Learn to play the UBass - Basic Techniques
Start playing the ukulele bass now!
About the Lesson Pack concept
What's so special about these lesson packs, how will they work?
There are a lot of existing books about techniques and concepts involved with bass playing, Couldn’t I just get some of these and put together a mile long YouTube playlist and learn from the stuff that's already out there?
Yes you can but I do think my lessons will give you a fresh look at learning more about Music. What I offer will hopefully suit you hand-in-glove and be a great way to widen your Musical horizon! My Lesson Packs are a great alternative for You and, I hope, an understandable way to further expand your knowledge about Music!
These Lesson Packs are focused towards playing the UBass but can be used for any bass instruments with strings and a fretboard…
This Lesson Pack is also available as an Ebook (for iOS and OSX). Future Lesson Packs will only be avaliable as online courses!
Excerpt from the course
Lesson 1 – how to hold the Ubass
The first lesson gives you suggestions about different ways to hold the Ubass.
Since the body and over all length is so much shorter than a regular electric or acoustic bass guitar you really need to find a way to accommodate this.
In the lesson I go through different ways I hold the ubass. I have found out a couple of alternatives that can be nice to switch between or at least use as a starting point when you develop your own ”holding style”. I will let you know what has worked best for me and why.
Even though you have been playing regular bass for a long time I think this lesson will help you to get a good ”grip” on your ubass playing regarding how you can hold it to get the most out of your ubass music making!
Lesson 2 – basic plucking/picking hand technique
Q’s: How can I get a nice round tone? Are there any differences playing with thumb, index- and/or the middle finger? Anchor your hand, fingers or arm? Dynamics?
In this lesson the focus is techniques for your plucking/picking hand. You might wonder why I have decided to call it plucking/picking hand…
The answer is simple, I want both left and right handed players to feel at home and welcome to use this ebook so I went for plucking/picking!
There are many ways to get the strings on a ubass to vibrate and make a sound.
In lesson 2 some of the most common ways are described. Besides showing how to play with your index/first and second finger with lots of pictures and video I also show how to get a warm and fat low end response playing with your thumb. I urge you to consider playing with your thumb even when the obvious choice would be your index/middle fingers. You might like the sound of your thumb even more!
Lesson 3 – basic fretting hand technique
Q’s: Should I use different approaches wether I play a fretless of fretted UBass?
How can I do warm-ups? Basic fretting techniques?
In Lesson 3 the focus is the fretting hand. From where and how to put your fingers on the fretboard to get the best sound to warm-up exercises and more.
With pictures and video examples.
In my videos there is almost always at least two angles including my ”players-view-angle”. That angle lets the player see a natural view of the fretboard and body of the ubass from above.
The ”players-view-angle” is, in my opinion, a great way to get the most out of learning techniques from a video.
Lesson 4 – combining plucking/picking and fretting hands (and a basic harmony lesson)
Q’s: I need to develop my technique to better sync my left and right hand. I also want to be more expressive and vary my tone/touch, note length and phrasing. Are there any exercises I can do to develop this?
The starting questions gives you a feel of what I will cover in this lesson.
After focusing on the plucking and fretting hand in two dedicated lessons it’s time to work one combining the techniques and work on getting it all to work together as a single unit.
Course curriculum
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1Basic techniques
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2Lesson 1 - Holding the UBass
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3Lesson 2 - Basic plucking/picking hand technique
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4Lesson 3 - Basic fretting hand technique
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5Lesson 4 - Combining plucking and fretting hand – different basic techniques
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6Wordlist
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7Documents