Bass for Guitarists Pathway
Take the first step in your low-end journey.
Bass beginners
This class is perfect for qualified guitarists who want to transfer their six-string skills to the bass.
3 months
Jonathan Colman will guide you through 6 grades of instruction with daily practice plans and assessments.
Groove like the greats
Stop playing bass like a guitarist. This class will equip you with authentic bass skills to fit any musical scenario.
Live-band experience
Apply what you learn in a musical context by jamming out with a live-recorded band of pro LA musicians.
What you'll learn
In this Learning Pathway, you'll adapt your pre-existing guitar knowledge to think and sound like a real bassist.
- Learn how to craft your own basslines
- Ditch the pick – start playing with your fingers
- Play like Pino Palladino, Joe Dart, and James Jamerson
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Your guided learning pathway
In this 6-week program, low-end wizard Jonathan Colman will guide you through the core skills you need to stop playing bass like a guitarist. You'll tackle fundamental bass techniques, learn how to craft your own basslines, play like iconic bassists, and even start slapping bass.
Play Bass Now!
To kick off the pathway, we'll get you playing bass right away.
You'll learn which techniques transfer over from guitar and address the biggest difference between guitar and bass: your plucking hand.
Shapes and Moves
Now that you’ve got some bass-ic bass technique down, you’ll work on mapping out your fretboard and moving creatively across it.
You'll use these quintessential shapes and moves throughout the rest of your bass-playing days.
The Bassist's Mindset
In this grade, you’ll go beyond the basics and learn how to infuse your playing with attitude.
You’ll dive deeper into the drum-bass relationship, learn how to excel at playing in the pocket, and locking down your rhythm with ghost notes.
Grade 4. How to Craft Basslines
Next up, an exploration of how to add movement and melody to your basslines. You’ll go beyond the root, explore alternative note choices, and build out your box to speak freely on the bass.
Grade 5. Time and Feel
This grade is a rhythm deep dive. We want you to feel super confident when it comes to writing rhythmically-impactful bass parts and playing live alongside a drummer and the rest of the band
Grade 6. Technique Toolkit
You’ve come a long from ditching the pick playing and committing to finding an authentic bass sound. To cap off the course, you'll tackle slapping & popping, extended techniques for both hands, chords on bass, and overall songwriting tools.
Curriculum
Stay focused with this step-by-step learning program designed by our expert team of music educators.
Grade 1. Play Bass Now!
Transfer your guitar skills to bass and start grooving ASAP.
We're with you every step of the way in this Learning Pathway. In every lesson, Jonathan will break down a new concept and run through mini drills with you so you can lock it into your muscle memory. To cap off each day's work, you'll put what you learned in a musical context with a guided jam session.
Day 1. Play bass, now!
Today, you’ll start creating low-end sounds with the use of a guitar pick. By starting with familiar guitar skills, we'll get you grooving right off the bat before diving into bass-specific techniques.
Day 2. The neo-soul thumb mute
On Day 1, we got you playing right away with a pick. On Day 2, we’ll show you how to get an iconic bass tone by playing with your thumb (just like legendary bassists Pino Palladino does).
Day 3. Introducing the octave
At this point, you’re still super early in your bass journey, but you’ve already got some neat-sounding essentials down.Today, you’ll learn how to use the octave, which is a great way to hold down the groove without muddying up the harmonic waters.
Day 4. Floating on your E string
Today, you’ll learn the floating-thumb technique, which encourages your fingers to get involved. Take it nice and easy and you’ll be walkin’ the bass in no time.
Day 5. A string
Bass players have to think about thumbs and fingers more than any other stringed-instrument player. Today, you’ll incorporate the A string into your string-plucking palette.
Day 6. D and G strings
So far, your main focus has been on the low E and A strings. In this lesson, you’ll work on the D and G strings.
The low E and A strings often ground the root and 5th. D and G play a slightly different role.
Day 7. E-string workout
Hit the gym as you internalize the notes on your low E string.
Performance pieces
Perform songs that incorporate the concepts you just learned in a purely musical context. Here, you'll have the opportunity to jam with a live-recorded band of pro musicians. You can submit your performance to the Pickup Music team for personalized video feedback – who said online learning wasn't interactive?!
Final quiz
Cap off the grade with a quiz to make sure you've adequately absorbed the core concepts involved.
Grade 2. Shapes and Moves
Work on integrating the box shapes then get creative with them.
Day 1. The box shape
Just like the guitar, the bass fretboard is much easier to conquer when you map it into patterns and shapes.
The box shape is a visual map that you can use for creating basslines and highlighting chord tones. You'll get to know it intimately today.
Day 2. How bassists use the major scale
Bassists have a slightly different relationship to the major scale. They don’t need to use the full extent of the scale like guitarists might. This lesson plants seeds that will blossom into sophisticated musical trees later on in this Learning Pathway.
Day 3. Power sweater (Weezer)
Today is all about triads, which are useful for a number of reasons. Bass players use triads by shifting them across the fretboard, to highlight a chord progression without playing chords, and as a starting point to craft basslines.
Day 4. 2 to 3
Using slides in your bass playing allows you to add a different rhythmic component to your playing and kill a note’s attack. This is a key step to sounding smoother and creating more interesting moves – today, you'll incorporate this between the 2nd and 3rd scale degrees.
Day 5. 5 to 6
In this lesson, Jonathan will step up the tempo by introducing you to a new slide option that you can include between different note intervals.
Day 6. R to 9
Today, you’ll face your final slide challenge: the octave-to-9th slide.
Day 7. A-string workout
Cap off your hard work with a brand-new workout that'll help you internalize A-string notes.
Performances
Solidify your learnings with songs that'll apply what you learned in a musical context.
Get feedback
Get personalized video feedback on your playing from the Pickup team.
Final quiz
Make sure you're ready for Grade 3.
Grade 3. The Bassist's Mindset
Learn how to infuse your playing with attitude, dive deeper into the drum-bass relationship, and learn how to excel at playing in the pocket.
Day 1. Intro to disco bass
When it comes to disco, the bass gets to dance as well. Today, you'll dive into this bass-prominent genre (and have a ton of fun exploring it).
Day 2. Adding octaves
Octaves are great – you’re playing a different pitch, but the note remains the same. Injecting them in your playing makes your basslines more interesting without covering up too much sonic space. We'll explore octave playing in today's lesson.
Day 3. How to play blues as a bassist
Have you ever thought about what the bassist does during a guitar solo? If not, you're gonna learn today! As usual, the blues is a fantastic platform for us to explore this valuable concept.
Day 4. The moveable minor shape
Have you ever hummed a bassline that got stuck in your ear? Most likely, it was a line that went beyond roots, thirds, and fifths. Today, you'll learn how to outline minor chords to get some minor melodic sweetness in your playing.
Day 5. The sacred drum and bass relationship
There’s nothing quite like the magic of a great drum and bass relationship. Today, we’re giving you a cheat sheet on what to play when presented with an existing drumbeat.
Day 6. Your first classical piece
If you’ve played muted notes on guitar, ghost notes will be a piece of cake. Ghost notes inject character into your groove by adding a rhythmic component without harmonic content. Today's lessons is all about ghost notes (you'll learn them just like groove master Joe Dart from Vulfpeck).
Day 7. D-string workout
It’s the end of the line for Grade 3. We can’t let you move ahead without another pulse-pounding single-string workout with Jonathan "Richard Simmons" Colman.
Performances
Demonstrate what you've learned in a musical context by learning original songs.
Get feedback
Get personalized video feedback on your playing from the Pickup team.
Final quiz
Make sure you're ready for Grade 4.
Grade 4-6.
Take your bass playing to new heights, then cap off the pathway with advanced bass techniques.
Grade 4. How to Craft Basslines
This grade will set you up to write the perfect bassline to fit your music. You’ll move beyond the root, explore alternative note choices, and build out your box to speak freely on the bass.
Day 1. R&B chromaticism
We'll kick things off by learning how to sound like a legit R&B bassist by connecting your major triads with chromaticism.
Day 2. Getting tones at home
Today, you’ll learn how to craft the perfect bass tone for writing and recording at home.
Day 3. Getting beastly in the box
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to get busy using the box in a funky, modern, Vulfpeck-friendly way.
Day 4. To root or not to root
Here, you’ll explore the power of using pedal tones and bass notes that are not the root.
Day 5. To 3rd or not to 3rd
Today, you’ll learn how to use major and minor thirds to add intention to your box shape and interact with the specific color of chords.
Day 6. Filling it in
In this lesson, you'll learn how to let it rip and bust out some bass fills (tastefully, of course).
Day 7. G-string workout
Internalize the G-string notes across your fretboard with a guided workout session.
Performances
Learn songs to lock in what you've learned in a musical context.
Get feedback
Get personalized advice on your playing from the Pickup team.
Final quiz
Make sure you're ready for Grade 5.
Grade 5. Time and Feel
This grade is a rhythm deep dive. We want you to feel super confident when it comes to writing rhythmically impactful bass parts and playing live alongside a drummer and the rest of the band
Day 1. The grid
The grid is handy a way to visualize a beat and its subdivisions. It's extremely helpful to have a visual way to understand what a rhythm sounds like. Today, you'll learn how to understand and internalize the almighty grid.
Day 2. 16ths on the grid
Here, you dive deep into 16ths! You might get away with eighth notes if you want to play blues, country, and dreamy pop music, but there simply is no funk without 16th notes… and a world without funk is a sad world for a bass player.
Day 3. Note placement
Note placement plays a massive role in the interaction between an bass and drummer. In this lesson, you'll learn how to manipulate the feel of a song just by changing where you place your notes in relation to the drums.
Day 4. Dotted rhythms
Today, you’ll learn how to understand and play dotted rhythms by subdividing the beat.
Day 5. 6/8 feel
Do the math and you’ll quickly realize that 6/8 is the same as 3/4 but the feeling of these time signatures is quite different. Today, we’ll focus on the 6/8 which has the feeling of a pendulum swinging back and forth.
Day 6. Swung vs. straight
One of the best ways to practice swung rhythms is to juxtapose it with playing straight. That’s exactly what you’ll do in this lesson.
Day 7. B-string workout
Get sweaty, and dial in your B-string familiarity with a guided workout video.
Performances
Tackle new tunes to apply what you've learned in a musical context.
Get feedback
Get personalized advice on your playing from the Pickup team.
Final quiz
Make sure you're ready for Grade 6.
Grade 6. Technique Toolkit
At this point, you'll have come a long from ditching the pick playing and committing to finding an authentic fingerstyle sound. The toolkit of techniques found in this final grade will add to your sturdy bass-playing foundation and give you even more options to turn to when crafting your parts.
Day 1. Intro to slap Pt. 1
Today, you’ll receive a gentle introduction into the magically funky sound of slap bass playing.
Day 2. Intro to slap Pt. 2
The slap madness continues! Today you’ll work in finger pops to complete the slap bass basics.
Day 3. The finger roll
Learn how to effortlessly play the night away with an easy-to-move and essential fretting-hand fixture, the finger roll.
Day 4. The rake
Today, you’ll learn a plucking-hand hack that’ll enable you to quickly move down your strings: the descending string rake.
Day 5. The wonderful world of 10ths
Today, you’ll venture beyond single notes and enter the realm of double stops via 10th chords on bass. The interval of a tenth is simply a third above the octave.
Day 6. Tonal gravity
Today, you’ll expand your ears with some deep listening and tune into your tonic to strengthen your songwriting skills.
Day 7. The circle of 4ths workout
In this last workout, you’ll work through one of Jonathan’s favorite ways to integrate new shapes and explore the fretboard: moving through the cycle of 4ths.
Performances
Demonstrate what you've learned in a musical context with two new tunes.
Get feedback
Get personalized advice on your playing from the Pickup team.
Final quiz
Cap off your hard work and make sure you're ready to move on to new and exciting things.
Student stories
“My favorite part about Pickup Music is probably nerding out in the forum with everyone. Just knowing you have a creative community to reach out to if you have any questions or you're stuck in a rut.”
United States
"I would highly recommend Pickup Music to pretty much anyone who has been playing for a few years and doesn't feel like they are getting better any more."
United Kingdom
“One of the things that's been the most fun for me has been the SongSquad challenges... connecting with other people in the Pickup Music community on Instagram and just encouraging each other as we're learning songs and practicing.”
United States
"Pickup Music really helped me push my musical boundaries."
Germany
Hear from REAL students
Find out why 20,000 members all over the world love Pickup Music
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Your Instructor
Jonathan Colman
Learn how to think and sound like an authentic bassist.
Explore Lessons
What’s in every Pickup Music membership?
Start learning
1,000+ Lessons
All skill levels
Interactive tabs
Track your progress
Daily practice plans
New lessons every week
Try free for 14 days.
Choose your plan. Cancel anytime.
Unlimited guitar lessons
Personalized feedback from pro instructors
Weekly live lessons
Monthly practice groups
800+ songs in modern styles
New releases every week
Unlimited guitar lessons
Personalized feedback from pro instructors
Weekly live lessons
Monthly practice groups
800+ songs in modern styles
New releases every week
In-depth, step-by-step courses designed by experts
All-inclusive access to every course.
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Frequently Asked Questions
If your questions aren’t answered below, please chat with us.
Is Pickup Music right for me?
Do you feel like your guitar playing has hit a plateau?
Are you stuck in a guitar rut where you're just playing the same old chords and licks?
Are you looking for fretboard freedom?
At Pickup Music, we specialize in:
- taking beginner guitar players and turning them into intermediate players.
- taking intermediate guitar players and turning them into advanced players.
How do we do it?
- First, we ask you a few questions to figure out exactly what skill level you’re at.
- Second, we ask you to commit to a series of Master Classes and Learning Pathways that focus on specific techniques. These comprehensive week-by-week courses are the best way to get your playing to the next level.
- Third, we get you to track your progress on your personalized learning dashboard.
Finally, we give you support and feedback through an exclusive members community and live practice group sessions with other members. This focused approach to learning guitar will help you bust through the beginner basics, break out of the intermediate plateau, and level up your playing.
This guided learning approach is the fastest way to make real progress on the guitar.
What makes Pickup Music better than other guitar lesson sites?
We're glad you asked! So many things:
- Pickup Music gives you week-by-week guided learning. This is so important for making progress and getting out of the beginner plateau. Instead of just making you watch a video of an instructor talking about how they play guitar, we break things down for you on a daily and weekly basis.
- Each daily lesson is accompanied by practice exercises where the instructors play along with you - almost like they're sitting right beside you. This eliminates the guess work so you know exactly what you need to focus on to make real and lasting progress with guitar.
- Our lessons take you beyond the basics. Most online guitar lessons are good at teaching new guitarists the easy stuff. Pickup Music goes beyond that to help advanced-beginners and intermediate guitarists break through to the next level.
- Our teachers are the best new and modern guitarists in the world. You'll find touring musicians, professors of music, and virtuosos from every genre to guide you through your guitar journey.
- We have an extensive library with over 1,000 lessons across most genres for every type of guitarist. This means we have the right learning pathway for your unique starting point and preferred style of playing.
- Pickup Music lessons are jam-packed with features to enhance your learning experience. This includes interactive TAB, multiple HD camera angles, backing tracks, and extensive course notes. All of this is designed to speed up your learning so you can achieve real results in your playing.
- We keep it fresh - we drop new lessons every. single. week. Plus, we're always striving to make each new lesson better than the last.
- Pickup Music is a supportive and welcoming community. This is the place to connect with fellow guitarists, get feedback, and grow together.
What's included in my Pickup Music membership?
Everything! You’ll have unlimited access to every lesson on Pickup Music from every instructor. That means every Learning Pathway, Master Class, SongSquad, Licks Package, 5-Minute Lesson... we could go on, but you get the idea. It's an all-inclusive membership for one affordable price.
How long are the lessons? How long will it take me to complete them?
Pickup Music's lesson plans are designed to suit the amount of time you have available to practice.
Only got a few minutes? Try our 5-Minute Lessons to quickly add a new skill to your toolbox.
Got half an hour? Try one of our Essential Lick Packages or SongSquads to expand your vocabulary in different genres.
Got a couple of days? Try a Master Class with one of our world-renowned artists. Each class is broken up into short, digestible modules focused on one topic. We encourage you to complete the exercises for each lesson video before moving on to the next one because the lessons typically build on each other.
Ready to really commit to a multi-week program? Try one of our Learning Pathways. Over 6 weeks, these detailed courses will take you on a day-by-day journey to master each level in the genre. Learning Pathways include daily practice exercises so you know exactly what to focus on. These courses are the best way to make lasting progress.
Whichever approach you choose, we recommend building the exercises you learn into your daily practice schedule. The best way to improve as a guitarist is through a consistent practice routine rather than sporadic, longer sessions. Learning guitar is a day-by-day, life-long journey!
I'm brand new to guitar. Is Pickup Music the right choice for me?
Absolutely! We make learning the guitar made fun & simple – the way it should be.
Too many people get frustrated with guitar because they develop bad habits and poor technique. Avoid these costly and time-consuming mistakes by taking Pickup Music's structured and step-by-step approach to learning guitar.
You'll start with Pickup Music's introductory program Beginner Learning Pathway. Over three weeks, we break down everything from simple chords and melodies to rhythm and lead playing. By the end of the program, you'll be able to play any simple pop or rock song (and even write your own).
Most importantly, we make sure you don't get stuck in the beginner's plateau - a common pitfall for guitarists who are just starting out. You'll keep making progress through Pickup Music's guided Learning Pahtways. These programs are designed to quickly take you from a beginner player to an intermediate one who feels comfortable across the whole fretboard.
What the difference between the annual and monthly plan?
The only difference is that the annual plan saves you $30 a year.
Both options come with a free 14-day trial. That means, we won't charge your card for the first 14 days - you can cancel anytime before then.
With an annual membership, we bill you once a year up-front, and you save 17% as a result. We'll send you reminders before we bill you each year so that you don't accidentally forget about it.
With the monthly membership, you pay month to month. It's a subscription, so we bill you each month until you cancel.
Cancelling your plan at any point is very easy to do online - no tricks, emails, or phone calls required. Just click a button on your account page.
Is a Pickup Music membership worth the money?
When you first start learning guitar, it's okay to bounce around with random free lessons on YouTube and searching for TABs online.
That approach is going to make you an OKAY guitar player, but it's not going to help you take that leap to becoming a serious guitarist - a player who can:
- Play naturally, without thinking about every move
- Jam with friends and learn their favorite songs quickly.
- Blast through that beginner level, break out of the intermediate plateau, and start playing like a pro!
To become a serious guitarist, you need a clear learning pathway to get to the next level. You need to free your mind and unlock your fret board - you can do this with Pickup Music's expert step-by-step instruction. Having this clear learning pathway is key to making real progress on the guitar.
What about the price? Is it worth it?
Private lessons will cost you about $50 per lesson or $2,600 a year. Going to a music academy will cost you about $40,000 a year.
A Pickup Music membership costs just $150 for the whole year. That works out to 41 cents a day!
Signing up for a Pickup Music membership also means that you can stop wasting your time and effort trying to guess what you should practice next. Our guided programs eliminate the guess work so you know exactly what you need to focus on each day and week to make lasting progress with guitar. This will increase your efficiency and speed up your progress.
Is it easy to cancel?
Absolutely! You can cancel at any time (although we'd be sad to see you go). Cancelling is easy, no tricks. Just go to your account page and click a button.
You won't be charged anything if you cancel during your 14-day free trial.
If you cancel after your 14-day trial, you won't be billed again at your next billing cycle. Your membership will remain active until it expires on the day it was originally set to renew.
Once your membership expires, you will no longer have access to the classes you were enrolled in during your time as a member, but you can easily restart your membership at any time. Just log in to your account and renew a monthly or annual membership to pick up where you left off.
Can I buy lessons individually?
We don’t sell lessons individually. But the good news is you get access to every single lesson on Pickup Music through the one membership. If you’re only interested in one lesson, you could purchase a monthly membership and cancel when you’ve finished it – we have a hunch you’ll want to stick around though :)
Can I cancel my membership at any time?
Yes! All you have to do is click a button on your account page. No tricks, no emails, no calls. It's a straightforward process.
You won't be billed again at your next billing cycle. Your membership will remain active and you'll continue to have access to the site until your membership expires on the day it was originally set to renew.
You can easily restart your membership at any time. Just log in to your account and renew a monthly or annual membership to pick up where you left off.
Note: Once your membership expires, we'll save your progress on your Dashboard if you decide to rejoin at a later date.
How does the 14-day free trial work? What is your refund policy?
Your credit card won't be charged for the first 14 days
When you first sign up to a Pickup Music membership, your credit card will not be charged for 14 days. That means that if you decide to cancel within 14 days of signing up, you won't pay anything.
If you decide to cancel after that, you won't be charged at your next billing cycle
That means: if you’re a monthly member, you won’t be charged for the next month. If you’re an annual member, you won’t be charged for the next year.
We don’t offer refunds for payments that have already gone through. But if you choose to cancel, you will retain full access to the membership until it expires on the day it was originally set to renew.
Will I be automatically charged each month / year?
The membership is a subscription. After the 14-day free trial, you'll be automatically charged monthly or annually (depending on which plan you choose). We send you reminders before your annual subscription renews so you don't accidentally forget about it. You can easily cancel by turning off auto-renew at any time in your account page.
How do I restart my membership?
It’s easy to rejoin Pickup Music and we’d be thrilled to have you back! We even saved all of your lessons for you while you were gone on your Dashboard.
To restart your membership, simply head to this page, select the plan of your choice, and sign up with the email address you used to sign up the first time around.
Get your 14-day free trial.