The band drops out and it is just bass and Sonny playing over the chords, and it is basically just F minor, but not natural minor, (with an Eb) but melodic minor, with an E natural.
Here is the lick as Sonny plays it
And here it is written out, first at a slower tempo and then at a faster more Sonny-like tempo.
Slow Speed
bass lick tempo 100 4/4 |Fmin r8 e8 f ab g f e g |f e f c ab f b ab |bb ab g f e f g e |f2 r2
Insanely Fast
bass lick tempo 220 4/4 |Fmin r8 e8 f ab g f e g |f e f c ab f b ab |bb ab g f e f g e |f2 r2
There are a ton of things to learn from this lick:
What chord tones does he use? (hint - all of them)
How does he make those chord tones fall on strong beats?
Why does the lick sound so strong and resolve so well?
What non-chord tones does he use, and where do those get placed?
And this is just two measures of his solo, he goes on and on like this for two full choruses. Gonna post more licks as I decipher them.
Check out how awesome his entire solo is here via YouTube:
Yea. It has come to that time of the year where we give each other stuff for all kinds of different reasons.
In honor of this magical time of the year, starting today every book is available for 25% off. Even though some of you, and you know who you are, probably have been very, very naughty.
So, that means the new prices for all the books are:
So even if you are one of those naughty types, you deserve to treat yourself to some bass presents and save some cash for all the other things that made you so naughty in the first place this year. Then you can make all those empty promises about being better next year.
All you have to do is go to lulu.com and use the coupon Code: BUYMYBOOK305when you check out. The max savings is $50.00 but that amount actually covers every Basso book there is. You can use it for ANY book on lulu.com as well.
So happy winter solstice or whatever tree celebration you pray to or sacrifice this December and thanks for checking out the blog.
I have mentioned the completely awesome book called Forward Motion before and if you do not have it in your library and yet you are interested in improvisation at all, well, there is a big gap in your library, that's all I am saying. Its a book that has so much info in it that it will keep you busy for a long time and your girlfriend/boyfriend/xbox/playstation/dog/cat/gopher will feel hurt and neglected.
Here is a very small nugget pulled from one of the ways Mr. Galper talks about how to practice intervals, scales and arpeggios in the book. I am going to show you some examples using the interval of a third and the C Major scale so, buckle up.
Remember from earlier posts, that the word diatonic is just a fancy music school term for "only using notes in that key", thats all. So when I say "diatonic" and C major it just means that we are ONLY going to use the notes from that scale, and thusly, being C major, there will be no sharps or flats, just C D E F G A B C.
Now, if you take C Major notes, and you play a third off each note of the scale respectively, you get something like this:
Ascending Scale in Ascending Diatonic Thirds
bass lick tempo 90 2/4 |Cmaj c8 e Dmin d f |Emin e g Fmaj f a | GMaj g b Amin a c | Bdim b d c4
You probably have played that one, or heard something similar, it is a very common way to get the major scale under your fingers.
But there are always a couple of other ways to play the same set of intervals and when you start combining these different permutations, things start sounding less see-I-know-how-to-play-my-scales-y and more like phrases and licks that you can use during a solo.
Here is another way to get through the major scale in thirds, where instead of going up a third, you descend a third, so the first pair of notes is E down to C:
Ascending Scale in Descending Diatonic Thirds
bass lick tempo 90 2/4 | Cmaj e8 c Dmin f d | Emin g e Fmaj a f | GMaj b g Amin c a | Bdim d b c4
Now you can alternate each group of thirds, with the first group descending:
Ascending Scale - First Third Descending
bass lick tempo 90 2/4 | Cmaj e8 c Dmin d f | Emin g e Fmaj f a | GMaj b g Amin a c | Bdim d b c4
And you can alternate with the second third descending:
Ascending Scale - Second Third Descending
bass lick tempo 90 2/4 | Cmaj c8 e Dmin f d |Emin e g Fmaj a f | GMaj g b Amin c a | Bdim b d c4
Now how to turn these into licks?
Well since all of these notes are within a key, anytime you have a chord that works in C Major, so a C Major 7, or C Major #11, or even a Dmin, or Emin, or G7, or A min, you can use combinations of these same intervals.
Here is how that would work over a C Major chord, it is nothing but a combination of those intervals from above, but the rhythm is now 16ths and the patterns are moved around a little octave-wise.
Third Based Lick
bass lick tempo 120 2/4 | Cmaj e16 c f d g e b g | c a d b c+4
That is just one piddly example, there are a million ways you can do this, for example:
Don't play the thirds in scale order, do them in another order, like go something like C, G, D,A,E,B F, C which is going up in 5ths. So C E, B G, F D, A C etc.
Repeat one or two patterns before going to the next one
Change the rhythm
Mix up other intervals, don't just do it in thirds, do the first one as a third, the next one as a fourth or a sixth and then mix up the directions ascending and descending.
This is another one of those lick-factory ideas where you can get a million different chunks of solos out of stuff like this. As per usual, you have to make this sound like it is not just scalar patterns but is actually a melody of some kind.
Of course, this works with minor scales too, and you can do all the intervals within any kind of scale - thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, and sevenths. Even bigger intervals if you wanted to, especially if you have an extended range bass, like ninths and tenths. Big stretches though.
Yup, another coupon code celebrating the magical time of year that is Halloween, or Pedophile Christmas, as the Onion called it today. Ouch. It's a joke, people, relax.
Anyway, if you type in "BURIED" when you check out at Lulu.com, you can save 20% off your order, so that means you could get both the Major and Melodic Minor versions of the Book of Triads for like $16.00-ish. Which is a total deal, and as all the other coupon codes, it is good for anything on the site.
This book is an awesome resource for any musician looking to expand their knowledge and ears to triads of the Melodic Minor scale. It will have you melodically minoring all over your bass!!!!!
Ray Riendeau
James LaBrie, Halford, Star Monarchy
If you are a bass player and are not hip to Ray and his scary chops and funky grooves, you should be.
The first single, "MONARCHY" from Ray's new project Star Monarchy just went live on Itunes.
Ray is the leader of this new project and it features many top players/singers in the world of metal/rock.
Here is Ray in action doing some demonstration of his monster slap chops and playing at a little gig down in South America where a couple of people showed up, something called "Rock in Rio" or something like that. Oh and by a couple, it turns out that means about 150,000.
Here at Basso Ridiculoso Industries we have been hard at work creating a snazzy new bass thing.
So today, with our usual overly dramatic fanfare and pompous ceremony we are announcing a new e-book that has 80 different ways to play the triads that are found in the C Major scale.
Well the triad postings have been such a hit, here is yet another take on them. This one adds one more note, the octave, so it has a total of four notes - root, third, fifth, then the octave.
I have been goofing around (well all I do is goof around really) with a new project and here is a sneak peek of what it is going to look like. More triads. Lots and lots and lots of triads.
Here are just 8 of the many many ( trust me.....there are many ) ways to play the triads that occur in the key of C Major. The fancy music word for that is "diatonic" which just means, "only using the notes in that key".
Here is a fun little set of exercises to keep you busy for, oh, the next 3 or 4 years or so.
It takes all the triads that are in the key of C Major and runs some ascending, descending and mixed (up and down) arpeggio patterns. Some patterns are "close position" meaning the notes are all within one octave, and some are "open" where they span more than one octave.
The patterns are as low as possible on the neck and they are guaranteed to be playable on a standard tuned 4 string. You can extend the patterns by playing them in higher octaves if you want and if you have a 5 or a 6 string you can move them around as appropriate.
The patterns outline each chord that appears naturally in C Major, so - C maj, D min, E min, F maj, G maj, A min and B dim. The patterns don't all start on just the root of the chord, they also start from the 3rd and the 5th too. "Inversions" for those theory showoffs in the crowd.
Presented for your approval and edification, the first web app from Casa De Ridiculoso, The Bergonzifying Transmogrifier. Perhaps the first of many, who knows.
By way of the following uncharacteristically informative summary you can learn what this thing is and what it is for.
Why oh why do book publishers hate the bass clef. Huh? What did that cute, harmless little crescent ever do to them? Why won't they just put a bass clef section in their music books. Is it because he is ....BLACK? Oh, that is just so typical. Hey, it can be at the back of the book, separate but equal okay, but whatever, just get it in there and set my bass peoples free.
Exhibit A - there does not seem to be a single book about triad pairs that has any bass clef notation in it. Not that I could find, anyway. Those trebley bass clef hating bastards. They are anti-octavists, thats what they are, overt anti-octavists. Next they will be saying bass players need to be in their own section, some kind of section just for "those people" that play rhythm. Geez.
Well, they are a pair of triads, as in two different triads without any common tones paired up together. Just two triads you decide to group together and then limit yourself to only playing the notes contained in those two triads in a bunch of different ways. That is really all there is to it, pretty much.
Of course, there are details:
1. Usually the two triads are either a whole step apart or a half step apart, or sometimes a tri-tone apart. For instance, a C Maj and a D Maj triad could be one pair, and then say, D Maj and Ab Maj could be another pair. The reason is that if you put triads that are a 3rd, 5th, or 6th apart they can have many overlapping notes (c maj and e emin have 2 notes in common for example) and you don't get a strong harmonic effect. The unique notes of each triad make the effect. So, for example:
Triad Pair Example - C maj & D maj
bass lick tempo 140 3/8 | Cmaj c8 e g | Dmaj d8 f# a |
And here is the scale you get when you put the notes from those two triads in musical-alphabetical order, a-b-c-d-e-f-g, but only using the notes that make up the two triads.
Triad Pair Scale - C maj & D maj
bass lick tempo 140 6/8 | C c8 d e f# g a |
2. The two triads can be any quality - one can be minor, one can be major, both can be minor, one augmented, one major, whatever. You can pretty much go wild. The combination of the qualities of the triads (and their respective notes) determine what chords it makes sense to play that particular pair over. You can create your pairs either by just making up a pair randomly and then figuring out what chords it could fit, or find a chord or scale and then take a pair that occurs naturally within that scale/chord.
This is not a new concept, horn players have been using it for quite a while, as in, for decades. At the end of this article there are links to some books and videos and a bit of history on where this concept came from so you can get into it even more if you want.
This is probably a newer idea to a lot of bass players, however. Part of the reason is that this really is almost exclusively a solo technique, it's not really for altering bass lines on the fly. Sometimes the pairs of triads intentionally include notes that will create altered notes on a chord, or include notes that may not even be in the chord, so if you suddenly throw a triad pair line into your bass line, and no one else is playing those alterations...well, you might get The Look from your guitar player/keyboard/drummer and we don't want that. The Look is bad. It's the "what the hell was that" look. No good. So, keep that in mind and realize this is primarily a solo-istic device.
Let us take Mr. Stern's example as a jumping off point, but move his example into bass clef where it rightly belongs and then apply a generous slab of freshly ground ridiculoso to liven it up even more.
First, here is the raw triad pair Stern uses, just converted to bass clef. The first measure is the Eb triad, the second the F, and then the scale the two triads make when you put them together, like the example above. Note that he plays his examples in 4/4, but his pairs and his lines are exactly the same as the ones below. Those below are just in 3 so you can see each triad pair more clearly. You can play any of these lines in 4 at anytime. But that is an entirely different subject...
Stern Pairs in 3
bass lick tempo 90 3/8 | Ebmaj eb g bb | Fmaj f a c | F7 eb- f g | a bb c |
Next, Stern shows how to play the triads in different inversions to make a line. He plays each triad in each inversion, in order. So he does root position for each one, then first inversion (the third of the triad played first) for each one, then second inversion, (the fifth of the triad played first) for each one. Here is his line in bass clef:
Stern Lick in 3
bass lick 6/8 | F7 eb8 g bb f a c | g- bb eb a c f | bb-- eb g c- f a |
Okay, cool. A simple melodic line. See how it works? But there are a lot more ways to play these triad pair things than Mike had time to show. A lot more. How many more? Lets assess our options, shall we?
So you have six different ways to group each triad, times two triads, and then you also have six individual notes between the two triads, so to figure out how many ways there are you do 1*2*3*4*5*6 and you get...
A big freaking number.
720 in fact. So there are 720 different ways to arrange the notes in any triad pair and play through them. Yikes.
Okay, but are all going to sound good? No. Some sound disjunct and angular and terrible and very contrived. But...some sound really cool. So lets try and reduce this number of possibilities and get to just some of the good ones.
So remember, we have 6 different arrangements of each triad:
Root - 3rd - 5th (aka Root Position)
3rd - 5th - Root (aka First Inversion)
5th - Root - 3rd (aka Second Inversion)
and then three others that don't have formal names and are just different orders of the notes:
Root - 5th - Third
Third - Root - Fifth
5th - 3rd - Root.
So in our effort to reduce complexity, lets limit the ways we can play the triads to just the classic inversions, Root Position, First Inversion and Second Inversion. We will put those those other 3 non-inversion types aside for right now. That will help make our choices a little cleaner and easier, we will just keep it to 3 ways to play each triad, instead of 6.
But check it out, now we have 6 "units" of triads! (There are some made up abbreviations after each triad group. . .you will see why in a second.)
First Triad Root Position (or 1st Root)
First Triad First Inversion (or 1st 1st)
First Triad Second Inversion(or 1st 2nd)
Second Triad Root Position (or 2nd Root)
Second Triad First Inversion (or 2nd 1st)
Second Triad Second Inversion(or 2nd 2nd)
Uh oh. Thats six "units" of things again. We are back to having 720 different ways to organize just those! Fine. But now we at least have some organized labels and a way to approach this material, which is good because there is a LOT of material here. This concept is not a little lick or a line you just play once and then you got it, there is months or years of exploration in these things. There are rhythmic options, and all the crazy combinations of augmented, and minor then the tri-tones...all those are things for some future post. So, any way you slice it, this is a big ol' chunk of music to chew on.
To prove how much here there is here, I will use the triad pair of Cmaj and Dmaj and drop some examples on y'all. So using this pair and all its inversions:
Triad Pair - C Maj & D Maj in Root, 1st and 2nd Inversion
bass lick tempo 90 9/8 | Cmaj c8 e g e g c g- c e | Dmaj d8 f# a f#- a d a d f# |
And I will take those made up labels from above (1st Root, 1st 1st etc.) and use them to describe recipes for making melody lines with just those three arrangements of each of the triads. The examples will be in 6/8 just so you can see the recipe clearly, that means each measure will have two triads, each arranged in one of the three orders - root position, first inversion, or second inversion.
For instance, the recipe for Mr. Sterns example line, (originally with Eb and F) went:
bass lick 6/8 | C7 c8 e g a d f#- | g c- e f# a d | e g- c d f#- a |
You hear how this works. There are, well, over 700 different ways to do every triad pair just using the inversions, not even including the 3 other ways of playing triads. And like I said, some are gonna sound like junk and are not good for anything but sight reading practice, but hey, even if there is only 10% that sound good, that is 72 new phrases you can keep and use.
Listed below is just a taste of what you can do. These are from a PDF I created that is at the end of the article, which only has about 120 of the possible lines. "Only". Each melody line in the PDF is numbered and has the recipe that made it listed below it, so 1st Root, 2nd 2nd etc. And if 100 different lines are not enough for ya, just start in the middle of any lick and play to the end and wrap around to where you started, like it is a mode or something. Brain overload, I know.
The PDF only contains licks that start with the 1st Triad in First Inversion , thats all, so every lick starts with E G C, in that order. I chose that because it starts on a low E and lets you get as much range as possible going up from there. There is still over 100 ways to play the other 5 "units" (2nd 2nd, 1st Root etc) in various different orders after that first inversion triad as the starting unit.
Again, some suck and are useless. The first 10 or so, meh, its good to see them to get how the inversions can be moved around, but they sound contrived. Some however, are really cool. Some just need a little octave adjustment or direction adjustment (alternating the lick up and down instead of just ascending).
A small sampling...
Number 7
bass lick 6/8 | C7 e-8 g c c e g | d f# a g c- e | f# a- d a d f#-|
Number 30 - Emphasizing F#
bass lick 6/8 | C7 e-8 g c g c e | c e g a d f# | f# a- d d f# a- |
Number 39
bass lick 6/8 | C7 e-8 g c g c e | f# a- d d f# a | c- e g a d- f# |
Number 48 - Starts on Open Strings
bass lick 6/8 | C7 e-8 g c g+ c e | a-- d f# f# a d| d- f# a c e g |
Number 51 - Beginning of alternating groups
bass lick 6/8 | C7 e-8 g c d f# a | c- e g f# a d| g-- c e a d f# |
Number 60
bass lick 6/8 | C7 e-8 g c d f# a | g- c e a d f# | c- e g f# a d |
Number 62
bass lick 6/8 | C7 e-8 g c d f# a | f#- a d c e g | a- d f# g c e |
Number 70 - Opposite of 62
bass lick 6/8 | C7 e-8 g c d f# a | a- d f# g c e | f#-- a d c e g |
Number 86 - Staying Low
bass lick 6/8 | C7 e-8 g c f#- a d | d f# a c- e g |a- d f# g- c e |
Number 112 - Starting on Each String
bass lick 6/8 | C7 e-8 g c a d f# | d f# a g c e |f#-- a d c e g |
And here is what a few of these licks sound like against some chords. This is not the richest accompaniment, but it lets you hear the general idea.
Against C7#11 (rootless voicing)
piano voicings tempo 90 6/8 C7#11 | C7#11 | C7#11 ||| { | ( e2. f# g b ) | (e2. f#2. g b ) | (e2. f#2. g b) | }{| c8 e g d f# a | e-8 g c f#- a d | g- c e a- d f# | }
Against G Maj 9 (root on some)
piano voicings tempo 90 6/8 Gmaj | Gmaj | Gmaj |||{ | (d2. f#2. a b ) | (d2. f#2. a b ) | (d2. f#2. g g+) | }{| c8 e g d f# a | e-8 g c f#- a d | g- c e a- d f# | }
Lots of stuff. That's just 10 of 'em. Told ya. There are 600 others left for you to figure out. Some general observations:
1) The lines that alternate triads tend to sound more interesting (to me anyway). Yet, having lines that stay on one triad and then move to the other can be useful also. 2) Changing direction in the line helps, but having a line going in just one direction can sound great too. There is just so much stuff here to play with.
Okay great, so what can you play this C Maj/D maj pair over?
Any chords in the key of G Major or E Minor so your Gmaj, Cmaj7#11, Bmin, Emin, A dorian, D7
Dsus, C7#11 also.
F# minor flat 5 - Autumn Leaves anyone?
But ...there are not really any hard rules, you could try anything, for instance, say you wanted to try it over a BbMaj9 chord? What would happen?
Well you would have:
BbMaj9
C - 9th
D - 3rd
E - #11
F# - #5/b13
G - 13
A - Major 7
Hmmm, tasty possibilities. #11, nice and a #5, kinda whole-toney. Try it!
What about say..F7?
F7
F# - b9
G - 9
A - 3rd
C - 5th
D - 6th
E - Major 7
piano voicings tempo 90 6/8 F7 | F7 | F7 | { | (eb2. f a c2. ) | (eb2. f a c2. ) | ( eb2. f a c2.)|} {| c8 e g d f# a | e-8 g c f#- a d | g- c e a- d f# |}
Also has potential. The b9 - always a bold statement. And even with the natural 7 against the flat 7 of the dominant it might work, remember, the Bebop scale has that note in it and people play that all the time over a dominant chord. Just don't sit on the E.
But that is how you figure it out, just map what the notes of your triad pair would be in relation to the chord you want to play over and see how it goes. Some will be way way out there in a good way, some in the bad way, but others will be just spicy enough to keep using and give you a little extra snap on your solo.
And remember those 3 groupings of triad notes that we took off the table back there? Well, those sound pretty good too:
The Left Overs
bass lick tempo 140 6/8 | C7#11 c g+ e d a+ f# | e c+ g f# d+ a | g e+ c a f#+ d |
So this post is the tip of a very big iceberg, there are minor/major pairs, augmented/major pairs, pairs a half-step apart, ad infinitum...this is just an intro to the concept and samples on one measly set of triads.
More Info, Credits, and History
Like I said, this concept has been around for quite a while, but as bass players we are usually the last ones to get solo concepts trickled down to us. But horn players (especially sax players), guitar players and keyboard players have all been using this concept for years and years.
There are a couple of very well known books about how to make different triad pairs and how to determine what chords they fit over:
The most well known book is rather bluntly entitled Triad Pairs for Jazz , written by Gary Campbell, a music professor at University Of Miami. This one is the most extensive, oh, except for the overt and glaring lack of any bass clef in the entire dang thing whatsoever. Campbell showed stuff like this to Michael Brecker, or so Brecker said once. This is the book that I got it from. He takes a very structured approach to building the pairs and goes through an exhaustive list of possibilities. He also explains how to derive a pair from any particular scale. If you think this stuff is cool, you will like this book. Even though it has zero bass clef in it. None.
Another good book is called Hextonics by Jerry Bergonzi. "Hex" as in six, as in two different three note triads. Same idea as triad pairs, he just calls them something else, but in true Bergonzi fashion he creates a cubic butt load of lines and melodies with various inversions and melodic permutations and combinations. This book also has a play-along and you can hear Bergonzi demonstrate some examples of different pairs in action as well which is always nice. But again, sadly bass clef-less.
I think the oldest of the books is called "Intervallic Improvisation" by Walt Weiskopf. It is not as in depth as Campbell's, but it still has a lot of good stuff in it. Walt is playing sax for Steely Dan these days so they must dig it. There is a link to a video of Walt below, demonstrating the goods in person.
But supposedly this concept is the creation of a guy named Charlie Banacos, who was more or less the Yoda of improvisational music. He was a very famous guy who used to give lessons by mail. Yea, not e-mail, like, you wrote down stuff on a piece of paper and put it in that little metal box nailed to the side of your house, and then in a week or two some guy in a blue uniform with a truck that has the steering wheel on the wrong side brought you a cassette tape and a piece of paper that came from Mr. Banacos saying "do this stuff". Then you did that stuff, which was usually ass-kickingly hard and took a really long time and made you cry (or so all his students say) then you dried your tears, sent him a cassette of you playing his lesson exercises and another piece of paper saying "okay, now what" and then he sent you something back that was even harder to do than the first thing he sent you...and on it went like that. But, anyway, a lot of very famous well known monster players did his various lessons over the years - Mike Stern, Jeff Berlin, Alain Caron, Bergonzi, Joe Hubbard, tons of guys all went to Degoba to get hip with this musical Yoda. Mr. Banacos passed away recently but his legacy lives on in all the players he taught.
So there you have it, a very long post on the crash-course in triad pairs.
And at the risk of beating a dead horse - remember this is not the primary stuff we get called on to do as bass players. This represents, at best, 5% of what we are expected to do, so don't let this stuff become 90% of what you are practicing all the time. Spend some time with it if it is new to you and play around with it, explore...but remember the things that we will be doing far more of when we play and make sure you practice all those things even more.
And just in case this all wasn't enough..here are some YouTube clips and blog postings, mostly from sax players, about using triad pairs.
Its a big subject, no doubt, and covers a broad range of things from just having good time, meaning things like not speeding up or slowing down, and making sure your notes are as long as they are supposed to be and your rests are a long as they are supposed to be, to being able to mesh/lock/meld/join in musical union with your drummer, to concepts like playing ahead of the beat or behind it, and to using rhythm as an element in your solos in an interesting and unifying way.
So lets just bite off a little corner for now and talk about that last one, rhythmic cohesion during a solo, or using rhythm as an element of your solo. We will also invite our friend, Mr. Chord Tone to join us as well.
When people talk solos, and especially bass solos, its always about the notes. Oh the notes, the notes, the notes, the notes! What notes can you play over this chord, and what scale substitution can you play, you know that super hip scale you heard that super hip bass player use on that super hip tune, you know instead of those boring old cord tones of the actual chord you are on. What? Play the notes from a C7 arpeggio over a C7 chord? Whatever, square. Why don't you get in your square car and drive back to squaretown and sit on your square chair at your square table and eat a sandwich, square man. Sheesh.
It's always about the notes.
But guess what, that is missing half the equation. More than half. More like, I would say almost 80% of what is going on is rhythm. You can play all kinds of notes against a chord, at this point in the game, in 2011, pretty much anything goes. The short, and admittedly glib and smart arse answer to "what can I play over a blah blah blah" is "you can play anything over anything".
But the real question is "what can I play that sounds good and convincing over a blah blah blah chord" and the answer to that is "play with solid rhythm and play the *gasp* actual chord tones of the chord itself"
Don't believe me?
Point your earholes at those notes right there for a second and then join me down there below:
Play them, with the different rhythm each one has. They all sound different, huh.
Well guess what, each measure has exactly the same notes, in exactly the same order, only the rhythm is different.
I just blew your mind, didn't I. Well, check it out. Look at the order of the notes, C, G, Bb, E. Every bar in that order.
So before you start looking for that #5Locrain2DiminishedBbOverF#MinorTritonesub scale, how about you just play with the rhythm on the chord that is already there, with the notes that, you know, make up the chord you are on?
To that end, I have been playing around with a very, very cool program I just discovered called Lilypond for a few days and well...things got out of hand. It is a notation program/programming language smooshed together and I started fooling around with it, and well, I figured some things out, then some more things, and then..well, then it got molto ridiculoso and presto.
To wit, below is a file with over 1000 measures of different one bar rhythms using only the notes from C7, thats C-E-G-Bb, and using only quarter notes and eighth notes (and rests). Thats it. This entire thing is an example of how much variance is possible with something very simple, and how easy it is to get a cool phrase going with a just the basics - chord tones and a basic rhythm.
The bass masters of this are Charlie Haden and Larry Grenadier. Yea, I know they are upright players, but they both play solos that are amazing, and yet they are not always burning up with some superhip downtown chord subs or doing scale running. They both certainly can do that, but all of their solos have such strong rhythmic phrases, even when using "just" chord tones you get reeled in by what they are doing and can't help but listen. And Sonny Rollins is the fount of all that is Ridiculoso in this regard, check out his solos on the classics like St. Thomas, Blue 7, heck, really anything he plays and see how he uses rhythm as an element even more than the notes.
So check out the pdf. There are three staves and each measure in each staff (going down) has exactly the same pitches, in exactly the same order, every time, and the only thing that is different is where the rests fall and what the rhythmic values of the pitches are.
So put on a play along track, and start reading. Some are going to sound a little mechanical, but I guarantee you will find at least one that you like and a way to play those regular old, boring, milquetoast, tap water chord tones from a C7 chord that you haven't played before.
Circle the ones you like as phrase rhythms and try playing the same rhythm across a set of chord changes using just chord tones and that rhythm. Bet it sounds like a unified phrase. Or find three that compliment each other and string them together to make a longer phrase. There is hours of stuff here.
And back to the music is a language analogy for a second, treat this file as a kind of dictionary or a reference source. You wouldn't try and write a book by just flipping to any page in a dictionary and randomly picking a word, you could, but tomato involute kunzite parabola.
This file is the same way, its for exploring and playing with, not for reciting measure by measure for your next solo. Dig in and mine it for two or three bar phrases or ways of playing the chord tones in a cool rhythm you haven't done before. Then play with that over other chords. It never ends.
Just a reminder to think rhythm and get more mileage out of those good ol' 3rds and 7ths.
Here is another great improv blog from a guitar player in NYC.
He just posted his own lesson about soloing which shows how knowing the chord tones of a songs progression will let you really create strong melodies during your solo. He takes it to using just chord tones in a solo which is great way to get the core of the tune internalized.
And if you think about it, every time we do a walking bass line that is exactly what we are doing, going through the song by using (usually) chord tones or closely related tones to outline the changes. He just shows how you would do it during a solo.
Same deal as the previous post, this one is all the possible ways to play the 4 notes in a C Minor 7 chord - C, Eb, G, Bb.
I did this one as quarter notes, and for sure you are going to hear some familiar walking patterns. This is exactly what walking bass lines are made of!
At quarter notes it sounds like someone walking on a modal tune that just stays on one chord, huh? Not all of these would make great walking lines, but some sure do. Pick the ones you like for your tool kit. You can really hear how strong these are when you turn them into a walking line.
bass lick tempo 120 4/4 | C c4 eb g bb | C c eb bb g | C c g eb bb | C c g bb eb | C c bb eb g | C c bb g eb | C eb c g bb | C eb c bb g | C eb+ g- c bb | C eb g bb c | C eb bb c g | C eb bb g c | C g c eb bb | C g c bb eb | C g eb c bb | C g+ eb bb c | C g bb c eb | C g bb eb c | C bb c eb g | C bb- c g eb | C bb eb c g | C bb eb g c | C bb g c eb | C bb g eb c |
Isn't it supposed to be "A,B,C's"? Not in the chord spelling alphabet it isn't.
This "spelling" term is just another name for figuring out the notes in a chord that you see on a chart. You spell out the letters one by one and figure out what makes up the root, third, the fifth etc. Many times as bass players all we get is a set of chord symbols so we have to be all up on that right quick and be able to just *BAM* know what notes it takes to create that scary looking G7#9b13 chord that is staring back at us and giving off that cold clammy feeling. Uh oh, does it have an Bb in it? A D#???
There is a very easy way to spell out any chord you want, and I thought everyone knew this one, but I have shown it to more than one person who said "neat! I didn't know that way", so here it is.
Circle of Thirds
If you arrange all the letters of the musical alphabet in thirds (A,B,C,D,E,F and G thats it, those are all the letters in the musical alphabet) you get something that looks like this -
There is nothing magical about putting "C" at the top of this, I just used it because of the no sharps/flats thing, but if you have a private vowel fetish you can put "E" or "A" at the top and continue the pattern around the circle, or if you quietly yearn for the letter "F" you can start on that letter. Whatever, freak.
It is a circular arrangement, so once you put the letters in this order no matter where you start it will always go around and get all the other letters/notes there are, so start on whatever letter you want, see?
C E G B D F A
E G B D F A C - same arrangement just starting on E
G B D F A C E - same arrangement just starting on G
B D F A C E G - same arrangement just starting on B
D F A C E G B - same arrangement just starting on D
F A C E G B D - same arrangement just starting on F
A C E G B D F - same arrangement just starting on A
and then back to...
C E G B D..etc. original starting on C
How it works
I will use a crazy sounding chord as an example, say, oh, how about a C7b9#11b13. Whoa, crazy chord huh. Not really. Here is how you figure out what notes are in it:
Pick your root, in this case, it is the "C"
Go around the circle to the right - the next note will be the third of your chord, always. In this case "E"
Go to the next note - this note will always be the 5th - "G"
Keep going - 7th - "B"
Keep going - 9th - "D"
One more! - 11th - "F"
and finally - 13th. "A"
So we got:
C E G B D F A R 3 5 7 9 11 13
Those are the raw notes. We know for this chord the 3rd is going to be some kind of "E" it may have to be raised or lowered (sharpened or flattened), but it is gonna be an "E" note of some kind. Same with the llth, its going to be some kind of "F" note, we might have to ensharpenify it or flattenify it to fit the type of chord, but it is going to be an "F". So lets see if we need to modify any notes to fit the chord ... It's a dominant chord so it has a major 3rd and a flat 7, and then this one has some of those fancy altered notes so we have to flat the 9th, ensharpenate the 11, and flatify the 13. So note-by-note we get:
Root - its fine
3rd - "E" natural is right, it is a major third from C.
5th - "G" that is fine too, G doesn't need to be changed.
7th - "B", okay "B" needs to be changed to a "Bb" to fit a dominant chord since dominant chords have flatted 7ths, and "B" is the natural 7 of C.
9th - "D" also, this needs to be flatted (moved down one fret) to fit this chord and become a "Db"
11th - "F" - this is opposite, we have raise it by one fret to "F#"
13th - "A" - we are back to flattening, have to make this a "Ab".
So the final notes in the chord are:
C
E
G
Bb
Db
F#
Ab
R
3
5
b7
b9
#11
b13
You do still have to know how to construct the basic chord types of Major, Minor, Minor 7 flat 5, Dominant, Diminished and Augmented. You need to know your intervals too and be able to tell that a C7 chords has "E" as a major third, no sharps or flats, but an Ab7's 'natural' notes (so to speak) is going to have an Eb as the fifth, so you you have to know your sharps and flats. There is no trick to that except rote memorization. Lets look at another example starting on a different note so you can see how it works, this time lets do a DMaj9 chord. Same procedure, just start on D instead of "C" and go to the around the circle clockwise.
Same drill, the note after the D is the third, the next note is the 5th, the note after the seventh..you get the hang of it. Now for this chord, we need to raise the "F" to an "F#" and the C to a C# to make the third and the 7th Major. Bam. Done.
Okay, so what about when I have an "Eb" or a "C#" chord, smart guy? Those notes aren't on your little circle there. Huh? What about those? Just start on the letter of the chord you want to spell, so just start on "E", and treat it as an Eb. The next note on the circle is still going to be the third, and then just figure out if you need a G natural, Gb or god forbid a G# for the kind of chord you are making. Same with the sharp notes, just start on the letter C, even in a C# chord, the third is going to be some kind of "E", it may get weird with enharmonic spellings, but it is still an "E" even if it is "E sharp" or F.
So if you memorize any one of those arrangements of the Circle of Thirds that you like, with very little practice you won't even be thinking about it, you will just rattle off "E G B D F A C" and be grabbing the thirds, fifths and sevenths of any chord that gets thrown at ya, sharpening the thirds or flatting the fifths as you go, right quick.
Janek Gwizdala is one of my favorite players. Wait, I have been writing this blog for a week and said that like 3 times already. Hmmm. Why is that?
Oh yea, that's why, because he is a monstrous bad ass that sounds great and grooves.
Anyway, Janek has been doing video podcasts at his site and in one of them he goes over his practice routine. It's video 2 in the link the sentence above this, and in it he shows an exercise using a diminished to minor pattern he uses during his warm up. It is written out below for your harmonic enlightenment and pedagogical perusing.
It is a v-i resolution, but he plays a diminished chord (all minor thirds) on the way up, a half-step away from the i chord, and then comes back down an arpeggiated minor chord as the tonic, then turns that minor chord into the next diminished chord and goes all the way up the neck with that pattern. It sounds more complicated than it really is, and it sounds really cool. Go watch the video and then download the pdf below and sound all hip and jazzy and new york and shit.
Also, Janek is going to start doing videos every week. You can sign up for month or a quarter at a time and this is really one of the most amazing things about living when we do. For what is a really cheap price, you get to hear from someone actually doing it, how they actually do it. Direct and at the time of your choosing. In the entire history of music before us, if you wanted to learn how guys doing it in New York or Kansas City or Chicago or wherever were doing it, even 20 years ago, you had to GO TO NEW YORK. That was it, that was your only option. To even hear them you had to wait until they came through your town, IF they came through your town, and get a lesson? Yea, right. Now with the internet, the access we have to learning is some serious spaceage-flying-car-silver-jumpsuit-wearing stuff. We live in the future, man. My point being is that you have access to so much musical learning in ways that no other generation before us had, if you sound like crap, it's your own damn fault. Myself included in that indictment too, of course.
