sound fantastic. It still blows my mind that I can schedule, how to communicate effectively with the quantity, and I have been amazed over the
carry such a huge sounding and loud rig from students and their parents, and how to begin years to see how much you can still improve
location to location without having to break my to market myself. I am really grateful for all of given very limited practice time during a busy
back or break a sweat. I’m really grateful to be those early experiences. week. When I am teaching other players how to
working with them.
practice, I have a very specific set of guidelines
Over the years, I continued to teach privately that I share, because what I see most often is
[WM] Let’s talk bass players and effect pedals. on and off, but it wasn’t until I started to attend that most aspiring players don’t know how to
Are you using anything currently? bass and music camps that I started to have practice effectively. I talk about this in detail
a bigger vision for sharing things related to on my educational website; I find that simply
[Adam] It’s funny. I was never a big fan of music education. I was fortunate to get hired knowing how to make effective use of your
pedals originally but in recent years I have to be one of the instructors at Victor Wooten’s time can be life-changing. Dealing with the
been utilizing them more and more for different original Bass & Nature Camps, where I had the challenges of ADHD, I have also had to learn
textures and to inspire creativity. I actually have opportunity to interact and work with hundreds how to modify my daily life to set myself up for
quite a large collection now, mostly made up of students from around the world. These success with time management, because I can
of pedals from Aguilar, TrueTone, EBS, Boss, experiences taught me a lot about going be so easily distracted.
and Creation Audio Labs. My tuners are from beyond the pure academics of music and D’Addario. Some of my current favorites are understanding more about the more powerful [WM] You are a proponent of being fluent
Aguilar’s TLC compressor, Filter Twin, and communicative and inspiring elements. I was in many genres. Why is this important to you
Agro overdrive, TrueTone’s H2O analog chorus/ learning more about what music really meant personally and bass players in general?
echo, and Creation Audio’s Holy Fire distortion. to me, and what it meant to have my own artistic identity, and this period of “awakening” [Adam] I was always of the opinion that
likewise inspired me to want to help others making yourself musically well-rounded equals
discover this too. I carried this vision with making yourself more marketable. In addition
[Adam] I also endorse Bartolini pickups and me into the co-creation of MusicDojo, and to that, I was someone that became bored
preamps, Essential Sound Products MusicCord expanded upon that more when I launched easily if I played the same things over and
Pro cables, the Creation Audio Labs MW1 AdamNittiMusicEducation.com. over. Plus, as a dedicated fan of music I was
[WM] What other products do you endorse?
Studio Tool, and PreSonus Audio recording
software and hardware.
constantly discovering new sounds and new
[WM]
What
is
your
personal
practice
regiment?
players that I wanted to emulate. This naturally
led me to want to be as fluent as I could be
[WM] Besides touring and studio sessions
in different musical genres. Over the years this
you have a heart to teach. In 2003 you co- [Adam] It is constantly changing. I don’t philosophy has also allowed me to work with a
founded the first-ever online interactive music really have the ability to stay in a daily routine wide variety of artists. I think with bass players
school - MusicDojo and this ultimately led you because each work week is different for me. I especially, having a well-rounded musical
to create Adam Nitti Music Education website, still really enjoy practicing, but sometimes I have foundation is really important because our role
a membership-based online academy for bass to sneak it in between students or on breaks is so naturally-supportive, anyways. It requires
guitar. Tell us about this journey in educating when I’m on tour or on a session. The thing skill and intuition to be able to make your bass
other bass players? that I make sure of, however, is that anytime parts cohesive with the music. In many cases,
I am practicing I make sure I am working on it is a particular style that might teach you more
[Adam] I started teaching bass lessons at something challenging or unfamiliar so that I about how to interact and play with different
a “mom & pop” music store in Atlanta not make the most of my time. In my experience types of musicians.
long after graduating from high school. It was the quality of practice most often outweighs encouraging to discover that I could make [WM] There are several videos on YouTube
some extra money by sharing my knowledge with you playing free-form Jazz Fusion – is this
and experiences with aspiring players. Although basically your own personal taste?
I was still very much a budding student myself,
when I started to teach music store lessons, [Adam] I suppose up to now the jazz fusion
that job taught me so much about basic stuff is what I have gravitated towards when it
business skills and professionalism. I had comes to expressing freedom and creativity as
to learn how to be responsible to a weekly
Developing Speed & Dexterity
November 2018
a bassist and as a composer. I have five solo
WorshipMusician.com
113