Daily Licking 021: Chorus 3 of Mr. P.C for Bass

What will happen today? Will he play a Bb on the C minor? Will he force some crazy chord substitution over an F min chord that never did anything to anyone to warrant such treatment? Let us see what chord carnage Mr. Coltrane has in store for these poor unsuspecting next 12 measures of his minor blues, Mr. P.C.

No, He Won't Play a Bb on the C min. Ever.

Spoiler! He isn't going to do it. Not at all. I don't know what that Bb ever did to him, but he just isn't gonna play a Bb when the C min chord is going by. Nope.

That means he is treating every C min as C melodic minor, C, D, Eb, F, G, A, B, not natural minor, the kind with an Ab and a Bb. He saves the Bb and Ab for the F min chord (where they are the third and the fourth/eleventh) and that gives him those notes to play with when the chords change. This makes for more ways to outline the fact that the chords have changed - A, B on C min, Ab Bb on F min. If he went with C natural minor, and F natural minor the way to tell the difference between the two chords would be seriously reduced, as in, down to only 1 note difference, Db (the flat 6 for F min)!

C D Eb F G Ab Bb C

F Ab Bb C Db Eb G

Forget that! He wants to do damage, the man needs more different notes! So he went with a choice that gave him more ways to indicate the differences between the two chords. By doing that he gets a lot more choices, on the C now he has Eb to indicate it is minor, and that is also the 7th of F min. But, now he has A, B, to use and give away he is playing over the C, and as soon as the F comes by, BAM, Ab and Bb.

And the man has absolutely no compunctions about slamming that natural seven right up in your grill on a downbeat of a measure. He does it again in this chorus in measure 3, right on "one" - right in the kisser - big ol' B natural, and wait for it...because there it is again two beats later.

Next-door Neighbor Notes

He creates a little theme for this chorus, half steps.

He hangs on a note that is a half-step away from a note in the next upcoming chord, and then goes to that note a half-step away when the chord changes.

He does it three times - in measure 4, where he busts out a C# on the C minor chord!! A C sharp! The humanity. Not just plays it, but hang on it, and then slides into a "C" so when the F comes by, there is a nice smooth, glassy, consonant 5 of the chord sitting there waiting for it on the downbeat of measure 5. Ahhhhh.

And just to keep things fair, he throws in a major 7 on the F minor too. As well as a flat 7, with an Eb. Why not. He is John Coltrane! He don't care.

He does the half-step-away trick again, and goes from a G to a Gb when the chords go from C to Ab, so from the 5th of C (G) to the dominant 7 (flat 7, Gb) of Ab, just slides right over and makes the chord change using, thats right, chord tones.

And then in the very next measure, he does it again, he holds over the Bb (the 2nd or 9) from the Ab7 and slides to a B natural, (third of G7). The man knows his chord tones for sure.

Patterns of Patterns

Yup the digital patterns are back too. In measure 8, on the C minor he does the classic minor pattern - R, b3, 4, 5, he just mixes up the notes, and on the F minor in measure 6, he one too, but spreads it out rhythmically but its in there - R, 2, b3, 4.





This chorus maps to bass really nice. I did a little octave adjustment, but there are no saxophone-isms in this one, so the notes lay on bass very sweetly. Go nuts with it.

90 bpm

bass lick 4/4 tempo 90 | CMin7 r8 g++8~ g4~ g4 r8 f | eb g- a d~ d4~ d8 c8 | b8 g a b g eb r4 | r4 r8 c+#8~ c#4 c4~ | Fmin c4 c8 bb ab eb e g| f g ab f bb4 bb8 ab | Cmin7 g eb d f eb c b d | c+ g eb f g4~ g8 g8 | Ab7 gb8 r8 r8 ab [bb8 c eb] gb bb | G7 r8 bb- r8 b+ g eb c g | Cmin7 d+4~ d8 c d eb~ eb4 | Cmin7 r1 |

Tempo Ridiculoso 260 bpm

bass lick 4/4 tempo 260 | CMin7 r8 g++8~ g4~ g4 r8 f | eb g- a d~ d4~ d8 c8 | b8 g a b g eb r4 | r4 r8 c+#8~ c#4 c4~ | Fmin c4 c8 bb ab eb e g| f g ab f bb4 bb8 ab | Cmin7 g eb d f eb c b d | c+ g eb f g4~ g8 g8 | Ab7 gb8 r8 r8 ab [bb8 c eb] gb bb | G7 r8 bb- r8 b+ g eb c g | Cmin7 d+4~ d8 c d eb~ eb4 | Cmin7 r1 |