One of the Most Important Bass Lessons You'll Ever Learn

I love your laid back and relaxed teaching style. It’s so much better than the typically hyper, high energy youtubers.. they can be exhausting to watch 😅

10 years playing bass and after watching this, all of a sudden a light has just switched on in my brain🤘🤘

I've been a bassist for over 30 years and this exercise is much harder than I thought it would be. Thanks Rich

Thank you for the inspiration! You are an encouragement to me. I'm dealing with Stage IV Prostate Cancer and your lessons help me focus, exercise my mind and help me with my energy. I apply the techniques while praying and playing to Praise and Worship tracks. You're a blessing to me!

I’m a self taught bass and 6 string player for over 35 years. And this is just the simplest and best explanation I’ve seen of how to get understanding of the fretboard. I learned a few things I never really connected before. Well done and thank you!

So simple it's hard to believe how much sense it makes.

I’ve never had a lesson, and followed three main steps. Know your fret board, play with drum tracks, turn frustration into opportunities. 20 years later I’m a happy bassist. Tip learn your octaves will help you memorize your fret board.

I often motivate myself by watching bass lesson videos on YouTube, but I have a hard time keeping up with them because I can't understand English very well , but your lessons are very easy to understand, even for a Japanese person like me, and the lesson content fits my skill level. I know that It is not so easy to get better bass skills , but I am confident that if I continue to learn from you, I will make steady progress.

I agree with the importance of learning every note on the fretboard and believe the best way to do that is to read standard notation, which also provides a comprehensive way to understand rhythmic patterns.

A teacher I had in NYC in the mid 90’s, Keith Carroll, was a huge proponent of using a metronome while playing and calling out the notes on every string from the open one and back down again. Seeing this lesson brought me back to a very important bass lesson I never forgot. Thank you, Mr. Brown!

I’m a guitarist who started playing bass and absolutely love it! This is a great exercise for bass and guitar!

Really smooth teacher. “We’re gonna do it in chunks of three.” Brilliant approach and not daunting at all.”

I’m an ear player too and seeing you buckle down and re-approach your instrument this way is inspiring. And also you make it look doable enough that I feel like I could try the same thing without a paralyzing sense of dread, on guitar or bass. So glad you mentioned the connection between the 7th fret and the 5-string bass, which had never dawned on me before. I usually play guitar, banjo, and 4-string bass, and when I play 5-string, to keep from getting too confused I just think of it as a regular 4-string with a bonus lower string. I feel like this will help me level up if I put in the time. Thank you!!

I do a similar thing where I pick a scale, start on the low E and ascend 3 notes per string, go up 1 step at the top then descend to the bottom doing the same thing, then going up a step, etc. Sometimes you get some inefficient fingerings, but by saying every note out loud and doing all the keys, you really learn where everything is.

Inspiring to see how someone of your level revisits the "weak points" in his playing. Pure gold this lesson!!! Thanks Rich!!!

I find that when you're musical intuition(your ear) and you're understanding of the harmonized major and minor scale meet, you'll really feel the confidence grow. Even when you don't know what the song is

Started learning the bass again, and I’m past 40 years old. Loving the vibe!

B R I L L I A N T lesson, my brother!! 🙏

im a 24 year old 5 string player this is somthing ive been trying to verbalise for a while and im grabing my bass to play along one thing i have considered is writing note names on clear tape and putting it under the fret board temporarily to help with visualizations first sharps then flats since i learned to read sheet on tuba