The method
Twenty-one exercises, five levels, first bass tone to playing along to a song. Nothing is locked, but the order is the order for a reason.
Level 1 - The Three Sounds
0/4Bass, ghost, and snare - build each sound cleanly before speed.
Level 2 - Steady Time
0/4Lock to the metronome. Time is the instrument.
- 1
2-1 - Two minutes, zero drift
Endurance + metronome lock on quarter-note bass.
- 2
2-2 - Eighth-note ghost engine
Alternating hands R-L-R-L - the motor behind every groove.
- 3
2-3 - Backbeat skeleton
Bass on 1 & 3, snare on 2 & 4 - the skeleton of pop music.
- 4
2-4 - Loud bar, soft bar
Dynamics on demand - the volume dial on your ghost stroke.
Level 3 - Your First Groove
0/4The pattern behind half the songs you know.
- 1
3-1 - The groove
Boom - tick - crack - tick. Half of pop music lives here.
- 2
3-2 - Boom-boom crack
The double bass - the variation you hear everywhere.
- 3
3-3 - Two-minute groove
Endurance: the groove only counts if it lasts a whole song.
- 4
3-4 - Ghosts & accents
Same notes, pro sound: whisper ghosts, cracking snares.
Level 4 - Sixteenths & Fills
0/4Faster hands, moving accents, your first fill.
- 1
4-1 - Sixteenth-note hands
Four taps per click, R-L-R-L, relaxed at slow speed.
- 2
4-2 - Your first fill
Two beats of groove, two beats of fill - land back on 1.
- 3
4-3 - Funk displacement
Move a bass off the grid - your first syncopation.
- 4
4-4 - The traveling accent
Accent control: same notes, one loud note that moves.
Level 5 - Styles & Musicality
0/5Latin keys, laid-back pop, and playing with real music.
- 1
5-1 - Tresillo - the Latin key
The 3-3-2 rhythm underneath reggaetón, rumba, and half of Latin music.
- 2
5-2 - Rumba groove
Tresillo skeleton + ghost ghosts = a real Spanish-bar groove.
- 3
5-3 - Half-time chill
Space and patience: the laid-back singer-songwriter groove.
- 4
5-4 - Play a song
The whole point: play along with real music.
- 5
5-5 - One-minute solo
Graduation: everything you have, one minute, your rules.