Welcome to NZ Musician’s new bass column. Over the next few issues, we are going to look at aspects of bass playing at various skill levels. The idea behind this column is to make you able to create bass lines in a range of styles and to increase your technical skill level. As you will see from the notated examples, I am writing in standard notation and in bass tablature. Please use whichever method you are used to. If you are unfamiliar with bass tab, just think of your bass fingerboard as you look over it from above in the normal playing position – the bottom string (string 4, low E) is at the bottom of the tab and the highest string (string 1, G) is at the top. ...more

One of the most prevalent myths about singing is that singing high is difficult. As a consequence, we develop fears and dysfunctions around this that make singing high difficult. I’d like to debunk this myth and allow you effortless access to an unlimited pitch range. NB: This article refers to singing higher pitches rather than singing when high! ...more

The minor pentatonic scale is a favourite scale for rock guitarists to get ideas for soloing, with the Blues scale being a close second. Many beginning players tend to overplay the minor pentatonic sound – so that it gets boring after a while – without realising that they can extract some great ideas from the blues scale with minimal extra effort. ...more