For bassists who can hold it down, but freeze when someone says “you take it”
In the next 6 months, I'll take you from lost in the changes to walking and soloing through any tune.
Even if you've been stuck on the same plateau for years.
Even if you only have 30 minutes a day.
Even if you've never had a real practice routine in your life.
Cohort 4 starts in early November. Early-bird list hears first.
“Everybody kept handing me more licks. What I actually needed was a map. And nobody ever gave me one.”
I'm Cole Davis. I've spent years figuring out how grown adults actually become jazz bassists.
I'm a working bass player on the New York scene, electric and upright. I went through Juilliard's jazz department, studied with the great Ron Carter, and put in the hours where this music actually gets made: Smalls, the clubs, the gigs nobody films. I shared the stage with the great Macy Gray, was a finalist at the Ron Carter Jazz Bass Competition, and wrote The New Simandl, a hybrid upright method that the great Francois Rabbath signed off on personally, and that Eddie Gomez and Rufus Reid have both endorsed. For the last few years I've been building one thing: the 26-week method that takes an adult bassist who's been stuck for years and turns them into someone who can sit in on any tune.
- Studied with the great Ron Carter at Juilliard
- Finalist at the Ron Carter Jazz Bass Competition
- Shared the stage with the great Macy Gray. A working bassist on the NYC scene
- Wrote The New Simandl, endorsed by Eddie Gomez and Rufus Reid
I faked it for years.
Here's how I got out.
Dear stuck bass player,
I'm going to tell you something that might land funny coming from a guy who studied with the great Ron Carter and gigs around New York.
For a long time, I faked it.
I could hold down a groove. I could read a chart. I could get through a gig without anyone calling the cops. But the second a horn player turned around and pointed at me to take a solo, my stomach dropped, and I'd grab the same handful of notes I always grabbed and pray the chorus ended.
I thought the answer was more: more licks, more scales, more hours in the practice room. It wasn't.
What I eventually figured out (and it took me way longer than it should have) is that I was solving the music the wrong way. One chord at a time. Vertically. I'd see a chord symbol and think “what do I play here”, and then the next bar would arrive and I'd start the panic over. Meanwhile the players I idolized weren't doing that at all. They saw the path through the changes before it got there. They had a map.
That's what MAPS is.
After years of teaching adult bassists (guys who'd been playing thirty and forty years, retired professionals, working pros, weekend warriors), I kept seeing the same three traps. At least one of them is probably you.
You solve the music one chord at a time.
You see a chord symbol, you grab the root, maybe a scale, you survive the bar, and then the next bar shows up and you panic all over again. You're playing the chords. You're not playing the tune. The bassists you admire aren't thinking chord-by-chord. They see the whole path through the changes before it arrives. That's not talent. It's a map you were never handed.
You can walk, but "you take it" stops your heart.
Holding down a groove is one skill. Saying something over the changes is a completely different one, and nobody ever taught you the bridge between them. So when the horn player turns and points at you, you grab the same handful of notes you always grab, you survive 32 bars, and you sit back down. The notes are right. It doesn't sound like you, because you're surviving instead of playing.
You practice, but you don't have a method.
A lick from a YouTube video. A scale from a book. A tune off a chart. None of it connects to the next thing, so after years of work you can play a lot and still feel like you're faking it on the bandstand. It was never that you couldn't learn. You've just never had one path that builds in order, where each week sets up the one after it.
If any of those landed, you're not broken. You just never had a map.
MAPS is built to fix exactly that. Not by piling on more licks. By giving you the two maps every jazz bassist actually uses, the Walking Map and the Solo Map, in the order that makes them stick, with my eyes on your playing.
You bring the 30 minutes a day. I'll bring the method, my feedback on the clips you send me, and a small group of fellow players walking the same path, electric and upright.
See you inside.
Cole
Most stuck bassists are at one of three places
After years of teaching this exact audience, I've found adult players almost always live at one of three places. MAPS is built to meet you at the one you're in, and walk you the rest of the way.
“I lock the time, but my lines just sit on the root.”
You're solid. Drummers like playing with you. But the line never goes anywhere: root, fifth, root, fifth, and pray. You can feel how static it is. The Walking Map (weeks 1-13) is where you stop outlining chords and start building lines that move.
“I can walk a line, but ask me to solo and I freeze.”
You can get through a tune. The walking is honest. But "you take it" still stops your heart, and the same minor-pentatonic shape comes out every time. The Solo Map (weeks 14-26) is the half nobody ever taught you.
“I get through gigs, but it never really sounds like me.”
The mechanics are there. You survive the bandstand. What you're chasing is the gap between what you hear and what comes out: the sound of a player, not a student. MAPS spends the back third closing exactly that gap.
How learning jazz bass changes
when there's a map and someone watching
Going It Alone
- Another half-finished YouTube playlist of bass licks
- Years of playing on and off, never sure you're actually getting better
- Memorizing licks that vanish the second the changes go by
- Nobody watching you play, nobody to tell you what to fix
- Grabbing the same pentatonic shape every time someone says "solo"
- Sunday night, no idea what to actually practice tomorrow
Inside MAPS
- A 26-week method: the Walking Map, then the Solo Map, in order
- Real breakthroughs every few weeks, by design, not by luck
- Lines you build from the changes, not licks you memorize
- My personal feedback on the clips you send me
- 30 minutes a day, built for people with jobs and families
- A small group of fellow bassists pushing each other forward
The 4 things every working jazz bassist has, in the right order
Form
Everyone on the bandstand turns to the bass player for the form. We build it first, because it's the foundation every walking line and every solo sits on. Lose the form and nothing else matters.
The Walking Map
From 1-3-5-7 (the marble) to lines that move through any tune. Order of notes, intervals, spacing, chromatic approach, guide tones. The half that makes people want to play with you.
The Solo Map
Soloing by subtraction, melodic phrasing, the Charlie Parker vocabulary, finding the path through the changes, so "you take it" becomes the part of the night you wait for instead of dread.
Time & Feel
The pocket that gets you hired again. The thing a chart can't teach and a metronome only starts. We work it the whole way through, on both electric and upright.
What happens next
Get on the early-bird list
Tap the button and leave your first name and email. That's it. Nothing to pay, nothing to decide yet.
Hear first
When the details for cohort 4 are set (the start date, the price, how it runs), the early-bird list hears before anyone else.
Start in early November
26 weeks: the Walking Map, then the Solo Map. You send me clips, I tell you what I hear, and you work alongside a small group of fellow players. Electric or upright.
Hear it from the players
who actually took it.
Different ages. Different decades on the instrument. One thing in common.
“Cole has a real knack for pragmatic, actionable methods. I'm finding the notes I'm hearing, consistently, in different positions on the neck.”
“MAPS gave me a new framework, a method for improvising in a very simple, clear way. It shifted my playing in a significant way. I feel more agile and melodic.”
“Cole demystifies complicated topics into easy concepts and shows a clear, actionable path. The walking-line development alone has me playing with more control, and far more effective in a jazz group.”
“He gets to the essence of raising your playing toward a professional level. Listen internally, then map it to the fingerboard. That idea changed how I practice.”
You have three options
Wait.
Close the tab. The bass will still be in the corner six months from now. So will the same handful of notes you grab every time someone says "you take it."
Keep doing what you're doing.
Stack another five YouTube playlists, half-finish another book, transcribe a few more solos you'll never use on a gig. Maybe something clicks. But you've tried that for years. You're here for a reason.
Take the map.
The 26-week MAPS method: the Walking Map, then the Solo Map, in order. My feedback on the clips you send me. A small group of fellow bassists pushing each other forward. Six months from now you'll sit in on a tune you've never rehearsed, and you'll know exactly how you got there.
Get the early-bird alert →walking, then soloing.
mapped out.
No more wondering what to practice. Each week has one focused move, and you send me clips so I can hear where you are. Half the path is walking, half is soloing: the soloing most courses run out of time to ever get to.
You don't have to wait six months
to feel different on the bass.
Pick where you're starting. The map shows what unlocks at every monthly stop, for you.
“I lock the time, but my lines just sit on the root.”
- Month 1 · Stop 1Form & 1-3-5-7: the marble under every line
- Month 2 · Stop 2Order of notes + intervals: flat lines start to move
- Month 3 · Stop 3Approach notes + guide tones: the changes start to land
- Month 4 · Stop 4Walking a real standard, no chart
- Month 5 · Stop 5Soloing by subtraction: off the root, into a melody
- Month 6 · Stop 6Sit in on a tune you've never rehearsed
This isn't for everyone.
Here's who it's not for.
Saying this out loud so neither of us wastes the other's time.
You've never picked up a bass.
This isn't a beginner method. You should be able to play a major scale, read a basic chart, and hold down a blues before you start. If you're brand new, go build those first. You'll get far more out of this.
You want a magic shortcut.
This is real work: 30 minutes a day, six days a week, for 26 weeks. The shortcut is the order things go in, not skipping the practice.
You won't record yourself and submit clips.
Half the value is me watching your playing and telling you exactly what to fix. If that's uncomfortable, good. It's the part that actually works.
You expect to sound like Ron Carter in 26 weeks.
You'll be a different player. Not that player. Anyone who promises that on a six-month timeline is selling you something.
You're more ready than you think.
- You can play a major scale and find your way around the neck
- You can read a chart well enough to follow a tune
- You can show up 30 minutes a day, six days a week
That's it. You're more than ready to join us.
The plateau you've been stuck on isn't because you're not “good enough.”It's because nobody ever handed you the map. That's what the next six months are for.
Frequently asked
When does the next cohort start?
What does it cost?
Who is this for? Am I ready?
Electric or upright?
I'm 60+. Is it too late?
I already have a private teacher. Do I need this?
How much time do I need?
Do I have to be into jazz?
How is this different from YouTube?
Six months from now,
your playing won't be the same.
Cohort 4 starts in early November, electric or upright. The early-bird list hears first: the start date, the price and how it runs.
By week 26, “you take it” stops being the moment your stomach drops and becomes the part of the night you wait for. Let's get you there.
Cole
P.S. Got a question about MAPS? Email me directly at cole@betterbasslessons.com. I answer personally within 24 hours.