If You Actually Care About The Bass, Good News!

Have you ever tried getting a new band together? It’s not easy. Many people are forced to turn to websites such as Craigslist or Bandmix to find local musicians, and it doesn’t always turn out well.

9/10 times you’ll find people aren’t serious about the music. They want to ‘play band’ rather than play in a band. They overestimate their abilities, and if you can actually get them to meet up with you it’s a huge letdown.

Fortunately for you, this is especially true with bassists. This means that if you actually care about your instrument (I’m assuming you do, since you’re on this site!) you’re at a real advantage.  [Read more…]

Epiphone Viola Bass Guitar Review

Epiphone Viola

Being a Paul McCartney fan, it should come as no surprise that I’m a huge fan of violin/viola basses. It’s fair to say I’m not the only one. After all, why would so many companies produce their own versions if they weren’t popular?

The first bass I ever purchased myself was the Epiphone Viola. Having played with it for hundreds of hours now, I feel like I’m entitled to fairly review it. Here is my review on the Epiphone Viola bass guitar.  [Read more…]

5 Benfits Of Playing Bass Guitar

Should you play bass or guitar? Choosing a new instrument to play can be tough, especially if you’re a beginner who doesn’t have the time or money to test out a bunch of different options. While each and every instrument has its pros and cons, the benefits of playing bass guitar often go unnoticed by many beginner musicians.

While many believe that guitarists are the only band members to shine, the fact of the matter is that playing bass guitar in a band has a lot of hidden benefits too. Here are some reasons to learn to play this beautiful instrument [Read more…]

John Lennon – Mother (Bass + Vocal Cover)

Wow, my first cover video ever is live! I choose to do John Lennon’s, “Mother” for my first cover, as it’s really resonated with me recently. While I’ve been fortunate to have both of my parents growing up, I know that there are many others who have it much harder. If you’re one of those people, I’m terribly soryr. I can’t say I know what it’s like, but I could imagine how painful it must be.

Recording this video was a ton of fun. It took me about 20 minutes to get my cheap webcam and microphone in a position that made the bass guitar visible, while keeping myself close enough to my desk for the mic to pick up my bass and my voice. It wasn’t the easiest task, but I’ve managed. Kinda.

There are some noticeable latency issues in my early videos. I’ve tried to keep the audio and video in sync, but it’s proving to be rather difficult. I’m going to eventually end up investing in a better camera and microphone, which should make the quality of my videos shoot up drastically. I’m also looking to get a green screen, because let’s face it – my background is ugly. Not much I can do about it now unfortunately :/.

But there you have it – John Lennon’s Mother. If you haven’t already, please do me a favor and ‘like’ the video, and subscribe to my YouTube channel. Thank you so much!

Mastering The Bass Introduction!

Hello everybody! I figured I should have some sort of introduction to myself and the site incase anyone decides to visit it already.

My name is James McAllister. I’m an 18-year old bassist from Bellingham, Washington. Music is something I’m very passionate about, and I’m excited to be able to share my passion with you on this website.

As you can tell, the site is very bare and new right now. It’s not going to be that way forever, however. Within the next couple of weeks, I’ll begin adding valuable bass-related content to this site. While the main purpose of the site is to teach you to master the bass guitar, I also think it’d be fun to cover bass related news and reviews as well. I’d also love to grant some new artists exposure and showcase some of their music on the site as well, so feel free to send what you’ve got!

I’ll also be starting up a YouTube channel, which will be a large part of the site. I highly recommend subscribing to it when it’s open.

So if you’re on the site now – bare with it. It’s not entirely ready yet, but that’s ok! I’m glad to have you here anyway.

I’m looking forward to getting this site up and running, and hopefully getting to know you as well!

– James McAllister