So, yesterday you opened your presents, and you got exactly the new amp, bass, whatever, you really, really wanted. Congratulations!

Now, to ensure you get a good, long life out of your new gear, show it some respect: Don't leave the amp in the middle of the living room where your dad might trip over it. Don't leave your bass lying around where the dog can chew on the neck. Don't use your new lesson books for coasters while you watch the big game.

The habits you create now will stay with you a long time, perhaps forever. So, create good habits now and they'll become second nature. And one of the best habits you can create is to show respect for the tools of your trade. And it will save you money in the long run.

PS - If this is your first bass, there are over 140 practice tips for you to read already! Have fun.

OK, I just have to say this, because I've talked to numerous teachers who have encountered it:

PLAYING BASS IS NOT LIKE PLAYING A VIDEO GAME.

Look, I'm sure all your friends are really amazed at how well you do at Guitar Hero. I'm sure you can do all the wanks and wails in time with the music. But that has NOTHING to do with playing bass, or any other instrument for that matter. It's a v-i-d-e-o g-a-m-e.

If you want to get good on the bass (or guitar), you have to practice BASS, not video games. You have to put your time into learning things like scales, and notes, and runs, and riffs, and chords. All that stuff. And I dare say that if you put as much time into learning the instrument as you did learning the video game, you'll be great.

So. If you want to pretend to be a Rock Star, go ahead and whip out the game console. But if you want to BE a Rock Star, better get practicing. On BASS.

Last week, I began a series of tips on chords, and told you the "play, skip, play, skip, play" trick for finding the three notes in a standard major or minor chord. This week, let's look at the chords you built using this method.

• The following chords are major: I, IV, V
• The following chords are minor: II, III, VI
• The following chord is weird: VII. It's actually a diminished chord, and we'll talk about that later.
• So... in the Key of C, The C, F and G chords are major, and the D, E and A chords are minor.
• To help you remember these, write it all out. In every key. For C, it would look something like this:
• C Major - C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, Bdim

Write this out in every key until you can recite them by heart.

In the beginning, students often concentrate on single notes. Learning scales, learning riffs, learning songs - it's all about individual notes. The thing is, our notes choices change based on many considerations, and a lot of them are because of the chord against which we're playing. It's important to understand some chord theory if you want to learn how to craft bass lines, instead of simply learning someone else's line. So, for the next few weeks, I'll offer some things to consider. For now, here's a way to find the notes of any basic (root, third, fifth) chord in any key:

Pick a key and play the scale. To find the notes in the I chord (in C, that's C), play the first note, skip one, play one, skip one, play one. This means you'll play the first, third and fifth note of the C scale (C - E - G) and skip the second and fourth notes (D and G). And that's also the root, third and fifth of the C Major chord.

You can do the same thing starting on any note in the scale. Play, skip, play, skip, play -- and those three notes will be the root, third and fifth of that chord. Remember to use ONLY the notes of the scale. Try this starting with every note in the scale, and you'll see (and hear) some neat things going on. And we'll get to that next week.

OK, so you've committed to spend at least a little time every day practicing your bass. The key is to make certain you get something useful out of it. So, plan your time and focus. Here's one example of how to plan a short practice session:

1. As you wash your hands (we've been through this), mentally prepare yourself, and get rid of everything else. Review what you're going to work on.

2. Warm-up with ten minutes on a single scale. (Keep track in your notebook.)

3. Spend five minutes on a dexterity exercise, using the scale you just practiced.

4. Spend the final five minutes using the exercise as a starting point for writing a bass line.

You've now spent twenty minutes of fruitful time on your bass. Next session, pick a different scale (and key) and repeat.

According to legend, Johann Sebastian Bach once said that if he didn't practice for one day, he could tell. And that if he didn't practice for two days, his close friends could tell. And if he didn't practice for three days, the whole world could tell.

Bach's reasoning was that, in order to maintain his dexterity and technique, it was necessary to play for at least a short time every day, doing drills and exercises. Even if he did not have time to work on new music, he needed to do the drills that kept his hands in shape.

So... when was the last time you practiced?

One complaint / excuse / rationalization I often hear from unprepared students is that they don't have time to practice. Yet, every time, when I drill down into it, it's not a lack of time, it's a lack of commitment. Look, if you've got time to spend hours tweaking your motorcycle, or go fishing, or bowl three nights a week, you've got time to practice. Even if you think your daily schedule is packed, you can find 15 minutes a day. And, believe me when I tell you that 15 minutes a day is better than one or two long sessions a week.

If you need help finding the time to practice, here are some ideas to get you thinking:

1. Get up fifteen minutes early. Get your practice in before yoru day starts.
2. Take a bass to work. Practice on your lunch hour.
3. Practice while your children are doing homework.
4. Stay up fifteen minutes later and do your practice after the kids have gone to bed.

Last week, you should have been working on playing your bass part with the recording of the song you're learning. Part of the process was to learn to play through any mistakes. But it's also important to clean up those mistakes so that you can play your part perfectly every time. (Remember my Ten Times in a Row Rule.)

The FINAL final step is to play your part by yourself. If you've really got the song down, as well as the bass part, you should be able to play the entire song by yourself. You should NOT need to hear the vocals to know you're approaching the end of the verse and heading into the chorus.

So, this week, try this:

1. Play the song with the recording to make sure you have the part down.

2. Then, play the part by yourself. Again, do NOT stop for mistakes; learn to play through them.

3. Review any sections that need correction. Play each section ten times in a row so that it burns into your brain.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you can play the song from memory and by yourself with 100% accuracy. If you can do that, you've really learned the song.

Your homework last week was to put the basic structure of your song together, and to figure out the complete bass line. If you did that, you're ready for the final steps. First, review your notes carefully, then set them aside. Do NOT look at them during this last step.

Now, play along with the song. If you make a mistake, do NOT stop. Continuing playing, just as you would on during a live performance. Once finished, review any section that gave you trouble. You've accomplished your goal when you can play along without mistakes. Work on this during this week and next week we'll do the FINAL final step.

By now (hopefully), you have learned the basic chord structure to a new song, and you have figured out the main riff. Now it's time to bring everything together and really nail down the bass line throughout. If you already know the layout of the song (intro, verse, chorus, bridge, solo, etc.), and you know the signature riff, you should be able to get through the song from beginning to end. You may not have the exact, note-for-note bass line down but, still, you should be able to play through it. A few times through should be enough for you to start picking apart each section of the bass line, using the same techniques you used to break down the main riff. And that is this week's homework. Have fun!

Last week, you should have learned the chord pattern and structure of a new song using the skill sets we discussed in the previous weeks. Did the song have a standard riff or hook? If so, were you able to figure it out? If not, here's some help:

1. You don't have to always start with the first note, then the second, then the third. It's OK to skip around at first, finding a few notes within the riff.

2. Once you've found the first note and one other, listen closely to the notes between the two. Do these notes fall above or below either of the "starting" notes"?

3. Once you have a basic idea of the relationship between the starting notes and the new one, you can hunt it down much more quickly.

So, if you still need to figure out that hook, this is the week to work on it.

For the past several weeks we've been looking at exercises that directly relate to a particular style of music. This helps you learn the specific skills necessary for a style of music. The next step is to pick one or two songs in that style, that use the skill sets you're practicing. Work on one or two songs at a time - no more. Take it slow, and do it properly.

Phase I is to learn the basic structure of the song - chord pattern and section pattern (verse, chorus, bridge, etc.). If there's a standard riff or hook that repeats, learn that, too.

More on this next week.

Staying in Root Mode, here's a way to practice pumping eighth notes and adding a short fill at the end of a phrase. Play through a scale thusly:

1 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 | 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 4 | 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 5 etc.

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 | 1 1 1 1 2 3 4 5 | 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 | 1 1 1 1 3 4 5 6 etc.

Pump the eight notes as we discussed preciously and you're half-way to building your own Monster Rock basslines.

For the last several tips, we've looked at different ways to practice scales. These new exercises help you get comfortable with basic, "building block" rhythm patterns. Pulsing eighth notes (a la AC/DC's Cliff Williams) and "galloping horses" (eighth and two sixteenths) are standard fare for Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. Learning to play these rhythms consistently, pounding the root most of the time and adding runs where appropriate, will bring you one step close to being a Metal God or Goddess. That's certainly worth a few minutes a day, isn't it?

Many classic Hard Rock / Metal bass lines feature a one eighth note, two sixteenths figure, like this:

Dum duh-duh Dum duh-duh Dum, etc. ( one and-a two and-a three, etc.)

There should be a bit of space between the first note and the pair of sixteenths. It's similar to playing straight sixteenths and leaving out the second one in every group of four, except that your downbeat here has a stronger pulse and lasts a little longer.

This week, let your horses run on standard scales. Next week, we'll look at variations. It wouldn't hurt to whip out a few Iron Maiden CDs, either.

A Different Kind of Eighth Notes, Part 3- Lane Baldwin, Special Projects Coordinator

Continuing from last week, let's add tot he mix by paying attention to duration of each note. This week, we'll use eighth notes and play them thusly:

Downbeats - short

Upbeats - long

Dum (space) duh-dum duh-dum

Listen to some classic root-eighth bass lines to hear this concept. Cliff Williams (AC/DC) is a good place to start.

Building on last week's tip, here's a variation you can use with any scale you know:

Eighth Notes -- 11 11 11 23 | 22 22 22 34 | 33 33 33 45 etc.

Triplets -- 111 111 111 234 | 222 222 222 345 | 333 333 333 456 etc.

Sixteenths -- 1111 1111 1111 2345 | 2222 2222 2222 3456 etc.

More to come...

If you're like most people, you practice your scales by playing in eighths or sixteenths, straight up and down the scale: 1234 5678. This is great for learning to articulate fast runs. But what about learning to play all those bass lines that feature pounding eigth notes? Try this -- play your scale like this:

11 11 11 11 | 22 22 22 22 | 33 33 33 33 etc. (eighth notes)

1111 1111 1111 1111 | 2222 2222 2222 2222 etc. (sixteenths)

or

111 111 111 111 | 222 222 222 222 etc. (triplets)

Next week we'll do some more advanced concepts based on this. So get practicing, OK?

Here's a Circus Trick to help you get used to quick position changes. Play a scale in triplets in two octaves. The first triplet ( 1 - 2 - 3 ) is played in the lower octave. The second triplet ( 2 - 3 - 4 ) is played in the higher octave. Then 3 - 4 - 5 is low, 4 - 5 - 6 is high, and so on.

No, this will not really help you craft a Cooler Than Cool bass line. But it will help you learn to move quickly - and accurately.

This week, I was reminded that when we take on too many new things at once, it can make it far more difficult to assimilate them. Far better is to concentrate on one (or perhaps, two) new exercises, drills, scales, etc. Get it under your fingers and into your head. Make certain you have a firm grasp on it. Then add one more new thing.

Last week, I wrote about commitment to whatever you're playing at the moment. Today, let's talk about a different kind of commitment - to practice daily. Even if you can only find fifteen minutes to spend with your instrument, it's better than not touching it at all. And, no, practicing for three hours on Saturday doesn't make up for it. Why? Because you'll spend much of that time simply getting back to where you left off the week before. Even a few minutes a day is enough to keep your fingers limber and those exercises planted more firmly in your mind.

Make a commitment to spend at least fifteen minutes a day with your bass. If your life is so completely full that you can't find the extra time in your schedule, try getting up fifteen minutes early so you can practice before the rest of your day begins. You'll be amazed at how much more quickly you advance than if you only practice a few times a week.

We often talk about making a commitment to music (in general), or committing to a daily practice regimen, or some such. Just as important, however, is to make a firm commitment to what you're doing in any given moment. . . such as that scale you're about to practice. When you really commit yourself to that scale, you can make every note sing out. Playing isn't enough. Make a commitment.

I don't normally do this but, this week, I'm going to point you to a lesson: Check out Roy Vogt's Beginner Lesson 20, presented this week. Now, spend a minimum of ten minutes a day on the excercises in the lesson. After thirty days, see if you don't lock in with your drummer more effectively.

Simetimes, all it takes to improve a skill, technique or scale is a few minutes every day. As with tempo, the key is consistency.

When learning a new style of music, listen to the drummer as much as you do the bass. Why? Because, if the band is good, the drummer will tell you just as much about the nuances required to play the style correctly. Groove isn't just about bass, even if it is the most important part.

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Last week, I reminded you that, most of the time, the bass note of a chord is the root. In other words, if it's a C chord, the bass plays a C note. However, that's not always true. And knowing the other chord tones will help when learning songs that have "weird" bass notes. Two examples: Sympathy for the Devil uses the third of the chord on the IV. So does Crossroads as performed by Cream (and others). Listen to both this week and carefully note the bass line as it moves through the IV chord.

When learning a song from a CD, remember that, for almost every chord you hear, the bass will play the root note as its first note in the phrase. If you can catch these root notes on the first (or second) pass, you can then scratch out a chord chart to help you memorize the structure of the song.

OK. Last week you played the root and third of each chord in a given key. Yes, you did! (1 3 2 4, etc.) This week, let's up the ante. Play 1 3 5 2 4 6 3 5 7, etc., and you're outlining the root, third and fifth of every chord in a given key. Suddenly, we've gone from notes, to chords. Interesting how that happens, huh?

Here's one that will teach you which chords in a given key are major or minor. Play your chosen scale (major or minor) in thirds - 1 - 3 - 2 - 4, etc. What you are also playing is the first two notes in each chord -- 1 and 3 are obviously the first and third of the I chord; 2 and 4 are the root and third of the ii chord, and so on.

Listening is a critical skill many players never master. How can you play with others, strengthening the song, if you don't listen? This week, spend some time listening to drummers. Whatever your chosen style, listen to several drummers you admire in that genre. How do they approach a verse? How do they transition to the chorus or bridge? What are they doing during the solos?

Listen actively. Dig down for the nuances. Then, ask yourself, "what's the best way to seamlessly integrate with that drummer?"

Someone once told me that music was the sonic representation of emotion. It's something that's stuck with me for decades and is now an important part of my playing style. So, sit with your bass and think about an emotion. Anger, love, happiness, sadness... pick one and sit with it for a minute. Now, express that emotion through your bass. Don't be discouraged if it takes a bit of time as this is a little different than learning a "technique". One hint: stop thinking and feel.

Here's one I got from my good friend Abe White. As you go through your day, keep your ears open. If something catches your attention, focus on it to help cement it in your memory. Then, when you get back to your bass, see if you can translate what you heard into music. In a sense, you want to create a "backing" track or "score" for what you saw and heard. Think about it . . . you're writing the music to accompany your life. Now, there's an exercise!

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Here's an exercise I learned from Mandolin player Don Stiernberg. Yeah, skinny strings . . . but there are only four pairs of them, so it's still OK to a certain extent. Anyway, here's the exercise:

Starting on fifth fret of your lowest string, place one finger per fret. This is a 4-note chromatic riff. Play that first, then move just your index finger to the next highest string without moving the other fingers. Each time, move one more finger to the higher string. When you have all four fingers on the next highest string, repeat the pattern, again moving one finger at a time to the next string.

OK, let's talk about these exercises for a minute. Remember that these exercises are NOT about music. They are meant to increase dexterity in the fretting hand, and get your hand used to all sorts of weird note sequences. In the last several tips, I've laid out a number of possible combinations, but nowhere near all of them. That's your job over the coming months. Yes, I said "months" because this is an exercise set you should continue to use. So, continue to expand your set and don't forget to make notes in your practice journal.

Finally, remember that each position on the neck is slightly different. So make sure you practice these exercises in all positions.

Last week, we added complexity to our finger drills by using more than one string. This week, we continue by adding a third string to the drills. Use E-A-D and A-D-G combinations. And remember, this isn't music - it's exercise.

Last week I showed you a series of finger drills. They were to be played on one string at a time. This week, let's add to the complexity by working on two strings at a time. Pick two adjacent strings and assign two fingers to each. For instance -- fingers 1 and 2 on the A, and fingers 3 and 4 on the D. Now, play the exercises again, always starting slowly.

Hint -- stop thinking "music". This is more about exercise than it is melody.

This is the first in a multi-part tip to help you increase your left-hand dexterity. Place your hand on the fretboard in a position that allows you to use one finger per fret without stretching your hand. Play the following patterns slowly, ten times perfectly.

1 2 3 4 | 1 2 4 3 | 1 3 2 4 | 1 3 4 2

2 1 3 4 | 2 1 4 3 | 2 3 1 4 | 2 3 4 1

3 1 2 4 | 3 1 4 2 | 3 2 1 4 | 3 2 4 1

At first, play just one group of four notes. Then, play an entire line. Finally, play the entire set of patterns. Remember, start slowly and play each exercise ten times perfectly before increasing speed or moving to the next exercise. More to follow in the coming weeks.

For those who have (or can borrow) a video camera, here's a way to check your technique. Focus the camera on your left hand. Now, play for ten or fifteen minutes. You can play scales and exercises, or maybe the bass line to a song you know well. Then, sit down and watch the tape. Look closely at your hand. Is it doing what it should, and in the correct way? Make notes on what needs work, and add this into your practice regimen.

Hey! Quick question: where does the thumb of your plucking hand rest? If you're like most, it rests on the top of a pick-up or somewhere similar. Nothing wrong with that, but here's something that may help your accuracy and cleanliness, especially if you'replaying an extended range instrument. Rest your thumb on the highest unused string. If you're playing on the E string (and higher), rest your thumb on the B string. If you don't need the E string, rest your thumb there. Let your "anchor" float across the strings as you play. This keeps you closer to the strings you're using at any given moment, and automatically helps mute lower, unused strings.

Last week, I told you to overcome burn-out by getting out into nature and listening. OK. So, what did you hear? And what did it bring to mind? I know that when I start hearing music in my head, I'm healed, so to speak. I know that I can go home, pick up my bass, and feel like I'm reacquainting with my best friend. And when that happens, the burn-out has passed and I'm ready to dig in again. If this doesn't happen for you, you're going to need to sit again. And this time, let it all go...

Sometimes, I hit a wall. It's not so much about leveling out on a plateau as it is about burn-out. If this ever happens to you, go sit outside. The more removed from "civilization", the better. Quiet. No distractions. Relax, calm, and slow your breathing. Do the same with your mind.

Listen.

To the trees... and the wind as it moves the leaves (which leaves?).... the little ones... where are they?... what are they doing?... hear the world... feel the rhythm.... the ebb and flow... sit with that a while.... if your mind wanders, bring it back and start over...

Repeat as necessary...

As we begin our third year together -- has it been that long?? -- let's review again. Grab your coffee and your notebook. Remind yourself of what you worked on for the past year. Compare your progress with your original goals. How'd you do? Is there anything that needs a little extra work... anything that you should spend extra time on?

Remember, this is not a "beat yourself up" exercise. It's simply a way to review (and acknowledge) your progress, and to help you plan your practice regimen for the next few months.