Hi there. My name is Christian Johnston and I've been a bassist for almost a year now.

The following is a visual guide through what I'm thinking and what I hope to be.

For example, I'd like to play like this guy (Justin King), but I'm probably going need more practice.

Just so you know where I'm coming from here are some of my influences.

If you didn't recognize the person in the first video, his name is Larry Graham,     

 bassist for the band Sly and the Family stone and one of the most influential bassists

of all time. His influences are known to reach out to such bassists Les Claypool (Primus),

Michael Peter Balzary who is better known as Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers),

Victor Wooten (Bela Fleck and the Fleckstones), and the list goes on.

One of Larry Graham's claim to fame is for creating the slap-pop technique most bassists use today.

Before many bassists for used the standard slap technique which can be seen

for the most part (aside from the tapping... you'll see what I mean) in the following video:

What Larry Graham did was integrate the a "pop" with the "slap" which is plucking

the higher notes at the bottom of the bass while slapping the lower notes at the top of the bass

I'll let Flea demonstrate:

With that lesson aside we can continue the next of my influences that I've mentioned several times already:

Flea

.

Flea is by far my favorite musician and my number one influence

on the bass. Sure there are other great influences such as Jaco Pastorius and

John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), but for his choice of style and personality

Flea is the guy I choose to follow. After all when I first picked up the bass, I started

learning to Red Hot Chili Pepper songs so I could improve my technique...

after all they are my favorite band.

So now you know my influences and I'll let you in on the top bands to grace my CD player.

First up: Red Hot Chili Peppers... surprise surprise.

Next up: Fall of Troy. The thing that probably impresses me the most about these guys

is the lead singer who is the band's only guitarist. My voice isn't too horrible so I can do

back-up vocals. However, if the bass line is too technical, forget it. I'd show you there

more technical stuff, but I'm not sure if you could withstand the man's screaming on the mic,

so I'll just show you their single. Either way, what you're about see ain't easy.

Lastly, I'll introduce you to Coheed & Cambria. Very strange band, but good nonetheless.

They get their name from a comic book the front man has been working on. It's also the basis for all their songs lyrics.

Also one of the only bands that has a lead singer who looks like he should be in a metal band,

but has a voice that can get higher pitched than a choir boy.

So what am I doing now? Well when I'm not attending classes at PVCC

or working in the kitchen at Mellow Mushroom, I'm hopefully playing the music I like.

Right now I'm doing a small acoustic project with a friend of mine called FlightPlan

so feel free to check the page or even friend us.

Well that's all I have to say for now so thanks for viewing my page.

Just so I don't get sued I have to says thanks for youtube.com for their wonderful videos,

google.com for its awesome and extensive search engine, and iconbazaar.com for the

cool thing I did with my name at the top of the page for no real reason.