- I used The Hanons myself as technique building exercises…and (especially when combined with the variations in Bass Hanon Variations, a bonus book) they do improve your technique. But I was never 100% satisfied.
- The exercises are based on piano exercises, and the point of the exercises was to work on strengthening and independence for the fingers when playing piano. As such, the exercises aren’t particularly musical.
- As well as not being musical, the exercises were written over 150 years ago BEFORE the bass guitar was invented and before the language of the bass guitar began to be developed in jazz and blues.
Ever since then I’ve been looking to create my own series of exercises that help with technique, help with fretboard familiarity and mastery, and are musical. And I define musical from the context of what the bass player is expected to play during songs in all genres. So not musical in terms of soloing.
Fragments of this series have appeared in various books and courses but I’ve never put them together in one place.
In the next post in this sequence I’ll share a simple exercise just using roots and fifths with an idiomatic practice track (i.e. it has realistic sounding drums and instruments), is played on one string AND cycles through all 12 keys!
Here’s the link for that: https://how-to-play-bass.com/beyond-bass-hanon
There will also be more info in this series about Bass Hanon and, more importantly, the Bass Hanon Variations!
