Here on this page I would like to answer some of the most common questions I´ve got asked through the years by fellow bass players.
I´m no bass guru and never wanted to be and I´m well aware that there´s many things I still have to learn and improve in my journey, but becoming older I also start to be more confident about certain topics concerning bass playing(probably the only positive thing about getting older..) like improvisation, technique, sound etc..So I´ll try to update this section often with random bass tips, ideas or whatever that will come to my mind actually 🙂
Sometime while practicing I realize/learn little important new things, so why not sharing them?
How does my right hand 4 fingers technique works?
most common question..
I started to develop this approach after watching Dominique Di Piazza, Matthew Garrison and Gary Willis(not on the same day!).For me it just makes more sense.The hand is more relaxed and more in line with the arm, and if there´s something that is important in music is relaxation.
My approach is slightly different from the bassists I´ve took inspiration from, after trying each technique (Matt´s way, Dominique´s way and Gary´s way) I realized that it was better to develop my style, in order to have an effective thing going on that worked for me.
In order to do so I transcribed few solos from other instrumentalist, like Coltrane, Herbie, Holdsworth, and tried to play any single line from this solos using 4 fingers, thumb, index, middle and ring.For each line I tried to follow the idea “what makes more sense” in order to establish the right fingering pattern.
At one point I could use this technique effortlessly and without having to think about “which fingers plays what” at all.I can play the same phrase in few different ways and I choose the one that makes more sense at the moment, it all depends from which notes I´m coming from and where I´m going.I also use some legato in order to simplify the execution of certain things.Here´s a little video showing 2 arpeggios played with my technique, with also the sequence of the fingers used written down.Video can be downloaded.
T means Thumb, I-index, M-middle finger, R-ring finger.This 2 arpeggios are good start to get into the technique.
here I´m playing the groove from the tune “This is your Time” by Change, also using my technique and I tried to cut the video in a way that shows clearly the right hand
When I was around 18 years old I joined the jazz conservatory of Trieste and took some lessons with a classical guitar teacher, we studied the Bach etudes for cello.I learned a lot from those as well, so I higly recommend to practice those etudes as well.