The Real Deal..

My name is Steve Bryant and have been a full time professional electric bassist since 1975. I have been a resident of Nashville Tennessee since December '82 and actually lived here in '75-'76 too.
I have played most forms of contemporary music. I've seen many acts, artists, and what's hot come and go. I am posting this for the serious amateur, semi-pro and aspiring bassisst who are working toward a full time career while studying ( hopefully you are doing this) to acquire skills and knowledge to compete in the real world. or, you just want to seriously get good grounding to satisfy your own personal goals.

If this is you, then read on for a short tour of the Real World, Real Deal Music World....

  I've never been hired to play a scale. That simple fact should inform many aspiring bassist to not waste precious time in '' playing this scale over the chord'' -- you need to understand two things...chord tones and the basics of chordal movement ( how chords  '' ask '' for one another)  Many bassists have crashed and burned by not knowing the chord tones that form the target notes for good strong lines. A case in point was a young player who I brought to a session with me and wanted to check our how things worked in the pro world and of course this was his first visit to a '' real studio'' with '' real session players'' In conversations with him before hand, he had spent many hours running scales on his instrument because '' it helps you find the notes'' and that is what everyone is doing.....
In the course of the session, He was amazed at how quickly we could listen to a tune just once with a number chart in hand and most of the time nail it one the first take in most cases..and get five finished
songs in three hours...He could not believe we had not '' rehearsed the song'' the day before...I turned
to him and said '' did you hear anyone play a scale or relate to the other musicians in terms of calling
out scale names to commicate? No you heard CHORDS being talked about"  Music exists in chords NOT scale over this chord-- my friend could not tell me what notes were in an A-9 chord nor could
even find the notes on his instrument.....yet he would have been in great need of that information if he
were working in the pro world. It is not hard to learn, just doing the '' right stuff'''

Make sure you are learning musical facts when you practice. If your music lessons don't concern
musical facts then you are dead in the water and shortchanging your development


I'll have more info on our short tour of the Real World, Real Deal Music World

thanks for reading and I encourage you to comment and add ideas for future posts...it
is about educating ourselves as bassists and more to the point  Bass Musicians


see my site for info on studying with me.. www.bassmentoring.com  via HD 16;9 wide angle camera and studio quality sound through my Neve Preamps.......


and Keep it Low, my friends:-)


Steve Bryant......