Throughout the course you’ll study Berklee’s bass method to Rock, Blues Rock, Delta, Chicago, and Texas blues, as well as more advanced techniques such as playing with odd time signatures, modal bass lines, and the open “jam style.” Weekly lessons cover scale exercises, listening, performing transcriptions, and studying the work of legendary players like Geddy Lee, Jack Bruce, Paul McCartney, and Chris Squire. Each week culminates in the creation and recording of your own performance. At the completion of this course, you’ll possess the skills to create and improvise your own rock and blues-based bass lines, and have the knowledge and ability to perform with a consistently solid sound, technique and timing.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Recognize different blues forms
• Incorporate many different scales into your bass lines
• Understand modal bass lines
• Have command over different meters/time signatures
• Understand syncopation
• Incorporate rhythmic depth in your bass lines

Syllabus

Lesson 1 Blues Rock 12-Bar Form

Lesson 2 Blues Rock with Different Forms

Lesson 3 Delta, Chicago, and Texas Blues

Lesson 4 The Shuffle

Lesson 5 Traditional Eighth-Note Rock

Lesson 6 Playing in a Power Trio

Lesson 7 Syncopated Bass Lines

Lesson 8 Doubling Bass Lines

Lesson 9 The Open “Jam Style”

Lesson 10 Odd Times

Lesson 11 Exploring Modal Bass Lines

Lesson 12 Making Your Lines Stand Out

Requirements

Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements