Our BLP Legend for the month of September is Drazen Dragovic! While a fairly new bass player ( started playing the bass around 2020 ), Drazen is already an experienced flamenco player giving him a great foundation when it comes to finger speed and dexterity. This has also helped him improve drastically in the Bass Guitar in such a short period of time!
Also, Drazen is one of the most active members of the BLP community so you’ll usually see him in Challenges, community discussions as well as competitions. Learn more about Drazen’s bass playing journey with eBassGUitar below
James: Hey Guys I wanna welcome you to this month’s BLP Legend; it’s Drazen Dragovic. Drazen has been with us for about 2 years or so, and to the best of my knowledge, he is our only Croatian bass guitar student. I’ve watched him make some fabulous progress over the past couple of years.
He started off as a flamenco guitarist which means he had quite a lot of technique already and I’ve watched him transition to a bass player. Tells us a little bit of your back story and how you became a bass player.
Drazen: Long story short, I started to play guitar when I was 11. I played in a band in primary school then in the army for 1 year. Flamenco was where I started to learn in some school in Spain. It’s a school for flamenco dancing and playing and they are really excellent musicians and teachers. I started to go there in 2009 and had been there 7 times. I spent up to 5 weeks learning flamenco and hanging out with players, dancers and so on.
This is the opportunity where I made pretty good technique of left and right hand. Before that I was also playing in open tunings, finger picking etc. This is maybe where I got the basic skills before I started the bass.
With the bass, I think I joined eBassGuitar in May 2020. I started to play bass 3 months before. Some people ask why; it was COVID and I felt that the lower register makes me feel calm. This, and maybe the long neck and the other tones of the bass; it was intuitive rather than rationally.
I’ve seen your Van Morrison Moondance and Jaco’s Chicken videos. I found that I could easily cope with your advice, and this is what made me join eBassGuitar.
J: So you’ve been through a bunch of our programs like Accelerators, Challenges and also a great member of the BLP. Could you tell us how different the bass is from flamenco and classical/folk guitar.
Natalie in NZ says
You are an inspiration to me… I have been learning bass for a couple of years like you, but never had the amazing early teaching like you :). That makes me feel better as I’m still at grassroots 🙂
I’m learning with a few teachers, and when I come back to ebassguitar, you are here, a familiar face with a great work ethic!
Xavier says
Hi Drazen congrats, this is an amazing history, I wish I could be able to do something like that my my bass!