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!

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.

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.

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.)

More Random Notes for Pitch Recognizing

The last page of random notes was surprisingly popular, so here is another pdf with random notes on the bass clef.

This one is in eighth notes and has a lot of notes above the staff so you can practice recognizing those higher notes up on those ladder rungs.

Again these are not very realistic musical examples, the point is just to recognize the notes on the lines and spaces. The notes were auto-generated totally random, so there are jumps and lines that don't make any sense in there musically speaking.

This is not unlike most of the other postings up here, but at least this time you have been warned. Enjoy.

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.

Random Notes For Reading Practice.

Today on Bass Story Time, we read a very sad story.

See Joe.

See Joe's bass!

See Joe play his bass.

See Joe playing all alone.

Joe can't get a gig because Joe can't read.

Don't be a Joe. Prevent this tragedy. And get your reading on!

Yea, I know you keep meaning to get around to it, but those Xbox achievement points don't earn themselves do they? Maybe you are a great ear player, maybe you "used to" read a lot but...it has been a while, or maybe you just never sat down and did it.

It is just like regular reading. We all had to start slow and repeatedly practice regular old word reading when we attended St. Ignatius Reform School or the nuns came with their rulers and the screaming and the...I mean, we didn't just have the words pop into our heads and suddenly we were able to read words like "Stearoyl Lactylate" or any of the other ingredients on the back of our Twinkie bag.

We had to start with the little words like "ow" and "stop" and "yes, Sister Agnes" before we were able to read the more difficult, longer, and complex words like "arraignment" and "supervised probation".

So, to help get your reading kickstarted, and to make sure there are no big scary long words to worry about, I give you the following PDF. It just has quarter notes (4 to a measure) of random pitches on the good ol' bass clef for about, ohhh, 750 measures or so. This is so you can finally sit down and get at least the pitch part of your reading more fluid. You don't have to worry about rhythms on this, it is just to get the note names and to be able to recognize their friendly smiling blobbyness on the staff.

Remember the notes fore each line, starting from the lowest one are:

Generally (lowest line on the staff)

Black

Dudes

Frighten

Anglos

And the notes for the spaces are: (also from the bottom up)

Atheists

Can't

Enjoy

God

Take that Sister Agnes.

If you have to, print it out, and write the note names in on say, just first page. Then try the second page on your own.

This PDF is not full of musical phrases, it is just to get the notes recognized as second nature by looking at a bunch of them. Having them not be in some of the usual patterns we play will help.

Remember there is no secret to this, it just takes repetition, it just takes doing it.

Until next time, Ciao.

Daily Licking 038: JB Blues Progression

Here is a jazz-ed up blues progression that Jeff Berlin uses in his book on chord tones.

There are two versions of the audio, one at a tempo ridiculoso of 200 bpm, and one at a human tempo of 120 bpm.

Same drill as before, these are mp3s that play 5 times through the progression (so 60 measures total), but they are loopable so if you play them in any app that allows looping (and is any good at it) it will keep going and going.

I use Quicktime player, it works great, its free, and it's already on your machine if you have a Mac.

Blues at 120 bpm

http://www.divshare.com/download/14491642-914

Blues at 200 bpm

http://www.divshare.com/download/14491643-cfd

There are some extra juicy chords in this progression, some might look a little strange if you are used to playing the standard 3-chord I-IV-V blues. There are a bunch of extra dominant chords for the turnaround, a couple diminished chords sprinkled here and there, and even a fancy little thing called a tri-tone sub.

This tri-tone sub character shows up in measure 4, it is that E7, right after the Bb7 and right before the Eb7.

Here is the idea behind this crazy thing - the most important notes (other than the root) of any chord are the third and the seventh, because those are the notes that give away what type of chord it is, either major, minor, dominant, whatever. So those notes matter the most and the rest are somewhat secondary. There are a lot of piano players that don't even play the root sometimes, they just leave it out.

Now for the wild part: these two different chords, the Bb7 and the E7 have exactly the same third and seventh, they are just switched!. So that means if one were sneaky one could actually use one in place of the other if one wanted to make things sound a little more interesting. Check it out.

If we were going to follow the "rules" we would put a Bb (and lets just go ahead and make it a dominant since this is a blues shall we?) in front of the Eb, so we would get Bb7 to Eb7, or V to I. And that is how measure 4 starts, with a Bb7. So far so good. But then comes this E7. Huh?

Since you are a chord spelling master, you can peer into this mystery to see what notes make up both of these two chords in measure 4, the Bb7 and the E7.

Bb7

1. Bb
   
2. D
   
3. F
   
4. Ab
   

E7

1. E
   
2. G#
   
3. B
   
4. D
   

Notice anything? The important notes, the third and the seventh of both chords are THE SAME, just inverted. No way. Ya-huh. The third of one is the seventh of the other and vice versa. Oh, they try and deny it by going all enharmonic, but Ab is the same thing as G# remember, so when we pierce their little web of lies what we have is:

Bb7

1. Bb - root
   
2. D - third
   
3. F - fifth
   
4. Ab (G#!) - seventh
   

E7

1. E - root
   
2. G#(Ab!) - third
   
3. B - fifth
   
4. D - seventh
   

This is a tri-tone sub, you take a chord a tri-tone away from the chord you want to substitute for because it has the same juicy important notes (third and seventh) as the original chord. E is a tri-tone, or a flatted fifth away from Bb, but they both have a G# (or an Ab) and a D in them so they can behave very very similarly, and if you want, you can use one in place of another.

Now instead of a measure of a single Bb7 chord, this progression does some ridiculoso extendo by adding that E7 after that Bb7 and now there are two different (but the same!) chords per measure and some additional choices are available for soloing instead of just have one chord per measure as a garden variety I-IV-V blues usually has.

So there ya go. The Tritone Substitution. This doesn't necessarily make the progression "better" or anything, it is just another way to add some interest to a blues.

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 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!