I have been teaching electric bass, double bass and music theory for more than twenty-five years now. I work with both beginners and advanced students, as well as with professional musicians across styles as diverse as rock, jazz and classical. In fact, I want to go beyond “genres”: my aim is to give you the necessary tools to understand the deep structures of music and thus become the best musician you can be!
My school is called BassLab.it® (yes, it is a registered trade mark for Italy!) and is located in Bologna (IT), in a newly refurbished building near the city centre.
The learning programmes follow specific manuals I have personally developed and tested, which include both practical and theoretical topics. The purpose of the courses is to eliminate any technical, theoretical or musical doubts in order to enable every musician to achieve their best results according to their individual talents.
Courses overview
The electric bass and double bass courses are structured into 3 levels. In each level you will learn the elements that are needed to build both accompaniment and solo lines. A lesson is an ensemble of interconnected subjects that include practical drills, instrumental technique, music theory, sight reading and ear training.
At Level One, you will learn the hands technique and how to build accompaniment lines (chords, arpeggios, exercises on the major and blues scales, sight reading).
At Level Two and Level Three, you will learn how to play as a soloist and how to interpret music genres like rock, funky, Latin and jazz (extended chords, principles of harmony analysis, modes of the minor melodic, harmonic, diminished and hexatonal scales, substitutions, melody harmonization).
How lessons are structured
If you study with me, you will receive personalised tuition. This means that although you need to develop many different skills (reading, improvisation, harmony, rhythmic divisions, capacity to play different styles and to use different techniques…) like every student, the learning process can vary a lot depending on several factors, such as time, prior experiences, clarity about aims, and the ability to organise your own training schedule.
A lesson can last one or two hours, depending on how much time and effort you can dedicate. Basically I believe that one lesson per week is the best solution but in some cases (i.e. before an exam or a concert) it may be useful to meet at least twice a week.
Before starting the lessons, you will meet me in a preliminary free interview, so as to identify your objectives and assess your proficiency level.
The resources in use
I generally suggest that you begin from the very first unit of my book, even if you might be familiar with what it talks about. Since my method does an in-depth analysis of every subject from a theoretical and practical point of view, I want to ensure that you don’t leave behind any “untapped” areas. In case you have a good level, we can decide to study a few units simultaneously.
From Level two, I suggest you add other texts to the main handbook to enhance progress.
Any complementary subject is agreed with you according to your interests and/or the specialisation you want to get. Main subjects are: ear training, tonal harmony, jazz harmony, contemporary harmony, piano practice, hands coordination, listening guide, music history, sight reading, style and technique analysis.
Online lessons
If you live far away from Bologna but want to study with my method because you want to achieve good results, you have three options. Of course you can combine them together!
1) You purchase my book “Bassista contemporaneo” (if you are an electric bass player) and study on your own. Very effective, but you need some discipline of course!
2) You follow my online lessons on the school Youtube channel (You Bass Lab). It’s free and contains lots of interesting videos with tips and ideas to pratice on your instrument!
3) You visit my blog about music learning (Best of Bass) and do all the exercises contained in the articles. It’s free, too!
