Resources
What your find on this page is:
Technology for practice-- slowing down songs, or stripping out the vocals, bass, or guitar from tracks (this is so cool),
Reading and writing music,
Online teachers that I use
Slow down songs
Want to learn songs by ear? What?? you don't want to stop the tape, rewind, find the place to listen to the bit of the song that is causing you issues... and do it again, over and over.
Thankfully, I never had to do that (or maybe if I did I would have started playing music 30 years ago),... these programmes are fantastic. The last link is the ability of taking out vocals, or drums, or guitar, or bass and play along with the ORIGINAL band. !!
SongMaster ($50US) – never tried it.
Audacity(free) - I tried it but like Transcribe better. For me, it was more intuitive.
Transcribe (free) <- this is what I use. It just felt easier to use.
I only found this at the later part of this year. Amazing !!
The musician's best friend
More than an app: a music partner (that's their byline) -- Moises "Play with your favourite artists in any key, at any speed. Remove vocals and instruments in any song. Discover the ultimate immersive practice experience powered by AI. " Awesome software !!
There's a metronome & speed changer AND Pitch Changer & AI Key Detection AND detects chords.... how cool is THAT ?!
Music Reading and Writing
MUSIC READING
I have bought a course from Talking Bass to help me with reading music. I like Talking Bass as Mark explains very well, plays the etudes with you and has the PDF & mp3 files that goes with your study.
Jeff Berlin has Etudes that you can purchase. This comes with sheet music, but no videos. You can download or purchase a book (shipping is expensive)
MUSIC WRITING
Musecore is an open-source amazing notation app/programme that you can write music with. It looks professional, but it also has musicians play your masterpiece. It just got upgrade (Nov 2022) and from what I saw, it looks 300% better. This is the software that I wrote my composition for University of Canterbury.
Completely free- unbelievable !!
NeckDiagrams Create amazing fretboard diagrams for chords, scales and arpeggios quickly and easily
RECORDINGS
Jamulus "All over the world Jamulus allows choirs to rehearse and rock bands to play. Jamulus brings folk and classical musicians together. It's being used for remote music lessons, in schools and universities, in private and in public — all in real time on the Internet, as if you were there in person." Yes, it’s absolutely 100% in real time. A free open-source software
Source-Connect Time to shorten distances. Take your studio global to record with anyone, anywhere over the internet, using the industry standard in remote voice, music, and sound capture. Collaborate in real time with creatives around the world.
APPS
Ticking-- Improve your drumming skills
Far Play-- FarPlay enables you to play music with others over the internet as if you were in the same room. With unmatched audio delay mitigation, multi-user sessions, and multi-track recording capabilities, FarPlay is revolutionizing virtual music performance, rehearsals, and coaching sessions.
Music teachers online
In alphabetical order...
Ariane Cap-- I can very comfortably say that without her course, tuition, support, I wouldn't be understanding music theory as well as I do, nor would my playing improve. She offers a unique way of teaching, and understands the psychology behind how we learn and incorporates this in her teaching. Ari now have a great great resource in terms of Community. For a monthly membership, you can practice on zoom, weekly with her in a online classroom. Each lessons has a huge amount of information. This is part of my weekly practice. She has the Music Theory for the Bass Player, and her Pattern System Book. She is highly regarded & recommended
Become a Bassist- Luke, my neighbour (lives in Australia, but NZ and Australia are like that). He adds a different flavour, explains the blues, the groove and has a deep passion for teaching. I bought a few of his online course, and thankfully I have "forever" to do them as I tend to buy courses and sit on them.... but NOT the Blues which I'm doing at the moment (Feb 2023)
Dan Hawkins I watch his YouTube videos and have bought his book. I tend to support my teachers. They give so much for free on the Internet. It's my way to support them. His videos are chocker block full of information. You could practice one video all week~
Ebass Guitar My very first bass lesson was through Ebass. James Eager teaches to beginners which was totally up my alley. Then I found Ariane that had the 40 week Cohort. I have taken a few bass challenges with him... as seen on my website :) I am still a member, and enjoy their monthly song challenges.
Inner Circle- Learn Jazz Standards When I started my Jazz on the After3 programme, I was so 'over my head' that I needed more self-study. Now, I do think that this website is more geared towards other instruments other than bass... it DOES have bass, but I just felt that how one plays bass on jazz, is different to the piano player who plays 5th while the bass plays roots, or something like this... -- or not.
Jazz Advice I bought all of his ebooks Jazz Theory Unlocked, The Ear Training Method, Melodic Power, Visualization for Jazz Improvisation, Reprogramme the Musical Mind. There is SO MUCH material here. I have used the ear training while walking my dog, used the visualisation mp3... I need to put this into my weekly digest of musical learning.
Scott's Bass Lessons This is a huge resource of lessons, videos, podcasts ... In reality, I probably didn't need to buy all those other books (apart from Ariane Cap) and lessons BUT it is probably too big. It can be difficult to find things (they are getting better), HOWEVER, saying this, I'm a LIFE TIME MEMBER. How much money have I spent on music... well... it's about my education:)
What I like about SBL is that there are videos about how bass and drummer play together, or have an area for student focus, .... since I'm a life time member... well, I have my life to look at 'em :)
Talking Bass Mark has some really good courses which I recently bought. I actually purchased his reading music course as I needed to read music for Univeristy. Then he made other courses which really interest me. I am using his material, reading music lessons, learning bass chords lessons, technique for the bass player... He explains it well, and learning a lot.
The Brown Stone Rich Brown is a Canadian bassist. I'm Canadian (living in New Zealand) He's often on No Treble website. He has a lot of humour on his videos and another great teacher. I don't have enough time in the day, but I do watch his videos when I can.
interesting links
How music heals us, even when it’s sad – by a neuroscientist leading a new study of musical therapy
Published: November 15, 2023 5.33am NZDT