Bass 101 - Live Beginner Bass Course
Now Streaming Live! Get all 10 weeks with a JamPlay Membership Get Access!
The bass guitar is a unique instrument. Throughout the course of modern music, it has had an understated yet incredibly important rule. What makes this instrument so vital to the tunes we all know and love? Over the course of 10 engaging weekly lessons, instructor Alex Scott will take you through the 'bassics' of bass. We start at square one - the history of the instrument, its various parts, and proper playing technique. We'll then move into simple exercises that build good finger technique and give us an intro into the world of music theory. The course will conclude with a full-length song for the student to play along with. These aren't boring, metronome-based lessons, either. Each week will have new and exciting backing tracks featuring seasoned session musicians to practice along with. Plus, Alex will be interacting directly with you the whole way through, answering questions and guiding you step-by-step the whole way. If you've ever been curious about bass guitar, there's no better place to start than Bass Guitar 101.
Each Wednesday
This course starts at 6:00pm EST each Wednesday for the next 10 weeks! Full the full schedule below. And of course, we save everything... so you can tune in even if you miss a week.
Filmed in 4k
Our live platform has been a major focus over the past year, and we now film in 4k and deliver live video to you in 1080p with improved audio streams. This is an awesome way to learn!
Interact Live
Ask your questions and get real time feedback. We also have the ability to take your calls live with video stream... show us what you are struggling with and get instant feedback.
Tabs & JamTracks
Each week comes complete with full tabs and notation in PDF and Guitar Pro standards. Alex also provides free JamTracks with each week to practice to and learn the material.
Meet Alex Scott
Alex Scott is a professional freelance bassist, drummer and recording engineer based out of Denver, CO. He has had the honor of sharing the stage with such artists as John Popper (Blues Traveler),
Stanton Moore, Robert Randolph, DJ Logic, and many others. As a producer and engineer, he has 12 albums to his credit, as well as work in television and online content creation.
He tours nationally with Fox Street, 40 Oz to Freedom, and performs and records all around Colorado with a variety of different local projects. Alex began
playing music at a very young age thanks to his father Joe Scott, a guitarist, songwriter and producer with a career spanning 25 records over 40 years.
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Live Course Schedule
Learn more about each week of this course... and don't forget... a full JamPlay subscription comes with full access to this course, along with On-Demand lessons from the some of the best players on earth. Learn from Billy Sheehan, Bryan Beller, Rex Brown and more!
The Beginning
Welcome to the exciting world of bass guitar! We begin our first lesson with a historical and physical overview of the bass. Starting with learning about its origins in early rock music in the 1950s, we look at all of the physical components and learn their functions. We learn how to tune the instrument and connect it to an amplifier. We then learn how to hold and properly pluck and fret the strings.
Our First Groove
We introduce our first backing track - a simple, groovy song that goes along with the open strings. We spend this lesson practicing simple open-string picking with whole and half notes. We also introduce tab and musical notation.
Fretting Frenzy
We bring in the left hand with simple fretting exercises incorporating whole and half notes. We play over a funky ambient track that follows the motion of the notes.
Let's Get Scalar
Scales are introduced, along with intervals. We cover the C major, minor and 7 scales over a simple backing track.
Chordify Your Life
We introduce the idea of chord progressions with a simple R&B backing track in G. We use simple half notes and root-5th motions to move through a basic 1-6-4-5 progression.
Three's A Crowd
We relate back to the scales we learned in Week 4 and learn about major and minor triads. We then play through another simple chord progression using triad patterns.
Walkin' the Dog
We tackle more triad patterns over a slow, swinging 12-bar blues. We also talk about popular chord progressions through the ages, and why they work so well.
Pedal to the Metal
We go over a cool 80's pop/rock track and talk about locking in with a drummer. We also discuss simple elements of groove, feel and 'pocket' playing.
Put a Lock On It
We finish our live course with a full-length, 2-part pop/rock song. We recap many of the elements we've learned and put them in context over an AABAB form in E. We also link students to continued learning through Alex's Bass Concepts Series. Congratulations, and welcome to the wonderful world of bass!
New Horizons
We finish our live course with an evening of Q&A and discussion. We recap the early history of rock, look at how it has influenced the myriad of styles that have come since, and talk about just how many different styles of music have come together to form our most popular and pervasive music rock and roll.
