STME 603 Introduction to Electric Bass

3 credits 42 hours
600 level graduate course

This course is designed for the music educator who has little or no formal experience playing bass guitar. The teaching of this course is focused on developing individual techniques and processes to ultimately be shared with their own bass students in the classroom. The course will explore different right-hand techniques, finger picking with one or two fingers, and slap bass. With the left hand, the student will discover efficient scale and arpeggio fingerings, covering one and two octaves. All of these techniques are designed to give each student a solid foundation in the fundamentals of bass playing, while learning the role of the bass at the same time. Stylistically, the course will explore different grooves from rock, blues, bossa nova, to walking jazz bass. Beyond the fundamentals of groove, each student will attempt to improvise on the fundamentals of harmony. Students will need to bring an electric bass for the course. A student bass and practice amplifier will be available to each student in the class.

This course may be completed 2 times for credit.