I recently had the opportunity to spend 2 and a half days (well over 15 hours) of training with Anthony Wellington during the BATW New England 2020.
Before anyone freaks… we wore masks and maintained proper social distancing… lots of hand sanitizer. You know the drill.
Back to the good stuff.
I won’t reveal any of the details (it’s not my information to share)… but I can share some things that are already public.
For instance, we covered the 7 String Modes in much more detail than is covered in the linked video. I got to play a 7 string Fodera. Awesome bass… and it really shows you how the modes work, really enforces floating thumb… and sounds wonderful.
We covered several systems that Anthony created. If you ever get a chance to take lessons from him, or attend one of his workshops… ask him about Texas. It’s a way to learn something that is important to all bass players (sorry, no secrets).
I learned how many chords are in a key (it’s probably more than you think). Secondary Dominants and Tritone Substitutions. We learned about how to identify what key you are in… even when the Root never appears. We talked about why nothing seems to bother Anthony. Anthony talked about “listening to the conversation” when playing. Like… don’t “shout” (play super loud”) if others are quiet. Don’t play super-fast if others are slow… try to use similar vocabulary, phrasing, etc. And then I got to “Trade 4’s” with Anthony.
Ok, I need to digress a bit there…
First off… I didn’t “Trade 4’s”. I was too focused on playing… and totally missed counting bars… so it was like “Eric Plays” -> Anthony Trades 4 -> Eric Plays for awhile… Anthony trades 4. :)
What was truly amazing from that… is this. I went 2nd to last. The other 5 players who went ahead of me are further along the “musical highway” than I am in most areas. So while they were playing 16th notes at 100+ BPM… I knew I couldn’t do that.
So… instead of chickening out (which I seriously considered)… I chose to deviate and play 8th notes. To make it more comfortable for me… Anthony repeated my last phrasing and stayed with the same tempo. I didn’t even realize it until after the 2nd trade-off. He was “practicing what he preached” and listened to me… and then continued that conversation.
Oh yeah… here’s one more photo… we were doing some sort of exercise, so I’m counting on my fingers, and visualizing something in my head.
If you ever get a chance to go to a Bassology event. Whether the “At Sea” or “Around the World” or one of this clinics. Do it. You won’t regret it.