This study is an up-tempo rock track written in the style of classic rock bands such as Deep Purple, KISS, Alice Cooper, and Bad Company. The main challenges here are the fast tempo and using upstrokes to play phrases which begin on an upbeat. Don’t forget to hit the Download Resources button above in order […]

This course builds on the techniques that were covered at beginner level: those techniques will now be applied to sixteenth note rhythms. Being able to play sixteenth notes with the pick will open up a lot of possibilities in your playing. Eventually, you should be able to use the pick to play lines that you […]

In this course is a direct progression from the first part of this series. This time, the focus is on rhythms that combine sixteenth notes with eighth notes. There are three possible ways to combine these note values within a single quarter note beat, and each will be examined in turn here. It’s vital that […]

This course tackles two new rhythms, both of which consist of a dotted eighth note and a sixteenth note. As with previous combination rhythms, it’s crucial that these new variations are played with the correct application of downstrokes and upstrokes. Don’t forget to hit the Download Resources button above in order to download the PDF […]

The final rhythm that will be covered on this course is the triplet. Although in some ways triplets are simpler to play than the sixteenth note-based rhythms that have been covered in previous courses, they can be problematic when playing them with a plectrum. By leaving them to this part of the advanced course, you […]

This short course covers some basic considerations: the setup of your instrument, muting techniques, and the various different ways in which tapping can be notated. Don’t forget to hit the Download Resources button above in order to download the PDF worksheet and audio files for this course (available to subscribers only).

Two-handed tapping requires you to use the fingers on each hand in a very different way: rather than plucking the strings with one hand and fretting notes with the other, you will now be ‘tapping’ notes directly on the fretboard with each hand. This can be tricky at first since your fingers – particularly those […]

Now that you have begun working on a series of coordination and finger strengthening exercises, you’ll no doubt be ready to incorporate some more musical ideas into your practice routine. This video course is the first of two that will help you to begin playing arpeggios on the bass using the two-handed tapping technique. A […]

The tapping technique is great for playing chords on the bass as it enables us to play notes in both the low and higher registers simultaneously. This means that it is possible to play chords with better separation between the notes than we would be able to achieve simply from just fretting a chord. Don’t […]

This course expands on the previous tapping arpeggios course and adds sevenths to the triad arpeggios that were covered at last time. You will find that adding sevenths to the basic major, minor and diminished chord types creates some considerably more colourful chords and arpeggios. Don’t forget to hit the Download Resources button above in […]