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Open Days at Samford and The Gap

Come along to my open days on Friday 28th January at Samford and Monday January 31st at The Gap. Book in for a trial lesson, free of charge. Say hello, and lets have a bit of a jam! All levels from beginner to veteran’s welcome! All ages welcome!

Teaching term will commence on Monday 31st January! I have openings in Samford and The Gap.

This is a piece with the help of my looper pedal. The first layer is a bass riff using the E minor pentatonic scale. Next comes some E9th chords. A third layer is 12th fre harmonics on the top three strings, which are an E minor chord. The total harmonic effect is of #9 and 9 juxtaposed – very bluesy. Then follows some soloing using the open position E minor pentatonic scale. A fourth layer is looped in with some funky Em7 chord, using a fifth fret shape. Then some more soloing up arround the 12th fret, still the E minor pentatonic scale!

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Practice Track: Groove Bass

Here is a practice track for bass players. It is in the key of G minor, at a medium tempo. There is only one chord – a G minor played throughout, but interest is created by interspersing rhythm accompaniments and lead tracks using various guitar sounds and organ styles. This track is ideal for sharpening up the G minor pentatonic chops. The minor pentatonic scale is great for all kinds of groove based music, and is also useful for rock and blues as well. There is no bass line recorded on this track, so see if you can play along, and create some bass lines using the G minor Pentatonic scale. A good rule of thumb to start with is to play the root note on beat one of each bar. Have fun exploring!

Bass_Gm_Grrove

If you are not familiar with the G minor pentatonic scale, here is a fret board diagram. It shows two scale shapes that you can play with just fingers 1 and 3, which is easiest for less experienced players. In each case, start with your third finger on a G, and use your first finger to slide between fret one and fret 3 on the A string, or fret 8 and 10 on the D string.