Gigajam : Bass course lesson contents. Level 1 to 3 equivalent to Grade 1 to 5

Lesson 1: Building a Rock Groove

Introduce and understand quarter notes the concept of root notes and develop the ability to play A and G in rock grooves so that by the end of this lesson you are able to play along with music.

Lesson 2: Introducing Eighth Notes

Learn how to create rhythm using different notes, start to develop finger technique and play a series of rhythms with your rock grooves along with music.

Lesson 3: Introducing New Notes and String Crossing

You will be developing a good understanding and performance of rhythm and how to read rhythm on the musical stave, as well as learn two new notes to mix with your existing notes by the end of this lesson.

Lesson 4: Developing Rhythm for Rock Grooves

This lesson brings together all the notes and rhythms learned so far and helps to develop a good level of performance. You will be challenged to develop your Left hand finger technique further in this lesson.

Lesson 5: Developing Finger Control

This lesson contains challenging studies developing your fluency of performance and introducing more rock grooves for you to read and play.

Lesson 6: Developing Rock Grooves Part 1

This lesson further develops your fluency and control of rhythm using Quarter and Eighth notes. Furthermore, we introduce the D and G strings and begin the first part of our study of Octave Shapes.

Lesson 7: Developing Rock Grooves Part 2

Extending the concept of Octave shapes to all notes learned so far, this lesson focuses on developing your understanding of the fingerboard to develop greater fluency in your performance.

Lesson 8: Introducing Root and 5th Shapes

Here we expand the concept of fingerboard symmetry, by introducing the concept of the 5th shape. This in turn opens up new notes and new sounds, as well as helping us move more fluently and with greater knowledge around the Bass guitar.

Lesson 9: Developing Root and 5th Shapes

This lesson uses our increasing knowledge and performance of Octave and 5th shapes to learn more notes, develop greater fluency and increase our knowledge and performance of all Natural notes on the Bass guitar.

Lesson 10: Performing a Song

Learn how to play with a professional band, whilst reading a Bass guitar chart. This lesson can go towards your Level One in Essential Bass Skills with Gigajam Bass School.

Lesson 11: Introducing Rests Part 1

In this lesson you will learn to be able to recognise and play quarter note and eighth note rests, enabling you to create more interesting rhythmic bass patterns.

Lesson 12: Introducing Scales Part 1

Here we will lay down the foundation knowledge for the concept of Scales and learn to play A minor as an Ascending and Descending scale using the correct fingers and scale shape.

Lesson 13: Minor Rock Grooves

Having learned how to play a Scale we will immediately take you through the process of developing rock grooves using your ability to understand and play in minor scales. You will also have the opportunity to learn a new technique called Hammer On, which is frequently used by bass players. This will provide you with more control over your sound.

Lesson 14: Using Space

Building on the skills learned through Level 2 thus far, this lesson incorporates your ability to play rhythmic combinations of both notes and rests, helping you create ever increasingly more sophisticated bass guitar rhythms.

Lesson 15: Developing Scales

By the end of this lesson you will be able to take the concept of minor Scale shapes and play all of the natural minor scales on the bass guitar. This is a lesson that builds directly on the skills you developed from lesson 12.

Lesson 16: Introducing Scales Part 2

This lesson introduces the concept of the Major Scale and the Major Scale shape and develops your ability to play and be familiar with the Major Scale of C. This will enable you, as we did in lesson 12, to then transfer the major scale shape to every natural major scale.

Lesson 17: Developing Scales Part 2

Here we develop playing the major scale and learn how to transfer the major scale shape to each of the natural notes, building directly again on previously learned skills. We need to introduce and learn the new notes of F#, C# and G#.

Lesson 18: Reading - Introducing dotted notes

We will develop our ability to play more sophisticated rhythms during this lesson as we learn to be able to understand, recognise, read and play dotted notes. We will incorporate these new notes into our rhythm library and combine them with our existing rhythmic knowledge.

Lesson 19: Revisiting Root and 5th Shapes

We will develop the ability to play both a fifth above and a fifth below the Root so that we can develop ever increasingly more musical and creative rock grooves. We will combine the knowledge and skills developed with rhythm through this grade to be incorporated with these new patterns and play a series of challenging rock grooves.

Lesson 20: Performing a Song

Learn how to play with a professional band, whilst reading a Bass guitar chart. This lesson can go towards your Level Two in Essential Bass Skills with Gigajam Bass School.

Lesson 21: Introducing Triads

In this lesson you will learn how to construct chords using triads so that you can develop and create bass lines and riffs to play with major chords.

Lesson 22: Introducing Minor Triads

In this lesson you will develop your ability to create and develop bass lines and riffs by introducing minor triads. This will extend the skills developed in lesson 21 with major triads.

Lesson 23: Introducing Ties

This lesson focuses on understanding how ties are used to create rhythm. Having learned to understand the appearance of ties the lesson takes you through a series of practical exercises which will develop your ability to read and perform ties accurately.

Lesson 24: Developing Triads

In this lesson we take previously learned skills and knowledge and develop by performing practical exercises using triads. Specifically the lesson focuses on playing combinations of bass riffs around major and minor triads. Rhythmic development is also combined with the use of dotted and tied notes.

Lesson 25: Introducing Major Pentatonics

This lesson introduces the construction of the pentatonic scale and explores the relationship between the major scale, major chord and major pentatonic scale. Your ability to play all three patterns, and transfer the pentatonic shape to other root notes, is developed. You will play a number of pentatonic riffs and then apply your knowledge and skills to playing a 12-bar pentatonic sequence.

Lesson 26: Introducing Minor Pentatonics

This lesson will develop the use of pentatonics by introducing minor pentatonics. By the end of this lesson you will understand how to create bass riffs using the minor pentatonic scale. You will also understand the construction of the minor pentatonic scale and the relationship between minor pentatonic, minor scale and minor triad.

Lesson 27: Developing Pentatonics

In this lesson we take previously learned skill and knowledge and develop by performing practical exercises using pentatonics. Specifically, the lesson focuses on playing combinations of bass riffs around major and minor pentatonics. Rhythmic development is also combined with the use of dotted and tied notes. Additionally, we will introduce the 12 bar concept and learn how to play a bass riff following the 12 bar progression.

Lesson 28: Introducing the Blues Scale

We will introduce, understand and play the blues scale in this lesson. We will also compare and develop our understanding of the relationship between the blues scale and the minor pentatonic scale. The lesson will involve developing, creating and performing bass lines created using the blues scale.

Lesson 29: Applying our Understanding of Theory

This lesson is designed to review the theory developed through the course and to help you create bass lines. As in previous lessons there is a large focus on the ability to use the symmetry of the bass guitar to visualise and transfer shapes.

Lesson 30: Performing a Song

Learn how to play with a professional band, whilst reading a bass guitar chart. This lesson can go towards your Level Three in Essential Bass Skills with Gigajam Bass School.

Bass Course Content