Hey, James here…
About 10 years ago I got my first (and only) fast car.
It was a BMW 330d… it sadly bit the dust last year and now I have a typical ‘family’ car!
I loved that car.
It taught me an important lesson on the bass guitar.
The ‘BM’ wasn’t redicoulsy fast in a straight line.
228BHP and about 6.8 seconds 0-60 (if I remember right).
Still fast enough to have some serious fun.
However, where it came into its own was the torque.
Coming out of a corner it was like a rocket… no wonder the police like them.
The 0-60 was fine… if you were driving in a straight line or on a race track but on the country roads where I live I was much more likely to bend rather than a few hundred meters where I could ‘floor’ it safely.
I learned over a few months that for day to day driving it was the touque which really mattered.
Weirdly I discovered the same thing applies to bass playing.
The typical technique and speed exercises like the ‘spider’ or playing scales are great… they are like the 0-60.
In reality we rarely ever play those exercises live or on a song.
They are only ever really exercises.
What we’re more likely to see are musical patterns and phrases.
So it makes just as much sense to practice these too… and the chances are they will be a lot more useful in the ‘real world’.
I see these as the ‘torque’ of bass playing.
The great thing is you can turn musical patterns into really valuable exercises.
In today’s lesson I want to show you a cool exercise inspired by the legendary Stevie Wonder which will enable you to play faster.
And this is ‘real word’ fast too because at the end of it you’ll have a fantastic device to create really sexy sounding fills.
Also, last week I asked what your first bass guitar was… today I’d love to discover what your first amp was?
I’ll tell you mine in the video 🙂
Keep on groovin’ hard,
James
