Melodic and harmonic minor scales
7. Play the low note (the root) with your right-hand index finger
You’re once again at the beginning of the groove.
In Figure 5-17 is a groove, which doubles as an exercise, to help you use the dead note and the rake in conjunction.
On Track 24, listen to how smoothly the dead note from Figure 5-17 connects the sounded notes. The groove sounds much busier than it really is. It’s sort of like talkin’ loud and sayin’ nothin’. Listen to see whether your groove matches the one on the CD.
108 Part II: The Bass-ics of Playing
Figure 5-17:
Dead note groove and exercise.
TRACK 50
TRACK 24
2
4x 4 2
4x 4
5 7 7 5 7 7 5 7 7 5 7 7
5 7 7 5 7 7 5 7 7 5 7 7
This grove is a useful and cool one for your own groove repertoire. (For more on grooves, see Chapter 6.) As you practice, notice that your hand works only about a third as fast as your groove sounds. That’s because you’re using right-hand string crossing and dead notes. (Proper string-crossing technique is discussed in Chapter 4.) Pretty powerful stuff, eh?
Sampling Accompaniments
If you’ve read through the previous sections of this chapter, you may be feel- ing anxious to put some of your newfound knowledge to good use. So strap on your bass and let me guide you through a few bass grooves.
The word groove is used in two ways in the bass world: It can refer to a bass line, which is the overall accompaniment to a tune, or it can refer to a phrase (usually one, two, or four measures long) that a bassist repeats throughout a tune to establish the rhythm and the harmony.
109
Chapter 5: Understanding Major and Minor Structures
The following grooves are based on a chord tonality that’s dominant (root, 3, 5, %7) and thus related to the Mixolydian mode (root, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, %7). The tonal center (or root) is the same for all these grooves, so you can compare one groove with the next. In each of the following examples, the basic groove uses the same chord.
When you embellish a groove with other chord and scale tones, chromatic tones, and dead notes, it develops into a much more interesting and intricate bass line.
Figure 5-18 shows a groove based solely on a chord — a triad (root, 3, 5).
This groove isn’t very interesting, but it does the job of outlining the har- mony with some rhythm.
Figure 5-18:
Bass groove using the chord.
1 2
4 4
? c œ ‰ jœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
2 2 5 5
3 3 5 5 2 2 5 5
1 = index finger 2 = middle finger 3 = ring finger 4 = pinkie (little finger)
TRACK 25, 0:00
Figure 5-19 shows the groove with the 7 added to the triad. The %7 defines the groove as a definite dominant chord (1, 3, 5, %7).
Figure 5-19:
Bass groove using the 7th chord.
1
2 2
4 4
? c œ ‰ jœ œ œ œ œ œ œb œ œ œ œ
2 2 5 5
3 3 5 3 2 2 5 5
1 = index finger 2 = middle finger 3 = ring finger 4 = pinkie (little finger)
TRACK 25, 0:23
110 Part II: The Bass-ics of Playing
Figure 5-20 shows the groove with the mode added in its entirety (root, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, %7). The mode fills out the harmonic content of the groove. You’re now solidly entrenched in the Mixolydian mode, and you have a solid box. Notice that in a box your left hand doesn’t have to shift.
Figure 5-20:
Bass groove using the Mixolydian mode.
1 1
2 2 2
4 4 4
? c œ ‰ Jœ œ œ œ œ œ œb œ œ œ œ
2 3 5 2
3 5 5 3 3 5 5 2
1 = index finger 2 = middle finger 3 = ring finger 4 = pinkie (little finger)
TRACK 25, 0:46
Figure 5-21 shows the groove with some chromatic tones added both inside and outside the box. This groove is definitely developing some flavor and attitude now. At the same time, the groove is getting a bit more difficult to play. Your left hand has to shift to play a chromatic tone outside the box.
Figure 5-21:
Bass groove using chromatic tones.
1 1
2 2 2
3 4 4
? c œ ‰ Jœ# œ œ œ# œ œ œb œ œ œ# œ
1 2 3 4 5
3 5 3 3 5 1 2
1 = index finger 2 = middle finger 3 = ring finger 4 = pinkie (little finger)
TRACK 25, 1:10
111
Chapter 5: Understanding Major and Minor Structures
Figure 5-22 shows the groove with dead notes added as a finishing touch.
You get to play some dead notes to fill the space and solidify the rhythm.
Compare this groove with the previous grooves, and retrace the steps of adding each device.
Figure 5-22:
Bass groove using dead notes.
1 1
2 2 2
3 4 4
? c œ ¿ œ# œ œ œ# œ œ ¿ œb œ œ œ# œ
1 2 3 4 5
3 3 5 5 3 3 5 1 2
1 = index finger 2 = middle finger 3 = ring finger 4 = pinkie (little finger)
TRACK 25, 1:33
You don’t want to use all these devices in every groove, but you do want to have them close at hand so you can beef up a groove whenever you feel the urge to do so.
Check out Track 25 to hear all the grooves in Figures 5-18 through 5-22. Listen to how each groove gets a little bit more complex as more devices are added yet essentially retains its basic characteristic in terms of tonality and rhythm.
Using your accompaniments in a tune
You can see how the grooves earlier in this section get more and more com- plex as you add scale tones, chromatic tones, and even dead notes to the basic chord tones. These souped-up grooves can be useful when you’re jam- ming on a “one-chord wonder” with your band. If you’re playing the same chord for a while and you feel like taking the groove to another level, you can use the devices I show you earlier to give the music some interesting variety while playing the same one-chord jam, thus keeping it interesting for the lis- teners as well as for the players.
Keep in mind that a one-chord jam session is a pretty common scenario when you’re playing with other musicians. But whatever you do, don’t underesti- mate the power of the single-chord groove — just listen to how well James Brown songs incorporate it.
112 Part II: The Bass-ics of Playing
On Track 26, you can hear a song based on a single chord, C7 in this case. Find a C on your fingerboard (the 3rd fret on the A string would be a great choice), and then get your hands comfortable with the scale for C7, or C Mixolydian.
(You can read more about which scales go with which chords earlier in this chapter.) Unless you’re jamming with a bunch of A-type personalities, you’re not very likely to get sheet music for a one-chord jam. Usually you just hear
“Let’s jam in C” from the bandleader.
As you’re playing along with Track 26, play any of the grooves you see in Figure 5-18 through Figure 5-22. You can either stick with the same groove for the entire song or you can try building the complexity of your groove by playing one of the grooves for a while (Figure 5-18, for example), then trying another (perhaps Figure 5-21), and so on.
On the CD you hear the bass play each groove for two or four bars and then move on to the next groove in succession (Figure 5-18, Figure 5-19, Figure 5-20, all the way to Figure 5-22). Listen to how the same chord takes on a whole new character with each new groove.
Keeping your groove gloriously ambiguous
What happens if your bandleader calls the “jam in C,” but you’re not entirely sure what kind of C is expected? (After all, you have an arsenal of chords and modes to choose from.) This is a great opportunity to get into harmonic ambiguity. Harmonic ambiguity means that you choose to play notes in your groove that don’t define a chord. These ambiguous notes are shared by almost all modes, and you can use any of them no matter what tonality you play in, especially in a one-chord groove jam.
As a general rule, your one-chord groove is almost always based on either a dominant (Mixolydian mode) or a minor (Dorian mode) tonality. Out of seven different notes of the modes, these two tonalities share — ready for some