Victor Wooten Bass Clinic

I had the privilege of going to see a free clinic at Sweetwater recently and was very impressed! I saw a few of our fellow bloggers there too and wondered what your impressions were? What were your favorite tips?

For me, Victor Wooten (bassist for Béla Fleck and the Flecktones) was quite impressive as a player and performer but what really surprised me was his humble demeanor and gracious attitude. This is my first time attending a clinic so I'm not sure if this is common, but he seemed very willing to take time and make sure that every question was heard and that every topic was covered.
He had some very interesting ideas on many topics like how to practice by yourself, how to raise kids to love music without making it a chore, how to approach music as a whole to make it more enjoyable to play and create, and much more!
All I can say is that if most clinics are half as good as this one, I'd recommend going to any of them you can!  Below is a little Wooten trivia:
Wooten won two Nashville Music Awards for Bassist Of The Year and is the only three-time winner of Bass Player magazine’s Bass Player Of The Year. With the honors came sideman calls, leading to recordings and performances with artists like Branford Marsalis, Mike Stern, Bruce Hornsby, Chick Corea, Dave Matthews, Prince, Gov’t Mule, Susan Tedeschi, Vital Tech Tones (with Scott Henderson and Steve Smith), the Jaco Pastorius Word Of Mouth Big Band, and the soundtrack of the Disney film Country Bears.

Music Theory 101 (This is a Blues Riff in B Watch for the Changes and Try to Keep Up).

Lately, I am starting to have a greater appreciation for guitar since I have been messing around with the piano. As Scotty had mentioned, I took a music theory course a couple of years back taught by a fun-sucking taskmaster named Generalissimo Lydy. In the course we learned that a major scale is: Whole step (2 frets), Whole step, Half step (1 fret), Whole step, Whole step, Whole Step and Half Step from your bass note (a minor scale would be W, H, W,W,H,W,W). Therefore, all the white keys on a piano are in the key of C. Whereas with the guitar it means all the normal notes (no sharps or flats) are in the key of C. However, if you did the major scale in A then C, F, G would be sharp. Further, music nazis name these notes in a major scale as (using the C major scale as the example):
I or Tonic (C) is the key note.
ii or Supertonic (D) establishes the Dominant as the secondary tone.
iii or Mediant (E) is the middle note in a triad (the three notes that make up a chord).
IV or Subdominant (F) is considered a good harmony note to start with since it is not in the triad.
V or Dominant (G) is the running mate of the Tonic and is also the third note of the triad to make a chord therefore C, F & G make up a C major chord
vi or Submediant (A) is the note that passes to the IV or ii. It is the second chord in the example passing to the IV.
vii or Leading Tone (B) is the note that music theorist say a song cannot end on cause it "naturally" directs you towards the Tonic note. It's the third chord in the example.
VIII or Octave is the same note as the Tonic only higher or lower. If you ever see the notation 8va or 8vb that means they want you to play the note higher or lower than the notated note.

Finally, the reason some of the roman numerals are lower case is because those chords in the major scale are supposed to be played as minor chords and the vii chord is diminished (which the fifth is flatted). Which means if you are playing the chords in the C scale it would be: C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, B dim (A scale would be A, Bm, Cm#, D, E, Fm# and D#dim which most guitarist simply achieve by capoing their guitar and playing like they are in the key of C). The reason I am boring you with this is because from this base we can get into some interesting conversations about scales, modes (Mixolydian, Dorian etc), and general theory and rule breaking of this theory that makes music unique. Also, I would like to know when you're making up songs do you follow any music theory or do you just wing it?

Anyway here are some songs in the key of C:
Dust in the Wind
Let It Be

technique: gettin picky with it

there is a nice article in the latest issue of Sweetwater's guitars & gear newsletter concerning an easy way to tweak your sound on guitar. check it out HERE.