by Larry Crew
Bass Frontiers Contributor

After thirty plus years in the trenches, playing bass in every conceivable musical situation, I felt compelled to retrospectively share with my comrades what I deem to be the most important ingredients to guarantee a successful career as a working bassist. The good news is that you can achieve this without being an alumnus of the One O’clock Band, a jet speed slap/tap player, or sounding like the next Jaco Pastorius. These players are nothing less than amazing, and I have the utmost respect for their talent, but there are other ways to make a living in music without being a high profile virtuoso. Let’s face it, there will always be someone more or less skilled than you, no matter where you are on the “ability” ladder. I’m not a glorified chops player, nor do I aspire to be one. But I am living proof that you can have a very fulfilling career if the right approach is taken, and there is a clear understanding of the rules of the road from the get-go. I’d like to share some fundamental insights into important things that I’ve observed throughout my career that many of the great working bassists have in common, regardless of popularity, or what their niche is (was).

Profound Love of Music

First off, you must really LOVE what you do. If not, be honest with yourself and try to find a career or instrument that is better suited to your skills. Nobody wants to share the stage with a sad sack that carries a dark cloud with him everywhere. There are many challenges to be prepared for including serious wood shedding, cash flow fluctuations that would graph like a see saw, juggling your personal life with the working/traveling aspect, the highest emotional highs, and the lowest lows. Without a natural instinct to stay the course through thick and thin, you will likely be disappointed. This is for real, you better believe it! Anyone who has done this for a long time will tell you the same thing. Have a clear understanding of the realities of the music business, and learn to expect the unexpected.

Solid Time

Time is of the essence. Highly sought bassists have excellent time and are always aware of its importance while interacting with other players. A bass player with lousy time makes everyone else miserable. The music will never soar if the pocket is not there. When the drummer and bassist lock together, the music simply plays itself in an effortless way. NEVER practice without a metronome or some type of metronomic device. Years ago, I had a student that stepped into my studio for a lesson, wanting to learn more about technique that recording session players use. When I asked him to play something for me so I could assess his current skills, he immediately dove into a blistering Jaco riff that blew circles around me. I paused for a moment, turned on the metronome to match his tempo and politely asked him to play it again. Sadly, it was disastrous. It wasn’t even close. He became flustered and I never heard from him thereafter. I’ve heard many players over the years play like this, and they are seemingly unaware of their shortcomings until addressed by someone with an objective ear. All the chops in the world are totally meaningless if the time is missing, and you can’t play well executed, even, subdivisions in your moving lines. Be aware and don’t let your own ego blind you to this pitfall. You can only begin making real music when time becomes second nature and you become free to create interesting phrasing using all the other tricks of the trade, combined with a steady pulse.

A Distinctive Sound/Pleasing Tone

There is no limit today to the number of choices we have for developing and shaping our sound. We have the major instrument makers and custom builders, all of whom use a wide selection of wood, electronics, and hardware, and miscellaneous materials to create instruments. Listening to different players will reveal vastly different tones as well. A lot of this is in the fingers, but there is no substitute for a finely crafted instrument that will let you speak through it with your own individuality. When developing your sound and style, listen to others but don’t be a copy cat. Listen to them, learn why their sound/method works, store this info in your memory bank, build on these learned fundamentals, and then create something that listeners will identify with you as unique. Players get way too caught up on how so and so used this electronic device and this particular bass, and this or that pickup to get that sound. If you are not careful, you will only chase your tail into infinity. You will also be inadvertently promoting the career of your idol, instead of your own. In my opinion, you still can’t beat a good old fashioned Fender electric bass. They sound great on a wide variety of styles, and most of the newer custom basses are not much more than a facsimile of the original design that Leo Fender created back in the 1950’s, with additional bells and whistles (they also come with higher price tags in many instances). I’m not knocking custom instruments. I’ve played some fabulous ones, and there are many I’d love to own. I’m simply implying that you can make great music just as well with the tried and true.

I think everyone who has ever owned a Real Book can clearly remember where they got it from. My story begins in early 2004, so it’s not nearly as cool or as similar to a drug deal as many others have to offer. I had never taken a bass lesson in high school, until I was about to go off to Berklee College of Music in the fall, and I met Bjarni Nermoe, someone who had actually gone there. I wasn’t so much worried about my abilities, I just wanted to make sure that I could translate the stuff I picked up, scattershot as it was, into the same kind of language used at Berklee. Bjarni would subsequently turn me on to Jim Stinnett (his Real Book anecdote comes later…), but at the end of my first lesson he burned me a data disc containing the 5th Edition Real Book in PDF format.

The Real Book, in its most renowned form, is a collection of jazz standards and new “hip” tunes, arranged in lead sheet format (meaning one line of melody with the chord symbols above). The first Real Book popped its head up at Berklee in the 1970s. Forty years later, no one is willing to divulge the identity of the students who wrote it. Yes folks, this is the Deep Throat of the sheet music world. We can generally tell that it was someone who was really interested in the cutting edge of jazz, since it contains a lot of tunes from bassist Steve Swallow and guitaritst Pat Metheny, both of whom taught at Berklee at the time. A current faculty member (who chose to contribute to this article anonymously) has explained that in 1971 – 1972, there was no one source of these tunes on paper. However, tons of single sheets for tunes by the new composers (Steve Swallow, Gary Burton, Carla Bley, Chick Corea, etc.) were popping up in jam sessions all the time. Speculation leads me to believe that the “publisher” of the original Real Book may very well have started off by writing up these sheets, as the handwriting was very much the same.

All of this folklore leads to my theory that early on, it was just about playing these newer tunes, and nothing about enterprise. I say this because it seems as though the addition of standards comes later on. This would make sense because the older songs from the bop masters would just have been common knowledge. These newer tunes would have required some reading skill for sure, with advanced chord changes melodic phrasings that would just be too much to pick up quick enough between songs on a session. This also makes sense because in Barry Kernfeld’s “The Story of Fake Books”, the two anonymous people who created The Real Book are quoted as saying that the book was eventually put together as a way to fund their education, but also give other students hipper, more sophisticated sets of charts. This would explain why many tunes are transcribed from later, more evolved renditions. The version of “April In Paris” is from Bill Evans, for instance. Thankfully, the authors include the composer and the version they copped their chart from on every page.

There are a ton of stories I’ve heard about how guys acquired their copy of The Real Book in Boston. They range from uttering a specific phrase to one of the clerks at the Copy Cop on Boylston Street to looking for the right homeless looking man who would take you to his car parked a few blocks away and give you one out of his trunk (I’ve also heard first-hand accounts of a similar looking shady guy who had a one lightbulb room in a basement full of books…..this version sounds a little more romanticized). By the time I got to Berklee in September 2004, if you wanted to get a print copy, you needed to go a little ways outside of the downtown area to a music store. I’m sure it’s not a big deal nowadays, but I’ll keep that store nameless, just for the sake of consistency in this article.

Clearly, someone eventually needed to bring up the idea of legality. None of the composers whose work was included got paid for the inclusion of their music. In our day and age of file sharing and bootlegging of music, movies, TV shows, software, video games, books, and more, this is an obvious argument. On the other hand, I contend that in the case of the early days for The Real Book, composers with integrity were a lot better off letting it go.

Lots of the earliest fake books were produced by cutting off the vocal line and chord symbols from piano/vocal/guitar sheet musics and pasting those lines together to create a piece of paper with as little extra stuff to distract someone as possible. Here’s where the problem occurs. The idea of adding the chord symbols at all is a way to sell this printed music to families who all played music or gatherings of friends who would bring their instruments over for social gatherings.

You know, before television and internet isolationism.

Anyway, lots of chords that are written into the piano music are re-spelled as simpler chords for people plunking guitars/banjos/ukuleles along with the piano. I suppose they don’t sound awful in and of themselves…but they’re not RIGHT. For instance, if the piano is playing an Am7(b5) chord, it would very often appear above the music as a Cm6. This happens because while the 6th (A) is the root of the actual chord being played, most strumming players will leave it out and play a simple Cm chord. If that happens, it won’t get in the way of what’s being played in the piano music. If they were to see an Am7(b5) chord symbol, they’d likely drop the b5 and play an Am7 (or even simpler Am). That wouldn’t work at all, because the Eb would rub against the E in all kinds of ways.

You will note, to that end, that The Real Book actually exists, categorically, as a “fake book” for all intensive purposes. The title, one would assume, is a jab at the inaccuracies of fake book, pretty much by saying “this is how to play these, for real”. Even if “real”, in this case, refers to how players were playing the tunes in the modern sense. The Real Book was not without its inaccuracies, though. Famously, there are four entire measures missing from Antonio Carlos Jobim’s classic Desafinado.

I was the victim of bitterness towards inaccuracies in The Real Book in 2006 at the hands of Jim Stinnett (I told you I would get to this story). I was preparing for a performance of Sonny Rollins’ “St. Thomas” at one of Jim’s Bass Workout events. I didn’t know the tune at the time, and instead of the guitarist playing it for me, the house drummer suggested that he just pull his copy of The Real Book and let me look at it for a sec. Jim overheard this suggestion, came in the room, and threw the book into his wood stove. He proceeded to come back in and tell us to listen to the Rollins version to “get the real $5!7″. I guess The Real Book was the real victim, but I was certainly a bystander.

Music publishers tried for years to compete with the illegal versions of The Real Book, which by 2002 had become arguably the best selling book of sheet music in history. At that time, Hal Leonard essentially worked the numbers to find that they could license about 85% of Book 1 of The Real Book (which by this time had reached it’s fifth edition). The other 15% was left out, comprised of really obscure tunes and tunes that they could not locate the copyright holders for. These were replaced by songs that are played extremely often, and should have been there anyway. Two years were spent working with the publishers to make the music correct, but still keep the music as hip and aesthetic as possible.

Hal Leonard has done extremely well with the “Sixth Edition” of The Real Book, releasing their updated jazz line in volumes transposed for different instruments, a vocal edition, and play-along tracks for learning and honing tunes before you even get on the gig. It has now been realized that in the way that jazz has a long list of standard repertoire, there are many other corners of the music world that have the same tradition, and it would be advantageous to provide players in those worlds the same benefits. There are now versions of The Real Book for Christmas songs, Rock & Roll, Blues, Bluegrass, Dixieland, and Worship, as well as composer specific books for Duke Ellington, Bud Powell, and Miles Davis. All the books retain the same handwritten look, dedication to correctness, and attention as to what tunes really matter to people who may want the books.

I think that these new forays of The Real Book into different genres will continue to be wildly successful. It may take a little while for the other genres to catch up to the notoriety of the original jazz version, simply because of its mythical history and status, but I believe it can be done. I have seen copies of all the genre-based versions, and they are fantastic. Having spent a nice little chunk of time playing worship music in high school, and having seen people fight over chord changes and slash bass notes of tunes coming out at a rapid clip by artists like David Crowder, Matt Redman, etc., and knowing how many young people grow up learning to play their instruments in a church environment, why wouldn’t you want to have them all be consistent, developing the correct sounds of music in their ears going out into the world. Music will always have canon (as in standards, not imitative counterpoint haha!), and through the legitimization of the jazz Real Book and its successors, Hal Leonard is clearly perpetuating the growth of quality musicianship, opposed to pedantic obscurity. If you see the big cartoony letters on a book nowadays, you know you’re going learn how a LOT of music really goes.

You can get copies of the correct, legal The Real Book from Hal Leonard directly at Music Dispatch (1-800-637-2852) or by visiting your local music retailer.

Many thanks for this article go to a few anonymous Berklee College of Music Professors who were studying there and on the scene when The Real Book first appeared. I would also like to give source credit to a comment I could not find the source of by Patrick Ferreri. Information on Hal Leonard’s path to acquiring The Real Book and copies of their newer editions were provided by Jeff Schroedl and Lori Hagopian.

Jim Stinnett is one of the world’s foremost instructors of both the electric bass as well as the upright. In addition to his teaching duties for over 20 years at Berklee College of Music in Boston (where he is a full Professor), Jim’s expertise in great playing and great pedagogy draw large numbers of students from all over the world to the Stinnett Music programs. In New Hampshire, Jim runs multiple sessions of Bass Workouts, as well as the all-out New Hampshire Bass Fest, annually. What truly makes Jim’s teaching leaps and bounds better than any other bass education program is his ability to make an idea like this so complete in one stream of thought, yet keep it from being complex enough for the average player to lose interest in the topic. As you will see in this lesson, the art of the Bossa Nova bassline is broken down and explained bit by bit to build a firm, well-informed, and most importantly, musical foundation on the subject.

Please note that all notation files can be enlarged upon clicking on them.

Introduction

Music from many cultures are a vital part of the American music scene today. Bossa Nova is the most popular of all these imported styles. Bossa Nova is a unique Brazilian style of music that became an integral part of Jazz performance in the 1960s. If you are going to be prepared to work jazz gigs, you must play Bossa Nova well.

I recently spent two weeks in Brazil, playing and teaching bass. I want to tell you, these guys are serious about the bass down there. I have never seen as much importance placed on the bass in music. Everyone was grooving, soloing, and leading with the bass. While they loved our straight-ahead jazz, they went crazy over our Bossa Nova tunes. We played simple bossa bass lines and killed them with taste. I have listened to and played Bossa Nova tunes for many years. I was always struck by the beauty and power of Bossa Nova bass.

The most prolific composer of Bossa Nova style was Antonio Carlos Jobim. Most of Tom Jobim’s songs have become standards in our jazz repertoire. This lesson will use Jobim’s music to explore the beauty of Bossa Nova bass.

Rhythms & Pitches

The bossa bass line is simple. It’s beauty lies in its simplicity. That said, KEEP IT SIMPLE. Just like the quarter-note rhythm in a walking bass line, the dotted-quarter eighth-note pattern in the bossa nova bass line is mighty powerful when played well. The characteristics of the bossa bass line are; pitches = roots and 5ths, rhythms = dotted-quarter followed by eighth-note.

Here is a beautiful Jobim tune, Dindi. This bass line is simple and effective. (Sequenced track for illustration)

Dindi bassline transcription

Variations

There are numerous variations to the basic Bossa Nova bass pattern. We will look at a few popular ones. A good rule of thumb is to use these variations sparingly, sandwiched in between the basic groove. In the example below, the variations move away from the basic pattern.

In a Bossa Nova bass line, your choice of which register to use when playing the 5th of each chord is very important. There is a distinct difference in sound between the 5th above the root and the 5th below the root. This difference is felt more strongly with certain chord movement. Here is a typical illustration found in many books of how to play a Bossa bass line. Notice that all of the 5ths are located above the preceding roots.

While the use of the 5th above is common place, in not the necessarily the preferred motion. Let’s look at how playing the lower 5th affects the overall shape of our line. Playing the lower A in the first measure creates a smooth step-wise motion to the root of G7. The D (5th) in the second measure is the same octave (common tone) note as the root of D-7. In measure three and four, the lower 5th is now the common tone to the preceding G7.

Phrasing

An important aspect of good Bossa bass playing is phrasing. Phrasing, when playing a bass line, is sometimes difficult to hear on the surface. There are a variety of elements that are used to create phrases – long notes vs. short notes, rhythms, pitches, dynamics, repetition, question and answer, and register. This example shows the four-measure phrases broken into two distinct 2-bar shapes. The repetition and mixing and matching of the 2-bar phrases, creates longer, interesting, eight and sixteen-bar phrases. Notice the characteristics of each 2-measure phrase.

In the notation for this video, each two-bar pattern is labeled so you can see the progression of development. Notice the various combinations that make up the four-bar phrases. Can you see how there are three different sections that make up the overall tune?

Section 1 – measures 1-24: The first three four-bar phrases end with the A pattern. The next three phrases end with the B pattern.

Section 2 – measures 25-40: four phrases that begin with pattern 4 followed by variations on pattern C.

Section 3 – measures 41-56: quite a bit of variation using elements of the previous patterns combined with new shapes. There is a slight resolution of the song with the last phrase returning to a familiar pattern #4 and a C pattern combination.

It has been my observation that many students actually use far too many shapes and patterns in their playing. This results in too little repetition and weakens the bass line. The goal is NOT to figure out numerous cool patterns, but rather to create a flow and shape to the entire song. Your bass line should be repetitive enough so the other musicians are comfortable knowing where you are going. They can then build on your foundation. You, in turn, can use variation to move the song along and shape it.

Creating Phrasing

Here are eight different two-bar phrases played over the same chord changes. Follow the process outlined below to learn and hear the subtle beauty of creating phrasing.

1) Begin using the play-along that has each phrase performed 4 times in a row. This is just to get the sound in your ear. With repetition, you will become comfortable with the hand position and shapes of each phrase. Listen to how the movement from one phrase to the next creates a form-type phrasing. This phrasing leads your ear.

2) Now move to the track that repeats each phrase twice. The overall phrasing takes on an entirely new feel. Work with this audio track and this movement until it feels natural. Because the phrase groups are now 4 bars long instead of 8 bars long, you will play through entire group of 2-bar phrases twice.

3) The example has each 2-bar phrase played only once through before moving on to the next. You will play through the entire song 4 times. This track is actually a very good example of BAD phrasing. I normally do not like to use examples of what NOT to play, but in this case it is good to hear how quickly the movement from phrase to phrase happens. This quick progression totally disrupts the flow of the song. Ultimately, your ear will tell you when to move from one groove to the next.

As you learn the sounds of the 2-bar phrases and can recall each one from memory, you will find certain ones that your ear likes to use to end a long phrase. You will choose combinations that takes your line to a different place, creating tension and resolution in your longer lines. Do not underestimate the power of repetition here. With directed repetition, these simple shapes can become a part of your vocabulary to use at will.

4) The last play-along track has NO bass. It is your job to mix, match, and combine the two-measure phrases to create longer phrases. Watch the previous video (3.8) again to get an idea of how to combine the phrases.

Try these combinations:

A) phrase 1 played two times = 4 measures
B) phrase 1 played three times, followed by phrase 2 played once = 8 measures
C) phrase 1 played once, followed by phrase 2, then repeat = 8 measures
D) phrase 3 played one time, followed by phrase 2 one time = 4 measures
E) phrase 6, then phrase 4, followed by phrase 6, ending with phrase 7 = 8 measures

Get creative with your combinations, and listen to the resulting phrases. If you find this difficult, go back and practice each pattern individually.

Phrasing Techniques

Here is a list of techniques I commonly use to create phrasing while playing a bossa bass line.

I think of my line with specific characteristics, one of the four listed below. I typically start with the simpliest sound. You can look back to the song Dindi and see this. Then at a chosen point I move to incorporate a new set of characteristics. This gives the song an impetus, or directions. I can then go back to my original concept, to bring the feel back home.

Now that my song has two distinct areas of feel, I can now choose to spice up one the of sections by moving to using a new set of characteristics, or not. Most great bassists do this sort of shaping naturally without even thinking about it. They just let their ears guide them. As a student we need to practice this phrase shaping to get the concept and sound in our ears.

Here are four different sets of characteristics I commonly use when playing a Bossa Nova bass line:

1. low and simple,
roots only,
repetitive rhythm pattern
2. roots & 5ths, 
2-bar rhythmic pattern, 
alternating lower & higher 5th
3. add half-step approaches, 
rhythmic variety, 
4-bar phrasing
4. register shifts, 
8-bar phrasing, 
song form phrasing

While virtually none of these choices are consciously thought of while performing live music, they can, and should be, practiced. By drawing your attention to these various aspects and isolating them in your practice, your ear will draw on them when you are playing for real. When the pressure is on, we always revert to default. During live playing conditions, we play those things we are comfortable playing. To allow new techniques and concepts into our default menu, we must work to make these things comfortable in our fingers and ears. We do this by focused repetition in practice. Students often ask me, “When will I get this into my playing?” It’s not a matter of time; it’s a question of comfort level. There is no seniority in music. Many things you would like to play don’t just soak in over time. You have to make them part of your vocabulary by practicing them until they are comfortable.

Listen for these form / phrase characteristics in the music you hear. Transcribe the phrases you like, and turn them into practice exercises. Exercise patience playing your Bossa bass lines. Take your time to add just the small bit of variation. Remember, simple is always best. Play with taste.

Excerpt from the book, Reading Bass Parts Vol. 1

Jobim

Jobim’s music is easy to play and easy on the ears. They are a bass player’s dream because the more simply you play, the better the song sounds. I once heard someone say, “If Jobim’s tunes weren’t so beautiful they would be boring as hell.” Who said good had to be complicated?

There are many recordings of Jobim’s music. The quality of the melody and the harmonic movement is a testament to why his songs have been arranged for countless groups. You can hear Jobim’s music performed as an instrumental jazz version, big-band jazz, pop style with strings, solo voice with guitar, etc.

What is it that makes Jobim’s music so popular, and able to traverse cultures? I cannot pretend to answer this question definitively, but to me, it is the simplicity of melody, harmony, and rhythm, and of course, the hypnotic bass groove.

Check out these excerpts of some of my favorite versions of Jobim classics.

Quiet Nights – Performed by Oscar Peterson

How Insensitive – Performed by Diana Krall

No More Blues – Performed by Bia Mestrinér

Dreamer – Performed by Elaine Elias

It Had To Be With You – Performed by Elis Regina

Wave – Performed by Gerry Mulligan

Photograph – Performed by Elaine Elias

Girl From Ipanema – Performed by Oscar Peterson

Meditation – Performed by Bia Mestrinér

If You Never Come To Me – Performed Bia Mestrinér

Corcovado – Performed by Grant Green & Hank Mobley

If you know anything about Jim, you’ll know he was only half joking. 

Stinnett has declared 2011 “Year of the Reading Bassist”, For one full year, he will emphasize reading skills in all of his educational outlets.

Says Stinnett; “You and I both know that it does not take reading skills to become a great player. However, we also know that reading music is a valuable asset. I have recognized that because reading music is difficult for many bassists, and often our weakest area of ability. We avoid it. I am guilty of allowing students to slide too much when it comes to practicing reading. I want to do more to help. During 2011, I will attempt to include more reading practice in all Bass Workouts, We will do special classes and ensembles at the New Hampshire Bass Fest 2011 focused on reading music. Online reading courses for the Stinnett Music Nonpareil online schools are being designed.”

This year, Stinnett Music will be publishing five new instructional books that will be fully focused on reading. Reading Jazz Bass is available for order now on the Stinnett Music website. Other titles will be Reading Odd Meters, Bass Ensemble Reading, Extend Your Reading Range, and Reading In Treble Clef. 

Reading books already available from Stinnett Music include the thorough method, Integrated Reading technique, All Cows Eat Grass, Reading In Bass Clef, and Reading Bass Parts (in three volumes). 

For purchasing information, and advice on how to go about your own path of “Year of the Reading Bassist”, please visit Stinnett Music or contact Jim Stinnett directly. 

I ran across this article recently from the Fender website and wanted to pass some of the highlights from it along to our readership. I can’t take credit for the subject matter, but I can’t stress enough the importance of it. Please take the time to read it and pass it along to every musician you know. Keep chooglin’ -JD

Want to know what one of the most important safety features of your amplifier is?

The plug.

More specifically, the ground prong of a standard three-prong U.S. power plug. The three-prong plug of a guitar or bass amp that connects it to the household AC current is an unassuming but key safety feature. It is a simple but crucial part that stands between you and, at the very least, a brief but unpleasant shock and at the very worst, oblivion.

The three-prong plug on your amp provides a protective measure called an “earth ground” which is so important because it ensures that this harmful current is either safely interrupted (by blowing a fuse) or safely sent through something other than you (the earth, usually). Proper grounding is absolutely essential. It is something you MUST not ignore for convenience sake. Most musicians have been zapped at some point by improperly grounded gear and lived to tell the tale. But did you know there are approximately 500 deaths by accidental electrocution in the US each year. Read that part again. Stone the Crows guitarist Les Harvey, Shadows bassist John Rostill, Yardbirds singer Keith Relf, all victims of improperly grounded gear. For that reason alone you should never, under any circumstances, use an adapter to plug a three-prong into a two-prong wall outlet, or should you cut the ground pin off a plug to make it fit a two-prong outlet (sound familiar?). The protective earth ground system MUST be properly connected. If the gear is grounded, the current from the hot wire will flow straight to ground (and not through you) tripping the fuse or circuit breaker. The downside is that the device will then cease to work. The upside is that you won’t be dead. So just don’t do it. Ever. Never. Don’t do it even if it silences a noisy ground loop. There are other safer means of eliminating hums.

However, even if YOUR gear is grounded, you’re still not necessarily safe from dangers posed by improper grounding conditions elsewhere in the system. Many musicians have experienced “getting zapped” by a vocal mic for example. What’s going on there is that you’re touching a grounded metal part of your guitar and your mouth touches the mic that has leakage current somewhere else; your lips complete a circuit when your mouth touches the mic, and you get shocked. Leakage current in high voltage systems can be fatal. A simple precaution that can be taken is to buy a simple inexpensive circuit tester available at any home store. It’s a small device that looks like the plug end of a power cord, with a series of lights on it rather than a cord. You simply plug it into the outlet, and the lights tell you whether the outlets works right and whether it’s safe or not. Be safe out there.

Steve Bryant

Steve was nice enough in doing a multiple part bass lesson free to our viewers. The forth of the collection talks about the degrees in a scale and how to build a chord, and briefly discusses Nashville numbers. If you missed the first video, click here to watch it. We will be releasing each lesson a week apart, so stay tuned

Steve Bryant

Steve was nice enough in doing a multiple part bass lesson free to our viewers. The third of the collection is an overview of theory and how to build a chord. If you missed the first video, click here to watch it. We will be releasing each lesson a week apart, so stay tuned

Steve Bryant

Steve Bryant is a Nashville session bass player. He has played several musical styles over his long career including R&B, big band, jazz, country, rock and Top 40. He first worked professionally as a musician in Lexington, Kentucky in the early 1970s. He made the move to Nashville in 1975. He was a member of the legendary bluegrass band Boone Creek. Members of that band also included Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas. In 1978, he joined J.D. Crowe’s band which included members Keith Whitley, who later became a solo artist on RCA, and Gene Johnson, who became a member of Diamond Rio. Steve was a member of Jerry Reed’s band for five years at the height of his popularity. He has toured with many other artists including Linda Davis, Dobie Grey and Buffy St. Marie. He has worked exclusively as a Nashville session musician since 1992. He has played on master recordings and demos for numerous artists, bands and songwriters.

Steve was nice enough in doing a multiple part bass lesson free to our viewers. The second of the collection is an overview of how to properly use a metronome and basics of timing and can be seen below. If you missed the first video, click here to watch it. We will be releasing each lesson a week apart, so stay tuned!