Bass Buddha: Foundations

Working bass players need to have a grip on a wide range of fundamental techniques and harmonic approaches to handle the variety of styles that they will commonly encounter on the gig, in the studio, or in a jam. Whether you aspire to be or already are a working bass player, the Foundations edition of Bass Buddha, from the legendary Bill “Buddha” Dickens, will impart priceless insight, creative approaches, and essential techniques.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a pedigree more impressive than that of recording artist, producer, composer and master bassist Bill “Buddha” Dickens. The ‘Buddha’ has performed, recorded and/or produced a long list of legends including with the likes of Pat Metheny, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, George Michael, Joe Zawinul, Janet Jackson, Grover Washington Jr., Chaka Khan, Mary J. Blige, Freddie Hubbard, Al Di Meola, Steve Morse, Randy Newman, and the list goes on and on.

We’re thrilled to welcome Bill to the family with his first TrueFire course, The Foundations edition of Bass Buddha. You will likewise be thrilled as you play your way through Bill’s illuminating and inspiring curriculum.

”We’ll focus on what I consider to be 10 of the most essential techniques and approaches here in this edition. For each of these 10 topics, I’ll first present an overview and demonstration, and then we’ll play through two performance studies -- a basic application and then a more advanced version. We’ll use backing tracks for musical context, and even though I use a 5-string bass -- all of the studies can be played on a 4-string bass with very few exceptions.”

You’ll start out with a series of lesson sets focused on funk-oriented right and left-hand approaches including double thumb technique, thumb-only, plucks only and mixing thumb and pluck techniques while incorporating left-hand mutes and slaps for added syncopation.  

Then Bill guides you through applications for blues bass triplet feels and classic jazz approaches including straight pulse feel as well as modern jazz swing, approach notes, and octave displacement.

You’ll work on approaches for playing basslines over two five one changes and finally, Bill will show you several approaches for building melodies and solos.

Bill will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way. You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies. Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson. You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are included to work with on your own as well.

Grab your bass and let’s dig in with Bill “Buddha” Dickens!