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Bass Guitar Lesson – Warming Up & Timbre

Below is Danny “Mo” Morris with a lesson on warming up, and creating a great bass guitar sound (timbre). This lesson is a part of Danny’s “Creating Original Bass Lines” series at JamPlay Bass. In total, this series includes all of the following lessons:

  • Lesson 1: Introduction to the Series
  • Lesson 2: Groundwork
  • Lesson 3: Working with Scale Degrees
  • Lesson 4: Using Triads
  • Lesson 5: Applying Pentatonic Scales
  • Lesson 6: Scale Fragments
  • Lesson 7: Applying the Natural Minor Scale
  • Lesson 8: Playing with 6/8 Time
  • Lesson 9: Playing over Sus4 Chords
  • Lesson 10: Diatonic Harmony
  • Lesson 11: Seventh Arpeggios
  • Lesson 12: The “Hendrix” Chord
  • Lesson 13: Funky #9
  • Lesson 14: Major/Minor Pentatonic Ideas
  • Lesson 15: Major/Minor Ideas over Progression
  • Lesson 16: Developing Your Rhythm Sense
  • Lesson 17: Changing Tonalities
  • Lesson 18: Leaving Space
  • Lesson 19: Changing Tonalities #2
  • Lesson 20: Changing Tonalities #3
  • Lesson 21: Changing Tonalities #4
  • Lesson 22: Stacking Chords
  • Lesson 23: Stacking Minor Chords
  • Lesson 24: Stacking Chords – Sus2 Chords
  • Lesson 25: Stacking Power Chords
  • Lesson 26: Stacking Power Chords – Minor Progression
  • Lesson 27: The V to I Resolution
  • Lesson 28: Warming Up & Timbre
  • Lesson 29: More on Triads
  • Lesson 30: Blues Forms & Bass Lines
  • Lesson 31: Slow, Jazzy Blues

Here’s Danny Morris with his free lesson on “Warming Up & Timbre”:

Danny Morris - Warming Up & Timbre - Tone Is In The Fingers!!

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Danny Morris Bio: Danny “Mo” Morris is a professor in the bass department from Berklee College of Music since 1988. He is known for his muted tone, warm personality, and ability to work with all level of students. “My mission is really to teach students how to develop their individuality in terms of their rhythmic concept and their tonal concept, what notes to play and when. There’s a consequence to every note you play. Even when you don’t play, such as when there’s a rest, there’s a consequence, because when the bass comes in, it’s going to be huge! I want students to come away from my classes with life skills, like the ability to read a situation and try to understand the natural flow of it. As a bass player, you need to be able to sense what the song needs on the bottom of the chord.” “The bass player’s role is to keep time and to address the tonality of the moment. By studying harmony the bass player becomes a complete musician.”

Danny has a knack for introducing all levels of bass players to his unique approach of integrating polyphony to the musician’s ear. Before becoming a bass player in 1976, Danny was an accomplished trumpet player and piano player. His love for the bass began when attending Ithaca College where his roommate had a bass in the corner of their dorm room. Danny began playing and studying recordings and his love and appreciation for the instrument bass commenced. After touring for a decade with two of Boston’s most popular bands in the late 70’s, the James Montgomery Blues Band and the Jon Pousette-Dart Band, Danny was invited to teach at Berklee where he simultaneously finished up his Bachelors degree.

Aside from his role in the Bass and Ensemble Departments, Danny teaches a course on Artistry Creativity and Inquiry in the Liberal Arts Department. “I enjoy working with students on communication skills. As rhythm section players, we need to be in tune, ears opened wide, and like a producer, taking a birds eye view when tracking bass on a song.” Danny has authored courses for Berklee’s catalogue and courses for Berklee Online. Besides teaching, he remains busy gigging regularly and recording tracks for singer songwriters and instrumentalists. You can find samples of his work at momethod.com. Danny lives in Boston with his wife and son. They all enjoy playing tennis in their spare time. Lots of it!

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