nd finger" pattern, I must admit that I find it far too tempting to slide that interval

What's the reasoning behind the glove you're wearing?

Edited August 14, 2010 by Annoying Twit

[devinebass]

Ah, the glove... no i'm not a crazy MJ fan! I've got a neurological condition (focal dystonia) that effects the movement in my hands. Sometimes i where gloves on both but at the moment my right hand seems to behaving itself. They're super thin but desensitize the feeling in my hands so i can play properly. It's a long story but if you wanna check it out some more look at some of my older posts.

Take it easy.

Scott.

[url="http://www.scottsbasslessons.com"]http://www.scottsbasslessons.com[/url]

[url="http://www.scottdevinemusic.com"]http://www.scottdevinemusic.com[/url]

[Faithless]

Sorry for the OT, but did it happen from playing bass?

Tension and pain in left hand hand is why I gave up using extended position (streching for 5 frets at one time, if that makes sense..) Now I only use 1finger-per-fret, kinda J Gwizdala's approach, and it makes a lot more sense..

[Tandro]

Hi Scott,

I saw on your website that Hector made mention of that book, 'Fingerboard Harmony' by Gary Willis'. Its funny cause that is exactly what I was thinking about when I started watching your tutorials, because I bought it a few weeks ago and am slowly reading through it. When I saw this post on arpeggios I was drawn to it as that is what I am trying to understand and learn (from the book). Its nice to see someone like you who understands these concepts put them in a video to explain it further and help our understanding. I'm still trying to understand how to apply them in the real world (without it sounding like an arpeggio exercise!), but it will take some time (and much practice) before I can internalize this stuff. Thanks again for your lessons...

[devinebass]

Tandro, thanks for checking out the tutorials, nice to know your enjoying them. Just practice this stuff in small bits and you'll internalize a lot faster. For instance, try just doing one ii v i per month... one week learning Dm7 all over the neck, the next week G7 all over the neck, the week after that Cmajor7 all over the next. The fourth week can be spent putting all three chords together and using the continuous arpeggio exercises. I know this sounds extreme, but what you'll find is that by learning it so deeply, when you start learning it in different keys it'll be so much easier... and a faster process. Learning the geometry of the fingerboard is the key. Good luck! S.

Faithless, yeah the condition was caused by bass playing, but, chances are if i had been a piano player or drummer i would have still got it. It's not to do with stretching, it's caused by repeated movements (millions of them!) within the hands. They think it's caused by over-plasticity of the brain, the gag is, the more plasticity an individual has within there brain the more efficiently there muscle memory is. Professional musicians tend to have a lot of plasticity, they generally need too to become professional. If an individual has 'a lot' of plasticity their brain almost starts re-wiring itself when given hard tasks to do... like playing bass, it's like the brain has its own intelligence... scary! Fear not though, the percentages of people how get this condition are very LOW! So low it almost took me three years to be diagnosed, i think it's something like 8 people in 1000 professional musicians can be effected. So thats like 0.25% (ish) of pro musicians. Hope that answered your question anyway.

Take it easy.

Scott.

[url="http://www.scottsbasslessons.com"]http://www.scottsbasslessons.com[/url]

[url="http://www.scottdevinemusic.com"]http://www.scottdevinemusic.com[/url]

[Faithless]

Just curious..

Any chance that your arpeggio approach/method has something to do with what Jeff Berlin says about arpeggios?

Edited August 15, 2010 by Faithless

[devinebass]

Faithless... I'm not sure, i haven't really read much stuff written by Jeff Berlin. I have listened to him quite a bit over the years and he sounds like he uses a lot of chord tone + approach note/chromatic type material within his solos though.

easy man,

Scott.

[Marcus Müller]

[quote name='devinebass' post='923580' date='Aug 13 2010, 10:33 AM']Hi there, just uploaded a new tutorial on to my website... 'How to practice Arpeggios'. [url="http://scottsbasslessons.com/video-tutorials/tutorial-6-how-to-practice-arpeggios/"]http://scottsbasslessons.com/video-tutoria...tice-arpeggios/[/url]
You can get a massive amount of mileage from these exercises. Check it out and give them a go!

Scott.

[url="http://www.scottsbasslessons.com"]http://www.scottsbasslessons.com[/url]

[url="http://www.scottdevinemusic.com"]http://www.scottdevinemusic.com[/url][/quote]
in Praktice situashun - best to work on dubble octave aprs. 1st maj, den min, alternatin

see the Jaco vid - he wus a pretty gutt student of mine.

Jeff Berlin, he is a nutter, bit wikkid bussist,
I live in Berlin, that almost makes him my brudder
wee is all brudders anyway........Love!!

Edited August 16, 2010 by Marcus Müller

[devinebass]

Before i get burned down in flames by all the 'sound' guru's... i apologize, this is a track i've been working on for my album, well the intro to a track anyway. Its totally unmixed or eq'd so it sounds like sh%t!... and i need to redo the percussion coz there's all types of glitches etc. Anyway, it's got a load of arpeggio type lines in it plus a load of other stuff so i thought you might wanna check it out.

[attachment=56785:album_tune_1.mp3]

Easy,

Scott.

[url="http://www.scottsbasslessons.com"]http://www.scottsbasslessons.com[/url]

[url="http://www.scottdevinemusic.com"]http://www.scottdevinemusic.com[/url]

[devinebass]

Sorry for the delay guys, anyhooo the PDF is up so you can download it from here...http://scottsbasslessons.com/video-t...ice-arpeggios/

If you've got any other questions just gimme a shout.

Take it easy,

Scott.

[url="http://www.scottsbasslessons.com"]http://www.scottsbasslessons.com[/url]

[url="http://www.scottdevinemusic.com"]http://www.scottdevinemusic.com[/url]

[devinebass]

Totally the wrong thread to put it in but i've been messing around with some ideas for the tune i posted up a few days ago.

Here it is...

[attachment=56961:album_1_3.mp3]

The bass noodle at the end is just a sample as there's gonna be screeching take ya face off sax on there as well.

Easy,

Scott.

[url="http://www.scottsbasslessons.com"]http://www.scottsbasslessons.com[/url]

[url="http://www.scottdevinemusic.com"]http://www.scottdevinemusic.com[/url]

[wrinkleygit]

Hi Scott, enjoying the tutorial on arpegio's, just started playing with a local jazz quartet & I need all the help I can get, from what I can remember of a conversation with chris m, my trusty ov fretless may have been yours once, see attached, keep up the good work, mike b

[attachment=56979:tn.jpg]

[devinebass]

I loved that fretless!! It's got such a killer tone, it's the only bass i had for around 4 years. Go to this link and you'll be able to hear it on a couple of recordings i did years ago. (Its on the two youtube clips entitled 'Danny Gough's Nu York state'). [url="http://scottsbasslessons.com/odds-and-sods/"]http://scottsbasslessons.com/odds-and-sods/[/url]

If you listen to the first one, i think it's called 'Nu York state theme' the band really start giving it some!

Take it easy,

Scott.

[url="http://www.scottsbasslessons.com"]http://www.scottsbasslessons.com[/url]

[url="http://www.scottdevinemusic.com"]http://www.scottdevinemusic.com[/url]

[Mike]

Hey Scott. Great lesson. I'm really shedding hard as I've realised that one of my main problems is a lack of instant harmonic understanding all over the bass.

So last night I worked on the DM7 arpeggio and set up a Dm7 vamp and just soloed for 30mins at a time using just those four notes - and my solos were more rhythmically interesting than normal, with much more motivic development. This "containment" style of practice is something I'm going to work on. I briefly then did a Dm7 to Cmaj7 vamp but decided that the Dm7 is not 110% ingrained yet so still going to work that for a few more days.

Thanks for helping to give some direction to my practise.

Regards

Mike

PS did I sell you a Benevente single cut some years ago?

[devinebass]

Cheers for checkin' out the lessons Mike. There's so much practice material you can get from these arpeggio exercises and if done regularly ALWAYS has a massive effect on peoples playing and understanding of harmony... so spread the word!

The Benavente... yes it was me! Lovely bass, but alas i had to let it go. I did play it for around a year though.

Take it easy,

Scott.

[url="http://www.scottsbasslessons.com"]http://www.scottsbasslessons.com[/url]

[url="http://www.scottdevinemusic.com"]http://www.scottdevinemusic.com[/url]

[Faithless]

[quote name='Mike' post='934891' date='Aug 24 2010, 05:29 PM']So last night I worked on the DM7 arpeggio and set up a Dm7 vamp and just soloed for 30mins at a time using just those four notes - and my solos were more rhythmically interesting than normal, with much more motivic development. This "containment" style of practice is something I'm going to work on. I briefly then did a Dm7 to Cmaj7 vamp but decided that the Dm7 is not 110% ingrained yet so still going to work that for a few more days.[/quote]

Hey, Mike,

How is it going with arpeggios?

I'm shedding on them each day, now I'm getting used to fluently 'switching' between two looped II V I's, that's Cmaj's and Fmaj's..

The sickest thing for me is to solo using only chord tones - I just can't seem to make it sound more like a solo, not an arpeggio exercise..




BTW, Scott, I checked Adam Rogers, that you told me about - it seems I've 'known' him in past, seeing him with M Garisson and other cats, well, right, he's an ace cat.. You told you studied with him, and if so, did you happen to live in NY maybe?

Edited September 24, 2010 by Faithless

[JoshJ]

Hi Scott, just had a really quick look at the tutorials, they look good but I can't read music! I know I really should learn, so I won't be offended if you say no, but it might be an idea to write out the pdf in tab aswell for idiots like me.

Also the first time I opened the pdf I forgot to middle-click so I lost my place in the video, it's only a daft little thing but if you made it open in a new window it might save people a few seconds finding where they were up to.

Josh