If you want to get started right away you can go straight to the Style Menu as this contains the majority of the lessons.
You will encounter the following icons so you might like to familiarize yourself with them first:
Icons
These icons play a sound file corresponding to the lesson.
These icons play a sound file corresponding to the lesson without any other instruments, and often at a slower speed, so you can hear the bass clearly.
This icon is for practicing with a backing track. By default these tracks will loop until stopped.
Clicking on one of these icons plays video footage. As the video player shows the first frame of the video, they can look similar to photos. The visible difference is that most videos have black side bars. Most of the videos are of bass playing but there are also five musical theory animations.
These jamming spot icons are similar to backing tracks except the emphasis is on creativity rather than practice. They are an opportunity for you to play along with a band and create something yourself without being told what to play.
Jamming spot icons usually have the red arrow CD icon after them which shows what I would have done as a comparison.
These icons follow most jamming spots with the inclusion of my own suggestion. Try not to go to my suggestions until you have spent plenty of time creating your own part.
The book icon consolidates theory information by asking you a question. A short explanation is also given to confirm the answer.
The style sections are basically sequential in order of difficulty so you can work through various sections or jump ahead to areas of interest.
Not all of the sections are equally weighted as extra space is given for those categories which have proven to be the most popular and challenging.
The style sections contain links to relevant theory and technique material. These are all categorized in the theory menu and technique menus.
Theory, technique and style are all related so they need to be linked together.
Technique Menus
There are separate technique menus for electric and acoustic bass. They both contain video footage and explanations for various bass techniques.
Some of these techniques are also linked from relevant style sections such as slap being referred to in the funk section.
Other techniques such as finger-tapping are not referred to in any style section as they don't really belong with one particular style.
The theory menu groups all of the theory lessons together. There are also links to this information in other sections wherever relevant. Definitions of words are given in the glossary
and will also appear by hovering the mouse pointer over certain words.
The glossary contains definitions of musical terminology and equipment. Some of the terms are linked back into other lessons to provide a context for the information.
Terminology
We have used right-handed terminology throughout this program. If you play left-handed then simply reverse these references.
Performance Credits
Bass: Brendan Jacobs, George Urbaszek
Guitar: Dave Langley, Stephen "Reg" Rutledge, Brendan Jacobs
Drum programming: Jason Torrens, Brendan Jacobs
Keyboards: Mark Hile
Copyright
The copyright on this program belongs to Enable Software Pty Ltd and BJ Multimedia.
Copyright on the musical content belongs to BJ Multimedia and Creative Avenues.
Brendan started on acoustic guitar at the age of 8 and began classical guitar lessons at the age of 11. He took up bass when he was 14 and studied Jazz Bass at the Canberra School of Music when he was 18.
At this time he was developing his technique in an original Metal/Fusion band.
Brendan has been based in Melbourne, Australia since 1990 where he has played and recorded with various artists. He founded BJ Multimedia in 1999 and released enable Bass later that year.
Brendan is the editor of:
His Masters Degree on animation titled Animating Best Practice can be read at www.brendanpauljacobs.com. He is currently working on a PhD called Storyboard at the University of Melbourne to develop a collaborative digital curriculum.
George Urbaszek
BMus (Performance) Wiesbaden Conservatory, Germany, GradDip (Jazz) Australian National University. Studied classical double bass with Michael Schnitzler (Germany), jazz bass with Adelhard Roidinger (Austria),
jazz ensemble performance with Lee Harper (USA), bass guitar with Kai Eckhardt (USA), and jazz improvisation with Charlie Banacos (USA).
George is a member of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra and leads his own group "Worldwind", which is a creative outlet for World Music influenced compositions. He is author of "Bass Guitar for the Complete Musician",
published by Creative Avenues. He has had both workshop and clinic experience and lectured in Bass, Jazz Improvisation, Ensemble Performance and Jazz Theory at the Riverina Summer School for Strings from 1990 until 2000.
From 1987 to 1999 (inclusive) George lectured in the Jazz Department of the Canberra School of Music, Australian National University.
George writes a regular column titled "Bass Improvisation" for Australian Musician magazine and also teaches bass worldwide by audio correspondence. Some of his former students hold top playing positions in the music industry.
For more information, check George's website: www.creativebass.com.
