[Music]

I'm gonna assume you have heard of Felix

Pistorius but just in case you haven't

this was his dad yeah his dad was Jaco

Pastorius how cool let's not take

anything away from Felix he is one of

the most virtuosic bass players that has

ever existed and to get to that skill

level he has worked his ass off

amazingly I was lucky enough to hang out

with Felix a full day over in New York

and film a bunch of stuff but in this

specific lesson I want to share with you

today he's talking about the stuff that

makes the real difference practicing now

there's a bunch of stuff in here I want

you to listen out for but there is four

things specifically to check out first

of all his approach to practicing in

general secondly why and how he views

scales and groupings of three third up

is the different interval approaches he

used when practicing scales and an

awesome technique that's going to help

you stay away from the roots when you're

Sol embarrass all oak roots this cool

technique is going to show you he's

gonna stop you doing that okay let's go

to New York it's not very hard I mean

it's it's built into us all so it's very

it's very internal music I mean we're

surrounded by music constantly we're

surrounded by harmony constantly

everything people yeah people can people

can pretty much pick out a major scale

even if you've never played music yeah

yeah absolutely so for me it was just

bringing that onto the instrument and

figuring out and trying to try to you

know pull it apart trying to get in

inside and make it interesting and keep

keep it fresh and I was very particular

when you were loading the motor is there

any particular you did used to type C

Ionian yeah exactly yeah so for me

though like everything was always based

on like three notes I always I'm very

symmetrical and low okay symmetry in

in music very nice so for me it was

always yeah right if I was a four-string

right yeah and now I play all the way up

to the five above five right yeah yeah

or the twelve or however you want to

think of it and from there I would you

know practice like groupings yeah all

the standard stuff third sixes yeah

arpeggios alternating that was arpeggios

we didn't within the exactly so let me

break that down for you okay Felix has

taken a major scale and playing three

notes of strings so in this scenario

let's take a C major right I'm gonna

keep away from this top string because

[Music]

it's a high C string super fancy so it's

taken a C major scale and then he's

doing what's called broken exercise

yourself broken thirds broken fourth

broken fifths which sound like this

[Music]

broken fourths

fists six now something else he

mentioned was used in the up hedgerows

within the major scale first is a major

seven then a minor seven a minor seven a

major seven a dominant seven a minor

seven a minor seven flat five and then a

major seven when you raise the tempo of

that a little bit and join all together

you get this really great vibe

you can play up one and down the other

as well that sounds like this so

suddenly you go from just having a

linear major scale to suddenly having

all of these options with inside the

major scale which sounds way more cool

way more musical and just tons more

options

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and then eventually it was all about you

know obviously going through the modes

but then it was also about trying to

think of it and like I can concentrate a

quoi attribute of what it is that I'm

doing and shift it so like if I did that

I so I'm thinking this is three notes

per string right yeah so if I was

playing two notes per string right yeah

or four notes per string yeah so I can

get to certain anchor points within you

know across four strings yeah so you

learn the modes and then learned how to

expand those different ways right across

the fingerboard and always changing a

variable you know some did you do that

with each mode you absolutely did and

and all the scales - you know harmonic

major harmonic minor minor yeah and

saying cut all the modes within those

scales that's right

did you hear what you said then just

check that out again did you do that

with each mode yeah absolutely and all

the scales - you know harmonic major

harmonic minor minor and all the modes

within those scales that's right he did

all of the scales all of the arpeggios

all of the keys all of the modes if I

could give my younger self one bit of

advice it would be stop looking for

shortcuts and just do the work it's so

easy to spend as much time looking for

shortcuts as it is just to do the work

so just do the work so quick question

did you when you were teach when you

were practicing your modes did you do it

in order which which they exist within

that diatonic key so I see major do I

really or did you see major C Dorian

right C fridge both both yeah

playing through songs maybe doing that

also obviously but yeah also Association

for me it's also a lot of a huge part of

it is Association like what you're

thinking about also as you're practicing

it you know yeah because the C major it

you know think of it in terms of what

other what the other modes are around it

because obviously you can play C major

over a g7 or D minor or F major seven

sharp eleven right yeah exactly

exactly so if you're thinking a minor

but you're playing C major you know get

that whole thing going in your mind - so

okay so let me break that down for you

because this is a super ninja trick that

is going to help you stay away from the

roots when you're playing a Noah cool

solo or lick or something like that

let's take a major tonality okay so

they've got a C major tonality and as

bass players hate bass player takes solo

we're always gonna we're always gonna

hit that root first of all that justice

Felix said okay so this really great

trick exactly what Felix was talking

about is you think a third up from the

root of what your of the tonality you're

playing over so this tonality is C major

okay the third of C is an E okay and on

that e you play the opposite of the

tonality that you're playing over so

this is a C major tonality the opposite

of a major is a mine okay so we play an

E minor tonality it keeps us away from

the root

now we can do the same for miners as

well so let's say we've got to see minor

tonality now we do the same thing we

find the third of the C minor which is E

flat and we played the opposite of minor

which is major okay so we play a flat

major seven arpeggio which sounds like

this and again it just keeps it away

from the roots

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except we want to play because the worst

not the worst thing I mean many

musicians on every instrument do it and

it's not just basis but um you know it's

funny that basis you know we will be

supporting a band for you know let's say

all night before they get a bass so long

right yeah and they're supporting a band

of supporting a band and the last tune

you know that might be something where

you're let's say it's very fairly simple

music and you're just in E yeah right

and then if they finally point to you

the bassist and it's a go you turn the

solo first no to bassist plays almost

always the root yeah always

every single time and it's not just

bassist all instruments you know

instrumentalists do that so for me it's

also just trying to associate things to

the chord of that moment and thinking in

thirds or sixes as extensions of where

you are because we are the players so

how do you you know and if you're

constantly thinking root you know

separation you have that almost separate

mind wait okay this is it but what have

you do now you may have been thinking

about this video who was that guy on the

left of feeling Nicola can do with the

Arnold Schwarzenegger teacher from Total

Recall that my friends is Mike bendy and

he is a Monstress bass player check this

out

thanks so much for checking out this

video if you an Academy member you can

check out the full an hour and a half

episode of that way you can see Mike and

Felix breaking down how they do what

they do if you are not subscribed to the

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take it easy I've seen shed