[Music 00:00:12 - 00:01:27]
At this point of the course we've looked at creating bass lines, we've looked at adding
fills and articulations into your bass lines to make them sound more interesting. What
we haven't done is learn a set piece. And this is a really useful discipline because
it will help you quickly identify areas that you need to focus on. Probably issues with
tuning or technique that need looking at in detail. So I'd like you to learn the piece
that I've written out for you. It's three courses of a jazz blues. There's a backing
track to go with it, you hear the full thing just at the start of this video. And that
would be really positive thing for you to do.
Now in this lesson I'm going to dissect the first chorus. We're gonna have a look at how
the notes function in relation to the chords that we're playing. We're gonna get really
focused on a couple of the fills because I know that people want more information on
triplet fills. You love those kind of rebound style, triplet drops that you hear on those
classic recordings. So we're gonna have a look at a couple of bars in this first chorus
and really explore several different options that you can use over those two chords. And
then we're gonna do the same thing, on the next cover we'll look at that. And then I'll
pick up another couple of bars. And in the final lesson we'll do the final chorus. And
again we'll have a look at a different set of changes and how you can take that information
and then add it into your own working bass lines. So let's get into that now.
The piece starts with a pick up into the first bar. So it starts in the open G. And this
is A, flat, F. Open A. And then that's leading up into bar two which is the B flat, the root
note of bar two. So why do we choose those notes? Well the open G works really nicely.
It's just the second note of the chord and it's an open string's, it's really handy.
It could have been open D, or open A. They would have all worked as well. But I think
it works really nicely because you hear the G, A flat and then A which is played an octave
lower. It kind of your ear hears that progression and it leads up to the second bar, the B flat.
So this is like again. It's got a really nice motion about it. And the A flat works really
well because it's the minor third over dominant chord which sounds really bluesy. Particularly
because you basically hear G, G sharp or A flat. And then you hear A natural. But the
A natural is an octave lower. So you have that tension of the minor to the major third.
The second bar we've get a B flat and a D, root note on the third. And then we've got
a B natural dramatically leading up to scale note which is C of the B flat chord. But it's
also the fifth of F which is where it's leading us back to home bass. And then we got the
same pattern again, B natural, C. Because the ears kinda set that up for us so, you
play that again. And then we do a kind of descending pattern. Really these patterns
come alive when you add in articulations. I could have played that. Or... But I'm actually
pulling off the F to D flat. And the B natural to the B flat.
Next bar, I'm just going up the arpeggio here but I'm missing out the third. So I'm playing
fifth, seventh, octave. But I'm again hammering them on to make them sound more interesting.
Sliding up to the next root notes. Let's go from B flat to B diminish. So just add in
that slide makes it sound so much more interesting.
Let's go from the descending line in the F bar. And again we've got this B natural C
figure. Have you seen how that's popping up all over the place? But it leads us really
neatly back up to the F chord. Okay. So this F chord here, we've got F, G is a passing
note which takes us to C, F again, B flat. And it's basically you're playing the F chord
and you hear this descending line going C, B flat to the A which is the root note of
the next chord. So it's a nice way to go from F, C, B flat, down to A. And what I do is
I added a few passing notes.
Now this fill here is one that we're gonna get doing just a minute, it's a really important
fill. And we're gonna look at a lot of different options that you can play over that bar. But
let's just move on and just finish on with the last four bars and then we'll look in
detail at that. Okay. So we got G minor. Here, really straightforward, root, fifth down to
the third and dramatically leading up to the next root notes. Root notes again on the third.
But I'm playing the third below the root note. Here, I'm playing C here. And instead of playing
E here, I'm playing it down there. Quickly you can play over that. While you play the
E there above and the C and then below. Let's just quickly finish off the last two bars,
F.
Now what's happening here? F to F sharp. F sharp is the third of D7 so it works really
nicely. Because you've got F, F sharp and then that leads to G. So you got this strong
dramatic leading kind of line that's happening. And it's accentuated by adding in the slide,
you can hear the rising tension throughout the baseline. And then a more straightforward
turn around on this last bar, G, minor G, B flat, D. That's just the arpeggio, minor
arpeggio, moving third. Again I could have played the third below. And then it moves
onto the next chorus.
Okay. So the fill that really stands out in this chorus comes in several of the A minor
to D7 bar which is on the second line down. So if I go from the bar preceding that. So
what's happening here? I'm basically playing open A, and then E, F natural and F sharp,
F sharp to C, open A and then D. Let's look at that again. And you hear this leading up
to the third, the seventh, the fifth, then lastly the root note of the D which very strongly
wants to resolve to G.
Okay. Now you got those two dramatic notes leading up to the D7 chord. And then every
note within that D7 sort of triplet drop that you hear is an arpeggio note, the third, the
seventh, the fifth and the root. But let's look at a simpler version that you can start
with. How about just playing, example one one on your worksheet which is A and then
we've got the F sharp. And the open D. And it works really nicely having them as a chord.
Can't really tune that note, so the open A. So you can try and let the F sharp ring over
the D if possible. And that will be a simpler version. Open A, F sharp, add in the D, also
brings in the F sharp ring as long as possible. And then down to the G. I'm going to play
the G there if you like.
How about adding in the seventh to the A minor chord? This works really nicely. Okay, what's
going on here? Roots, seventh, third and the seventh folds is a voice leading, folds to
the third. And then you have this D going on D underneath which helps you hear the chord.
And you go to open G to save yourself, shifting down if you like.
Example three is the one that we actually, yeah, we reach which is... Now we're adding
in two dramatic leading notes. And also the minor seventh to the D chord. Because it fits
right into the hand really easily. We've already looked at that one. Example four, we're now
taking it even further. And this is bit much really, but it works okay in the right context.
So here, we're expanding upon that. E up to the F sharp and then F sharp, C, A. And now
we're going open D, open A and F sharp here. So again that arpeggio notes. You've got these
two little dramatic leading notes to the start of the phrase and then it's all call tone.
So your ear really hears the chord change happening and it works well. It adds tension
as you resolve from the D7 chord to the G minor. So that in context, if I go from the
bar before and then etc. So that's a really cool fill and it's very much in the style
of play like Grey Ground and Ron Carter and guys that are doing this awesome triplet pulloffs
that you hear.
Lastly, before I just give you a few tips about playing these triplets we've got example
five. And here I wanted to give you something, well and alternative frankly to playing it
up here in this register of the bass. We're gonna play A just for two Bs. And then...
So we've got A, E flat, A, D, A, F sharp. And then we're onto the edge E chord there.
Now there's a few different ways about thinking of these notes. But essentially the first
one is a root note then we've got the fifth of the D7 chord, that's the flat nine. I prefer
that. You could play fifth, root, fifth, fifth, to root B, third. So that would be, hang on.
But I found that a bit plain. I like this harsher angle, this dry tone. So that would
sound in context. And then as we're holding onto to the last chord that G minor there
before we move to the chord progression.
So there is five examples that you can use, a really cool triplet fills that you can use
in that particular parts of this bass line, this chord progression. But you can also use
them in other songs as well or other chord progressions that have A minor to D7 chords.
You can transpose them and do them in different keys. But those work really well on the bass
because of the use of open strings. So make sure that you're adding those into your lines
wherever possible.
Also like we discussed in the triplets lesson and the fills lessons that we've looked up
previously, I wanted to remind you how important it is that you really hear the fillers and
embellishments that leads towards the down beat really strongly. You had to have a direction
and it has to be light and landing strongly on the next bar. Usually it's the root note
of the next bar or maybe an arpeggio note or a core tone within the bar that you're
playing. But often these open strings are quite light and you got to be rhythmically
accurate and you got to make sure that you land strong. So think about the dynamics,
think about the rhythm.
Okay. Hopefully that's given you something to work on. If you'd like to just look at
that first chorus in isolation you can do that now or you can check out the next two
videos in this course which will have the next two choruses in. And there'll be examples
taken from key parts within those bass lines as well. So keep practicing hard and I'll
see you in the next video.