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?