Double your speed

°

¢

™™

™

™

Copyright © 2013 Scott's Bass Lessons

™™

™

™

Ex.1

4

4

?

Start point 02:46

i

A Minor 7 pattern (assending up scale to 5th and back).

m i m i i m i

Scott Devine

Double Your Speed (L#88)

Right hand fingering:

i=index finger, m=middle

¤

Repeat this pattern:

3x slow 1x fast

2x slow, 2x fast

1x slow, 3x fast

Play with the backing track or a metronome. Play evenly, then add dynamics.

"Use the same right hand ingering every time you go round""Use the same right hand ingering every time you go round"

œœ

œœ

œœ

œœ

12

9 10 12

9

12 10 9

Copyright © 2013 Scott’s Bass Lessons

Double Your Speed (L#88)

Your Action Plan

Before you start working through this lesson I want you to get a good idea of what we're aiming for and what kind of speed is possible on the bass. Over the years the bass has developed into much more than just a supportive instrument and as a bi-product there are now many virtuosic bass players pushing the limits of speed, technique and soloing. By listening to these bass players it will give you something to aim for.

1. In 1954 Roger Bannister did what seemed impossible.He ran the first ever 4-minute mile. What was evenmore amazing is that his record only lasted for 46days! What's amazing about this I hear you ask? Well,is it not strange that up to this point in time no onehad ever achieved this before, yet as soon as he setthat lap time multiple runners started to achieve thesame time, if not even faster. This is because he hadproved it could be done. The others runners hadsomething to aim for! This is what listening to othermore proficient bass players will do for you. It willmake what seems impossible into an achievablegoal.

Copyright © 2013 Scott’s Bass Lessons

Here's a short list of bass players you should check out:

• Alain Caron• Gary Willis• Jaco Pastorius• Felix Pastorius• Jimmy Haslip• Matt Garrison• Hadrien Feraud• Janek Gwizdala• Jeff Berlin• Tom Kennedy

2. Work through the tutorial taking special care to makenotes of what tempos you can play at comfortably.Start with the backing track, and then once you canachieve that speed start pushing yourself bit by bit toreach faster tempos. Notice I said 'bit by bit',meaning take it slow. If you want to have super fastand clean technique you have to 'put in the time'. Itwill not come over night, but by chipping away,doing a little bit every day, you will achieve thetechnique you've been dreaming of.

3. Now I want you to take this same exercise but comeup with your own sequence of notes. Maybe tryusing it over a major chord or a dominant chord, oreven a diminished chord. The exercises I presentwithin all of my lessons are simply a starting point.You should always try and turn them into your ownand come up with new ways of using them, oradding things to them.

Scott Devine