Hey, it's Russell Hall here and this is a lesson from my course,
Bessie's Bass Busters.
Right now we're gonna focus on something that is essential
to a bass player's list of things to do,
and that is to play in two.
Playing in two is almost the closest you can get
dancing on the bass.
The reason I say this is because, quite literally,
the music that was danced to was two-beat music.
You could go back to the 1920s, 1930s,
any time you saw these large ballrooms of people,
usually that kind of music was focused on the two-beat
rather than four-beat music.
What I mean by that is the emphasis is on one and three
as opposed to all four beats.
Really simple in theory,
but very different in application.
When we step further into the music of people
such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk,
and even further out, we tend to think of that music
as four-beat music, because now the emphasis on playing,
you know...
In four, but the basis of a bassist
is always gonna be in two.
The reason I say this is because the notes
in between one and three oftentime lead into each other.
They don't necessarily have to be four-beat music.
Somebody that is probably the greatest at demonstrating this
in four-beat music, in a four-beat sensibility,
is the incredible Israel Crosby.
And the reason I say this is because he created
two-beat bass lines that had the sensibility
of playing in four, had the freedom of playing in four.
For example...
So no, I didn't play exactly what Israel played,
but I tried to play in his style of playing in two,
which is kind of dancing around the two-beat.
Similar to the previous exercise, where we talk about
rhythmic intensity, rhythmic intention,
Israel Crosby created these bass lines that were
very intentional, but also very open, very intense,
but very malleable and flexible, like dancing.
Now let's take a song, not But Not For Me,
but instead something like Autumn Leaves.
Kind of in the same vein as the great Ron Carter.
How does he create these two-beat bass lines
that create this dance that we talk about?
Well, first he takes the chords, he sees what they are.
He takes the melodies, he sees what it is.
And he tries to create something that will really
elevate all the other musicians,
but at the same time, ground the music.
So at the same time he's elevating, he's grounding.
So he's gonna play roots, he's gonna play thirds,
he's gonna play fifths, but then he's also
gonna push it forward.
For example...
So now, that was a lot of information.
Very different to the style of Israel Crosby,
but very similar in the sense that he's dancing,
he's creating this air of mystery in his bass lines,
as he does.
So, you know, young me is figuring out,
okay, how do you do that?
Like, how do you figure out how to create a two feel
with such flexibility, but also so grounding,
and I can clearly hear what the melody is?
The great Ben Wolfe, who was my teacher for,
I'd say, probably 15 years
His first exercise for me is to hum the melody of the song
and play in two.
He got this exercise from the great Ray Brown,
who was his teacher.
So you at home, I want you to try humming the melody
to Autumn Leaves while playing a two feel and try to create
that same flexibility, but also that same grounding.
The two-beat, oftentimes we think of the two-beat,
and we're not sure what to play, so we'll, you know,
we'll just go...
Half-notes.
Which is fine. That's great.
But how do we elevate that?
How do we take that into another territory?
First, we have to understand what that is.
That comes from the tuba, you know?
So you'd hear early jazz music and you'll hear the tuba.
Like, if they're playing a song like this,
for example, they go...
And so on so forth, and then how do you get from that
to then Ron Carter going...
Bridging the gap.
Singing the melody in your head or humming the melody
out loud and playing in two.
And at first, it might be difficult,
because you're like, okay, how do I hum a melody
and then remember the notes. I gotta play on the bass?
But you start off slow.
Slow it down, even from where I just took it.
And you go on and you go on and you keep playing it,
and eventually you'll get to a point where you won't even
have to play C minor at the top of the A section.
You could even go...
You know, you could play whatever notes.
Like we said in exercise two, before this,
it's all about point A to point B.
It doesn't matter what happened,
as long as you get to point B.
You gotta figure out a way.
I'm gonna start at note completely unrelated to this song.
Yeah, it's all about the resolution.
You know, you gotta think about this stuff
as Lester Young would've thought about it.
Any time you hear him play,
he plays these long extended phrases that almost feel like
they're not even hitting the chord changes,
not even even hinting at the chord changes.
Very similar to Miles Davis, too.
But then he'll just squeak into that note
that just resolves it and makes everything
that happened before a start to make sense.
For example...
Because once you realize that the chords are all subjective,
that every note kind of works as long as there is
a clear resolution, a clear understanding of passing tones,
a clear understanding of half steps,
possibilities are endless.
Hey, thanks for watching.
If you want to learn more about my course the details are down below.