This is the first in the Talking Bass series of lessons on Bass Improvisation from Mark J Smith.
This lesson covers the absolute basics of getting started with bass soloing and improvising. The fundamental aspects of improvising are covered along with some basic exercises for introducing the beginner to spontaneous creativity.
Hi Mark,
Really awesome lesson, thank you. Before even playing, just seeing the new lessons creeping closer to the 30 minute mark, I know they’re going to be loaded with great detail. I’m quite new to soloing/improv in a melodic sense, so this is great foundational training!
Hi Mark,
Great explanation again.
Thanks a lot for the vids.
Cheers
I really would love to learn some improvisations.Could you please help?
Cracking lesson. I’ve been playing with a Jazz combo for about 8yr now and I sometimes get called on to do a solo, especially on a Blues number but I’ve always known I’m really just playing lines. I’m more than happy to go right back to the beginning to learn proper solos. Thanks a lot Mark.
My usual problem is I can’t play what I have in my mind. I don’t know how to do it on the fretboard. These excercises seem to be helpful to associate the notes with their postion in the scale and be able to follow with my hands what I’m wanting to play. Any advice?
I would recomend you to start doing less notes, start with 2 notes as the video indicates. Jam for half an hour or more with two notes, trust me you wont get bored hehehe. then add a new note of the scale, and so on. (use some A7 backing track from youtube or the ones in the Library) eventually you will get more used to the notes and your ideas will move your fingers for you. (thats the secret of the intensive intruments practice, making it unconscious)
Thanks, Juan Carlos. I understand but my concern is more about improvising in chord progressions. Your advice still applies but is there anything more to add?
Great stuff! I’ve been playing for decades, and at a high level in many areas–but soloing has mostly eluded me. Thanks for the great lesson and for the timely warnings about being willing to go back to basics when it comes to improvisation.
Wow, great lesson! That’s some of the most useful information I’ve seen.
This is quite fun, I did a 30min 2 notes improv hahahaha. Then I did use the Mixolydian scale for another 30 min.
I guess the key is to have fun just by doing it.
Great lesson. I’ve been playing for years but never been confident soloing. Always assumed my brain didn’t work quick enough. Maybe there is hope after all!
Great stuff simple to the point great way to start.
Great lesson.
thanks for lessons
Mark this is an excellent lesson for even a seasoned player. Sometimes we just get so caught up in the need to be like Jaco and end up over notey.. LOL.
Hi Mark,
I wanted to ask you a question about the sound you are getting from your bass. I currently own a Fender Jazz Bass and a Warwick Thumb Bolt and I go through a Mark Bass amp. (1 x 12″ Speaker). My question is what do you use to get that, “Pastorius” type sound? I live in Toronto Canada and am currently following the following areas on your Website – Reading, Improvisation and Music Theory for bass.
Try soloing the bridge pickup on the jazz. Roll off the tone and pick near the bridge. That should help.
Hey Marc, Greetings from Antwerp Belgium.
May I ask You some help?
I tried to download the pdf for your chapter of improvisation.
This chapters I could not find:
– How to get started
– Introduction to Phrasing
– Styling: vibrato, dynamics etc
The other chapters I have downloaded.
I need this pdf to be able to follow Your lesson.
Sincerly,
Jos Van Wassenhove 68 years young, bassist from Busker Company. Sorry for my poor English writing
Marrrrrrk!! Simply you are a huge Bass talent in every aspect. You’re not a bragger so maybe some people don’t get it. I took a small package of lessons years ago from a world re-known player and I know he would have gotten around to really teaching me the good stuff but I always felt so incompetent around him at lessons and his lessons seemed like they made no sense because they were all scales and modes without application. I know better than to think that now but as an advanced player I learn things easily from you that were still unclear. I hate it that a beginner can become really good in such a short time just by joining you but that is really a Major Compliment to YOU!! THANK YOU.
God bless you
Mark, Thank you so much, I have been watching your stuff for the last month or so and it’s really helped my playing..God Bless
Mark, I like your approach to this lesson. You did well to bring across the concept of improvisation to beginner like me. Thank you for this valuable lesson.
I see you don’t monetize talkingbass.net, don’t waste your traffic, you can earn extra
cash every month with new monetization method.
This is the best adsense alternative for any type of website (they approve
all websites), for more info simply search in gooogle:
murgrabia’s tools
Awesome lesson.
Thank you so much.
I really loved learning basic improvisations as done by you. Thanks!
Thanks for grate bass school. Its amazing.
good stuff Mark thanks. Some good ides to get started on
Thanks Mark,I have learned more from your lessons in a couple of years than I have in the previous fifteen.So much great material, you break it down so well and make it easier to understand.I am kind of late to bass playing being a retiree,I am learning a lot and having fun at the same time.
Dear Mark,
first of all my congratulations for yours didactic skill: clear, learned, very to the pratice of the instrument but always connected with theory. Abut improvisation I would like to know if you consider in one of your lessons a main problem for who wants to start to improvise: the relationship of the phrases one plays with the rhythm and the meter, and how the phrases could be placed in or across the bars. Thank you very much again, I really appreciate your discipline and your progressiveness in teaching and the clearness of your verbal instructions, and naturally I appreciate most of all your precise, technically flawless and expressive bass playing, also in simple scales or exercises. Yours sincerely Paolo Cecchi from Venezia (Italy)
Waaauw great lesson! Really helpfull! Thanks Mark