A Regularly Scheduled Interval

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:

1. 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.
2. Repeat one or two patterns before going to the next one
3. Change the rhythm
4. 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.

So there ya go, something to chew on. Go nuts.

8 Ways To Play Triads ... in C Melodic Minor This Time

The major version of the triad exercises were such a hit, here are the same 8 exercises except this time in C melodic minor, which has a couple of curve balls in it.

Just a reminder that melodic minor has only one flatted note, the third, Eb. The rest of the notes are the same as C Major. The notes in the scale are:

C D Eb F G A B C

This combination of notes makes for some unique chords like the augmented triad (the one with the plus sign) and more than one diminished chord. That means this scale has a lot of possibilities so work these out and transpose them to other keys or play them in different orders and make up some new combinations of your own. Clicking on each image below will open a larger version for you to download or print.

Announcing A New E-Book: The Book of Triads, C Major

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.

Triads with Octaves This Time: 8 Ways To Play Them

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.

8 Ways to Play Triads: In E Major This Time

Well, you mooks sure like you some free bass junk. Geez.

That post with the C Major triads got all kinds of hits.

The crafty ones amongst you may have already transposed the exercise in C Major to other bass friendly keys like E and A and G, but for those who are transpositionaly impaired, well, here are the same 8 exercises in E Major instead of C Major.

Same deal, figure out some cool fingerings and practice them slow.

And you mooks are on your own for any other keys you want to do these in.

8 More Ways To Play All The Triads In C Major

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".

Three Volumes of The Book of Chord Tones - Major, Dominant & Minor

Next week, all three books of The Book of Chord Tone series will be ready for all your grubby little bass playing fingers. These books cover all the 24 possible variations for the four notes in each of the chord types (major, minor, dominant), over two octaves and with brain damaging tab included.

Also, piasan de Basso, and molto ridiculoso bassist Damian Erskine has decided (very likely against the advice of his agent, his attorney and his doctor) to allow his thoughts to be recorded about this series after he viewed the books himself. And I quote

"The Book of Chord Tones has assembled what I believe to be a terrific resource and a wonderful way in which to explore chord tones. Working through these exercises opens up your mind and ears to what you can do "inside" of a chord while soloing (or just expanding your vocabulary with regard to bass lines). If we take these basic exercises and begin to expand the harmony to include tensions and alternate chord types, one truly has opened a Pandora's box with regard to playing inside any changes. It's this kind of practice which leads to fretboard mastery"

Damian Erskine

http://www.damianerskine.com

Peter Erskine Trio, Teri-Lynn Carrington, Gino Vannelli, Jeff Lorber, Tony Furtado, Solo Artist, adjunct professor Portland State & Marylhurst University, Columnist, Author 

You know that is going to come back and haunt him at some point, but for now, get a copy before he wises up and sends me a cease and desist letter on scary legal looking letterhead. Eh, like I haven't ever got one of those before.....

In the meantime, if you want to get your head wrapped all the various chord tones, from fret zero all the way up to fret 22, check out the link below where you can see the first few pages of each book. They all follow a similar format except the kind of chords they outline changes.

And if you do pick up a copy, please let me know what you think via email or leave a comment here.




http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/BassoRidiculoso

Daily Licking 040: All The ii-v Arpeggios

Always handy to have around. Just in case.

Save, print, make wrapping paper out of it, a million and one uses.

The Pentatonic Lick Factory

UPDATE - added a PDF that shows a bunch of examples

You can never have too many pentatonic licks. Ever.

But, in the real world what usually happens is first you learn the little box shapes, okay cool, then maybe some of the other shapes, the ones that start on notes other than the root, and then.....it kinda tapers off.

What can happen after a while is you just keep playing the same box-shape licks over and over. And over and over and over. Or maybe you find another pattern that fits under your fingers, but you only have one or two familiar patterns you default back to or they are the ones that fit under everybody's fingers. I mean, I certainly have never done that. Of course not. Never. Okay, I totally have.

Then the question becomes - Well, how do I make/invent/discover/create new material anyway? If only there were some repeatable, step-wise process one could use to generate new licks and phrases for use in solos. Oh what a great world it would be...

Of course there is.

And I am going to show y'all one.

New Bergonizifier Feature - Rests

Finally got around to adding another feature to the Bergonzifying Transmogrifier.

Now you can add a rest as part of the Transmogrification, so you can get a little more interesting rhythmic permutations.

The "rest" choice is the last choice in 3 of the drop downs now. You gotta have one note or else...whats the point?

It means you can get stuff like this now:

One Rest

Two Rests

Two Rests and Two Notes

So enjoy and go nuts with it.

http://bassoridiculoso.net16.net/

Resolutions

Here is a little file that shows all the different ways to connect the juicy chord tones of a dominant chord, in this case a G7, to it's tonic chord, C Maj.

This is the most fundamental, basic progression in the white-guy from Europe style of music - dominant to tonic, or five to one, V - I. A dominant chord (G) moving up a fourth to a major chord (C).

And since it is so important it is a good place to spend a little time and get familiar with it.

What this pdf does is show all the ways that you can play the interesting tones of the dominant chord, namely the chord tones themselves - so G, B, D & F on that measure, and then resolve those tones to one of the juicy notes of the tonic chord, namely the chord tones of that chord, so C, E, G or B.

There are two juicy notes on the dominant chord, so for instance, the 3rd and the 7th, or the root and the 3rd, or the 5th and the root, and then those lead into landing onto one of the notes of the C Major.

Getting these in your ears will really help you hear the chord changes, even if you are playing single note lines. Try a few and check out how strongly they convey the chords with just a couple of notes.

Stay tuned for lots more on this topic....

Links for Approach Tones

Here are a couple of links to more info on using approaches to chord tones in your solos:

1. A detailed post from a guitar forum (I know, just pretend it isn't) about various approach tones and using chord tones as targets.
   
2. A supposed Mike Stern lesson on approach tones. Written in god-awful brain damaging tab for your mental anguish, but it re-enforces some of the stuff about approach tones and shows a few more kinds.
   
3. This one has notation and a midi file.
   

Traidpaloozza Number 2: Approach Tones

Okay. So you think "triads are easy". They are too simple. They are boring. They are old school they are not where it's at. Man.

Well, first of all, yes they are too cool. And secondly, if you really want to add something new to your triads, one of the most common ways to spice them up is to start adding approach tones to them.

These approach tones are tones that approach each note in the triad, ergo, the name.

Exactly where this approach note comes approaching from is where all the fun begins. You can approach the chord tones from a note above each chord tone, or a note below each chord tone, or a note above and a note below, or two notes below and then one note above or...you get the idea.

Here is how it goes: first we need a regular major triad so lets use G major, so G (root), B (third) and D (fifth).

bass lick tempo 120 4/4 | G g4 b4 d4 r4 |

Now lets add an approach note from below each chord tone so, a Gb/F# in front of the G, a Bb in front of the B, and a C# in front of the D

bass lick tempo 120 4/4 | G f#-8 g bb b c# d f# g |

Sounds more zesty huh? Thats a spicy meat-a-ball huh? But it gets better. As diligent readers know, there a musical concept of strong and weak beats that has been discussed here before. Having the notes of a chord occur on these strong beats just sounds better. It just does. This last example does NOT do this however, so while it sounds kinda cool, you can make it sound even better by just shifting things a little.

The strong beats are the down beats, so if you are counting "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and", the strong beats would be the beats on the numbers, 1 2 3 4 and the "ands" are the weak beats. So if we do a little rhythmic shenanigans with these approach notes and push them back just one eighth note, look at what we get.

Approach From Below Rhythmically Arranged

bass lick tempo 120 4/4 f#-8 | G g8 bb8 b8 c#8 d8 f#8 g bb8 | G b8 c#8 d8 f#8 g2 |

Now the stronger notes, the chord tones themselves, are on the strong beats, the downbeats.

This is by far the better way to phrase with approach notes. Approach notes are not usually chord tones, they set up the chord tones, so you want to shift the approaches back so that the chord tone itself gets the down beat and comes down on one of those strong 1 2 3 4 beats.

Here is another set of approaches, the opposite of the first one, this time we will come from a note above each chord tone. So for the same G major triad, an Ab in front of the G (root), a C natural in front of the B (third), and an Eb in front of the D (fifth).

Approach From Above Rhythmically Arranged

bass lick tempo 120 4/4 ab8 | G g8 c8 b8 eb8 d8 ab+8 g8 c8 | b8 eb8 d8 ab+8 g2

But hold on, you say. There is no freaking Ab note in G Major! Those approach notes are not even in the key or the scale or the chord or anything, you can't just go adding notes like that willy nilly helter skelter hodge podge willy skelter!

Uhhhhh, why not?

Actually, you totally can. When you are embellishing a chord like this, it's okay that these approach notes are not in the key or the scale or don't seem related to the chord you are playing except that they are right next to them.

Its like this....say you have a big 4 pound steak, and you put some parsley on it, it doesn't make the steak taste like parsley. It still tastes like steak. You might get a molecule of parsley taste in there somewhere but your brain doesn't think you ate a fork full of salad all of a sudden. It still thinks "yum, dead cow parts". Well, triads are like a big fat fillet mignon cooked in garlic butter. You are gonna taste that meaty buttery garlicy cow no matter what, even if you put some fru-fru little green thing on top of a little part of it. That steak flavor still cuts through and is what you taste the most of, no problem.

That's what triads are like, they are grass fed medium well beef covered in garlic butter. Musically speaking. Even with an extra note in there, you still get the full meaty triad taste. Especially if you shift the approach notes so that the chord tones come in on the downbeats you can add all kinds of approach notes and still get the triad-y-ness of the chord you are playing.

Let's try it with two approach notes, and also get even more rhythmically crafty and make the approach notes 16th notes but keep the triads tones themselves as 8th notes.

Approach From Above & Below Rhythmically Arranged

bass lick tempo 120 4/4 ab16 f#16 | G g8 c16 bb16 b8 eb16 c#16 d8 ab+16 f#16 g8 c16 bb16 | b8 eb16 c#16 d8 ab+16 f#16 g2

Now reverse this pattern so that instead of above below, it is below above

Approach From Below & Above Rhythmically Arranged

bass lick tempo 120 4/4 f#-16 ab16 | G g8 bb16 c16 b8 c#16 eb16 d8 ab+16 f#16 g8 bb16 c16 | b8 c#16 eb16 d8 f#16 ab16 g2

There are other ways to vary the rhythms and the combinations of approach tones is endless as well. And you don't have to play the triads in R - 3 - 5 order either, try them in all the other combinations as well, but with the approach tones in front of each chord tone.

You get the idea, it can go on and on and on. For more info on this concept check out Gary Campbell, Hal Galper, Jeff Berlin, and every saxophone book ever written.

Of course this isn't just for soloing either, not so much for walking lines, but for sure on rock/pop/r & B lines you can use this all the time. Keep the approach notes shorter and on the weak beats for best results.

Try the approach notes here on major chords as well as minor chords and even the diminished and augmented. You will probably hear a few familiar licks in there from just these basic examples.

Triad Palooza - Diatonic Triad Variations

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.

Transmogrifier 2.0 Released

Much to the chagrin of *ahem* certain people, version 2.0 of the Bergonzifying Transmogrifier has been released!

http://bassoridiculoso.net16.net/

New features include:

• Adds Treble Clef output with piano sound
• Adds support for patterns of 8th and 16th notes (in addition to the original quarters.)

Announcing "The Bergonzifying Transmogrifier" - A Basso Web App

Boy, are you gonna be glad you were not Raptured.

Behold.






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.

Daily Licking 037: Playalong ii-v In All Keys

(fixed the link to the wrong mp3. Doh.)

Spent some time goofing around with GarageBand and the many minutes of hard work (not really), have resulted in a handy play along file that others may find some use for. Ya can't have too many ii-v's to practice. Use it to work up some of the ii-v licks posted previously, or your favorite lick from Pent-up House or just to practice soloing on, there are a million and one uses. Goes great on salads too.

The track is very very simple rhythmically, just whole notes, so you can really hear how any notes you play fit (or don't) against the chords. There is also no bass so you can add your own.

Here is a simple chart that shows the order of the progression. The mp3 is loopable so it will continuously repeat until you get the lick nailed. Click on the chart, save to disk, blah blah all that.

To loop the audio, just load the mp3 in Quicktime Player (free for mac and windows), and just select "Loop". Ta-da. Done. Then bust out your favorite ii-V-I lick and practice moving it through each key.

http://www.divshare.com/download/14480543-5e1

Some other things to do that are fun:

1. Play just the third of each chord as a whole note. Record yourself so you can hear what that sounds like. Then do the 5th, 7th, etc to hear what each note sounds like against each chord.
   
2. Run the arpeggio of each chord up and down.
   
3. Play other arpeggios against the chord, for instance on Dmin, try a F maj, or an Amin arpeggio, on the G7 try a Bmin7b5 and go up to the ninth. HA! Tricked ya, that is just the G7 starting on the third! But check it out, play around with stuff like that.
4. Start a scale on the third of each chord and go up in 8th notes. Try different scales (appropriate ones for each chord type). Where does the end of the scale leave you relative to the next chord? A nice juicy note?
   
5. Play different pentatonics against each chord, on Dmin7 try Amin, Emin, and even, wait for it, Bmin.
6. And of course, practice walking lines over the progressions. This is the most common progression there is in a lot of improvised music, so you can't ever go wrong trying different ways to connect these chords.
   

Enjoy. And if there are any other progressions y'all would like to see let me know, or if you would be interested in how to make your own, I could do a post on that as well. Ciao!

More of Jeff Berlin's Valse Nobles

Here are some additional resources for getting Jeff Berlin's Valse Nobles et Sentimentales together. Well, maybe not together but at least playable.

The full thing is here - http://bassoridiculoso.blogspot.com/2011/03/daily-licking-036-jeff-berlin-part-on.html, however that is only a pdf. The reason is because when I started figuring it out, well, lets just say there was some initial confusion in the rhythmic interpretation department of the thing and someone was under the mistaken impression there was more than one time signature involved. And it does not appear as though that is the case.

So, now you can hear just the bass part of the A section (via the always excellent bopland.org) and maybe get a handle on what the hell is going on.

There are two versions, one at Berlin-tempo-ridiculoso and one at a much more slow pace, around 60 bpm.

Then there are just the triplet licks broken out as well. They are not a paralyzingly frightening when they get slowed down and you can hear them by themselves a few times. And by few I mean about 700 or so.

Valse Nobles @ 200 bpm

bass lick swing 0 3/4 tempo 200 | Dbmaj db4. ab+8 f+4~| f8 e8 bb+4. f8 |Bb7 bb--4. ab+8 d4~| d8 b8 g+4. bb-8 | Eb eb-4. eb+8 b+4~ | b8 bb-8 f+4. g-8 | Dbmaj ab4 [d-8 ab+ c] [f ab c-] |[f d ab] [c f d] [ab c f] |db-4. ab+8 f+4~ | f8 e8 bb+4. f8 |bb--4. ab+8 d4~ | d8 b8 g+4. bb-8 |eb-4. eb+8 (g4~ b~) | (g8 b) bb-8 db+4. g--8 | c4 [eb8 e8 g-] [c eb gb] |c2 r4 |

Valse Nobles @ 60 bpm

bass lick swing 0 3/4 tempo 60 | Dbmaj db4. ab+8 f+4~| f8 e8 bb+4. f8 |Bb7 bb--4. ab+8 d4~| d8 b8 g+4. bb-8 | Eb eb-4. eb+8 b+4~ | b8 bb-8 f+4. g-8 | Dbmaj ab4 [d-8 ab+ c] [f ab c-] |[f d ab] [c f d] [ab c f] |db-4. ab+8 f+4~ | f8 e8 bb+4. f8 |bb--4. ab+8 d4~ | d8 b8 g+4. bb-8 |eb-4. eb+8 (g4~ b~) | (g8 b) bb-8 db+4. g--8 | c4 [eb8 e8 g-] [c eb gb] |c2 r4 |

First Triplet Catastrophe 60 bpm

bass lick swing 0 3/4 tempo 60 | Dbmaj ab+4 [d-8 ab+ c] [f ab c-] | [f d ab] [c f d] [ab c f] | r2 r4 | r4 r2 | r4 r2 |

Second Triplet Catastrophe 60 bpm

bass lick swing 0 3/4 tempo 60 | Dbmaj c+4 [eb8 e8 g-] [c eb gb] | c2 r4 | r2 r4 | r2 r4 |

Daily Licking 029: First Two Choruses of Bass on Mr. P.C

More bass this time, once I started I couldn't stop myself, so maybe we will catch up with the tenor solo and do the bass line up to chorus six as well.

Walking? More like running.

At this tempo it is more like a sprint than a walking bass line. But, just like Coltrane, does P.C care? Of course not. Let's see how he attacks this thing at a tempo this crazy.

Daily Licking 027: Chorus 6 of Mr. P.C.

Its like he has an army of chord assassins and uses ninja fingers that shoot fire to create music that regular people will never be able to comprehend. Because they don't have tiger blood.

No, not that guy, oh please, that guy is a mere insignificant napping earthworm compared to the ridiculoso orignal, tiger-blooded, martian rock star, sick of pretending he is not special, musical genius F-18 that is - Coltrane.

Just wanted to clear that up once and for all.

And as exhibit A, let us delve into chorus number 6 from said maniac.