At this time of year it’s easy to get distracted by all kinds of holiday fun. Decorating the tree, wrapping presents, writing Christmas cards… Or celebrating Hanukkah or just some time off work, as the case may be! But all these fun activities needn’t put a stop to your ear training: Use our new Christmas-themed Unravelling Music track to help you improve your ears and get in the festive spirit.

The new Unravelling Music ear training track March of the Candy Cane Soldiers teaches you about key modulation, chord progressions, rhythmic figures, musical codas and the circle of fifths – no music theory required! Download the tracks below and get in that festive ear training mood:

Click to download “March of the Candy Cane Soldiers” Unravelling Music pack (or right-click and “Save as…”)

Contents

• 14-page liner notes PDF with track-by-track info
• 1 full-length MP3 file, “March of the Candy Cane Soldiers”
• 6 supporting MP3 files teaching you to hear more in the song

Did you enjoy our Christmas special? Have you spotted extra musical details in the track you want to share? Leave your comment below!

We’ve covered a lot of different material in the Bass Tone series: after 9 articles and 6 podcast episodes, it’s about time to stop and check whether your ears have kept up! We’ve had a few quizzes along the way, but this week it’s time to add a final test on bass effects, and re-check your knowledge on the previous three topics.

The first quiz is all about the sounds of the fretless, introduced in “The Upright Bass” and “Fretless Electric”. You’ll need to distinguish between fretted, upright and fretless electric bass guitar sounds to succeed:

Next up we’ll take a listen to different playing techniques, as introduced in Playing Techniques, Part 1 and Part 2, and the corresponding podcast episode. Do you remember all about slaps, pops, slides, pull-offs, and hammer-ons? Time to find out!

Click to read the rest…

Time to continue your bass effects education! Following on from the last part, Episode 6 of the Bass Tone podcast covers some more innovative effects, including modulation and pitch-shift.

In this week’s podcast you’ll learn all about:

• What modulation effects are and how they work
• The Chorus and Flanger effects and how they impact your tone
• The sound of Wah-Wah effects, and why they combine well with distortion effects
• Pitch-shifter effects (including octaver effects)

http://www.EasyEarTraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/6_-_Bass_FX_2.m4a

You can subscribe to the Bass Tone podcast in iTunes, or your favourite podcasting program using the feeds below:

	Bass Tone Podcast (iTunes)
	Bass Tone Podcast (RSS feed for other clients)

You can also download this episode directly:

Download Bass Tone Podcast – Part 6 (right-click and “Save as…”)

The podcast is an M4A (AAC) file, which should play back on most modern audio software and portable music players. If you have any problems downloading or playing the file please let us know.

Have you crafted your distinctive personal bass tone yet? Found a bass effect that really sets you apart? Share your experience in the comments below!



This is the last podcast in the Bass Tone podcast series. If you’ve enjoyed it, please let Nick know!