"100 Yard Dash" Bass Line

Here is nice old school bass line by Raphael Saddiq on his retro tune called "100 Yard Dash". It repeats throughout the entire song with some slight variations. It has an interesting phrase that starts off the beat and the trick is keeping it solid and on those off beats to really glue the entire song together. Check it out.

Here is the track off the album:

Ron Carter Playing "Blues in F" Analyzed Note-By-Note

Back again with another transcription. This time really meaty stuff for us bass player - a walking line in F Blues.

Know how to make all your tappers, slappers, hair-scrunchy users, 9-string-detuned-to-a-low-C-alto-contrabass players pipe down?

Tell them to walk over an F Blues for a couple of choruses. Yea, suddenly they have to fix some knobs on their amp or something....real quick.

But I kid, all that stuff is great, but most people want and need BASS playing underneath them, and you can't get more back to basics than playing a bass line over an F blues. People spend lives and careers doing this. I can't even imagine how many times people like Jerry Jemmott, Ray Brown, Paul Chambers, John Paul Jones, or any other well known bass player walked or played blues of some style. Probably represents years worth of their time spent playing. If you can't make a blues sound good.....keep practicing!

Here is Ron Carter's bass line from a play-along he did many moons ago. It was from an Abersold playalong of Charlie Parker tunes, but this was a blues in F.

The recording is on Spotify, along with many other Abersold and Hal Leonard play alongs. Not an advertisement for them, just was up there and found there are quite a few play alongs on Spotify. So there you go, hunt it down and listen to him play it. It is from Vol 6., "All Bird".

Ron Carter gets called "The Most Recorded Bassist Ever", and it would take 10 pages to list everyone he has played with, everyone from Miles Davis to rappers. Take a look at how a master plays over one of the foundational song forms.

Some questions one might ask oneself:

1. What notes does he use?
2. How rhythmically complex is the line?
3. Does he play roots on specific beats?
4. How does he handle chords that last two measures? Or chords that only last two beats?

All the notes are labeled with the relationship they have to that particular chord. So for instance if you see the note "C" on a "C7" it is the root, ("R"), but if you see a "C" on an "F7" it is "5" or on a "Bb7" it is a "9".

Check it out and steal some lines from the best!

Ron Carter's Walking Line over F Blues

Charlie Parkers's Solo on "Bloomdido" Analyzed

So I have been hammered by what appears to be flu cancer and have been totally sick for a week, so it got me in front of my computer to do some nerd stuff with a very cool set of tools for music analysis called Music 21. It is written by some smarty pants that go to M.I.T, well, la de da, but they make it available for free, so when the revolution comes, we won't put them up against the wall. Not first anyway.

Music21 is a set of Python libraries (its a computer language) that knows about music. And boy, does it know stuff. This thing was written to analyze music and it can slice and dice musical info every way you want from last Tuesday.

Want to know the key of a tune? Psh. Easy.
Want to know how many "C" notes there are that are also 16th notes? Make me do something hard. Done.
What to label every note of a Charlie Parker solo so you can see what the relationship of each note is to the chord is played on?

Whaaaaa?

Yup, it can do stuff like that.

So for your analytical pleasure, I give you from the "Omnibook" Charlie Parker's solo on Bloomdido (a blues) with all of his notes labeled against each chord.

So what.

SOOO, this lets you break down and see the recipe for his licks.

For instance, instead of thinking of a lick as going "G A Bb C D C D", if you can see the relationship that those note have against a chord, say in this case G min, then you can use that lick on ANY minor chord. Rather than note names, if you think of the relationship these notes have, "Root, 9th, b3, 11, 5, 11" rather than just their names, this lets you see how they work against that chord, what their function is. If you want to do this lick in D minor now, play those notes - R, 9, b3, 11, 5, 11. It's a lot faster.

So here is the full pdf for your viewing pleasure. The file was taken from a Finale file someone posted on the internet, and I don't know where I got it, so if it was you, thanks.

Bloomdido Solo Analyzed

And here is Bird and Diz playing it, also with notation. This uses the Omnibook, and its not exactly the same as the version I got, but it is really close.

Music21 is pretty powerful and interesting, so if you are into music analysis and computers, check it out. More stuff to come using it in the future for sure. And if anyone has a solo or a bass line they want analyzed, just let me know. It needs to be in either a notation file format (Sibelius, Finale, etc.) or in MusicXML, with chord symbols on every measure, no empty measures.

Enjoy!

Jamerson's Part on "Can't Help Myself" by the Four Tops

Since it was Mr. Jamerson's birthday recently, I thought it would be befitting to put up one of his famous bass lines. This is what he plays on "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)".

Surprisingly, this song is not in the "Standing In The Shadow Of Motown" book of transcriptions, which is a little weird, but hey, that means I can put it up here.

The song is very simple. It is an 8 measure long repeating phrase, and it just loops. No B section or bridge really, there are 8 measures out front with bass, and then after they go through the progression 7 times, they do 8 measures of bass and drums and then they start the 8 measure phrase over again and fade out after a few more.

The progression:

C | C | G | G | Dmin | Dmin | Fmaj | G maj |

Thats it. Over and over.

The bass line is simple, but very sly and drives the entire song along. Notice how he puts a little marker at the last measure by changing the rhythm there, its like a little period at the end of a sentence.

Here is a recording posted by Rick Suckow that is supposedly the master tracks from the original recording:

And here it is written out:

bass lick tempo 125 4/4 | C c8 g a c8~ c g8 a c8 | c8 g a c8~ c g8 a c8 | G g+ d e g~ g d e g | g d e g~ g d e g | Dmin d a b d~ d a b d | d a b d~ d~ d e4 | F f8 c d f~ f c d f | G g d e8 r g8 a8~ a8 g |

So just put on a drum loop (at about 125 bpm )and practice playing this line evenly, steadily, and let every note get that thud. Even though this might be considered an easy song, making it sound great and groove is never easy and takes concentration.

Sometimes that last measure could be notated even more syncopated like this:

bass lick tempo 125 4/4 | G g+ d e8 r g8. a16~ a8 g |

He really anticipates some of them, but they are not that syncopated, it just feels like they are. He is grooving but kinda floating at the same time. Listen to the track to get into his feel, that is the most important thing for a track like this.

Enjoy!

Sonny Rollins F Minor Lick from Strode Rode

I have posted a line Sonny played on this tune before, (off of Saxophone Colossus), it was a very juicy lick from the bridge of Strode Rode, and here is another equally juicy lick from the beginning of his solo.

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:

1. What chord tones does he use? (hint - all of them)
   
2. How does he make those chord tones fall on strong beats?
   
3. Why does the lick sound so strong and resolve so well?
   
4. 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:

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 036: Jeff Berlin's Part on Valse Nobles et Sentimentales

And now for something completely, completely different.

Classical music for the electric bass? What? Sacrilege! Blasphemy! An amplified fretted instrument? Why, it just isn't done, my good man!

Oh yea?

Electric bass players have been playing classical stuff, oh, excuse me, *ahem*, etudes for quite a while. Various solo cello parts, Bach inventions and string quartet parts have all been adapted by those with profundo ridiculoso to be playable on bass. Jaco and John Pattituci have done it, not to mention countless other really great players that no one knows up on the YouTube.

Enter Mr. Jeff Berlin. He is easily in the top 5 of those who learned their way around the monkey wrench of an instrument that is the electric bass, and Mr. Berlin is no stranger to music written by dead foreigners from Euro-pia. He busted out an arrangement of a Bach prelude on one of his previous records, and even doubled-down on the sacrilege by putting a solo section smack dab in the middle of it. AND it had an electric guitar solo too.

On his most recent album, "Higher Standards" Mr. Berlin sets his musical wayback machine to only the beginning of the 20th century this time and plays a movement from a collection of waltzes "Valses nobles et sentimentales" by Maurice Ravel. Mr. Berlin plays the role of the bass player in a duet with Richard Drexler on piano, and himself on the electrified, fretified bass guitar.

This piece is less baroque and much more lush and romantic compared to his previous Bach renditions and the movement he plays, Number IV, is both pretty and delicate yet also ominous and spooky all at the same time.

Here are some versions of it on piano, one even by Maurice Ravel himself, who was recorded using the state of the art (in 1913) new-fangled technology of the player piano.













Here are some recorded versions of it with just piano. It is not the entire suite, only Number IV that you want.

http://www.pianosociety.com/cms/index.php?section=175

The Bass Part

The good news: This is the easiest thing to play on his latest record.

The bad news: This is the easiest thing to play on his latest record.

And it is not easy.

Here are a few places you can hear snippets of Jeff's version online:

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/JeffBerlin1

http://www.emusic.com/album/Jeff-Berlin-High-Standards-MP3-Download/11971122.html

This is one that is going to take repeated listening and lots of slow, and I do mean  s l o w   practicing to get it together.

Even though this is for bass, it has some serious finger twisters in it, fingerings that are not going to feel very familiar at all. This ain't "Mustang Sally". In some measures it changes between e flats and e naturals, b flats, and b naturals and g flat and g naturals. When you work out the fingerings for this, prepare yourself for saying "You have got to be kidding me" a lot.

Rhythmically, they do it very rubato-y in places. But just when you think they are going to break tempo, they really don't, but it is very rolling and fluid. Don't play this like a sequencer part, it has to have some lilt in it and it has to breathe in certain places.

You can also see a full score version written out if you want at the ISLMP site. There is both an orchestral version and one for just piano as well.

http://imslp.org/wiki/File:Ravel_-_Valses_nobles_et_sentimentales.pdf

As far as I could tell, Mr. Berlin's part is a mixture of the left and right hand.

And if anyone finds any mystery notes, let me know. There may be a few in there, my fingers and eyes were blurring after a while. 

Good luck!

Daily Licking 035: Chorus 2 of Clifford Brown on "Pent-Up House"

The second chorus of the ii-v-I fest from Mr. Brown today. It just keeps getting better.

Some patterns are developing:

1. Starting off sparsely. Just like in the first chorus, the first 4 measures of this chorus are much more sparse rhythmically compared to the rest of the chorus. Leaves him room to take it somewhere.
   
2. Not starting on the root of the chord. Again, he doesn't do this very often, he does in two places he hasn't done it before, but usually he saves it for the G Maj, when the ii-v resolves. Maybe this gives the 1 chord a extra sense of resolution? Interesting. The rest of the time he starts on 3rds, 7ths, 5ths and other juicy chord tones.
3. Outlining chords with arpeggios. All over the place, going up from the third, fifth and other strong chord tones straight up the arpeggio, just not starting on the root. He does chordal type lines, much more than scalar type lines.

The middle of this chorus is one grosso ridiculoso 9 measure long phrase of continuous 8th notes which go through a classic run-down of bebop altered licks. It is a thing to behold. So take a listen below, and behold it. But be warned, with all those half-steps in there, this one is another chorus where there are not going to be a nice, bass-centric, familiar box patterns for your fingers to fall into. This one is going to get your fingers thinking. All of these solos that come from non-bass sources are going to really get your fingers out of any lazy habits that they have developed. It sure has made me have to think. And we all know how exhausting that can be.

Pent-Up House - Clifford Browns Solo Chorus 2

bass lick 4/4 tempo 200 | Gmaj r2 e8 g b8 r8 | Amin7 a2 a2 | D7 a8 r8 r4 d-8 g b4 | GMaj g2 g2 | GMaj g8 r r4 r8 b c ab | Amin7 b a e g gb a c d | D7 [f8 e eb] d c db e d c | GMaj b c d e gb a ab gb | Gmaj g d b c d e f e | Dmin7 d c b a g gb f a | G7 e+ d c a b- d f a | Cmin7 g eb d c b g bb g | F7 a c eb g d c f e | Amin7 eb e g e f g a c | D7 r2 c8 db8 e db | Gmaj d bb b r r gb [bb a gb] | Gmaj g8 d r4 r2 |

7 note phrases in Bill Evans Oleo Solo

Check this out.

Now, maybe I am looking for patterns a little too hard...but check out the multiple grouping of notes in the first 16 measures of Evans' solo. Right-click the notes and choose "View Image" to see the brackets showing the groupings.

Random chance?

Not bloody likely.

Just count the occurrence of notes, not their duration. So, it doesn't matter if it is an eighth or quarter note, just that it is a note.

Check out all the groupings of 7 notes.

That's some deep stuff.

Daily Licking 034: 1st Chorus of Clifford Brown on "PentUp House"

Another new one today. And, yes, I realize there are multiple tunes in progress, but hey, I get bored easy. So piano, tenor, trumpet, bass...that should do it for a while. Maybe.

After Mr. Evans and Mr. Coltrane, Clifford Brown is almost easy to transcribe. His tone is so clear, there is no ambiguity in either his notes or his rhythms, his execution is very, very precise. It's like he plays piano, but just with his mouth.

Daily Licking 033: Bridge and Last 8 of Bill Evans on Oleo

Without further ado, let us continue. We left our hero approaching the bridge to Oleo, with 8 full measures of nothing but dominant chords for him to smite and lay waste to. Let us witness the destruction that ensues!

I added the generic Rhythm Changes for the bridge, just so you can see how many altered notes he plays against the standard chords. Again, no nice little box patterns in this solo for bass, it is all about melodic shapes that don't come from Bass-land. Knock yourself out analyzing those notes against those bridge chords. For instance on the D7 he plays F naturals, A flats, D flats - its a free for all!

Daily Licking 032: 16 Measures of Bill Evans on "Oleo"

Happy Pi day. And Albert Einstein's birthday. So if you saw a black hole today, thats why.

And speaking of Nobel-prize winning german physicists and the speed of gravity, how about some Bill Evans licks?

I took this one from "Oleo" off his record "Everybody Digs Bill Evans". I predict that after listening and checking out what he did in just the first 16 measures of the tune you will see why the title of that record is very accurate. It was a trio with Sam Jones and Philly Jo Jones.

Daily Licking 031: Bass Line for Chorus 5 & 6 of Mr. P.C.

Well, caught up with the tenor solo finally, both are all the way up to chorus number 6.

This bass line keeps getting more and more interesting, this guy is just as nuts as Coltrane. Let us examine these next 24 measures.

Daily Licking 030: Bass Line for Chorus 3 & 4 of Mr. P.C.

Two more choruses, (chori?) coming at you and guess what, this guy breaks the rules too.

To B natural

Some funny things start happening in these two choruses, and I don't mean funny ha-ha.

For one, a suspicious number of b naturals start showing up in the bass line. I think he is in cahoots with Mr. Coltrane. Up until this chorus, he would play B flats, but what do you think, do you think he and Coltrane got together beforehand and agreed to do this? Or do you think that now that he is three choruses in, and Mr. P.C. has heard Coltrane go all honey-badger bananas and spray B naturals everywhere, so him and his radar ears just said "Oh it's like that, huh? Okay, it's on!" and started throwing natural sevenths into the bass line as well. That is a bass player that is listening, right there.

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 028: Bass Line For Head to Mr. P.C

A brief respite from the tenorisms of Mr. Coltrane for today.

Rather we shall take a look at what the songs name sake, Mr. Paul Chambers, is doing down there at over 200 bpm while Coltrane is busy abusing those poor chord tones.

So, below are the first two choruses of the bass line, the one played during the melody of Mr. P.C.

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.

Daily Licking 026: Back to Coltrane - Chorus 5 of Mr. P.C

Okay, after having to resort to repeated listening of "Music Box Dancer" in order to offset the Coltrane that has been bored into my ear holes, it is now possible to resume with our next chorus of the merciless onslaught. Steel your loins. If you have them.

Flouting

He is not happy with just playing "wrong" notes all over the place, he is double-dog-daring someone to call him on it. He is saying, "hey, its not enough for you when I play the major seven huh, well how about if it is the very first note of an entire chorus, huh, now what you are gonna do? Huh? Oh you gonna do something now?".

Daily Licking 025: McCoy Tyner's Full Blues Chorus Solo Phrase

Okay, still not recovered to handle another 12 measures of Coltrane tonight, so instead...McCoy Tyner.

McCoy is one of the last living old timers, between him and Sonny Rollins, they represent some of the last living links back to the early days of bop all that jazz has been through since then. The list of people McCoy has played with is like a history book of jazz - Coltrane, Brecker, Jones, Garrison, Henderson, Dorham, Blakey ... the list has all of 'em. How many albums has he been on? 100? 500? A heck of a lot. He even had Derek Trucks play on his last album, so he is just about making music of any kind, even now in his 70's.

I have been listening to Inception, McCoy's debut album as a leader, every day since I found it. He plays so many cool things on each tune every time through there is something new and awesome lurking around in there.

Case in point - the song "Blues For Gwen". It's just a blues right, every jazz album has one. What's the big deal. Well, check out the entire chorus below which is basically one crazy long complete phrase ridiculoso that McCoy just kinda rattles off like it was nothing as the eighth chorus he takes (at about 2:03). .

McCoy playing it at tempo (about 225 ish)

McCoy Speed for Bass

bass lick 4/4 swing 70 tempo 230 | Bb7 ab+ f g ab g e f g | ab f gb ab f db eb f | eb c d eb d bb a g | db+ b~ b db (a b) gb ab a | Eb7 ab+ f g ab g eb d c | db f db4 eb8 d db4 | Bb7 r8 d f c+ a bb [d- f g] | f gb a gb f eb db b | Cmin7 gb+ b bb gb e bb+ a g | F7 f e eb g d c f eb | Bb7 d bb g f bb4 bb4 | Bb7 r1 |

McCoy Half-Speed

Half Speed For Bass

bass lick 4/4 swing 50 tempo 112 | Bb7 ab+ f g ab g e f g | ab f gb ab f db eb f | eb c d eb d bb a g | db+ b~ b db (a b) gb ab a | Eb7 ab+ f g ab g eb d c | db f db4 eb8 d db4 | Bb7 r8 d f c+ a bb [d- f g] | f gb a gb f eb db b | Cmin7 gb+ b bb gb e bb+ a g | F7 f e eb g d c f eb | Bb7 d bb g f bb4 bb4 | Bb7 r1 |

You bust out a phrase like this on your next solo and watch the props you get. Wow.

You think it is gonna end, but it doesnt end, it just keeps going and then at the end it just parks itself with a "how do you like them apples, huh?" finality to it. A whole chorus as one phrase takes some big ears.

Bravo!

Sonny Rollins Lick From The Bridge of Strode Rode

I needed a palate cleanser after listening to all this Coltrane. No offense, but sometimes the man is just rather intense. I needed something a little more not Coltrane to clear my ears.

So I am putting up this awesome Sonny Rollins phrase from the bridge of his tune Strode Rode on Saxophone Colossus. The actual lick is included, and lets see how this embedding mp3 snippets works out. This way you can hear how he does it, both at regular speed and at half speed. He takes this one really fast, but it is such an awesome lick the way it just rolls off his horn. Another total Maestro Ridiculoso. Check it out. This one is guaranteed to perplex your fingers and use some patterns they have not run across doing those ol' pentatonic and dominant shapes.

Half-speed of Sonny playing it

120 bpm

bass lick swing 50 4/4 tempo 120 | Bbmin7 r8 f- a db f db a+ c | Eb7 bb ab g f eb d db f | Fmin7 eb b bb ab bb g ab bb |Gmin7b5 b db eb b C7#5 bb+ g r4 |

Actual Tempo Sonny playing it

250 bpm version

bass lick swing 50 4/4 tempo 250 | Bbmin7 r8 f- a db f db a+ c | Eb7 bb ab g f eb d db f | Fmin7 eb b bb ab bb g ab bb |Gmin7b5 b db eb b C7#5 bb+ g r4 |