🎸 Notes to Self (and Bassists)

Notes from the practice room and life

Bassist, author, and educator Ariane Cap shares practical bass insight, practice logic, and the stuff that happens between the notes, on the instrument and off it.

Posts

🎸 Notes to Self (and Bassists): You know the scale. Now what?

Hey Reader, I hear a lot of rumbling about how hard of a time many have putting theory into usable bass lines. If that's on your mind, you are not alone. I remember being there myself! Here's why improvising feels so hard at first even after you've put in real work. It's because you're actually doing several jobs at once. I like to call it "spinning several plates." There are many, but here are two: One - choosing the notes. Notes aren't neutral. Every note carries emotional weight in the...

4 days ago • 4 min read

🎸 Note to Self (and Bassists): The Pentatonic Pattern Everyone's Selling

Notes to Self (and Bassists) Dear Reader Every few months someone asks why the "best" diagonal pentatonic pattern isn't in my Pattern Book. It is in there. We just don't start there. Story That diagonal shape, the one that strings boxes together and lets you run the whole neck? A diagonal pattern for the E minor pentatonic This pattern often gets sold a lot as the only pentatonic pattern you need. It's real, and it's in the Pattern System. But we teach it later, not first. Here's why. Each...

29 days ago • 1 min read