Lesson One: Bass Arpeggios (Sweeps)
I understand that ‘technically’ this isn’t a sweep as I’m defining the arpeggio to the 9th and not the chord, instead it’s my take on bass arpeggios/sweeps. Direct input from my Ibanez SR506 to iMovie and then I added a voice over and text.
@pipocinyd Yeah . . . well I think this has been covered, but thanks for the post man. I agree that this lesson is shit (I posted this thing like two years ago), but I don’t think you can seriously diss the technique, it’s pretty much spot on.
@Stevespeeze Actually this is a variation on a warm up that my high school jazz band played every morning. At this point I’d been playing this for about 4 years . . .
Umm, no, the technique is not spot on. You glide with your right hand when you descend. Ascending, you seem to do okay as far as playing each note with a different finger, but watch when you go back down. You will use the same motion with the same finger. This is known as gliding and it is a very bad habit. Play each note with a different finger on your right hand 1-2-1-2 etc…
@pipocinyd Ah, I’ve actually always heard the term called ‘raking’; as far as it being bad technique I’m not convinced. I’ve only read a few articles about technique from a few key authors that truly believe ‘gliding/raking’ is really terrible, and they manage to convince the rest of the community that its fact. The only argument I’ve heard against raking is that it contributes to sloppy-ness, which has never been an issue for me(above video ISN’T sloppy).
@pipocinyd The reason I think many believe it contributes to sloppyness is that this way of playing doesn’t jell with some people and that is ok, but for some it is actually easier to play that way. Now if one of my students was raking and playing really sloppy I would stop them from doing it, but otherwise I believe it’s totally fine. Not to mention that there are world class players that rake including the late Jaco Pastorius. So no, I’m not convinced that raking is always bad technique.
Yeah, Jaco did have a raking technique. There is a spot in his version Donna Lee where he does this, and it’s killer. I’ve seen the bad side of it though. I’ve seen a lot of people do it and it totally took away from their playing. No, your technique doesn’t suck ass. That was harsh. I was just disappointed because I wanted to see some sweeping arpeggios and was let down.
I don’t blame you. You do what every other bass player does. You see players you admire playing that way and you imitate it. I’ve done it too. (Have you ever watched Billy Sheehan play? How does that work?) It’s just like mounting your thumb on your pickup. Everybody does it, but it puts your wrist too far away from the strings. I think if you were to try this though, and give it some time, that you would like the results. Dig in a little bit too!
Hell, s this is better bass sweeping then I can do. Join my band?:)
Excuse me gentleman but this is not a bass, it is a guitar with fat strings.
Time for my tea.
Sweeping can only be done with a pick. Its a right hand technique. But very fluid arpeggios none the less.
@Siiafu you can sweep using your fingers: thumb to sweep down, index to sweep up, the same way you can do in a classic or even electric guitar. Even though the person in the video says it’s the same thing doing his way, I believe it sounds much more fluid the way I’m mentioning.
Hey congratulations on spending your time recording and sharing this video with us!! Keep playing
you have no bad technique, but you move to much you fingers and your hand.
you should be a ventrilquist
Thanks for Posting..it all adds to thoughts on playing better bass!Keep going and stay away from mean people!
Must be a bitch changing strings
What is your bass tuned to? …because I only have a 4 string at the moment and not quite sure if this would apply to it as well.
@sunsywunsy The bass is tuned BEADGC and the lesson does apply to a four string. This is a basic major arpeggio (meaning you play the root, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th note of your major scale), so if you start on your 5th fret of your E string you would play 5th E-string, 4th A-string 7th A-string, 6th D-string, and 4th G-string and then descend back down. If you want a big finger stretch that is great for warming up start on your A string the same way and try to find that last note higher up.
ibanez ftw
@sunsywunsy He does say in the description, it’s tuned BEADGC, standard tuning for a 6 string. My 6 string is tuned to F#BEADG, however, which I prefer(:
@sunsywunsy Sorry, not the description, comment at the top, my bad
fucking pussy
Oh, your bass only has six strings? I’m already at 17 strings.
These basses are for masturbatory music store sessions. It pretty much holds true that the more strings a bass player has, the less relevant he is in a real (eg: not academic or coffee-shop) band.
@allrequiredfields Nice pot shot, but I got out of the coffee shop scene . . . oh wait I never played coffee shops. My group will be at NAMM this year representing Phil Jones Bass though, maybe I’ll see you there. For the record I hardly pull out the sixer anymore, but the fact that you dismiss it as novelty item is pretty sad. There are some incredible six string players out there and I encourage you to check them out.
@stereolove21 For some reason, his voice reminds me more of Seth Green.