Music Master 3000 · Jazz bass, by the book

Music Master 3000 · Free, no signup

Learn to walk

Five method books for jazz bass, from reading the bass clef to walking Stella by Starlight, and a book of scales and modes for any bass player.

One idea a chapter. You play along with a band in the app; it listens through your mic and marks what you play. Then it takes the page away, plays the changes, and marks the line you walk yourself.

Open the app The six books
  • The books6 books, 154 chapters
  • Final étudeStella by Starlight
  • InputMic, audio interface or MIDI
  • PriceFree, no signup
10.5B♭7 → F7The Bass Book, chapter 10
Example 10.5 in bass clef with tab. Bar 1, B♭7: B♭, D, F, then E, the approach note. Bar 2, F7: F, a whole note. The D is blue: it is the note sounding now.44TABB♭7F7113053→213 Example 10.5 on the neck, frets 0 to 5: B♭ on the A string, then D, F and E on the D string, landing on F. The E is the approach note, one fret below F.EADG135131→123, 54
  • Root
  • 3rd
  • 5th
  • Approach
A line from The Bass Book. The numbers above the staff show each note's role in the chord, and → marks the approach. While the band plays, the sounding note turns blue.

Six books, one path

Each book has one goal and builds a chapter at a time. Start where you are; the app keeps your place in each.

How a chapter works

Every chapter, in every book, teaches one small idea in the same seven steps, so you always know where you are. You read the idea, hear why it works, sing it, then play it with the band until it stops needing thought.

  1. The idea

    One sentence holds the whole device. In Chapter 10 it reads:

    On beat 4, play the note one fret below the root of the next chord.

  2. Why it works

    What your ear hears, and why the move sounds right, before what to play. A short box of rules follows, the same rules every line in the chapter obeys.

  3. See it

    One example drawn on a rosewood neck, each note coloured by what it does in the chord.

  4. Hear and sing

    A chord plays, you sing the answer in the gap, then the bass plays it so you can check. The sound gets into your voice before your hands.

  5. Examples

    Ten to sixteen short lines that use only this device and what came before, growing from two bars to four-bar phrases. Play each with the band at 60, then 90, then 120.

  6. Etude

    One chorus of a real tune with the device in every bar. Chapter 10's is a blues in F, looped so the last note leads back into the first. Then walk it: the band plays the étude's changes with no page, you walk your own line, and the app marks whether you used the chapter.

  7. Keep it

    Three lines worth learning by heart, which go into your library to come back right before you'd forget them, and a milestone you can test: walk the etude at 120 without stopping.

A day's practice

Open the app and Today has the plan. Each line is a few minutes; do what you have time for.

  • Your chapterThe next step of the chapter you're on, opened at the right place.
  • EarsThe Ears book runs beside the main one, a step a day.
  • Phrase of the weekOne short phrase, five steps across the week: learn it, move it round the neck, change key, take it faster, use it in a line.
  • Walk itWhen you finish a walking chapter's étude, Today asks you to show you can walk its changes without the page.
  • Ear trackA few sung reps, started a few chapters before the book needs them.
  • Keep itThe lines you've learnt come back after 1, 3, 7, 14 and 30 days, right before you'd forget them. A day with practice in it adds to your streak.
Tuesday7-day practice streak
  1. 10The Bass BookApproach from belowNext: the examples, at 60, then 90, then 120.Continue
  2. E9EarsMajor or minor: the 3rdNext: sing it.Continue
  3. V01Phrase of the weekRoot, 3rd, drop to the 5thStep 3 of 5: change keyStart
  4. 9Walk itScale passing tonesThe étude's changes, no page: passing notes.Start
  5. 2Keep itTwo lines dueHear it, play it back, from memory.Play

Walk It

The real test of a walking line is the band, the changes and no page. Walk It gives you that, then marks the take like a lesson.

Piano and drums play a tune's changes after a four-click count-in. You walk. The app hears each note, and afterwards marks every bar of the chart: what you played on each beat as 1, 3, 5, 7 of the chord, whether you landed on the changes and led into them, which notes sat outside the chord, how steady your time was, and how the line used the neck.

Then it names the two things most worth working on, with the chapter that teaches each.

  1. Roots on the changes
  2. Chord tones only
  3. Passing notes
  4. Lead into every chord
  5. Minor blues
  6. ii–V–Is
  7. The 3rd on the downbeat
  8. Two chords in a bar
  9. Through the keys
  10. Not always the root
  11. Rhythm changes
  12. Moving key centres
  13. Stella by Starlight

Or walk any of 31 standards' changes in any key. Tempo starts a little under your goal and follows you up. Chord changes only: no melodies.

Walk ItBlues in F, chorus 1Marked
78Passed
  1. F71235
  2. B♭7135♯4
  3. F7135♭7
  4. F76533
  5. B♭71235
  6. B°7♭9♭3♭5°7
  7. F7356♭7
  8. D7135♭7
  • Time84%
  • Landing88%
  • Leading in64%
  • Clean notes90%
  • Shape72%
Lead into each chord

7 of 11 changes were led into. On the beat before a new chord, play a note a half step above or below where you'll land, or the 5th of the new chord. Read: Approach from below (chapter 10).

Each bar shows what you played on each beat. Ink underline: good. Pink: nearly. Red pencil: fix this. Here bar 6 missed the change to B°7.

It listens

Press Play it back and play the line on your bass. The app hears each note as you play it, in real time, and marks the page.

A tick goes over each right note. A wrong note gets a red pencil ring, with the note you played written beside it. A note in a different octave still counts.

  • Any inputPlug into an audio interface, use an instrument cable, or play into the built-in mic.
  • Tempo that follows youLines start a little under the tempo you chose, step up after a take you get right and drop back after a miss, settling where about four takes in five come out right: the zone where practice teaches most.
  • Any instrumentNote detection is tuned for bass, guitar and voice, so the ear drills work for whatever you play. A MIDI keyboard works too.
10.5B♭7 → F7Played back
Example 10.5 after you play it back. Ticks over four notes. A red pencil ring round the F on beat 3, with G written beside it: that is the note you played.44TABB♭7F7113053→213G

4 of 5 right. Bar 1, beat 3: you played G; the 5th is F.

Red pencil means fix this. The ring sits on the note you missed, and the verdict says which beat it was.

The ear track

Sing it first. If you can sing where a line is going, your hands can find it.

Alongside The Bass Book runs a short list of ten ear skills. Each one starts a few chapters before the book needs it, so by the time a chapter asks you to land on the 3rd, you already hear where the 3rd is.

Each skill opens a drill in the app, and a few minutes a day is enough. Some chapters add a rep of their own for the week you spend on them.

  1. Scale degrees in a key, sung

    Start by chapter 1 used in chapter 9

  2. Seventh-chord qualities, sung as arpeggios

    Start by chapter 1 used in chapter 1

  3. Root movement, sung

    Start by chapter 1 used in chapters 5 and 12

  4. 3rds and 7ths inside a chord

    Start by chapter 1 used in chapters 4, 16, 17 and 18

  5. Swing feel and syncopation

    Start by chapter 3 used in chapters 6 and 7

  6. Short walking cells, call and response

    Start by chapter 6 used in chapters 8, 14 and 19

  7. ii–V–I by function, major and minor

    Start by chapter 15 used in chapter 21

  8. Two chords per bar

    Start by chapter 17 used in chapters 20 and 24

  9. Chromatic colours: ♭7, ♭3, ♭5, ♭2, ♭6

    Start by chapter 19 used in chapters 22 and 25

  10. Key centres moving

    Start by chapter 23 used in chapter 27

The rest of the app

The books are the path. Around them sits everything they draw on.

Ear

Ear to Hand: chords from no key, one after another. Find what fits by ear, with no names; the app hears where each note lands and keeps the harmony at the edge of what you can do. Then the drills, for any instrument or voice.

Interval ID · Chord ID · Find the Root · Find Do · NoteQuest · Chord Progressions · Harmonic Bricks · Melody Match · Ear Ladders · Sight Singing

Play it back

Walk It, and the drills that put lines under your fingers over the changes, in every key.

Walk It · Know Your Notes · Phrase Master · Playing the Changes · Echo Play · Bassline Builder · Tune Learner

Read and rhythm

A rhythm reading course in sixteen units, and endless reading in bass clef.

Rhythm Master · Sight-Reading Studio · Key Master · Taking Notes · Rhythm Recall

Library

The lines you keep from the books, your own licks and the phrases of the week, brought back before you forget them, and a shelf of jazz standards' changes to play along with.

Tools

Transcription Helper: loop a passage of a recording, slow it down, and have the bass line written out as notation and tab, with the chords.

Tuner · Transcription Helper · Practice journal · History · Custom sessions

Start where you are

It's free, with no signup. The app runs in your browser, and you can install it on your phone. Sign in later if you want your progress on every device.

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