Bass Guitar Course

The bass not only holds a band together rhythmically, it is also a crucial component to the overall sound and direction of the music. The Dolce music educates students in the essential facets of bass playing performance, technique, improvisation, and style. After an indepth study and practice in this program, you will be able to perform with confidence, in your own style, and play great rock, blues, and jazz-based bass lines.

The program begins with Bass Performance, which focuses time, tonality, timbre, and taste. Throughout the course you’ll study the techniques and unique playing styles of the masters of the instrument, including Roger Waters, Paul McCartney, Carol Kaye, Paul Chambers, Charles Mingus, and more. You’ll also gain a great background in bass basics, including pentatonic, blues, major, and minor scales, diatonic harmony, ostinato bass lines, groove and time feel, and compositional techniques. By the end of this course, you’ll have the skills to perform accurately, in time, and in your own unique style.

Following this performance-based course, you’ll move onto studying The Dolce music institute techniques to construct and improve bass lines in a variety of rock and blues music styles in Rock Bass. The course begins with a primer on the 12-bar blues form and the major and minor pentatonic scales, and moves onto cover Rock, Blues Rock, Delta, Chicago, and Texas blues bass styles. You’ll study the work of legendary players like Geddy Lee, Jack Bruce, and Chris Squire, and learn how to contribute to a song rhythmically, harmonically, and melodiously through practice lessons which cover phrasing, feel, and improvisation. By the end of this course, you’ll possess skills to incorporate rhythmic depth and improvisation techniques into your own rock and blues-based bass lines.

The program wraps up with Jazz Bass, an exploration into the key ingredients necessary to play great jazz bass lines, including the sound, feel, foundation, and power. You will learn to recognize common chord progressions in jazz standards and play them effectively. The course highlights famous recordings from jazz greats - such as Paul Chambers, Ray Brown, Ron Carter, and Christian McBride- and teaches you strategies for modeling their performances. You will explore right and left-hand techniques for both acoustic and electric bass, in addition to topics such as substitute chords, melodic development, and turnarounds. By the end of this course, you’ll have the tools you need to improvise jazz bass lines like a seasoned professional.

It's essential for any bass player interested in popular music to have a solid foundation in rock music. From its roots in traditional blues, rock bass is a launching point into many varied music styles: progressive rock, fusion, country, jam band styles, and more. Rock Bass provides the foundation and vocabulary necessary to construct and improvise bass lines in a variety of rock and blues music styles. You'll start by learning the 12-bar blues form and the major and minor pentatonic scales. You'll learn how to contribute to a song rhythmically, harmonically, and melodiously through practice lessons which covers phrasing, feel and improvisation.

Throughout the course you'll study The Dolce music institute’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.

You will also study the techniques and unique playing styles of bass masters across different genres, including Roger Waters, Paul McCartney, Carol Kaye, James Jamerson, Chuck Rainey, Pino Palladino, Paul Chambers, Dave Holland, Stanley Clarke, Ray Brown and Charles Mingus. Additional study topics include pentatonic, blues, major, and minor scales, diatonic harmony,ostinato bass lines groove , time feel and compositional techniques such as tritones, pedal points and double stops.

By the End of the Course, you will be able to:

• Apply major, minor, blues, and pentatonic scales and their modes to your bass lines.

• Play accurately in time.

• Improve the timbre or sound quality of your playing.

• Demonstrate enhanced tonality, and know which note to play when.

• Recognize different blues forms.

• Incorporate 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.

Bass Course Content

Lesson 1: Half Steps

• Half Steps

• Chromatic Scale

• Left-Hand Muting

Lesson 2: Blues and Pentatonic Scales

• Blues Scale

• Major Pentatonic Scale

• Minor Pentatonic Scale

Lesson 3: Major Scale

• Major Scale

Lesson 4: Diatonic Triads

• Scale Degrees of the Major Scale

• Diatonic Triads

• Tenths

• Fender Bass and the Motown Sound

Lesson 5: Time, Rhythm, and Groove

• Keeping Time

• Carol Kaye and Subdividing the Beat

• Playing Ahead, Behind, and Bad

• Charles Mingus: Rotary Perception

• Slap and Pop

Lesson 6: Midterm Review

• Scale Review

• Song Form

• Midterm Project

Lesson 7: Minor Scales and Their Triads

• Minor Scales

• Minor Triads

Lesson 8: Diatonic Harmony

• Diatonic Triads

• Bass Lines with Triads and Inversions

• Modes

• Arco Bass

• Working with the Metronome

Lesson 9: Ostinato Bass Lines

• Ostinato Bass Lines

• Harmonics

Lesson 10: Compositional Techniques

• Tritones

• Pedal Points

• Double Stops

Lesson 11: Articulations and Great Bass Lines

• Techniques for Articulation

• What Makes a Great Bass Line

Lesson 12: Final Project

• Review: Time, Tonality, Timbre, and Taste

• Final Project

• Recommended Listening

Dolce Music Institute

Dolce Music Institute is a premier western music school in Hyderabad, India. Founded by a skilled musician Alexander in 1999,it caters over 400 students every year and is regarded as one of the best music institutes in Hyderabad with a highly experienced and qualified faculty.The emphasis is not just on individual performance but also on ensemble playing, aural development and musical appreciation. Courses for Western classical instrumental training, Piano, Keyboard, Acoustic/Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar, Violin, Music Theory, Songwriting and specialized courses like Flamenco,Jazz and Blues Guitar outlines are catered. Classes are generally held on a one to one basis. The students can also give Certification exams for Classical music from The Trinity college of London, The London college of Music and The Associate Board of Royal School of Music.

As each day dawns, new challenges await. In this changing scenario, it is quite imperative for us to train our youth to stand aloft in this age of cut-throat competition. Within a short period,the institute has been successful in spreading its wings. This would not have been possible without the incredible support of students, staff members & other generous members of the society. Apart from the regular classes, several workshops by visiting artists and other musicians are also regularly conducted which provide musical interaction for the students. Periodic pupil’s concerts and other events help to develop the performance skills of the students.

The school has put a special focus on its website by providing many add on services through it. Students and other visitors can now interact with each other and share information on the website. People can request for chords or tabs of particular songs which are posted in due time. Students and visitors can also sell and buy music instruments (brand new and second hand) on the website. The website also gives latest happening events in and around Hyderabad. Also the school regularly posts new informational articles on music (general and technical) to help young musicians. The website also helps the budding musicians by providing them a platform to promote their music by uploading songs on the website.

Our Mission

• To provide a platform for musically inclined people to get formal but personalized training in western music.

• To constantly innovate in our methods of teaching.

• To become the one stop solution for any service related to music in the country.

• To nurture talents, give them professional skills and develop their creative potential for successful careers in music.

• To promote values and well being through music.