Pupil: Joe Kosminsky
Date: 09/04/08
Evaluating Time: 2hrs
This lesson happened to be the last lesson for Joseph, as he was approaching a stage in his playing where he had to go out on his own and enhance his skills, with hours of practice and perseverance. He was advised to do what most beginner musicians do, join a band with little experience, compared with the other musicians. This strives you to improve and better yourself both as a bass player and as a musician. For you have to keep up with the other musicians and because you can see what they are capable of, you want to discover what you are capable of too.
Lesson Objectives:
1.) The pupil will warm up with the bass guitar using the major scales that they have been previously taught. This will be done in a chromatic fashion (finger per fret) to further advance both hand forms (the left fret hand and the right plucking hand).
Outcome: Before Joseph began his usual five-minute warm up, a discussion on major and minor scales was initiated. Joseph was informed that once all the fifteen major scales have been learnt and are known intimately, then all the minor scales can be taught to the pupil. This did not seem like a good prospect to Joseph, learning another fifteen scales, however it was explained that every major scale happens to have a relative minor. This means that the accidental notes for a major scale would correspond to a minor scale, e.g. the scale of C major has a relative minor in the scale of A minor, as this scale also has no sharps or flats. However it was explained that the pattern for a minor scale is different to that of a major, this can be seen in Figure 1 below.
(Figure 1 – fret placement for a natural minor scale)
Joseph then proceeded to play the major scales in a chromatic formation. At this point in the learning process, the pupil was managing to play his scales with speed and precision. However instead of utilising all four fingers, Joseph was neglecting to play his fourth finger on the fourth fret of the major scales. This was being played with his third finger the majority of the time with his little finger curling up against his third. This habit needs to be broken, otherwise the pupil will lose an extra finger reach for more fret coverage, speed and stamina.
Unfortunately Joseph was only able to name four major scales and their sharps (refer to Figure 2), this was disappointing as last lesson he was able to name all his scales up to B major, along with the corresponding sharp notes. The pupil seemed tired during the lesson, as he had been at work, since 07:00 hrs, so the mistakes were granted.
----------------------------1st---2nd---3rd---4th--5th---6th--7th----8th
Scale of C major-----C-----D-----E-----F-----G-----A-----B-----C
----------------------------1st---2nd--3rd---4th---5th---6th---7th----8th
Scale of G major-----G-----A-----B-----C-----D-----E-----F#-----G
----------------------------1st---2nd---3rd---4th---5th---6th---7th---8th
Scale of D major-----D-----E-----F#----G-----A-----B-----C#----D
----------------------------1st---2nd--3rd---4th---5th----6th----7th---8th
Scale of A major-----A-----B-----C#----D-----E----- F#----G#----A
(Figure 2)
2.) To persist practicing the Red Hot Chili Pepper song ‘The Otherside’, so the study of bass fills can continue.
Outcome: When mentioned to the pupil that he was going to be continuing the study of ‘Otherside’, he actually thought that he had not played the song yet. Once the song was played he recalled the song but could not actually remember the bass pattern, advising, “I can’t remember this at all you know”.
While he studied the tablature, the bass pattern was briefly demonstrated to the pupil on the bass guitar. After a quick demonstration to log Joseph’s memory, the ‘Otherside’ bass part was played solo while he figured out the pattern in his head. Once the pattern was imbedded into Joseph’s mind, his first experience of a ‘jam’ with another musician occurred as he played along to a picked six-string guitar (played by the tutor).
Joseph has the ability to pick bass patterns and certain musical theories up quickly, however where his downsides lie are with his timing and rhythm, which he admits himself. However this will eventually come with time and lots of practice.
**’Otherside’ tablature**
3.) To further the pupils study and knowledge of musical slurs. As a continuation from last lesson, the pupil was introduced to hammer-ons and pull-offs, this lesson the pupil will be taught slides and trills.
Outcome: As objective two took up the majority of the lesson duration, there was no time available at the end for the pupil to continue learning musical phrases, such as the slurs that were introduced in the last lesson.
These would have given Joseph a better understanding of musical expression and creativity. For an example of a bass line with musical phrases refer to the link below, which shows one of the greatest bass players ever to live – Jaco Pastorius, play a bass solo.
**Musical Phrase example**
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