The Improvisor's Path: Exploring the Bassist's Path To Mastery [1 ed.]

Citation preview

The Improvisor s Path (Exploring the Bassist’s Path to Mastery) by Damian Erskine

Cover design: Bob Smith Proofreading & copyediting: E.E. Bradman Back cover photo: Battista Photography Published: notneK Music 2014

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The Improvisor’s Path!

! !

Introduction

1!

!

Scales and Modes! The Major Scale!

2!

Modes!

9!

- Major Scale Modes!

11!

- Melodic Minor Modes!

16!

- Harmonic Minor Modes!

23!

- Symmetrical Diminished Modes!

30!

! !

! Understanding Chords! Chord Construction!

34!

Primary Chord Tones!

36!

Chord Scales!

47!

! !

! Chords on the Bass! Chord Shape Construction!

67!

Chord Shapes Reference Charts!

68!

Exercises!

82!

!

! Rhythm!

91!

Sixteenth-Note Subdivisions!

93!

Triplet Subdivisions!

96!

Mixed Subdivisionsns!

!

99!

Harmonic Application!

102!

12 Beats & 12 Notes !

108!

!

“Odd” Meters! “Take 5”

(Dave Brubeck)!

119!

“Seven Days”

(Sting)!

120!

“Blue Rondo á la Turk”

(Dave Brubeck)!

121!

“Dreaming Paris”

(Vardan Ovsepian)!

122!

“Haiku”

(Mike Prigodich)!

123!

“Bestowal”

(Damian Erskine)!

124!

“Nigel’s Theme”

(Mike Prigodich)!

125!

“Fif”

(Damian Erskine)!

127!

!

! !

Improvisation! Harmony + Rhythm = Melody!

129!

Substitute Chord-Scale Chart!

132!

Phrasing!

136!

Melody/Playing “Outside” The Changes!

140!

!

! !

Practice Method! Master Practice Chart!

143!

!

! !

Miscellaneous Debris! Slash Chords/Finding Your Voice!

144!

Practice Tune List!

146!

! Chord Charts!

! 148!

! NoTreble.com Articles!

!

! 156

Introduction Many of you may be familiar with my previous instructional book, “Right Hand Drive,” which focuses on right-hand technique. While there were a few dozen pages dedicated to understanding harmony, chord and scale construction and improvisation, I had never intended the text to be a comprehensive study but, rather, a fairly thorough overview. With this in mind, I decided to write this book specifically to deal with my entire harmonic process. To the best of my abilities, I will put everything I have learned down on paper, from the first scale I learned as a kid right up until this very moment. Beyond that, I especially want to impart what I’ve learned with regard to: • How to learn • How to teach yourself and develop your own exercises • How to explore the possibilities on your own You, the reader, will learn exactly how I came to understand ‘this or that,’ and you’ll be made aware of available harmonic options so that you can take what I know and explore alternate possibilities (with regard to chord scale choices, etc.). But we’ll get to that later! While the temptation with instructional books is to skip past much of the text and get to the ‘meaty stuff,’ I implore you to take the time to read what I write about the information contained within. Take your time and consider alternate methods. Nothing here is a hard and fast rule. If you don’t like the sound or feel of something, explore your own thing. This book is about how I currently do what I do, but learning is a never-ending process. My methods are in a constant state of flux, as should yours be. Never stop tweaking what you know and how you apply it. At the end of the day, it’s about making good music. Don’t get too hung up on the “mathiness” of music theory. Listen to what sounds good to you and pursue that! HAVE FUN, and practice well!

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I

Major Scale

Most of the scalar and chordal references in this book will be in relation to the major scale (as well as its inherent modes), so that’s where we will begin this journey. When I first learn a scale, I usually start in the key of C major. This is because there are no accidentals (sharps or flats), so it’s easy to tell if you’ve played a wrong note. For our purposes, I will keep everything here in the key of C (for now), but it’s important to note that it is important to practice everything here in ALL keys. Many bassists make the mistake of assuming that since we play an instrument where the patterns are the same for each scale—regardless of key—“if you know one, you know them all.” It sounds good on paper, but in reality, I come across far too many young bassists who can’t play various scalar exercises in less common keys (like G♭, for example). Practicing melodic exercises in all keys is NOT just a “piano or horn player thing”. It’s good for all of us! The C major scale

“Ionian” is the name of the first mode of the major scale. Don’t worry too much about memorizing the names of the modes right away, but as you begin to advance, you’ll want to get them under your belt. Many scales mentioned in this book will be named by a variation of the major-scale mode: If I refer to the Mixolydian ♭6, for example, it obviously makes it MUCH easier to decipher the scale if you know what the Mixolydian mode is). When learning a scale, I think it’s best to practice playing every variation of the pattern for that scale that you can think of. My tendency is to: • Memorize the pattern • Memorize alternate patterns • Explore every variation I can think of • Work all those patterns over multiple octaves and in different positions on the fretboard The next few pages will show you some basic scalar patterns to get under your fingers. This goes a long way toward helping you internalize the scale in a useful way. If we only ever practice a scale in one way, in one octave, we will never really get a feel for how it fits over the entire fretboard (and we will only ever get the intervals of the scale in our head in a linear way). It’s good to break it up! Page 2

I

Major Scale

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I

Major Scale

Even just these few scalar variations get you moving around the fretboard in new ways and over multiple octaves. You are also making mental connections about the relationships between notes in the scale. Once you’ve got these fairly comfortable, it’s time to up the ante and explore more intervallic possibilities. Here’s a similar exercise but, instead, we will simply play two notes at a time and play all intervals of the major scale as “double-stops.”

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I

Major Scale

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I

Major Scale

Some of those are quite a stretch, I know. Your hands will gradually evolve with regard to facility and flexibility as long as you continue to facilitate the growth through thoughtful practice. Take breaks and never “play through the pain!” Here are some more intervallic exercises using the major scale. These are a little trickier. You’ll notice that we’ve begun to take entire scalar chunks and move THOSE intervallically.

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I

Major Scale

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I

Major Scale

I will talk more about developing your own exercises more as we get further into this book, but for now, remember that you can take… • Any series of intervals—1 2 3 4 or 1 3 4 5 6, for example (basically, any number of notes from the scale, in any order) • Move those chunks by any series of intervals. We haven’t even gotten into rhythmic variations. By the end of this book, you should have a seemingly infinite pool of intervallic resources from which to draw. You’re no doubt beginning to see how much farther we can take something as simple as a major scale and turn it into a lifetime’s worth of fretboard training. Now let’s apply some of the same principles to the modes of the major scale.

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Modes

First, what is a mode? Modes are much simpler than many people think they are. Every scale is a mode and every mode is a scale. Let’s go back to using the C major scale as our reference point. If we start the C major scale and play it from C to C (one octave), that is the first major mode. If we play the same exact notes but play them from D to D (one octave), that is the second major mode. There are seven modes in the major scale, one for each note in the scale. Even though we are playing the same notes in each scale (C D E F G A B C), because we are starting from a different root note (E F G A B C D E, for example), each mode has a slightly different sound. Here are the names of the major-scale modes in the key of C:

Major Scale Modes Mode

Scale Degree

In the Key of C

Ionian (major scale)

1234567

CDEFGAB

Dorian

2345671

DEFGABC

Phrygian

3456712

EFGABCD

Lydian

4567123

FGABCDE

Mixolydian

5671234

GABCDEF

Aeolian (minor scale)

6712345

ABCDEFG

Locrian

7123456

BCDEFGA

Notice that the sixth mode of the major scale is the minor scale. This is what musicians are referring to when they mention the “relative minor” or “relative major”—it’s the minor or major scale, relative to its parent scale.

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Modes

While many of you may already understand modes, I have been asked a few of these questions enough times to warrant mention here. If this is new to you, here are just a couple things to keep in mind. • The mode shapes are in relation to whatever key they are in. The key of C is not always major and D is not always Dorian, for example. If you are in the key of G, then G is your Ionian scale and E is your relative minor. • The shape of each scale is consistent on the bass. Unless you are using an altered tuning, every scale has the same shape, regardless of where you start it. Modes are not the holy grail of the improvising musician; they are general guides to tonality. Most improvising musicians may use any number of modes over any given chord type, and I, personally, don’t usually think with regard to scales as much as I do tonal relationships and shapes. We’ll get into this more as we dive deeper into chord scales, but I wanted to make this clear. While it is important to learn your scales and modes, there is no need to get hung up on adhering to one scale type on one chord. Ultimately, once you have explored how functional harmony operates and explored the myriad of scalar options available to you over chord changes, you will come to realize that every note is available to you. It is more a matter of context and resolution. There is no such thing as a bad note—just a bad resolution. If a scale doesn’t sound good to you over a chord, by all means, explore alternate scales for that tonality, but remember that phrasing and resolution are often more important than what scale you are playing. Don’t fear tension in a note. Instead, explore how to control it and use it to your advantage. There is no note a good musician can’t make work over any chord type. It simply takes experience and a thoughtful exploration of sound. We must first learn the rules before we can effectively break them, which is why it is important to work diligently with this stuff. It can only help to broaden your ears and sonic palette. Here are some more patterns to help you internalize the major scale modes. (You should also apply all previous exercises to every mode that you explore.)

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Modes

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Modes

Here is a wonderful little exercise that really helps to pull together an understanding of how the modes relate to each other on the fretboard. This is also the first instance of arpeggios in this book. I will use arpeggios quite a bit as we get into chord scales and exercises over chord changes. Simply put, an arpeggio is a scale played in thirds. Most of us first learn a three-note arpeggio (1 3 5 of a scale), which is essential for chord construction; we’ll save that for just a little bit later, though. We can also expand the breadth of the arpeggio to four or more notes from the scale. For the time being, let’s just stick with 4-note arpeggios (which covers all four primary chord tones: the root, 3rd, 5th and 7th). Personally, I feel that working with arpeggios does quite a bit with regard to: • Expanding perception of the fretboard • Internalizing the notes of the fretboard • Internalizing the relationships between the notes in any given tonality • Seeing a wider variety of patterns across the fretboard within a given scale • Helping me break out of linear lines (stepwise motion) and cover more harmonic range Here are 4-note arpeggios starting from every note in the C major scale, thus giving you arpeggios through the modes (and showing us the general tonalities associated with each major scale mode).

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Modes

Once you’ve begun to see those arpeggios a little more readily, it’s time to up the ante again. In this next exercise, we are playing four-part arpeggios (1 3 5 7 of the scale, also known as the chord tones), but instead of traveling from the root to the seventh in only one direction in each mode, we will make a nice, flowing pattern out of it, traveling up one and down the next. I love this exercise!

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Modes

The major scale is not the only game in town. Although there are literally hundreds of scales in the world, you can pretty well go anywhere in jazz using various modes from these parent scales: • Major scale • Melodic minor • Harmonic minor • Symmetrical diminished These other scale types help to take the improviser into harmonically (and melodically) richer territory in their solos, melodies, fills or even bass lines. I will explore some possibilities later in the book, but for now, here is a simple breakdown of each scale type. We will work through some scalar patterns using these other scale types. Keep in mind that I will list these with reference to the major scale modes most often.

Scale Type

Scale Degrees (In relation to the major scale)

Starting on C

Melodic minor

1 2 ♭3 4 5 6 7

C D E♭ F G A B

Harmonic minor

1 2 ♭3 4 5 b6 7

C D E♭ F G A♭ B

As you can see: Melodic minor

Major scale with a flatted 3rd

Harmonic minor

Minor scale with a natural 7th

Just the simple alteration of one or two notes in a major scale introduces us to completely new sets of modes to study, and it will also lead us to the deeper end of the harmonic pool. This serves to expand our vocabulary, ears and play more harmonically relevant lines over more complicated chord changes. NOTE: In classical theory, the melodic minor scale is different ascending than it is descending. In the jazz world, we only use the ascending melodic minor scale. I will simply call this as the melodic minor scale, which is what jazz musicians think of if you refer to this scale.

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Modes

Notice that I didn’t list the symmetrical diminished scale above. I thought that it might just be easier to explain how the symmetrical diminished works. There are actually two different symmetrical diminished scales. Half-whole

Alternating half and whole notes

Whole-half

Alternating whole and half notes

Scale Type

Starting on C

Half-whole

CC

Whole-half

CDD

D

EF FF

G A B♭ G

AB

Now let’s get to some more exercises through all of the modes.Here are the same exercises we used for our major-scale modes, modified to reflect: • Melodic minor • Harmonic minor • Symmetrical diminished NOTE: Typically, when notating music, you wouldn’t use an accidental (# or ♭) twice for the same note in one bar. In the examples to follow, you will see multiple E♭ notes in one measure, for example. Normally, the first ‘♭’ would automatically carry over for every ‘E’ to follow in the bar. For many of the exercises in this book, I will use an accidental for EVERY note so they read as if I were speaking them aloud. This is really just to avoid confusion, especially for anyone just getting a grip on reading and trying to work through these things note by note. My apologies to the more comfortable readers who get a little thrown off by this.

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II

Modes

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II

Modes

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Modes

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Modes

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Modes

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Modes

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Modes

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Modes

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Modes

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Modes

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Modes

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Modes

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Modes

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Modes

OK, now it’s time to look more closely at the symmetrical diminished modes (“sym-dim” for short). Symmetrical diminished scales are a bit different from other scales because they are a set intervallic pattern. This also serves to make them 8-note scales (as opposed to the more typical 7-note scales). The shape is symmetrical and moves across the fretboard in an easy-to-see way. Play with this shape, and for now, just try to get the sound in your head. While a diminished scale can be used over anything—because of its distinctive sound, diminished licks can sound pretty neat in most any tonality)—there are two more common applications.

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Modes

Chord Type

Symbol

Scale

Scale from a C

Diminished

o7

Whole-half Symmetrical Diminished

C D E♭ F Gb A♭ A B C

Altered Dominant

Alt7 or any Dominant chord with an altered extension (♭9, #9, etc..)

Half-whole Symmetrical Diminished

C D♭ Eb E F# G A Bb

Although some composers may be trying to imply one scale over another when they choose the symbol for the chord (writing a “C7♭9” as opposed to just writing “C7(alt)” or “C7#9,” for example), the halfwhole sym-dim scale works because it hits most of the possible altered extensions (♭9, #9, and #11). It does not, however, address the ♭13. Not all notes are created equal (although much depends on how the chord is being voiced). The ♭9 and ♭13 can both sound pretty funky over an alt chord. It’s always best to explore each note in a chord scale and how it creates consonance or dissonance against common voicings. The whole-half scale used over diminished chords alters none of the extensions except for the ♭13. In practice, I tend to not really use either of these scales over those specific chord types, but, rather, as an effect (that distinctive sound again) over any given chord type (especially dominant chords, altered or not). In upcoming chapters, we will cover more ground with regard to employing various scales over all chord types. We will also talk about alternatives to those scales over those chord types. For now, just get these shapes and sounds into your head and fingers.

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Modes

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Modes

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Modes

You may notice that I have only included the half/whole symmetrical diminished scale in the examples above. This is because it would be a bit redundant to include both the half/whole and the whole/half, as they are the same scale, only a half-step apart. Example:

C Half-whole

=

C# Whole-half

Now, I realize that this may all appear to be a mountain of stuff to internalize. Don’t feel like you have to have it ALL together right away. Don’t get overwhelmed. Just take it one scale at a time and explore the sound of each mode. I probably only really use a small handful of them. Just the act of exploring all of those sounds increases your ability to hear harmonic devices like those contained here, and you will slowly understand how to incorporate this stuff as your ‘ears’ develop. In fact, I used only major-scale modes for quite a few years before I really began to explore any of the other scales out there. You can get a lot done with a little (harmonically) if you play with intention and a good feel. However, if you want to start exploring how the real “jazz guys” do it, then this is part of the path you must walk.

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III

Chord Construction

Now that we’ve explored scales in a modal context, let’s move on to chord construction and chord scales. I believe that in the actual making of music and in improvising, fully understanding chord construction is more useful than scales. Modes only get you playing within and moving around within a specific key. While this is a great place to start exploring tonality on your instrument, in order to be a more proficient improviser, one must be a little more intentional (or specific) with their note choice. We will use the chord symbols themselves to help determine which scale you might choose. While one mode may work perfectly well over an entire set of chord changes, it typically sounds a bit like we’re just playing one scale instead of really playing the tune (especially as bass players, because we are so well trained with regard to landing on the root). While we will explore ways to get away from this tendency (even while playing one scale in one key over one set of changes), I think it’s critical to fully explore how chords are constructed and what notes are available to you because of the chord type—and not just in relation to what key we might be in. Harmony is a subject I came to understand once I began playing music professionally and asking questions of my peers. This is my process for developing an understanding of chord scales and how to explore them; decide for yourself which scales sound best to you. First, we must learn and internalize the primary chord types. These are the foundation of every chord. PRIMARY CHORD TYPES: TYPE

Numerically

In the key of C

Major

135

CEG

Minor

1 ♭3 5

C E♭ G

Diminished

1 ♭3 ♭5

C E♭ G♭

Augmented

1 3 #5

C E G#

Major

1357

CEGB

Dominant

1 3 5 ♭7

C E G B♭

Minor

1 b3 5 ♭7

C E♭ G B♭

Half-Diminished

1 ♭3 ♭5 ♭7

C E♭ G♭ B♭

Diminished

1 ♭3 ♭5 ♭♭7

C E♭ G♭ A (B♭♭)

Sus4

1 4 5 ♭7

C F G B♭

TRIADS

7th Chords

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Chord Construction

Understanding these chord qualities will provide you with the building blocks of how to discern harmonic devices for yourself and explore scalar options over changes. If you can understand these and get them under your fingers, you know everything you need to know to start playing over changes! The key is how to practice and how to take what you know and explore what it is you don’t know. Many musicians use symbols as shorthand when writing chords. It’s easier and cleaner on the chart, and it’s cleaner and easier to read. Here are the most commonly used symbols for chord types:

CHORD TYPE

SYMBOL

MAJOR

MAJ / M / ∆

MINOR

min / m / -

DOMINANT

7

HALF-

ø -7(b5) / 7

DIMINISHED DIMINISHED

(a lone 7 with no other symbol aside from potential tensions)

o dim / 7

I prefer: ∆ for Major - for minor ø for half-diminished o for diminished Symbols don’t force the reader to read full words or pay attention to capitalization while playing; a singular symbol seems easiest to write and read. Any alteration represented in the chord symbol will be spelled out fairly obviously on top of one of those chord types. Once you learn the symbols and meanings above, everything becomes much easier to figure out when reading chord changes. This is the foundation we’ll be working from. NOTE: The less you think, the better you’ll hear. This is exactly why it’s important to work on things long enough to put them into the muscle memory. Music happens in real time—we can’t pause to do math while we play. It has to be built-in, which requires repetition and patience. Page 35

IV

Primary Chord Tones

This is where the work begins. It’s one thing to understand chord changes conceptually, but it’s another to develop the ability to play fluidly within them. To do so takes internalization of harmonic patterns and the use of harmonic devices, which must be second nature. When playing music, you don’t have time to think through multi-step processes. Work to internalize musical relationships through repetition and mindful practice. Primary Chord Tones I like to start with the chord tones. This is because: • Each chord symbol immediately gives us four notes that will definitely work over a chord • Those notes are crucial to our role as bass players, but when we craft a solo melody, they also serve to outline the functioning harmony Once we have “mastered” the four chord tones, we only have three notes left to work on (in other words, we have already ‘mastered’ 4/7ths of the chord scale for any given chord—with a few exceptions, of course). The first steps in my process are to work with each primary chord type using arpeggios in all inversions. An inversion is simply a re-stacking of the arpeggio, moving the bottom note to the top.

So:

1st inversion

=

3571

2nd inversion

=

5713

3rd inversion

=

7135

The next page contains root position and all inversions for each primary chord type.

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Primary Chord Tones

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IV

Primary Chord Tones

This is my process: I work on each inversion one at a time through chord changes to a standard. Get yourself a Real Book, a collection of jazz standards that will provide a lifetime’s worth of tunes to work through. I also use an app called iReal Pro to play along with chord changes. PG Music’s Band-in-a-Box software is another alternative. Here is how I recommend you work through inversions: • Work through a set of changes (tune) out of time. • Take your time and get each chord right. • Play through the tune in time slowly. This forces you to do it in real time. Then play through the tune at a quicker tempo (upping the ante). I do this for each inversion until I can make it through a tune in time and at tempo without making too many mistakes. Don’t worry about flubbing things here and there, but don’t allow yourself to go too fast, either. If you’re making a lot of mistakes, slow it down. You don’t want to reinforce bad habits or mistakes. Once I have made it through a tune, I switch tunes. It’s important to not sit on one song—you want to develop the ability to do this through any tune. It’s also important to alter your chord changes once in a while. Alternatively, you could switch keys, but I also recommend working through every tune you can using this methodology. The following page will give you an example of the tune “Beautiful Love” in root position.

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Primary Chord Tones

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Primary Chord Tones

Here’s the same tune in first inversion. Focus on primary chord tones right now. Let’s not worry about extensions just yet.

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Primary Chord Tones

Now, just those few pages lay out quite a bit of homework. Do yourself a favor and work this into your practice regimen. It’s especially good for us bass players, who are so well trained to start every chord from the root. This is the beginning of the process that will help you: • Begin to visualize individual notes available to us over any given chord type • Immediately see places to begin a line other than the root of the chord Now we’ll up the ante one more time. Instead of playing through an ENTIRE set of changes in one position, let’s set a regular interval at which we will change inversions! We can also decide to change inversions every bar! The more often you force yourself to change gears (mentally), the more you are testing your internalization of the concept and its application on the instrument. Here’s the same tune, changing inversions every four bars.

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Primary Chord Tones

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Primary Chord Tones

Here’s an exercise that uses inversions and voice-leading through changes. Basically, voice-leading is a technique in which you move a voice (note) as little as possible through the chord changes. When voiceleading a melody, the note will either not move at all or it will move no more than one whole step, as is appropriate for the chord changes. Here, we will play arpeggios but voice-lead to the next available note at the occurrence of each chord change. This one starts to sound a little more musical to my ears, and it is the next step in seeing available notes NOT as they relate to the root of the chord but rather, from our current note. A large part of what we are working towards here is the ability to see the shifting harmonic line. We must always be aware of where we are and where we are going. As bassists, we tend to mentally jump from root to root. We’re slowly going to try and break this habit when improvising. Our ultimate goal is to be able to see every note in the available chord scale as clearly as we can see the root of the chord. This is how we can begin to improvise in a more melodic way and less like “bass players.” For this exercise, we will utilize the following criteria: • Start with any inversion you like • At the chord change, play the chord tone closest to your current note • Play the proper inversion for that note • If the same note can be used, begin with that inversion You will notice that I’ve also displaced some of the octaves. There is no reason why you can’t switch octaves, and this is something we will be forced to do in later exercises. In fact, it’s good not to get locked into playing any pattern (like an arpeggio) using only one shape and in one direction on the fretboard. Here is one more example using “Beautiful Love.”

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Primary Chord Tones

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Primary Chord Tones

I admit that on bar 8 of the last example, I went from a B♭ to a C# instead of moving one half-step down to an A. I just liked the way it sounded. Again, this is music. Have fun with it! Here is one last exercise using only primary chord tones and a set of chord changes. Now, instead of worrying about which inversion we will play where, we will simply assign a chord tone to every beat in the bar and play through the changes. This is especially tricky over bebop tunes, which often contain multiple chords per bar. Although this can be done with any scale tone, let’s stick to our primary chord tones for now. For the following exercise, let’s pick a new tune with more chords per bar and use a rootposition note assignment (although all inversions are encouraged!). Beat 1

=

Root

Beat 2

=

3rd

Beat 3

=

5th

Beat 4

=

7th

Let’s take a look at John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps,” a notoriously difficult tune to solo over.

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Primary Chord Tones

One thing that you’ll notice as you begin to do this with different tunes is that, when you come across a iiV progression, the notes are the same (when playing 1 3 of the ii-7 and 5 7 of the V7). It’s realizations like this that help to illustrate how this kind of work can lead to a more visible path through changes. We can treat each chord as a slight variation of the last rather than an entirely new tonality. As we progress and begin to consider the entire chord scale for our harmonic exercises, it’s exercises like this that can really push your limits. Just imagine utilizing patterns like 2 5 6 7 through changes like that. Hey, that’s not a bad idea… Here is what that looks like!

Now, it’s one thing to figure it out on paper and write it out (or read it from a book) but it takes a whole new level of internalization to: • Pick a tune • Pick a pattern • Play that pattern through the changes in time

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Chord Scales

As you are no doubt beginning to see, with only a set of chord changes and the primary chord tones, we can construct a world of harmonic exercises for ourselves that will test our ability to think through changes as well as navigate our instrument! I strongly suggest that you get the last few pages under your fingers before diving too heavily into what follows. Each step in this process could easily take quite some time before really being internalized. While I’m all for moving forward to see what comes next, I also don’t want anybody to get confused. If you find yourself unsure of what it is you are doing, take a step back and make sure that you really understand the previous steps. Now that we’ve talked about using all inversions through changes to get accustomed to moving through changes intervallically, let’s start incorporating some of that chord scale theory. Chord Scales, Arpeggios, and Chord-Tone Numerology You may have heard of “tensions,” “extensions” or “upper structure triads.” These terms all refer to the notes in between the primary chord tones. Meaning the 2nd, 4th and 6th degrees of the scale. You may also note that people always refer to numbers above 7 when speaking of tensions (9 11 & 13). Meaning the second, fourth, and sixth degrees of the scale. The reason for this is simple. We know that chords are constructed in 3rds. This means that, in order to include all of the notes of the scale, we have to play it over 2 octaves. Like this:

Now, if we lay out that same two-octave scale in 3rds (as chords are constructed), we get this:

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A quick bit of math: If you ever see a tension on a chord symbol, simply subtract 7 (the number of notes in a scale) and you will get the appropriate scale tone 9

=

second scale degree

11

=

fourth scale degree

13

=

sixth scale degree

The notes in-between the primary chord tones serve to further alter the sound of the chord, often making it a bit more expressive. They don’t necessarily change the function of the chord, but they do change the color of the chord; as does the voicing of the chord or the order and placement of notes in your chord. When we build our scale by thinking of chord tones and available tensions, this is what is referred to as chord-scale construction. Remember: Chord tones + available tensions = chord scale Rather than just picking any scale or mode to use over a given chord type, consider any available or listed tensions. Once you gain experience playing over changes and get an ear for how different scales sound, you will inevitably begin to experiment with different modes over changes. This may change the “extensions” you are employing (in other words, you may begin to naturally use various tensions when building your own chord scales). You will have to use your ear as your guide. There are many rules given in texts as to what tensions occur “naturally” over given chord types. For example, the natural 4th (also known as the 11th) is considered an “avoid note” over a major 7 chord, even though it happens naturally in the major scale. This is because it makes the chord sound suspended (a suspended 4th chord, which you’ll see on a chart as a sus4, uses a natural 4 instead of the 3rd). This also makes the chord sound a bit vague. Instead of using the natural 4th, most improvising musicians will use a raised 4th on a major 7 chord when soloing. You may remember that a major scale with a raised 4th is the Lydian mode. This means that, for many people, much of the time, you would use the Lydian scale to improvise over a major 7 chord as the #11 is considered an available tension.

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As I said before, however, any note can work. It’s a matter of phrasing and resolution. In a real-life situation, I may choose to use a natural 4 to resolve down to the 3rd. I may also choose a #4 in order to resolve up to the 5th. This is just one example of why it is best not to get too hung up on using only one scale per chord type. Keep in mind that there are always options and alternatives to any rule! Before we go further, here are a few thoughts: It’s best to suss much of this out in the shed before just ‘winging it’ on a gig, but I also believe that the best learning happens on the bandstand. Make mental notes of what works and what doesn’t to YOUR EARS and then further explore your harmonic options when you get back home. I also encourage you to ask other musicians what they play, why certain scales work better than others, and so on. There are many books written on jazz theory that include chord-scale theory and why certain scales should be used over certain chord types and much, much more. One such book I’ve come to rely on is Mark Levine’s The Jazz Theory Book, which is a worthy investment for any serious student of jazz. I don’t care much for hard and fast rules when it comes to music. I think you have to let your ears be the judge, but MUCH can be learned by exploring what others have done before you. There are good reasons why music theory has developed as it has but much of it is also based on a certain musical aesthetic that you may or may not share. Explore tonality and scalar relationships to chord types—it’ll make you a better player. Expand your ability to hear music and more complex tonal relationships. One more thought: Much of what has been written about jazz improvisation has been written by piano players, guitarists and horn players. There is one important thing that all of these instruments have in common: They are of a much higher register than the bass. I’ve come to believe that because the range of our instrument puts us in the ‘foundational harmony’ range of the musical frequencies, some of the harmonic devices employed by these musicians just don’t work as well on the bass. Here’s an experiment: • Play your low E string and let it ring • Now hit an F# against it as low as you can (say… 4th fret on the D string) while letting the E ring through. It sounds a bit muddy, right? • Now play that open E string, but play the highest F# on your instrument against it. It’s starting to sound a bit more melodic, right? When employing harmonic devices on a bass, it is important to consider register. What sounds like a bad note on the first five frets may sound much more melodically viable if played high up on the fretboard.

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This, to my ears, is why certain scales sound less functional on a bass than on a trumpet, for example (without sounding too “outside the changes” for my ear). Don’t spend a lifetime trying to use a scale that you think sounds bad over any given chord type simply because someone told you that was what you had to do. Also, don’t be lazy—give it a shot, but if it just doesn’t resonate with you, find some alternatives. The key is to explore sound over a myriad of chord changes so you can better learn how to navigate them in a way that resonates with you harmonically. It could also be said that I just don’t have an ear for some of those harmonic devices for a number of reasons. This is likely true, too, but I have decided for myself that certain scales and modes used in certain ways just don’t sound good to me on the bass guitar (even when I play my 6-string). This is my prerogative, but it also means that I have to find my own way. In other words, since I don’t like the sound of A, I have to find what does work for me and use B in its place. For example, I will still encounter diminished chords, and if I don’t like the sound of the whole/half diminished scale, I’ll need to do more exploration and find a scale that makes sense AND sounds good to my ears. Maybe this means that my solos sound more ‘inside’ than the horn player next to me, but that is because I think that inside worked better for me over those changes and on my instrument. That said, I will never stop pushing myself to better internalize new scales and harmonic devices and struggling to find a way to better use harmony based on the melodic minor scale, which has never resonated with me on bass guitar. One day, I hope to open a goldmine of harmonic content that uses those modes, because it can only serve to increase the depth of my harmonic palette. I constantly try to learn how to better use what I know right now while pushing to expand what it is that I will know tomorrow. I believe this to be my key to evolution as a musician. Let’s dig deeper into some chord scales! __________________________________________ When determining which chord scale I’ll use over a chord type, I find it easiest to use logic first and then determine if that sound really works for me. In other words, until you have decided what chord scales you prefer over any given chord type, first start by: • Determining the primary chord type (minor, major, dominant, etc.…) • Using notated tensions to determine what other scale tones you will use (#9, #11, ♭13, etc.) • Using your ear to decide what any non-listed scale tones should be

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At first, this may seem like a LOT to chew on. Honestly, it’s a lifetime’s worth of study. Don’t worry about what you don’t yet understand or have internalized. The important thing is to learn this stuff, one chord, one scale or one arpeggio at a time. The biggest mistake I see players make? Getting overwhelmed at the mountain of information. Don’t perceive the mountain as too high and never take that first step. The trick is to take all of this in bite-size chunks. If you want to be the type of player that can improvise over changes or just better understand harmony, you must explore this stuff. And you don’t have to understand ALL of it to be a good player. You don’t even need to understand most of it to be a good player, but every bit that you do begin to digest will help you understand music better. Even if you have fantastic ears and can hear your way through changes, exploring this stuff will give you yet another way to explore harmony and melody. It is inevitable that the study of harmony and how to apply this kind of music theory will make you a better player in some tangible way. Assuming that you will continue to play music throughout your life, you might as well work on this stuff when you practice. If you are going to practice anyway, why not at least explore that path up the mountain a bit. You’ll be surprised at how every piece of this that you get under your fingers opens up harmonic possibilities for you, the player. In short, if you are serious about improvising and being one of those guys you love watching on YouTube shredding over jazz or fusion tunes, keep working on this stuff. It’s what helps get you there.

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Here are some reference charts with regard to chord types and chord scales: Scalar Options for Specific Chord Types CHORD

SCALAR OPTIONS

∆7

Ionian, Lydian

Dominant 7

Mixolydian

-7

Dorian Half-diminished (6th mode Melodic minor)

Ø

7 Locrian (7th mode Major scale)

o

7

Sus4 Altered Dominants

Whole-half sym-dim Mixolydian Super Locrian (7th mode Melodic minor) Half-Whole Sym-Dim

∆7(#11)

Lydian

-7(♭6)

Aeolian

-(∆7) 7(#11)

Harmonic minor Melodic minor Lydian Dominant (4th mode of melodic minor)

MY TAKE Ionian is the obvious choice, but as the natural 11 is an “avoid note,” this chord is voiced with a #11 in the jazz context. When soloing, I will often use Aeolian from the 5th of the chord. This gives us a ♭3, which makes it sound a little bluesy (and gets me away from the root). Dorian is typically used in the jazz context because of the natural 13 used in common ii-V voicings. You can also play Aeolian from the 5th to keep a minor pattern, stay away from the root, and still use the Dorian tonality. The sixth mode of melodic minor gives us a natural 9 on a half-dim chord. The Locrian mode gives us a ♭9. Personally, I think that the ♭9 usually sounds better on the bass. I will sometimes treat the root of the diminished chord as the ♭9 of an altered chord. (i.e: Co7 = B7♭9) When soloing, I will sometimes play minor from the 5th or major from the 4th. Depending on how the chord is written, I may employ the super Locrian scale, a Mixolydian (♭9, ♭13), or a half/whole sym-dim.

Either is considered “correct.” Mixolydian with a #4

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Chord Scale Construction: Chords in 3rds with Chord Available Tensions

Chord Scale

∆7

1 3 5 7 9 #11 13

1 2 3 #4 5 6 7

Dominant 7

1 3 5 ♭7 9 11 13

1 2 3 4 5 6 ♭7

-7

1 ♭3 5 ♭7 9 11 13

1 2 ♭3 4 5 6 ♭7

Ø

7

1 ♭3 ♭5 ♭7 ♭9 9 11 b13

1 ♭2 2 b3 4 ♭5 ♭6 ♭7

O

7

1 ♭3 ♭5 #5 7 9 11 ♭13 13

1 2 ♭3 4 ♭5 #5 6 7

1 ♭3 3 5 ♭7 9 11 13

1 2 ♭3 3 4 5 6 ♭7

1 3 ♭5 ♭7 ♭9 #9 ♭13

1 ♭2 #2 3 ♭5 ♭6 b7

1 3 5 ♭7 ♭9 11 ♭13

1 ♭2 3 4 5 ♭6 ♭7

∆7(#11) -7(♭6)

1 3 5 7 9 #11 13 1 ♭3 5 ♭7 9 11 13

1 2 3 #4 5 6 7 1 2 ♭3 4 5 ♭6 b7

-(∆7)

1 ♭3 5 7 9 11 ♭13 1 ♭3 5 7 9 11 13

1 2 ♭3 4 5 ♭6 7 1 2 ♭3 4 5 6 7

Dominant 7(#11)

1 3 5 ♭7 9 #11 13

1 2 3 #4 5 6 ♭7

Sus4

Altered Dominant

Thoughts and Notes Ionian is the obvious choice, but as the natural 11 is an “avoid note,” this chord is played with a #11 in the jazz context. Mixolydian Dorian is the preferred scale for a -7 chord A half-dim chord can have either a flatted or natural 9. I prefer the sound of a ♭9 and will rarely use the natural 9. Whole/half symmetrical diminished Both minor and major 3rds will work over a sus4 chord because the 3rd is undefined in the actual chord (it’s replaced by the 4th). There are several scale options for alt chords. We’ll talk about some logical options in the improvisation portion of this book. How the chord symbol is notated will often tell us exactly what we need to know when deciding on the appropriate chord scale. Lydian Pure minor (Aeolian) Because the chord doesn’t specify the quality of the 6th degree, you can use either melodic or harmonic minor on a –(∆7). Lydian dominant (Mixolydian, #4)

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Chord Scales Arpeggiated

By now, you should begin to feel comfortable with the concept of picking a melodic pattern (like an arpeggio) and applying it to a set of chord changes (jazz standard). Until now, we have only utilized the primary chord tones. While this gives us a solid foundation from which to work, it is only a part of the picture. As I mentioned earlier, the non-chord tones (extensions, also referred to as upper-structure harmony) are where much of the harmonic gold lies. They are the notes that really provide the aesthetic of the chord, beyond the function. They are also referred to as “color tones” because that is, in essence, their function—to color the chord beyond a stock 1 3 5 7 sound. This especially applies to chordal comping instruments like the piano, but it can also lead us to more interesting waters to drink from (harmonically speaking) when improvising, playing fills, or even in our bass lines. To more quickly understand something, I prefer to build upon what I know and am comfortable with. With this in mind, I will use the previous exercises—with slight alterations—as our starting point. Primarily, by playing in extended 3rds beyond just the inversions. Once I got comfortable with my primary chord tone inversions, it occurred to me that there was no need to disrupt the flow of 3rds, as in 3 5 7 1: Why bother with the step to the root on top when I’m playing an intervallic pattern that would normally lead me to another note? This led me to our first exercise, which is to simply play a 4-note arpeggio from the 3rd of each chord, which leads us to end on the 9 (3 5 7 9). The following example is the tune “Stella by Starlight,” which has some wonderful changes for harmonic exercises. “Stella by Starlight” 4-note arpeggios from the 3rd (3 5 7 9)

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NOTE: Many of these exercises may sound a bit tense if played in the lower register. You might get a better sense of the melodic possibilities if you play them in the upper register of your instrument. This is especially true if you are playing these exercises against a play-along backing track of some kind or with a recording. If you’re not using a backing track, it will be hard to discern the harmony and how we are playing against it, especially as we progress further. Backing tracks or play-along chord changes are HIGHLY recommended! I will lay out the following examples in their logical order: 5 7 9 11 7 9 11 13 9 11 13 ROOT When we begin arpeggiating from these chord tones, with which we’re already comfortable, we can start exploring that upper-structure harmony. I especially like the four-note arpeggios from either the 7th or the 9th, as they make use of the entire upper-structure triad! Check out the following examples. Try these exercises through a number of different jazz standards. I don’t think that I will ever stop running these exercises. This is really homework for life that can ultimately be applied to hundreds of tunes. As you begin this exercise with tunes of your own choosing and as you get more familiar with alternate chord scales at your disposal, you will realize that you have options. For example, will you use the minor scale for -7 chords, or choose Dorian (which is more common when playing II-V7 progressions)? Will you play major or Lydian for ∆7 chords? Here’s the list of chord types in “Stella by Starlight” and the chord scale I chose for each: Chord Type

Chord Scale

∆7

Lydian

Fourth mode of the major scale

∆7 (#11)

Lydian

Fourth mode of the major scale

7

Mixolydian

Fifth mode of the major scale

7 (♭9)

Mixolydian (♭2, ♭6)

Fifth mode of harmonic minor

7(#11)

Lydian Dominant

Fourth mode of melodic minor

-7

Dorian

Second mode of the major scale

ø7

Locrian

Seventh mode of the major scale

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Keep in mind that while some of these may sound a little tense, you are also familiarizing yourself with a much more robust collection of notes to draw from. You will develop preferences when it comes to which chord scale you prefer over a given chord type. It comes down to your own ear and how easily you can hear certain types of harmony. Everyone has a different threshold for how “outside” they can play and still think it sounds good. Admittedly, I didn’t come from a lifetime of playing and loving jazz—I evolved into it by virtue of how I practiced, combined with my propensity for taking challenging gigs that pushed my abilities and brought my limitations on my instrument into focus. _____________________________________ Here’s one more set of 4-note arpeggio exercises. By now, you should be somewhat comfortable arpeggiating from any of our primary chord tones. You should also be somewhat comfortable with our non-chord tones (as derived from the chosen chord scale). This exercise will really push the limits of how quickly you can think on your feet. Take these SLOW (as slow as you need to in order to play it correctly). Feel free to start at 60bpm if you need to and build the speed up through repetition. Ultimately, you want to be able to play through exercises like this at 120bpm or so. I always strive to try and play an exercise at whatever the tempo the tune should be. Let’s use “Stella by Starlight” again for this example. This time, we’ll harken back to our “change inversions every 4 bars” idea, but instead of inversions, we will begin 4-note arpeggios from each degree of the chord scale. First four bars

=

4-note arpeggio from the root

Second four bars

=

4-note arpeggio from the 9

Third four bars

=

4-note arpeggio from the 3

Fourth four bars

=

4-note arpeggio from the 11

Fifth four bars

=

4-note arpeggio from the 5

Sixth four bars

=

4-note arpeggio from the 13

Seventh four bars

=

4-note arpeggio from the 7

…and then back to the root. If you continue to cycle the tune over and over again, you will eventually play each ‘inversion’ on each system. A “system” is the musical term for one line of music on a page.

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As with the previous variation of this exercises concept, we can change inversions as often as we like. If you’d like to up the ante one more time, try changing inversions every bar or two! Here is a similar variation wherein we employ the voice-leading concept to choose our next arpeggio. Where previously, we had moved to the next available primary chord tone, now we will simply move to the next available chord scale tone. Previously, when presented with the option, we chose to use the same note for our next chord. Let’s change it up a bit and force ourselves to move with every chord change, regardless of whether or not our current note applies to that chord scale. Let’s keep it in motion! We will, however, break up our octaves in order to not simply travel up the neck ad-infinitum. As we get this stuff more ingrained in our heads, fingers, ears and general playing, the shapes only become one small part of the equation. It can, however, be a useful tool. A large part of the reason that I force myself to shift positions and restrict myself to certain parts of the fretboard is that these are great ways to further evolve beyond just playing shapes or expand my perception of those shapes. We will delve deeper into the application of much of this in the section on improvising but I prefer to give you all of the tools you will need first. It can be a little confusing to try and apply these concepts before we’ve gotten them under our fingers first. The less we have to think about this stuff as we do it, the more we can put our minds to melodic statements and other improvisatory concepts. Here’s a voice-led version of “Stella by Starlight” that uses 4-note arpeggios of the entire chordscale.

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There are multiple ways (in my humble estimation) to really internalize these approaches AND apply them to the fretboard. Here are a couple crucial steps that will help you take these concepts and FULLY apply them to the fretboard. • Work until you grasp the concept and can ‘do the math’ with regard to note choices • Force yourself to apply all of these exercises to the fretboard in an ever-changing way At first, I don’t worry about fretboard position. I just want to try to get the exercise in my head and try to play it correctly through a multitude of tunes. The next step is restricting your fretboard range. This helps to insure that you don’t get locked into patterns but can really apply the knowledge anywhere on the fretboard, in any direction and in any position. Here’s a list of ways to try and apply any and all of the previous exercises as well as any that are to follow. This is hard. Don’t get discouraged! Just work through it slowly and methodically. • Follow a “one finger per fret” hand position. To have all 12 notes available to us in one position (on a 4-string bass), however, we need five frets, so we’ll need to cheat a little. Allow yourself to use a pinky to grab a note to the right of your position or use your index finger to grab a note to the left but, as is possible, stay in one 4 fret position with your left hand. • Approach each exercise on frets 1-4 with open strings. (This gives you your five-fret span). • Do the same exercises on frets 5-9. • Do the same exercises on frets 10-13. Now, switch it up again: • Do the same exercises on any frets but only using two strings of your choosing (E and A, for example). • Do the same exercises on two different strings (D and G, for example). • Do the same exercises on one more set of strings for the exercises (i.e., E and G or A and D). This is the kind of fretboard awareness that leads to effortless navigation of your fretboard. When we are learning new melodic patterns, the natural tendency is to play them all where we are most comfortable on the fretboard. This is 100% ok when grasping the nuts and bolts of an exercise but is limiting if we never evolve from there. Make sure to move things around the fretboard!

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The following is a quick guide to arpeggiating from the 9. In my estimation, this is one of the more important arpeggios to get in your head, aside from the root position and primary chord tone inversions. The 4-note arpeggio from the 9 is an upper-structure triad with the root on top. If you have the root primary chord tone arpeggios firmly rooted in your fingers and then master the arpeggio from the 9, you have the entire chord scale at your fingertips (arpeggiatically speaking). Arpeggios from the 9

Primary Chord type

Arpeggio shape type from the 9

∆7

7

7

-7

-7

-7

Altered

∆7

ø7 (with a natural 9)

ø7 from natural 9

ø7 (with a ♭9)

∆7 from ♭9

This chart is for those of you who tend to internalize things visually at first, as I do. Patterns can be very helpful when internalizing melodic content; for those who see shapes on the fretboard, patterns can help facilitate muscle memory. Two final chord-tone exercises Our first exercise is to play an entire chord scale in one long arpeggio (1 3 5 7 9 11 13 8, over two octaves). This concept is fairly easy to grasp, but it really challenges your immediate knowledge of the appropriate scale tones over each chord type. Play this SLOWLY over changes. Take your time and bump up the speed, as you feel necessary. For the second example, we will play the entire chord scale in 3rds (arpeggiated) in one position (within one octave). In other words, play 1 3 5 7 in one octave and then drop back down to the 9 and play 9 11 13. This will look like a scale in one octave but you are really playing 1 3 5 7 2 4 6 8. Keep your chord scales in mind and use appropriate tensions, of course!

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With that in mind, let’s move on to the next section: Chords!

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Chord Shapes & Application

A chord is more than one note played at a time. Simple! Typically, many bassists will call two notes played at a time a “double-stop” and use the word ‘chord’ for anything more than that but, pure and simple, you may apply the word chord to any collection of notes played at once. Whether or not you ever plan on being the type of bassist who actually uses chords on the gig, they are quite useful as a harmonic device for practicing. Chord shapes are yet another way to help you ‘see’ changes and chordal relationships on the fretboard. One advantage to internalizing your chord shapes is the simple fact that you are working with more than one note at a time and, hence, internalizing more than one note at a time. Chord shapes can also provide a nice ‘outline’ for licks or melodic runs as well. Simply outlining chord shapes is, in itself, a harmonic device that can sound pretty good. My method for working through chord shapes is exactly the same as working through arpeggios. • Internalize a root position shape. • Work all inversions, one by one. • Explore alternate shapes and voicings. • Work them all in different positions of the fretboard. • Use voice-leading to further explore relationships and the myriad ways we can connect chord changes. Now, since we’re already familiar with our chord scales, it should be a piece of cake to build a chord or two, right? Well, yes and no. With consideration to the range of our instrument, some chords will sound better than others. In addition, the lower on the fretboard you are, the simpler your voicing should likely be (remember what I said about the lower frequencies and things sounding muddy vs. sounding melodic up high on the fretboard?). This is completely subjective, of course—you’ll have to explore it for yourself and play to your own aesthetic. The following is a large (but not exhaustive) collection of possible chord shapes on 4-, 5-, and 6string basses. As the 3rd and 7th are the notes that make up the foundation of the chord quality, most of my shapes revolve around the root, 3rd, and 7th. I don’t bother with the 5th as much unless it is altered in the chord type (♭5 or #5). This is because, in most cases, I find that less is more with regard to the number of voices played at once on a bass guitar. That’s not to say that you can’t or shouldn’t play the 5th or use voicings with four or even five notes (thumb?) but I would start simply and expand from there. I’ll also explore some root position shapes through changes as well as using inversions and voice leading (my favorite exercise!) but, first… Here are a bunch of chord shapes to get you going! I also listed my most commonly used shapes near the end. Don’t feel like you have to memorize every one of these. Just explore them and pick at least one shape you like for each chord type to get you going while you start to practice these through tunes. Page 67

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I’ve organized these by string spans (3, 4, 5, 6). Don’t play every string. Just play the notes in the chord shape.

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Here are a few things to keep in mind as you work various shapes through changes. Many students have a tendency to lock into one shape per chord type. If you play a 4-string and you like the voicing with the root on the E string, 7th on the D string, and 3rd on the G string, for example, but you never internalize the three-string shape, you’ll always have to voice the chord with the root in the E string, which may be nowhere near your current fretboard position. This causes you to have to jump around the fretboard, sliding up and down the neck frantically as you find the next chord. This is why it’s important to learn chord shapes that span multiple groupings of strings so you can stay in position, as much as possible. If you play a 4-string, this means two chord shapes per chord type (one using three strings and one that spans four strings). On my 6-string, I have four different shapes for a voicing that consists of root, 3rd, and 7th! That doesn’t even include inversions or extensions. Don’t worry, though. Just take it chord-by-chord and work through the voicings. They relate to each other so if you learn one, you are already two-thirds of the way there with the next one. Here’s an example. If you voice a ∆7 chord over three strings, playing root, 3rd, and 7th, playing the 4-string version of that chord is as simple as moving the 3rd up one octave, replacing the higher octave with the lower. It can still be a three-note chord—but now it spans four strings instead of three. If you’re having trouble figuring out a shape using certain chord tones or tensions, remember to scan the immediate area of your fretboard. I often see students attempting to make near-unplayable stretches with their left hands trying to grab a note when there is the same note available to them on the string below it and in a much easier to grab place. Here are a few examples of common bass voicings, in root position, over changes with which we’re already familiar. In an attempt to keep the notation both readable and in bass clef, I will write many of the notes an octave lower than they should be played. I will, however, add tab so you can see the appropriate shape and in the appropriate range. The term “8va” refers to the notes that are written an octave lower than they are played. We won’t worry about extensions yet; these first examples will only include primary chord tones. Here are the first 16 bars of “Beautiful Love,” with root-position chord shapes for 4-string bass, using only primary chord tones.

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I implore you to work through many more tunes than the ones in this book, with ALL the exercises and concepts presented in this text. At the end of the book, I will provide a list of useful jazz standards to work on, as well as more than a few chord charts for practice. Chords and Inversions You will notice that in my list of chord shapes, I have provided voicings for chord types which include other primary chord tones in the “bass” (the lowest note of the chord). In general, I don’t play the 5th unless it’s altered, but I make an exception for chordal inversions. This is mostly due to the fact that we are limited on our instrument with regard to which notes we choose—and in which order—when voicing them as a chord. Our instrument can be somewhat unyielding, and unless you’ve got incredibly long fingers and some serious dexterity, it’s just too hard to play certain voicings. This, again, is something that you will have to explore for yourself. Everyone has different limits and physiology. First inversions, for example, sound fantastic to me with just the third in the bass with the root and fifth above. Playing chordal inversions on the bass can sound really interesting, but on most gigs, it may not be the most useful thing; these exercises are geared more towards development and exploration. It’s easy enough to imagine, though, how just having the ability to play a C∆7 chord in root position AND first inversion AND second inversion AND third inversion can only increase your ability to see across the fretboard and navigate the range of your instrument more freely. When speaking of chord shapes and “inversions,” they are not a set pattern (as are our arpeggios); I’m simply referring to the note in the bass. Any chord can have multiple voicings, and each will have a different sound—and thus, a different sonic effect. As we move forward, some of these voicings may not even include the root. Quite a concept for a bass player! Here are the same 16 bars with voicings for all inversions, using only primary chord tones.

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I used tab to help denote voicings for that first set of exercises, but they’ll be the only examples given using tab. I believe students get FAR more from figuring out how to apply concepts to their instrument than they ever will simply reading through tab examples (or even notated examples), though both types of notation can be useful guides. There are much more interesting voicings available to us once we begin to include the appropriate extensions into our chord shapes. I am particularly fond of the natural 9, #11 and 13, when appropriate. Voice-Leading with Chord Shapes This is one of my favorite exercises. You’ll remember that voice-leading is, essentially, moving through changes while actually moving each note as little as possible or not at all. This can really test your ability to think through changes as we are playing three notes at once and constantly evaluating our notes. We are contrasting them with the upcoming chord and having to decide if we have to move each note at all and, if so, where. It’s best to take this as slow as you need to. The beautiful thing is that you don’t even have to be necessarily good at this exercise to gain from it. Each moment thinking through changes like this increases our ability to recognize available scale tones and challenges our knowledge of our fretboard. Simply start with ANY chord shape you like and then evaluate your notes, one at a time and one chord at a time. Take it slowly. At this point, we are still restricting ourselves to primary chord tones. When voice-leading chord shapes on the bass, once we allow ourselves the entire chord scale, things get interesting. The reality is that we don’t have to move much at all when we use the entire chord scale. Two by-product of this are: • We realize how closely related each chord is to the next. • Our chord shapes don’t sound very good (especially on a bass). This is practice, and it’s not always supposed to sound “good.” It can be hard to hear the harmony if we strictly voice-lead through the changes using our entire chord scale. I will allow myself the use of certain extensions that I like but I tend to stick to primary chord tones. Here’s “Giant Steps” (with tab—you’re welcome), using primary chord tones and chord shapes for 4-string bass. (I drop an octave at one point because I ran out of frets and there was a definitive pattern happening that I wanted to complete. No hard and fast rules here—just don’t cut corners with the function of the concept.)

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NOTE: I may only give one notated example per concept at times in this book, but by no means should that imply that the work ends there. EACH of these fragments should be in a constant state of development. If you’ve “mastered” root position arpeggios over “Beautiful Love,” for example, that does not mean that you’ve “got them.” It means you’ve got them over “Beautiful Love” and that it’s now time to move on to another tune with some different changes. Each musical exercise can give you a lifetime’s worth of work. Try not to read through each exercise once or twice, kind of get it, and then move on. Always try to push farther with each concept. You should do EVERY exercise through EVERY tune I list near the end of the book. Then you should pick another handful of tunes and explore them in similar ways. It should never end. To truly internalize many of these concepts, you will have to work at them for years. You should never stop discovering how X can relate to Y and why that works better in this tune than Z. I have no intention of providing an encyclopedic text of possible scalar patterns through a million tunes. In fact, I believe that would do you no good! To really get anything out of this kind of book, YOU need to do the work. It’s in those moments of frustration, when you’re struggling to figure something out, that you are learning. It’s important to hit those walls and find your own way around, over, or through them. Even once you’ve ‘mastered’ all of these exercises, they will only lead you to discover more variations and different ways to explore changes. You will inevitably invent your own exercises that will challenge you in new ways. All of these exercises were of my own making. These exercises seemed like a logical way to work on changes and I kept tweaking them. It turns out that improvising musicians all across the world do these same very things, and I didn’t know it. I think these are the logical places to start exploring changes, but you will find your own path and tweak this methodology to suite your own learning style and goals for the instrument. Here’s one more example (with tab) of the chordal voice-leading exercise (with occasional extensions) using the first 16 bars of “Beautiful Love,” for 4-string bass.

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Rhythm Now that we’ve gotten quite familiar with what notes should work over any given chord, I’m going to tell you that unless your rhythm and phrasing is happening, your playing is not happening. Rhythm is at least 50% of what goes into a great groove, bass line, fill or solo. In my experience, a player who has great time and a great feel—but a very limited harmonic concept—will sound infinitely better than a player who has all of the “right” notes but can’t control his time and feel. I’ve come across far too many students who have a ton of potential but have neglected to do the work necessary to really control their time and/or subdivisions. The mastery of subdivisions is really what it’s all about when it comes to rhythmic control. Many blossoming musicians get very hung up on downbeats and upbeats and don’t really push themselves too far beyond that until they are forced to. I remember doing a trio gig with a Latin jazz guitarist and an African percussionist. The guitar player made a little joke about trying to find the “1” during the percussion solo, and the percussionist replied, “All you Western guys are so worried about the ‘1’—nobody cares about the ‘2.’” Not only did this crack us all up, but there was a little moment of clarity for the guitarist, who immediately recognized how reliant he was on having the downbeats fed to him by the rhythm section. If we dropped the “1” and emphasized a subdivision that he didn’t expect, for example, he could be thrown hopelessly off course. Even the “2,” in that example, should be as easy to feel as the “1,” let alone the third eighth-note triplet from the “1.” Unfamiliar rhythms can throw anybody off, but it does also highlight the importance of internalization! If we can train ourselves to feel EVERY subdivision inside of us just as strongly as we can feel a downbeat of every bar, things begin to get more interesting. A whole new world of rhythmic possibilities opens up to you and your execution of those rhythms grows much more strong. Once you have begun to internalize rhythm, your playing tightens up, and you will naturally feel music in a more developed way. When you feel it convincingly, you will play it convincingly. I tend to feel everything in groups of two or three, and that’s how I break things down internally, whether we’re speaking of non-4/4 time signatures or subdivisions of one beat. This includes groupings of four and six, as well as compound groupings. A compound rhythm is comprised of multiple rhythmic groupings. For example: • 4/4 is still a grouping of two (in my mind, it’s just multiples of 2). • 6/8 is a grouping of three. • 5/8, however, is not a simple adding of twos or threes but a combination of twos and threes (3+2 or 2+3).

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Groupings of 5, 7, 11, 13, and so on are prime numbers. As far as I can tell, all prime numbers would be compound rhythms. NOTE: It is helpful to have a metronome that allows for compound groupings when developing your abilities with “odd” time signatures. If you can program a metronome to give you a 3+2 click or 4+3 with a downbeat for each grouping, it can really help speed up your internalization of the groupings. With larger non-compound groupings, we can still use multiples of both two and three (eight beats could be emphasized as 3+2+3, for example). I don’t consider this a compound grouping but more like a rhythmic accentuation of a non-compound rhythm. This may or may not conflict with other texts on the subject—that’s just how I perceive it. I honestly don’t care much if something is “right” or “wrong” as long as it leads to me making music that I perceive as “right.” If it works for me, I go with it. If you find alternate ways to conceive of ANYTHING in this book and those ways truly help you to understand the information in a functional way, go for it! Always make sure that your personal interpretation is truly functional through experimentation and exploration. Never allow yourself to take the simpler path because it is easier. Assuming that you continue on your path towards musical understanding, you may only be creating more work for yourself later on. This would be by virtue of having to break bad habits or re-learn something you misunderstood and internalized. To the exercises: For now, we are going to stick to subdivisions within a single beat but we’ll get to compound time signatures later. While we can, of course, divide a beat into any number of smaller subdivisions, let’s focus on the most common; triplets and 16ths. I find that if students can really control their triplets and 16th-note subdivisions, the rest comes naturally and much more easily. I’ve also noticed a trend regarding triplets. For most bassist I’ve come across in educational settings, triplets are harder to feel. Let’s start with some 16th-note exercises, followed by some triplets, and then round it off with a mix of the two. All notes marked “x” should be muted. I find it easier to first play EVERY subdivision and mute every note except the subdivision that I am trying to play. Doing so helps you to feel every subdivision and the relationship to the note you are actually allowing to ring through. This is also a fantastic exercise for precision muting, right-hand plucking, timing, and endurance. Once you can play an exercise well and in time using muted notes, it is time to evolve into rests and ONLY playing the subdivision that you intend to. This will likely make more sense once you see the exercises.

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Now let’s look at some similar exercises utilizing triplets. I have found that most of my students have a much harder time truly internalizing triplet divisions. These are worth solidifying, as there is a LOT of rhyhmic gold to be found through the combination of groupings of two and three.

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Try a few combinations of triplets and 16ths.

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Rhythmic Application to Harmony Once we’ve gotten fairly comfortable with the rhythms themselves, it’s time to start applying our rhythmic patterns to melodic patterns. I find that applying ALL technical exercises to my various melodic patterns helps further internalize them all in an efficient way. This serves to test our limits, as well as test the depth of our internalization of both rhythm and harmony. Every exercise we run in our quest for musical mastery is ultimately in service to making music. Thus, it is more than helpful to employ a musical context to every exercise. In the following exercises, we will use Real Book tunes from our previous arpeggio exercises married to some of these rhythmic exercises. It takes little imagination to realize how we can continue to challenge ourselves for a lifetime by continuing to apply the following criteria when devising new exercises to challenge ourselves. • Decide upon a rhythmic pattern. • Decide upon a melodic pattern. • Run them both simultaneously through any number of chord changes in the Real Book. We’ll add to this list as we continue in this book, but even just this application of rhythm and harmony should lead to some giant discoveries if practiced with intention and patience. It is not my intention to provide you with every possibility within. A large part of your development will come from your own exploration of this material, in your own way. I encourage you to try and follow each thread to its natural conclusion and then ask yourself, “What else could I try?” The difficulty level may jump around a bit here. As stated, I will only give you a handful of examples to get you understanding the process. The real work is up to you to follow through with further variations. REMEMBER: These examples will use muted notes to help you keep track of the placement. It is important that you develop the ability to abandon the muted subdivisions and only play the chosen subdivision. Once you can do this competently, you can be sure that you are well on your way to rhythmic internalization!

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As you can see, things got a little tricky on that last one. You should have a pretty good idea of just how much we can do with a little creative thinking about rhythm and harmony through changes. I’d like to share something extremely creative that the phenomenal bassist Franc O’Shea (www.francoshea.com) wrote in an article for the May 2011 issue of UK magazine Bass Guitar. This illustrates just how inventive you can get with rhythm in your practice. While I can’t remember what he called the concept, I call it “12 Tones and 12 Beats.” I love this concept and have explored a myriad of ways in which to employ it in my practice. The essence is this: There are 12 notes in the chromatic scale, and if we assign each note in the chromatic scale a rhythmic value, then every scale has a different rhythm to it (every note in the chromatic scale that doesn’t belong in the mode we are working with becomes a rest). Let’s start by using eighth-note triplets because this also gives us 12 beats per measure. Using this premise, the C major scale would have this rhythm.

What was most interesting to me and to my ears is that many of the rhythms of the major scale sounded like various common Afro-Cuban percussion rhythms when played fast. One student and I had a particularly good time exploring this. We would pick a scale, one of us would play a bass line in the rhythm of that scale, and the other soloed in that tonality. Then, whenever it felt right, one of us would call out a new scale and root (“G Lydian,” for example) and at the end of our phrase, we would switch tonalities and rhythms and change roles (with the soloist now playing bass, and vice-versa). This works for any scale with any number of notes. A pentatonic scale would simply have more rests, for example and a symmetrical diminished scale would have fewer rests. Here are a few examples of various scales and the rhythms associated with them in the following pages. We’ll start with the major scale modes. REMEMBER: Each scale will end on the 7th degree. Most of us are used to repeating the root at the end of the scale, but this would be the beginning of the repeated rhythm.

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Utilizing the modes of the major, melodic minor, and harmonic minor scales gives us a wealth of rhythms to play with. So far, we’ve only even used eighth-note triplets as our parent rhythm thus far. If we choose another rhythm, things get interesting because (in 4/4) the rhythmic phrases will repeat at different places in the bar. In other words, using eighth notes, each scale takes a bar and a half before it repeats. This gives us a three-bar rhythmic phrase before it starts again on the “1.”

This opens up a world of possibilities (especially when we begin to work with them on “odd” meters! Some parent rhythms may take fewer or more bars before repeating from the “1” and some (like the example in B minor you will see in a few pages) can be VERY hard to play well. The real idea here is that this is yet one more tool in your belt with regard to devising exercises to challenge yourself. I like to play with these rhythms while practicing chord scales through chord changes SLOWLY. This is not a place to start while you are still internalizing chord scales, but a way to “up the ante” just a bit once you’ve gotten comfortable with some of them. Here are a few other arbitrary examples to get you going with this (not so) basic premise.

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As I mentioned earlier, one other way I’ve thought of to employ this rhythmic device while practicing is to incorporate it into chord scale practice through chord changes. This requires that you play through changes VERY slowly. When using a play-along, I usually set the tempo to around 75bpm for a tune with ONE chord per bar. If the tune has two chords per bar, you might want to go as low as 40bpm! Take it as slow as is necessary to play it correctly. It takes time to think about the space in between notes and translate that into rhythm. This is especially true when using a chord scale with more than a whole step in between some scale degrees. THIS IS TRICKY STUFF! Don’t get discouraged if you get confused. Just take your time and play with the concept. Build it slowly and experiment. Here is what the first eight bars of “Autumn Leaves” might look like:

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This is some pretty heady stuff. It’s usefulness lies in the way it pushes you to stretch your imagination and look at one piece of information in multiple ways. I find that when I’m in a good practice routine and working through things that are more difficult than I may even encounter on the bandstand, even playing through tough changes seems much easier. One last thing I’d like to make mention of is the concept of displacement. This is something that most drummers work on regularly but doesn’t occur to many other instrumentalists until later in their development. What I’m talking about is the act of taking a lick, groove or line that you are already familiar with and displacing it rhythmically by one degree at a time (eighth notes, 16ths, triplets… whatever seems doable). This applies to harmony and rhythm (the Dorian mode, for example, is really just a harmonic displacement of the major scale by one note). Here’s another example: If you have a four-note lick you like, what happens if you start the lick on the second note and end with the first, transforming 1, 2, 3, 4 to 2, 3, 4, 1? Those of you who’ve worked through my first book, “Right Hand Drive,” might recognize this groove.

Here is an example (albeit a tricky one) of what this groove looks like when I shift it backwards by one note over and over again. Hint: There are 14 notes in the groove, so there will be 14 variations of this groove on the following page. This is another example of how you can take one thing you know well and turn it into an almost overwhelming amount of information to explore.

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While this groove is admittedly a bit tricky to begin with, you can see how you can take ANY groove and, by simply moving it note by note, turn it into a number of completely different feeling grooves. By now, you should have a pretty good idea of how you can use rhythm to expand your horizons as well as a pretty good idea of what is required to get it under your fingers in a truly useful way. As a general rule, creating new exercises can be as simple as taking… • Any melodic exercise • Any rhythmic grouping …and combining them to create new and interesting ways to challenge yourself both rhythmically and harmonically! Let’s apply some of this perspective on rhythmic groupings to time signatures. To be honest, the term “odd time signatures” has always bugged me. I think this term is a bit of an (unconscious) excuse, and it speaks only to a lack of variety within our musical culture. It also implies that our standard 4/4 or 3/4 time signatures are ‘normal’ while anything else is eccentric, experimental, or “outside the box.” This is only my perspective, but I maintain that it doesn’t help us to think of nonstandard meters as “odd.”

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In my mind, a time signature is only odd if it is unfamiliar, and unfamiliarity speaks only to our own lack of exposure. It is also due to this degree of exposure that I will preface this chapter by stating that, while there may be some things contained here which might help you to work on “odd meters,” nothing will really help you internalize these meters more than simply broadening your horizons with regard to the music you are listening to. If you want to play music in other meters, you must be able to really hear music in other meters. This holds true for musicians who wish that they could play more genres or styles of music. The ability to play a new style of music requires that you understand that style through listening and internalization. No amount of reading will get you there. This, more than almost anything, requires that you listen. This chapter is quite subjective. I have my own way of feeling time signatures, which pretty much consists of me internalizing the drum groove, the rhythm of the melody, or some ostinato pattern that exists in the song. I do not have the ability to actually count and play at the same time. Therefore, I MUST feel the rhythmic groupings of what it is that I’m playing if I’m to play well and phrase naturally within the time signature. While I may give examples of how I feel the tunes contained in this chapter, this does not necessarily mean that you will feel them in the same way. My primary goal in this chapter is to show you a pathway to understanding that you may then explore in your own way and at your own pace. As I’ve said earlier, I tend to feel everything in groups of two and/or three. With regard to time signatures, most people can feel groups of two (2/4, 4/4, etc.) and most people can feel groups of three (3/4, 6/8, etc). In my experience, most people haven’t worked on mixing up those time signature groupings of two and three, as opposed to groups of two or three. Once you can comfortably combine alternating of groupings of two AND three, the possibilities are endless. 3+2=5, 4+3=7, 6+3=9, 3+3+3+2=11 and so on. And those time signatures can be grouped in any number of ways. Let’s take a closer look at a few tunes and you will hear what I’m talking about.

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Dave Brubeck Quartet, “Take 5,” from the album Time Out This is a classic example of how to phrase in 5/4. I have yet to meet a student who couldn’t tap along within a few bars. Now, of course, playing freely and improvising with a band while playing this tune still requires us to really internalize it a bit. Here is the basic groove that this tune is built upon.

This is a fairly obvious grouping of 3 + 2. Here is another way it could be written.

The dotted quarter rhythm is a common alternate way to phrase a grouping of three quarter notes (so as to make a little more interesting than just hammering out every pulse). A dotted quarter is also a natural rhythm when grouping eighth notes (three eighth notes = one quarter note). You will be able to phrase well within the song once you have the “mother rhythm” of that tune internalized. Even if you are playing another rhythm, this is what you will likely have going on internally. When walking quarter notes, for example, even if I am playing a straight walking line underneath the soloist on this tune, that rhythm of two dotted quarter notes followed by two quarter notes is what I’ll be feeling internally. This is how I would keep from getting lost in the pulse, especially if the drummer gets tricky and phrases things in 4/4 for a few bars just to create tension. We will have our “mother rhythm” solidly implanted in our mind’s ear, and unless we let our minds wander for too long, we should be able to keep our place in the form and come back in strong on a downbeat together, creating a nice rhythmic tension and release.

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Sting, “Seven Days,” from the album Ten Summoner’s Tales This is another fantastic example of 5/4 felt as a grouping of 3 + 2. It’s actually the same rhythmic grouping as “Take 5,” with dotted quarters. The only difference is the use of rests in the “mother rhythm.”

What makes this tune sound so interesting (aside from Sting’s masterful writing) is drummer Vinnie Colaiuta’s creative use of hi-hat accents on every other beat. This creates a two-bar pattern and is a wonderful way to enhance an odd-meter groove without cluttering it up or making it too complicated.

While it may not be obvious that the ‘mother rhythm’ ofthis tune is 3 + 2, it is the use of the hit on “twoand” (the upbeat of the beat two) that forces our ears to hear the third beat strongly, even though it is a rest. We can’t help but hear it as 1 2 and 3 4 5.

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Dave Brubeck Quartet, “Blue Rondo à la Turk,” from the album Time Out

This tune is a good example of something I perceive as ‘counting slow and fast.’ Although we are using eighth notes as our denominator and the literal feel of this tune is 2 + 2 + 2 + 3, the tempo is too brisk for me to feel such a quick 1, 2 / 1, 2 / 1, 2 / 1, 2, 3 and still feel relaxed enough to play well. If we are furiously counting and tapping out a rhythm, our playing will feel frenetic because we will feel frenetic. I propose that it’s easier to feel this rhythm as a slow 3 + a quick 3. In other words, I internalize this rhythm as three quarter notes plus three eighth notes, or as three quarter notes and one dotted quarter note. Like this: 1 2 3, 123 This way of feeling compound rhythms as two separate rhythms at double or half time can become very useful when we get to longer and more complicated rhythms (such as my tune “Bestowal,” which is in 15/8). If you gravitate towards combinations of rhythm that you are already familiar with and can feel with ease, then it is just a matter of getting comfortable alternating familiar rhythms. I think this is far easier than remembering a large collection of rhythmic groupings. In other words, if you can play in 3/4 comfortably and you can play in 4/4 comfortably, then with a little practice, it shouldn’t be too difficult to evolve a comfort level with 7/4. This “slow 3 + fast 3” feel to 9/8 is the same exact way that I have internalized the Jeff Beck tune “Scatterbrain.” Take a listen and try counting 3/4 + 3/8. I find that it makes this tune MUCH easier to play comfortably. Many of you may have a different way of feeling that tune, as there is no clear division of the pulses. NOTE: A typical grouping for 9/8 is actually just three dotted quarter notes (like a waltz). If you come across a chart in 9/8, it would be safest to assume that you will actually just feel it in 3/4.

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Vardan Ovsepian, “Dreaming Paris,” from the Peter Erskine New Trio album Joy Luck This tune has a much less common way of phrasing 9/8. Vardan has written the bass line as a 4 + 5 grouping. Here are the first four bars from Vardan’s original score.

I feel this tune in 3/4, but the way he tends to play it, I perceive each eighth note as a triplet. In other words, I feel each bar as three groupings of three eighth-note triplets. Internally, I am feeling “one two and three.”

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Mike Prigodich, “Haiku, ” from the album Variety Pack Live This tune appears to be quite a bear, but it’s surprisingly easy to feel once you’ve heard it once or twice. The intro and outro is in haiku form (5 + 7 + 5). Believe it or not, our drummer, Reinhardt Melz, solos over this at the outro!

This is an example of a tune in which—for me at least—the only way to play it is to literally feel each grouping as its own separate entity. For passages like this, I ignore the time signature and simply play the line, focusing on the rhythm. My foot tends to only tap the downbeats of each bar, thereby reorienting myself to the downbeat for every single bar. There are many groups throughout history that have explored the concept of NO barlines, only rhythmic groupings. Check out Steve Coleman or Andy Milne’s Dapp Theory to hear what I’m referring to. They are surprisingly funky, too. Rich Brown is a fantastic Canadian bassist who has actually played in both of those groups. He told me that during master classes, someone would always ask, “What time signature was that in?” To which the band would reply, “Nobody knows!” Many of the songs were created around a drum groove, which everyone would internalize and then build their grooves around. Once you have the concept down, than no ‘odd time signature’ is any more difficult to play than any other!

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Odd Time Signatures

Damian Erskine, “Bestowal,” from the album Live at PSU My composition “Bestowal” is another example of something that’s easiest to feel in two different time signatures, 4/4 and 7/8. Don’t forget that the 7/8 is counted twice as fast as the 4/4, like this: 1 2 3 4 1234123 I originally wrote this in 15/8 (three groups of 5), but I quickly realized that that wasn’t really how I was feeling it. I had only intellectualized it that way prior to finishing the tune. In reality, I was feeling a bar of 4/4 followed by a bar of 7/8. It almost feels like two bars of 4, with the second bar getting cut short each time.

This could also be written as 4 + 4 + 4 + 3 (counting all eighth notes). What surprises me most is how natural this groove feels to me. In fact, when I was writing tunes for my next album (which I’m still working on), I had to re-work a number of grooves because I kept gravitating towards this 15/8 feel. If you’ve heard much of my music or heard me playing in groups with a lot of “odd time signatures,” then you might have noticed a trend (that is easy to see in the above example). I tend to avoid playing downbeats on every single bar. To my ears, this helps keep grooves interesting. Once you have rhythm deeply internalized, it is not such a stretch to expand your phrasing over the bar line. Of course, there’s no need to overdo it! I don’t do it for effect or to prove I can, but because it often sounds better to my ears.

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Mike Prigodich, “Nigel’s Theme,” from the album Live at Jimmy Mak’s I thought that this one might be a fun challenge. I’ll provide the entire chart that I use for this tune. “Nigel’s Theme” is in 11/8 (think about the movie Spinal Tap if you don’t get the reference). For some reason, I can feel this easily almost as if it were in 4/4 (…almost). 11/8 usually gives me fits, but this particular rhythmic grouping that you see in the A section just makes sense to my ears, and I keep that going throughout the tune. I also solo on this one, and that rhythm is so ingrained in my mind’s ear that it doesn’t feel any harder than soloing in 4/4 to me. This rhythmic grouping (as stated in the A section melody) is a fast 3 + 3 + 3 + 2. I feel each grouping of three as a quarter note with two fast eighth-note triplets at the end. Because I am feeling each eighth note as an eighth-note triplet, it feels like a fairly natural grouping of 3 + 2. Like this: 1 2 3 12 The only time this changes is during the hits in bars 2 and 3, as well as in the coda. For those, I simply count out what it is telling me to play (1234 1234 123, for example). Check out any recording online and see if you can feel it like I do!

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Welcome to the life of a fusion musician! ;) There aren’t many bands that would hand this to someone without plenty of preparation time. But it is nice (and keeps you working) when you can read well enough to make it through a chart like this the first time! (Notice the unison line at the top of the chart. Classic case. The unison line is written in treble clef on the bass chart. Thanks, Mike!)

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Damian Erskine – “Fif” from the album, So To Speak Finally, here is one last composition of mine called, “Fif.” People ask me about this tune frequently. I think most listeners get thrown off because the bass line in the intro sounds like quarter notes, but they are actually quarter-note triplets. I wrote this tune while experimenting a LOT with triplets. This groove came about while grooving in 5 with a metronome. The melody was an exploration of triplets and the use of space. I enjoyed playing with the different rhythmic feels and the effects brought about by the placement of a rest. In other words, instead of exploring note placement, I was exploring rest placement. Here are the groove and “a” section melody to “Fif.”

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If you listen to any recording of this tune, you’ll notice that I’m doing more with that bass line than is notated. I often throw quite a bit of subdivision exploration in there when I’m feeling it. I prefer to keep my charts easier to read and leave the interpretation of the lines up to the musicians. Notice the third bar of the melody. Do you recall our exploration of triplets and 16th notes used together in a phrase? This is a prime example. If you’ve worked diligently through the rhythmic section of this book, you should be able to cop this melody pretty quickly. Well… OK, it’s not necessarily easy to play, but you should at least be able to grasp the concept. If you’re having trouble, try drumming the rhythm on a table first. Get the rhythm in your head and then work to translate it on your instrument. Remember to feel every pulse, and don’t forget to slow it down. I call it “tempo-de-learn-o.” Here’s a related story about this recording session and our conversations about internalization. The guitarist on the session, Chris Mosley (a fantastic player who was all of about 23 at the time!), was dreading having to solo over this tune. For whatever reason, he could NOT feel that “5.” So, with his understanding that he needed to internalize 5/4 if he ever hoped to play it well, he set to walking. He would walk around his block, paying attention to his footfalls. He focused on the rhythm of his body, taking note of how he could feel the need to alternate feet to keep the “one” (if your first beat falls when your right foot falls, then the next “one” will happen on a left footfall). Within a few miles, over a few days, he had it, and when we played that tune on the session, he NAILED the take. No sweat at all—he had it. This was all because he internalized the rhythm (five counts) by walking. Not playing or shedding for hours: He walked and paid attention to his body mechanics. Now that we’ve explored scales, modes, chord scales, rhythm and “odd meters’ it may be time to ask the question, “So how do I turn this into music?” I’m still trying to figure that out and may never feel like I have the answer, but I have discovered a thing or two in my time. Phrasing and rhythm is paramount when it comes to improvisation but it is MUCH harder to write about. Everyone phrases differently. All I really care to do is show you a few ways in which you can expand your rhythmic vocabulary and solidify your time-feel. Beyond that, it’s up to you. What I would like to share with you are a few things I’ve learned (or am still working on) with regard to harmony and how to play with it when improvising on the bass. Let’s get to it.

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Harmony + Rhythm = Melody That’s an oversimplification, but something about that simple equation resonates with me. It says, in the simplest terms possible, what I must continue to work on. Harmony Developing your abilities with regard to harmonic mastery is a lifelong pursuit. I hope that you will all continue to explore harmony and the myriad ways you can employ it to make music. By harmony, I am primarily speaking of: • Understanding and memorizing all the modes—major, melodic minor, and harmonic minor • Continuing to explore alternate chord/scale options for various chord types so I can control the mood of any given chord. • Mastery of the instrument. I hope to be comfortable enough on my instrument that playing it is second nature. I never want my instrumental technique to be an obstacle. • Evolution of my ears. The ability to use advanced harmonic concepts is primarily limited by one’s ability to really hear advanced concepts. • Understanding of harmonic tension and release Rhythm Control over your rhythm and a development of your phrasing and rhythmic vocabulary is crucial to your evolution. It is the thing that can make or break a wonderfully crafted harmonic statement. Phrasing is EVERYTHING, and to develop your phrasing, you must have control over your subdivisions and rhythmic abilities. These include: • Development of 8th-, 16th-, and 32nd-note-type divisions • Development of triplet variations • Exploration of polyrhythmic possibilities • Exploration of the use of space • Development of your technique (and the maturity to hold back!) • Understanding of rhythmic tension and release

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Harmony + Rhythm This is where all our work comes together in the form of music. This is where the greats branch off from the rest of us mortals. Many aspects of both harmony and rhythm can easily be memorized and drilled into our hands and ears, given enough time in the shed. However, our ears and our taste (musical aesthetic) never stop evolving and changing. This last step, the marriage of your harmonic development with your rhythmic development, is the most important step of them all. It is also a step that is different for everyone. I cannot give you exercises that will teach you how to make the music that you want to make. I can only provide you with a road map of everything that you should know while making this leg of the journey. And, to be honest, I’m not sure that I know the half of it! I do, however, think that I’ve figured a few things out that have confounded a lot of bass players I know. These may be things that are obvious to jazz piano players but a lot of bassists seem to have been left out of the secret meetings. Almost every time I make a new musical discovery, I will ask a piano player buddy to confirm or illuminate on my discovery and I will often hear two things. “Yeah. You didn’t know that? That works that way because…” “Huh! I never thought of it in exactly that way but, yeah—that’s exactly how that works.” I think this is primarily because of our role in the band. Bassists spend decades learning how to support the harmony, reinforce the rhythm, and stay out of everyone else’s way while still contributing to the song. Horn players are developing their sense of melody from the first lesson.. That’s their job in the band: melodies and improvisation. A bass player’s first steps toward improvisation can be difficult. We have to suddenly operate under a different principle and not for nuthin’, but we have to do it without a bass player to support us harmonically! Arguably, the most difficult thing for a bassist to learn is how to get away from the root in our solos. I don’t mean to imply that we shouldn’t play the root, but it’s our need to base everything we play from the root and resolve to the root that perplexes most bassists first learning to solo. I know it perplexed me for much of my life. Previously, in the chapter on chord scales, I listed a handful of scales and how they applied to certain chord symbols. Now I’d like us to explore how we can operate from notes other than the root, using different chord scales to re-orient our mental “home base” while still maintaining the proper tonality. NOTE: Although it is liberating to get comfortable with alternate scalar choices and alternate roots for improvising from, we can never really abandon the actual harmony we’re playing over. We still need to

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keep an eye out for notes that will rub against what the pianist or guitarist is playing, and it’s still important to pay attention to our points of resolution. This will make more sense once I’ve explained a few options. If, for example, we’re playing over a C∆7 chord and pretending that it’s a G∆7 (I’ll explain why in a minute), we still have to resolve in relation to C major. This is because regardless of how we’re looking at it, C major is the harmony that we’re actually playing over. This will make more sense as you proceed and experiment. This section will primarily be about reorienting yourself away from the root, meaning that when you see a chord symbol, you will have trained yourself to play: • The same scale type as if it had a different root. • Play an entirely different chord scale from another root. If you want to be truly free to improvise melodically without limitation, it should be your goal to be able to operate from any note in the scale, in any direction on your fretboard, and be as comfortable as you would be playing a major scale. There are a few scale degrees that work especially well as a point of departure. I believe that the sonic range and timbre of our instrument limits us harmonically. We have a thick, deep tone and operate in the lower register of the piano. I mentioned this earlier but I want to restate this idea. Certain notes or melodic patterns that may sound good up high on a horn or in the upper register of the piano may not sound as good on the bass guitar. Bassists are too close to the fundamental register of functional harmony, even when playing up high on our fretboard. I find this to be true (even on a 6string bass, although it does get better the higher you go). In my experience, and as a broad generalization (there are always exceptions to the rule): • The first 12 frets are best served by chord tones with use of scalar or chromatic passing tones. • The upper register opens us open to a freer use of upper-structure scale tones (9, 11 and 13). While all notes can and should be used everywhere, the ability to land on a sustained and emphasized 9, for example, sounds more melodic in the upper register than it does in the lower register, where it can sound harmonically ambiguous and less melodically stable.

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With this in mind, I would try all of this stuff all over the fretboard. Get a feel for how each scale tone sounds against the root in every register of your bass. I like setting up a looped drone and exploring every note of the chromatic scale against it all over my fretboard. I see my fretboard like a grid. I see scales and arpeggios as shapes and patterns. I also know every note on my fretboard, so I can adjust patterns to match tonality. This is important! You must know your fretboard inside and out before you will ever be able to play freely. Shapes alone won’t cut it. This is why the following method works for me. If you have a different perception of tonality, your fretboard and scales, this may or may not work for you. I think it is worth exploring, however because, at the very least, it may spark an insight or idea of how you might further explore tonality using your own methodology! I have found that a nice place to start is playing chord scales over changes from the fifth degree of each chord. The 5 works well for me because I arpeggiate quite a bit when I improvise, and when we arpeggiate from the fifth degree, we get:

5 7 9 11 13 R 3

This means that when we play our standard patterns and shapes, we are now likely to land on upper-structure harmony instead of just chord tones. It also means that when we resolve to our root, we’ll actually be resolving to the 5, which is usually a pretty consonant sound, depending on the chord type. When exploring these ideas, play as you normally would over the given scale or chord type. Keep it natural but explore how different it can sound when you do it from a scale degree other than the root. Instead of breaking these up one scale tone at a time, you will find a reference table for many chord types and a selection of preferred scalar substitutions below. If I choose a new root and scale type that alters the sound of the original chord type, I have added that to the right of the table. My preferred chord scale substitutions for various chord types

Major

5

Major

When altered, makes the original scale… Lydian

Dominant

5 5 5

Minor pentatonic Dorian Melodic minor

Lydian dominant

Minor

5 ♭7

Minor Major

Dorian Dorian

Half-diminished A pure -7(♭5) scale with a nat. 9 is the sixth mode of Melodic minor

♭7 ♭5 ♭3 ♭7 ♭7

Minor Lydian Melodic minor Mixolydian ♭6 Harmonic minor

(ø7 with a ♭9) (ø7 with a ♭9) (ø7 with a nat. 9) (ø7 with a nat. 9) (♭9, nat. 13)

Original chord type

New root

Chord scale

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New root

Chord scale

When altered, makes the original scale…

Sus4

Root

Mixolydian

Altered dominant

Root

Mixolydian ♭9, ♭6

Fifth mode of Harmonic minor

The altered chord has so many available tensions that in essence, every note is available to you. The context of the line you play is what will determine whether it works or not.

Root

Half-whole sym. dim.

Symmetrical diminished scale

Mixo ♭6 is the fifth mode of melodic minor. ♭6 Mixolydian ♭6 This scale, played from the ♭6, hits most available tensions. (Seventh mode of Root Super Locrian melodic minor) Symmetrical diminished Diminished Root Whole-half sym. dim. scale It is possible to conceive of the diminished scale as just the altered scale starting from the ♭9. This only literally applies to the symmetrical diminished scales, but using this logic, experiment with the altered scale of your choice, using the natural 7th as your starting point. Some work better than others. Explore! ∆7(#5)

6 6

Harmonic minor Melodic minor

Root

Melodic minor

Root

Harmonic minor

5 5

Mixolydian ♭6 Mixolydian ♭9, ♭6

The use of either the harmonic or melodic minor scale is common. Melodic minor Harmonic minor

7(#11)

Root 5 2

Lydian dominant Melodic minor Mixolydian ♭6

These are all variations on melodic minor harmony

7(#5)

Root

Whole-tone

Sus7(♭9)

♭7

Melodic minor

-(∆7)

Adds #11

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Here are a few things to keep in mind when deciding on your chord scale options (or building your own chord scales). • ANY altered tension implies the use of a #11 • A #9 implies a ♭9, and vice-versa • You can add a #11 to any chord (major, dominant, augmented, etc.) with a major 3rd If an altered dominant chord is written with the “Alt” symbol, it is generally assumed that every tension will be altered, making Super Locrian the preferred scale choice. Otherwise, use the notated extensions to guide you in your choice of preferred chord scale. You can break any rule, but make sure you understand the rule before you abandon it altogether. In the end, it’s about what sounds good to you, which will indeed evolve and change as you evolve and change as a player. Don’t get too stuck in your ways. Always explore alternatives to what you know when you practice. I find it useful to pick tunes out of the Real Book and make scale-study charts out of them. Let’s take a few tunes and use the chart above to mark down some scalar options.

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NOTE: If you’re not sure what scale I’m referring to, check back with the major, melodic minor, and harmonic minor mode sheets in the “Modes” chapter on page 10. This is an example of a practice substitution chord-scale sheet that I might make myself. Notice that even with similar chord types, I might try different scales in different parts of the tune. When I practice the functional usage of chord scales through changes, I find it VERY helpful to play every song slowly, as if it were a ballad. This gives me time to explore the sound of the scale over

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the chord type, and it also encourages me to play melodically. I try to play as beautifully as I can at very slow tempos and then, even when sped up, my habits lean more toward melody than licks. One great way that I’ve found to work on substitution without having to tackle an entire tune at a time is to make a loop of one single chord type at a time. It could be a bass chord, keyboard, or a MIDI play-along program that is only vamping on one chord type. I use iReal Pro on all my iOS devices, as well as on my computer, and it’s fantastic. Not only can you play along to any tune in any style, in any key, at any tempo and have it show you chord scales (and more), but iReal Pro allows you to create your own chord charts that work equally well within the program. I have quite a few practice tunes that are only one chord type. Imagine having a MIDI band at your disposal that vamps on a diminished chord until you just can’t take it anymore. A great practice tool! It can also be helpful to simply play over a single note (also known as a drone). This allows you to explore any and every tonality, as well as experiment with tension and release using the chromatic scale. (The chromatic scale is simply every note, all 12 tones, in an octave). You may notice that it is possible to play one tonality over an entire series of chord changes in a tune and in some tunes, you could play one scale over the entire tune! The simplicity of this idea may appeal to some, but I find that paying attention to the changes and making use of leading tones can really help shape an improvisation. Whenever I try to just play one scale over a set of diatonic changes, it’s much harder to make a valid musical statement. This is because I’m not playing the tune; I’m playing a scale. Pay attention to the changes. Play the tune! Phrasing, space and “fishing” I’m going to warn you of impending inappropriate playing as you get more and more comfortable with all the notes and scales available to you. It happens to the best of us. It can be especially bad if you’ve spent all of your time running melodic patterns through changes without ever actually working on melodic phrasing. You’re going to be “fishing.” By fishing, I mean that you may find yourself endlessly running notes up and down the fingerboard. You may be hitting every change and playing the living mess out of your melodic minor licks but you won’t yet be making music. In fact, you may be driving everyone else crazy. To take everything that we have learned so far and turn it into music we must practice playing musically. For the most part, this involves: • Using rests to create a rhythmic dialogue (i.e., call and response, tension and release) • Being mindful of the notes you land on when you resolve a line. Just because you’ve resolved it rhythmically doesn’t mean that you resolved it harmonically (and vice-versa).

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• Playing a “singable” melody. This may sound cliché, but your ears know what a good melody sounds like. It’s usually your brain and hands that mess things up. You’ve heard players sing along with themselves, right? If they’re doing it well, chances are that they aren’t attempting to sing what they play—they’re trying to play what they sing! Chromaticism We have yet to mention chromaticism and how you can use it to enhance your lines. The best way I’ve found to practice employing chromatic approach notes is to apply them to the exercises I’m already comfortable with. Simply add one (or more) notes one fret down or up from the note you’re about to play, and you have a chromatic approach note leading to a chord scale note. Let’s use a simple arpeggio as an example. Here’s an example of a simple C∆7 arpeggio (1 3 5 7) with chromatic passing tones from below, from above, and from both below and above. Many people refer to this technique as “enclosure.”

It’s easy to hear how, if applied to any and all previous harmonic exercises (and internalized), we can really make some interesting things happen in our lines. These are especially useful when creating walking bass lines, connecting chords, and just navigating from point “A” to point “B” in an improvisation.

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This solo was recorded before I starting stretching very far outside of major scale harmony. I thought that it might be interesting if I gave you some insight into what was going through my head as I was playing.

Here’s another chord-scale practice sheet for the Wayne Shorter tune “Nefertiti.”

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Melody If you’re wondering how to improvise melodically, don’t overthink it. You already know what kind of melodies you like to hear, so it’s more a matter of being able to: • Listen objectively while you are playing • Know your instrument well enough to react appropriately when you hear something • Understand the structure of music well enough to help you understand what it is that you’re hearing Listening and transcribing go a long way toward helping internalize melody. You must always seek out new music to inspire your creativity, and it’s up to you to expend the energy to understand that music. Transcription is an enormous part of that. You needn’t transcribe entire solos or an entire album— although that is fantastic—there’s nothing wrong with cherry-picking licks, snippets of bass lines, or even just the rhythm of a line. It’s the excitement and energy, and exploring music in most any form, that help you learn. Some work is more productive than others, of course, but I take the same approach to working on music that many people take with going to the gym: Don’t worry about everything you should be doing or how hard it will be—just get there and do something! The rest will happen once you take that first step. As long as you are working and in a place of discovery, you are learning. There is no right or wrong way to learn. There are more effective and efficient ways to learn, however, so you might as well work smart. Ultimately, the important thing is that you are working on something! As this relates to melodic playing, I got the best advice from Berklee professor Bruce Gertz years ago. When I asked how to play melodically, he dropped a Real Book on my music stand and said, “Written for your reading pleasure are a few hundred of the best melodies ever written.” If you don’t read or if you just hate jazz standards (it’s OK—you’re not alone), learn ANY melody you like. Prefer Stevie Wonder? Fantastic. Pick your favorite Stevie melody and learn it by ear. Make a nice lick out of a key phrase you like. Learn to phrase it exactly like Stevie sings or plays it. This work can only improve your ears and the connection to your instrument. Playing “outside” One of the most abstract concepts I struggled with and continue to explore is how to play outside the changes and make it sound good. What I’ve discovered is this: Context is everything, and you have to stick the landing! We have the best chance of successfully playing “outside” if we: 1) Start a line from a place of consonance (inside the changes) 2) Play any pattern that has its own context (a shape that moves around intervallically, has its own sound or harmony, and makes some kind of music sense on its own) 3) Resolve our line back inside the appropriate tonality Page 140

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Context is crucial. In order to have that ear-perking quality we all recognize, it can’t be random. As long as what we play has its own context when outside the changes, our ear will recognize a structure and accept it as valid. This is also why we must re-enter the “inside” harmony and resolve it. If we just abandon the resolution, it may sound incomplete to the ear. The outside line we played doesn’t really hit the listener in the chest until it’s made to work as a statement in the harmony. In other words, it usually isn’t until you stick the landing that it all comes together and becomes a complete musical statement. Everyone has a different threshold for what sounds inside vs. outside. In other words, we all have different tolerances for musical tension. This means that you might not all agree with my assessment. Some of you may like the sound of an unresolved tension, and that’s totally fine! You must use your own sense of aural aesthetic. Be your own judge—just make sure to judge yourself fairly (we tend to be the most lenient with ourselves, I think). I have come across a vast number of students who have used the “there are no wrong notes” approach as an excuse to stop working on understanding how to use harmony to create great lines, instead, they play random notes. These students also tend to be frustrated because they can’t make it all “work” and people are generally unresponsive to their playing. Some students have also never really listened to themselves in the context of the band. Recording practice sessions, rehearsals, gigs and jam sessions is key to development. You MUST sit down and evaluate your style and choices using your ears, not your head. In the moment, it can be easy to intellectualize what we are playing and only judge it by how well we executed our idea, completely abandoning musicality because we played that substitution, played it fast, and nailed it. Surprisingly often, when I listen back to recordings with them, they cringe when they hear how they were playing with the band. This isn’t because they weren’t playing valid ideas or because they got lost in the form—it was because they weren’t actually listening to the music that they were making when they were making it. Listen to the music you are making with others as if you were in the audience. Listen objectively, and try to react to music naturally from a place of listening. What do you want to hear in this song? Don’t answer that question as a bassist in the audience hoping to be wowed with chops and speed. Listen as a music lover who wants to hear a great band.

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Practice Method

When it comes to hitting the shed, some of us are better than others at maximizing our time. As I’ve stated, as long as you are playing, it’s better than nothing, but to start getting where you would like to go and get there faster, you must work smart and hard. The biggest mistake most students make is spending a majority of their practice time playing things that sound good. This is my rule: If you sound good, you’re not really practicing. Productive practice time should be spent challenging ourselves. Nobody likes to sound bad, even when they are practicing. We have to get over this need to only play the right notes when we practice because it is when we are struggling and working through an issue that we are truly learning! Pablo Picasso once said, “I only do that which I cannot do, so that I may one day be able to do it.” There is nothing wrong with playing what you like and reinforcing exercises you’ve already gotten together. This is productive, fun, and useful with regard to continuing to connect with your instrument and your music. This is not, however, the most efficient way to practice. Personally, I separate the two activities in my mind. When I feel like playing just to play, I do that. I love having fun with music and my bass. When it’s time to hit the shed and get to work, though, out comes the thinking cap, and I immediately start prioritizing and assessing weaknesses and try to tackle them head on. What follows will be a chart you can use to help develop challenges for yourself when you practice. I find it useful to pick as many variables as I can handle (but not more!) and spend 30 minutes at a time working on whatever collection of harmonic, rhythmic, or technical restrictions I set for myself.

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Practice Method MASTER PRACTICE VARIABLE CHART:

Pick a set of chord changes

This is usually a tune from the Real Book.

Pick a rhythmic device

…such as 8ths, 16ths, or triplets of any kind; any subdivision

Pick a harmonic device

Pick a fingering

…such as arpeggios, chord scales, or upper-structure triads. Choose any of the exercises in this book (and make your own) …such as strict alternating of two or three fingers; try any fingering combination for your right hand …such as a 4-fret span over all strings or five frets over two

Pick a fretboard restriction

strings. Just pick a fret restriction and choose how many strings you will use. Sometimes, I try to run these exercises on only one string! This forces you do leave your comfort zone. If you have the first

Pick a fretboard position

five frets down pat, force yourself to only play on frets 5-10, for example.

Pick a time signature

You don’t always have to run “Stella” in 4/4, for example!

Using this chart as your guide, you can easily create a lifetime’s worth of exercises designed to challenge you in any number of ways. Remember, you can choose as many or as few of these variables as is necessary to challenge yourself. Ultimately, I’d shoot for being able to tackle 3-5 at a time. If you really want to challenge yourself, you can certainly pick all seven variables!

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Miscellaneous Debris

This chapter will include a few things that I wanted to mention. Slash Chords You will encounter slash chords while flipping through the Real Book. You’ll also see some examples in the practice chord charts provided in a following chapter. There are two types of slash chords. C∆7/E • This type of slash chord means that while the band will be playing the top note (a CMaj7 chord), the bassist is to play an E. This is usually to facilitate a specific root motion, or to simply assure that the sound and function of the chord comes through clearly when played by anybody who’s just reading the chart. As bassists, our job is to land on that bottom note. However, when choosing what non-root notes to play, we have to pay attention to the chord quality placed above our root. For example, if you played a typical ‘root / 5’ pattern from the E, you have to be aware that your perceived “5,” B, would be the 7th of the chord everyone else is playing.

• This is a less common type of slash chord. Even if there are no chord symbols, a vertical stacking tells us that these are two complete chord types stacked on top of each other. This means that, for a pianist, they would play an Emin7 chord with the left hand and a CMaj7 chord with the right. I tend to adhere to the lower chord quality when playing bass but may shift to the upper chord quality when soloing. Some examples of tunes that include slash chords are “Falling Grace” and “Waltz for Debby.” Finding Your Voice I get asked quite a bit about how a player can discover their voice on the instrument. This is one of the toughest questions to answer, as it is not a “nuts & bolts” journey. You can’t just run an exercise or read a book and develop a unique voice on the instrument. In my mind, there are MANY factors. Here are my thoughts on a few of them. 1) Physiology Everyone is built differently. Our fingers are shaped and curved differently, with varying degrees of meatiness. Everyone has a differently shaped body, which determines how the instrument lays against your body or hangs from it. Individual notes from individual players are like snowflakes—no two will ever be exactly alike. This is the most “nuts & bolts” determination with regard to how you will sound playing your instrument. This doesn’t even take into account how hard or soft you play, where you like to place your hands, or what tone you gravitate toward.

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2) YOU are the instrument, not your bass. This is a multi-faceted concept. I first heard the great jazz pianist Hal Galper speak about this, and it resonated with me. The general idea is that when you are playing music, it’s not the instrument that dictates what and how you play but, rather, your ability to hear the music you want to play that dictates your ability to play well. If you can’t hear it, you can’t play it. Hal spoke more eloquently about it than I ever could, but I would like to expound upon this idea just a little bit. There was one thing Hal didn’t mention in the clip I saw (although I imagine that it wasn’t so much an oversight as it was an assumption of proficiency on the students’ part). It’s true that when a master plays his instrument, the music is coming from him, not the instrument. But I feel the need to make sure we understand that a certain level of mastery over your instrument, as well as over harmony and rhythm, is required before it works this way. In order to listen, feel, and interpret music freely and really play what you hear, you MUST first remove the obstacles, which entails mastery over those three elements. This also ties into the previous conversation about your ears and your ability to hear harmony and rhythm. The more exposed we are to advanced concepts of any kind, the more we understand them internally. Assuming that your abilities on the instrument facilitate the performance, if you can feel it and hear it, you can play it. This is exactly why I strive to have more technique, understanding of harmony, and control of rhythm than I might actually need on the gig. I never want the instrument or my comprehension of harmony to get in the way of my ability to make good music.

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Miscellaneous Debris Big List of Tunes

Here’s a tune list that my students work from at Portland State University. This doesn’t include all the tunes we may play, and it certainly doesn’t contain all of the tunes you should check out. It’s just a guide to get you going. Some of my favorites are in bold.

“All Blues”

“East of the Sun”

“All of Me”

“Falling Grace”

“All the Things You Are”

“Fly Me to the Moon”

“Alone Together”

“Footprints”

“Anthropology”

“Four”

“Autumn Leaves”

“Freddie Freeloader”

“Beautiful Love”

“Gentle Rain”

“Billie’s Bounce”

“Georgia on My Mind”

“Black Orpheus”

“Giant Steps”

“Blue Bossa”

“Girl From Ipanema”

“Blue In Green”

“Groovin’ High

“Blue Monk”

“Have You Met Miss Jones”

“Blue Train”

“How High the Moon/Ornithology”

“Bluesette”

“How Insensitive”

“Body and Soul”

“I Got Rhythm”

“But Not for Me”

“I Remember You”

“Bye Bye Blackbird”

“I’ll Remember April”

“Cantaloupe Island”

“Impressions”

“Cherokee”

“In a Mellow Tone”

“Confirmation”

“Inner Urge”

“Cool Blues”

“It Could Happen to You”

“Corcovado,” aka “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars”

“Just Friends”

“Countdown”

“Lady Be Good”

“Days of Wine and Roses”

“Lady Bird”

“Do Nothing Til You Hear From Me”

“Laura”

“Don’t Get Around Much Anymore”

“Lester Leaps In”

“Donna Lee”

“Like Someone in Love”

“Doxy”

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“Mr. PC”

“Sweet Georgia Brown”

“Moose the Mooche”

“Take Five”

“My Little Suede Shoes”

“Take the ‘A’ Train”

“Nefertiti”

“Tangerine”

“Night and Day”

“Tenor Madness”

“Night in Tunisia”

“The Theme”

“Now’s The Time”

“There Is No Greater Love”

“On Green Dolphin Street”

“There Will Never Be Another You”

“Once I Loved”

“Tune-Up”

“One Note Samba”

“Watermelon Man”

“Out of Nowhere”

“Wave”

“Pennies from Heaven”

“What is This Thing Called Love”

“Perdido”

“Willow Weep for Me”

“Poinciana”

“Work Song”

“Recordame” (aka “No Me Esqueca”)

“Yardbird Suite”

“Round Midnight”

“Yesterday”

“Samba de Orfeu” “Satin Doll” “Scrapple From the Apple” “September Song” “Shiny Stockings” “So Danco Samba” “So What” “Softly As In a Morning Sunrise” “Solar” “Some Day My Prince Will Come” “Song for My Father” “St. Thomas” “Star Eyes” “Stella by Starlight” “Stolen Moments” “Straight, No Chaser” “Sugar” “Summertime” Page 147

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Practice Chord Charts

Here are a handful of chord charts to get you going if you don’t own a Real Book yet (get one!).

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Those are a few of my favorite tunes to play over and they each challenge me in one way or another.

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NoTreble.com There’s one last thing that I would like to add for your perusal. I’ve been a contributing writer and a columnist at NoTreble.com for a few years. I’m proud to be a part of their team because I currently find NoTreble to be one of the most informative websites out there for bassists. Readers write in and ask me questions, which I love because the readers get me thinking about things that usually wouldn’t have occurred to me; at the very least, their questions help me something familiar from a different perspective. Of the 200-plus articles I’ve written, I’ve included a wide selection here, in no particular order. I hope you discover something useful.

Bass vs. Guitar: The 6-string Debate Q: I mean this in the most respectful of ways, but when I listen to six-string bassists who play a lot of chords and solo, I can’t help but wonder why they don’t just play guitar. A:

I’ve heard this question before, and thanks for being respectful. I’m a 6-string player, so I’ll share

my views on the subject. Many of us who progressed into playing chords and soloing started on the bass, not the guitar. So that’s our instrument, that’s where our comfort zone is, and that’s what we love to play. In the beginning, I used chords and soloing mainly as a means of practicing harmonic concepts in a new way. I was simply trying to expand my vocabulary on the instrument. The shift to a 6-string while I was in college made it simply more fun to do that stuff, so I got really into it. On a fundamental level, you shouldn’t approach music from a perspective of whether it suits a guitar better or not. I have all of my students work chord shapes in every inversion over jazz changes, even if they don’t aspire to be a jazz bassist. It’s just a great way to expand your ability to see the notes on the fretboard. That—in conjunction with solo concepts and explorations—can really expand your harmonic concept and, hence, add to your bass lines, as well as your soloing. Learning chords, voice-leading, and different ways of navigating changes can really help you see how chords relate to each other, and it helps you not treat each chord as a new tonality but, rather, a variation of the current tonality. Page 156

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NoTreble.com Articles The real key is taste and moderation, which is, admittedly, where some folks get tripped up when

playing a 6-string bass. When I’m playing bass, I’m playing bass. I’d argue that you have to resist the urge to throw chords over everything and jump up high and get “notey” just because you can. Exploring these things helps one to grow musically, but you also have to develop the maturity to use none of it when it’s not called for. I’ve said this before, but I take it as a point of pride when I’m recording a bass track and the producer or engineer has no idea that I can do the other stuff until they hear me noodling on my own. When I’m playing bass, I want to be the best bass player I can be. I also do a lot of jazz gigs, and that setting demands that I have to take a solo. When I solo, I want to solo like a horn player or guitarist, not a (root-oriented) bassist. That can only happen if you’ve spend a lot of time exploring the soloing process, melody and so on.

Improving Your Sight-reading on the Bandstand Q:

I’m at the point where I’m handling lead sheets better on gigs, but I sometimes get lost and/or

second-guess myself, usually resulting in me getting lost. Do you have any tips for becoming a good sight-reader? A:

Reading chord charts, and especially written notation, is one of the most useful tools you will

develop as a working bassist. This is a must for any jazz musician. Going beyond the obvious – learning the notes on the staff, fully understanding chord symbols and their meanings, and so forth – there are a few things that you can do to help you when handed a new chart: 1) Build a “road map.” The first thing you should do when you’re handed a new piece of music on a gig or rehearsal is to figure out the structure of the tune. Scan the chart from beginning to end, making note of any repeat sign , such as “DC” (go back to the beginning), “DS” (go back to the DS), “coda” (usually happens after a “DC” or “DS,” at which point you’d jump from one sign to the next, quite often leading to the end of the chart). Be relaxed about this—you don’t want to frantically scan the page, because you’ll lose your focus. Just get it in your head and you’re more likely to avoid mistakes. Always carry

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highlighters, Sharpies, pens, and pencils in your gig bag, so you can write little cues, guides, or simply highlight the repeats and codas and the like, so they’ll stand out better. 2) Look for the tricky passages. Fast lines or tricky rhythms may trip you up if you’re not prepared for them. Taking a few moments to working them out in your head or silently on your instrument will save you headaches down the road. 3) Look ahead while you’re reading. A good reader will constantly move their eyes back and forth a little bit so that they can plan ahead for what’s coming. If you can keep your brain a few bars ahead of your fingers, you’ll be in much better shape. This takes time to develop, but it will come with practice. 4) Stay relaxed. Don’t get nervous or anxious about the tune. Just pay attention and focus, and don’t forget that you are making music, which leads me to the final thing to remember… 5) Listen. You are making music, not just reading dots on a page. Play with feeling. Articulate, phrase and feel the music you are making. If you’re just playing the right notes at the right time, but not playing with musicality, it’s all for nothing. Listen to how each section of the music sounds. This is helpful if you do get lost. If you know the difference the way the “a,” “b,” and “c,” (or verse, chorus, and bridge) sound and you stay focused, by the time the band gets to the next section, you should be able to easily jump back in. Don’t be afraid to lay out or, at least lower your volume and play less if you’re not in the right spot. It is better to get ambiguous harmonically, lay out altogether, or keep it super simple than to pound out wrong note after wrong note hoping you can find the right one. Relax, listen to the music and hear your way back to the chart if you get lost. It happens to everyone. If you’re lost, a great way to find your spot is by looking at the rhythm of the written melody. If you are reading a lead sheet (chords and written melody to the tune), you should always be able to reference where you are to the melody of the tune, at least during the heads. Referencing the melody is also a great tool when soloing. Having your treble clef reading down can really make you sound good on unfamiliar tunes when soloing because you can use a combination of the written melody and your knowledge of the chords written out to craft a really nice solo without even really knowing the tune.

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NoTreble.com Articles The main thing to keep in mind when starting to learn how to read is that it takes time to develop.

It is also a very “use it or lose it” type skill, meaning that you will develop much faster is you read a little bit every single day. Keep at it and the rewards will be great on the bandstand.

Those “Aha!” Moments Q:

What were some of the breakthroughs or “aha” moments in your bass playing? Specifically,

what are some of the things you’ve learned that unlocked a higher level of knowledge and technique? A:

That’s an interesting question… and the answer tends to be different for everyone.

Everyone learns differently and is likely to have different epiphanies and realizations in any number of ways. There has only been one moment that stands out as a honest-to-goodness “aha” moment, and it has more to do with fear-based playing and perspective. Up until my twenties, I was a drummer who played bass. When I switched majors at Berklee from Drum Performance to Bass Performance, it was both exciting and terrifying. I had some dexterity, knew my scales, and could read well, but I had never played bass with other people. It was something I did in my bedroom since I was about six years old, minus a seven-year break when I got really serious about my drumming. I didn’t know blues changes, I didn’t know how to develop my own lines, navigate chord charts… I didn’t know anything but reading transcriptions and playing along with recordings. Because of this (somewhat backwards) approach to learning to be a good bass player, I developed a fear of messing up the harmony—something that I never had to worry about as a metal drummer—as well as a fear of bad solos and not cutting it in any which way. This motivated me to work hard, but unfortunately, the fear never left, even after I had quit my day job and was a bona fide “working musician!” My “aha!” moment, which happened while I was playing a restaurant trio gig in Lake Oswego, Oregon, only about eight or nine years ago, was the thing that elevated my playing from “good” to “wow, he really has something special”—most of the time, anyway—in the eyes and ears of my peers. I spent the first set feeling okay about my walking lines, but with every solo (and there was a solo on just about every tune), I couldn’t help feeling self-conscious and hyper-aware of the fact that this traditional jazz was a) not my first language and b) something that sounded best on an upright and not an

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electric 6-string bass. I felt like I was using the wrong tool for the job, and as a result, I hated every single thing I played. By the end of the first set, I was dejected, angry, and feeling like a waste of musical space. During the set break, I sat at the bar alone nursing a Coke (I don’t drink alcohol), beating myself up and looking around, when suddenly, I had a thought that went something like this: “Wait… I’m sitting here in a small Italian restaurant, playing standards for a bunch of people who are more interested in their mediocre pasta, beating myself up because I can’t play like Christian McBride. Who said I need to play like Christian McBride here? Just stop being such a neurotic, hyper-self-conscious ninny and have fun. Nobody cares! It’s only music… what’s the big deal? Do your thing with the tunes and screw ’em if they don’t like it. Be yourself and have fun!” I paraphrase, but that was the crux. I realized that I was playing music with people who are having fun, and the only thing that was stopping me from enjoying it was a weird expectation I put on myself—to sound like someone else. Aside from it being considered “good” when people like it, music has no rules, so you might as well have fun with it. It certainly couldn’t be any worse than what I was doing to the music at that point. So the second set was a musical revelation for me. I abandoned the “think like a jazz guy, think like a jazz guy, play a bebop line, what would a horn player play here? Damn, I started that lick from the root again.. I’m such a lame soloist!” torture I was putting myself through. I simply said, “Play with those changes and have fun! Walk hard through those changes and play what comes to mind. Now take it where you feel it going. I’m abandoning those changes? Eh, who cares—just resolve it at the next system. Ah, nice! That was actually kinda neat!” The second set sounded immensely better to my ears, and I actually wound up getting massive compliments from the other guys in the group. Not because of my Chris Potter-like soloing but because I was playing with intention and intensity and interpreting the music in the moment. I was having fun and making music. I wasn’t trying to play it. It’s still a struggle at times, but from that moment on, I’ve sounded better and played better simply because I put everything I’ve got into making music and interacting with it instead of trying to play what I think people want to hear. It’s astounding, really. As soon as I stopped caring about people’s impression of me as a “jazz guy” and starting playing the music as best as I could, in the way that I do, I immediately became an infinitely better “jazz guy.” Now, this is not an invitation to get too “wanky” or abandon changes. I’ve met a lot of players who take the “there are no wrong notes” a little too much to heart. You’ve still gotta play the tune and make it sing! It’s not an excuse to stop working on your ability to play over changes but rather, an invitation to more fully explore what you have to say over those changes, regardless of what others have

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said before you. The world has already heard Coltrane play over “Giant Steps,” so why bother trying to recreate it? It may be a good exercise in the shed, and it is a challenging approach, but in the end, people want to hear your interpretation of the tune. If I’m feeling a rhythmic groove solo, I’ll take one. Follow your heart and ears and the music usually takes care of itself. Sure, sometimes something might not work, but people still appreciate the intention. A more recent example comes from a gig I had at a big jazz festival with some guys I hadn’t played with in a long time. There was also a special guest and a substitute drummer in the band who wasn’t all that familiar with the material. The sound was bad, and most of us couldn’t hear the rest of the band. By my standards, the gig kind of sucked. I didn’t play nearly as well as I wanted, and there was a lot of miscommunication on the stage. Tunes were called that I’d never even heard (with no charts), and I left feeling annoyed and bummed that I hadn’t played better. I was mostly bummed that I played poorly for the guys on stage, because I have a lot of respect for these guys. I waited a bit and then wrote an email to apologize to the bandleader, without making excuses, for not playing as well as I had wanted. This was his response: “Man, forget it. that was a tough gig and we hadn’t hit it in a while. I will always love playing with you because you are always in the moment and play with such conviction! It’s always a pleasure.” That is what it’s all about, my friends!

Auditioning Q:

I have an audition coming up and I really want to make an impression! Any advice?

A:

Definitely! Here are a few things to keep in mind. You will be taking time out of your day to

prepare and audition, these guys are taking time out of their days to listen and play with a bunch of dudes all day long—many of whom they may never see again. It’s a tedious and arduous task (especially for the band!), so, in an effort to not waste anyone’s time, do your homework, and nail it. I recently auditioned for a local pop band that I’ve always really dug called Intervision. They already knew me and I knew a few of the guys, but I didn’t want to fluff it and leave anything less than a stellar impression. In other words, I didn’t want to waste their time by just showing up and jamming after

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they’d given me a list of tunes to prepare. You have to go in knowing that you have this stuff down and can play it so well that they’d be silly not to hire you! Here are a few things to do: 1) If at all possible, memorize the music! This really impresses the band and it also really facilitates being able to play it convincingly. Obviously, in order to memorize it, you’ll need to play each song through over and over and over again to really get it in your head. By that time, you’re just killing the tune anyways! 2) Be conscious of how you dress. Just because it’s an informal rehearsal, don’t go in looking like you just finished landscaping your yard. To a certain extent, you should look the part. I mean, don’t go all New York Dolls unless you really want to, but if it’s an orchestra or jazz combo, come in looking all pro. If it’s an indie band, keep it casual (but wear that really cool shirt people always comment on). If it’s a metal band, get a little aggressive. You get the picture. You want to both sound and look like you belong in that band. 3) Make sure you have your gear straight! Chances are, everyone will be auditioning through one rig to keep things quick and painless for the other guys, but make sure you’ve got everything you need. If you’re waiting outside beforehand, tune your bass. If your bass has a battery, for example, make sure it’s fresh. 4) Before you start to really play, take a moment and make sure your sound is happening. This is especially important if you’re playing through someone else’s gear. You don’t want to fiddle for 10 minutes or anything (that’ll just bug people), but take an extra few seconds and make sure you sound like you want to sound. 5) Don’t try to impress everyone with anything but your ability to play bass. If you get too “notey” and try to impress people with your abilities, you won’t get the call. Maybe pick a spot or two and sneak a tasty lick in there—if it’s appropriate—but caution on the side of under-playing. If they want to hear you solo, they’ll ask. That’s about it. Know your material inside and out, play like a session bass player, look like you belong, be cool and humble. Let these folks know that you can play, that you’re easy to work with, that you’re a good hang and that you’re professional in every way, and you’re likely to get in.

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Beyond The Weekend Warrior Q:

I wanted to know if you have any advice for players like me who still work a full time, 9-5 jobs

but want to eventually move to playing professionally. My goal is to be session player, sideman, and teacher, but opportunities are harder to come by, and I’m having trouble getting my foot in the door. A:

Man, it’s a tough biz! A lot of what will follow realistically depends on your level of ability, level

of independence from other people (family, jobs, etc.), where you live, and how much sleep you need. Even for an unemployed go-getter with all of the time in the world and who also happens to be a great player, getting into “the scene” is not easy. Word of mouth is the way most musicians find other musicians, and if you’re not working with the players, how will they ever know about you? First and foremost, make sure your playing, reading, and improvising are together. The top one percent of the guys always seems to have at least 50 percent of the good work in most towns. So there’s a lot of competition, even for the worst gigs. Here’s the key: Be seen and (eventually) heard! You need to be recognized as a figure or familiar face, so: • Go to the gigs of the guys you aspire to play with, and introduce yourself. • Go to jam sessions. Many towns have a jam every night somewhere. Hit them all! Sit in. If you can play, the better players will flock to you to see who you’re playing with and if you’re available to work. • Have a CD to give to people you want to play with. It can be a demo or live gig recording, as long as it is good quality. Don’t worry about selling them— at this stage, that’s not the point. My first CD was my “let me leave something with you that doesn’t suck…please hire me” calling card. (Shameless plug: that CD is “Trios,” available at CDBaby, on iTunes and at other fine outlets). • Be cool, but be fearless. A lot of guys have gotten their break into the industry or scene by walking straight up to the guy they wanted to play with and saying, “I’m ______. I’m a great player, I’m sober, and I want to play with you. Here’s a CD and my phone number. I look forward to hearing from you if you dig it.” If you don’t ask, you’ll never receive. Just don’t be weird or creepy about it. • Don’t worry about making money at first (easier for you, since you have a 9-5 job). Take every gig you get, whether it’s going to suck or not. You never know who may walk by the bar or room, hear a great bass player, and ask for a card, regardless of how good the band is, or isn’t.

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In a nutshell, you need to be where the music you want to be a part of is happening. If you can play and aren’t completely hard to get along with, you will begin to work. It takes longer than you’d like, but it will happen eventually. Tenacity is the key to all things you want in life. Practice hard, play every note like it’s the note you’ve been waiting to play all of your life, and get out there and meet people. Even the superstars are happy to meet great new players and love nothing more than to give them a shot—if they can hang! So just get out there and make yourself known!

Boutique Basses: Are They Worth It? Q:

I see so many people spending thousands of dollars on handmade basses, but so many of the

recordings I listen have a standard P or J-Bass. What is it about these high-end basses that is so “worth it” to so many? A:

There are so many possible answers to this question! For some, it is simply a matter of beauty, individualism or even simply ego. For many others,

however, it is a part of the quest to find that one instrument that really speaks to them. (I’m in the latter group.) While a bass that could pass as a beautiful work of art or craftsmanship is a wonderful thing, I don’t honestly care what it looks like as long as it makes me want to play and helps me sound good. My initial plunge into the handmade bass market began because I simply couldn’t find the instrument that I really felt 110 percent content with. Even to this day, of the half-dozen basses I own (and the two or three I use regularly), I actually only love one on them. It doesn’t need to be handmade for me to love it, either. I have fallen head over heals for a vintage bass before (a ’67 Fender Jazz), but it would’ve cost me about $7,000 to buy that one, and I just didn’t have it. For me, the amount of money I’d spend on the perfect instrument is only limited by what will clear in my bank account. I’d honestly pay a million dollars for the bass and rig that knocked me off my feet, if I had the money to do it. You can’t put a price tag on tone, and especially that perfect combination of tone and feel. I would assume that most bassists (collectors don’t count) are simply looking for the bass that gets them excited to play and the bass that gives you that smile when you hit the first note. For many, that

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means having something built to spec and having someone who (you hope) understands what you are going for in your sound and in your hands. There are always the guys that will buy a Fodera just because Victor plays one. Many of them will find happiness in it, too. There’s nothing wrong with that! I had a Fodera and it was fantastic… but it didn’t fit my hands and body the way I wanted it to, so I sold it within a year. I’m sure that if I had bought two or three more, they would’ve nailed it, but that would’ve cost me a small fortune. I was lucky enough to find a small luthier who could take the time to really understand what I wanted—he even came to a gig to hear my sound, and he played my basses to feel how I had them set up. He wound up delivering a bass that was very close, right off the bat. He then took that bass back and built an entirely new instrument, altering some things based on my feedback. He nailed it. I lucked out and found the guy who understands me musically. Now, any new bass I have built is the result of a specific musical need. In many ways, the vintage market is actually more inflated than the custom build market. Some stout competition keeps the custom jobs from getting too far out of a realistic price range There are as many reasons to buy one bass over another as there are reasons to own more than one pair of shoes. Some of us will make one or two pairs work for everything, and some of us need a pair for every occasion (and some just because they’re cool). I don’t begrudge anyone’s reasons for buying gear. I’m just glad that people are passionate about music and especially love when they support independent companies. All in all, if a Squier revs you up more than your buddy’s $13,000 custom bass, rock that Squier for the rest of your life and love every second you spend with it. It doesn’t matter as long as you feel good about your music and the gear you use to make it.

Competitive Nature Q:

I am a very young bassist who plays in a band with some other young musicians. I’m having an

issue with respect and competitiveness. Most of my bandmates say I’m the best musician among them. Our guitarist assumes he’s the best musician in the band, though his knowledge of theory isn’t there. How do I get him to listen more, without making our practice sessions uncomfortable?

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NoTreble.com Articles I’ve come across questions like this, generally from younger players, asking how to deal with

attitudes with regard to ability, perceived rank, inflated egos, and so forth. There are many things that come to mind when I think about this question. Most important are these two thoughts: 1) Music is NOT a competition! 2) You cannot fight ego with ego. The first thing I’d suggest is to make everyone aware (say, during a rehearsal conflict) that each member has their strengths and weaknesses and, in this case (whatever that case may be), you strongly believe your suggestion may be more on the mark. Offer to try it both ways, and then agree as a whole which idea works better musically. It doesn’t matter who knows more and who knows less. We all know something that someone doesn’t, and vice versa. We are all better than someone at our instrument, and there will always be someone better than us. Once you get to the upper levels of ability and learn how to speak with your own voice, then it’s all a matter of style and taste, anyway. There is no “better.” Being aware of this fact can free you up to a more generous attitude and, in turn, lead by example. Don’t feel challenged by someone who needs to boast or brag about what they know, who they know, or what they’ve done. Feel free to make any mental notes about the person you want… just keep ‘em to yourself. Trust me, it’s easier that way. Simply be kind and generous of spirit. If your guitarist is challenging you during rehearsals about theory, try not to argue with him. Simply let the music decide what works best (or Google the question and settle it in a concrete way). Whatever you do, don’t waste energy arguing about who’s better or who knows more. Music has nothing to do with that stuff and you’ll both be missing the point. If the issue is with your guitarist thinking that he’s a stellar player when he’s just not, you will never convince him that he’s not very good. He needs to discover that on his own. Record a rehearsal and send it to everyone to listen to. Suggest that everyone make notes on what they think can use improvement or what isn’t working. Maybe, if the guitarist hears himself objectively, he’ll hear what you’re hearing in his playing. If he’s still convinced that he’s rocking and you’re crazy for thinking otherwise, either you’re being too critical, he’s delusional, or he’s as unable to hear music as he is to play it. More likely, he’s just very insecure and has a hard time admitting any kind of deficit. There’s not much you can do in any of those cases, but try to foster his development—unless you’re just being to critical, in which case I’d say that you need to get your ego intact and relax. Don’t bag on others for not being at your level.

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NoTreble.com Articles No matter what level someone is at, every great musician has been there at one time or another.

It’s all a path with no end, so all we can really do is foster our talents and help those around us foster theirs. That way, we all win, and the music community is stronger for it.

Connecting with the Drummer Q: I’ve found myself in a situation where I can’t set up a musical connection with my drummer. It’s been three months of rehearsals, but I just don’t feel comfortable playing, the rhythm section suffers, and we don’t sound good. In my other bands, the great, nonverbal communication came right after one or two rehearsals. I realize I am also responsible. Hopefully you can give me some advice. A: In short, communication is key and honesty is the best policy. Assuming he is as concerned with making good music as you are, he is probably noticing the same thing and would be open to talk to about it. Don’t place blame and be respectful, of course, and just lay it out in a kind way. Tell him or her exactly how you feel, and that you want to feel more connected, musically and want to make everything feel more natural. As you said, it may just take more time playing together. But treat this as an opportunity for you both to grow and learn from each other. You might even start getting together (just the two of you) and playing, practicing and jamming together. Work on some grooves or feels together for fun. That really helps to feel a guy out musically. Talk about music, play tunes and grooves each of you loves. Listening to a musician’s influences and who they’re trying to emulate can really help to hear where they’re coming from. Be open and have a non-threatening conversation in service to the music. If you find the drummer doesn’t have a great mindset or is insecure, it might be tough. As long as you’re coming from a place of artistic integrity and honesty, though, how could they not be open to working with you on it!

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Consistency

Q:

I seem to have an issue with consistency. I seem to be able to pull certain licks and lines

together when practicing, but it always falls apart when I’m actually playing with the band. Any tricks to develop consistency? A:

Tricks? No. But I do have some thoughts.

1) Context is important. I had a realization after something similar to what you’re describing happened to me on a gig. I had been working on this right-hand finger pattern, and in the shed, I could just blaze. On the gig, however, I tried to make use of it in a solo, and it completely fell apart on me. What was the problem? The problem was that in the shed, I had only practiced the finger pattern one way—over just a couple of notes, back and forth—and thought that I had it together. The reality was that I only had it together if I was playing the same harmonic pattern. As soon as that shifted, I couldn’t hang. Because of this, I am always hyper-aware of musical context when practicing anything. Whether it is harmonic or just pure technique, context is always important. This is actually how I got so into practicing arpeggios in various inversions over chord changes. I figured that the best way to prepare for anything harmonically—with regard to my finger pattern, or lick—was to practice it over various tunes in the Real Book, using arpeggios as my guide. This forces one to skip strings, move around and change positions on the neck. This is especially true when you start to mix and match your inversions and harmonic patterns. If you can alter your lick to fit the changes and move it around the neck in time with the tune, chances are that you’ll nail it on the gig the next time you try it. 2) Play slow to go fast. I’ve said this before: I see far too many students come in and try to play really fast —because they want me to know that they can—but nothing is connecting. Either the harmonic content is haphazard and/or their hands aren’t actually in sync. Often, it amounts to all fingers on deck wiggling around the bass, but nothing really coming out but mud. For speed to have an impact, it should be married with precision. A race car with loose steering will inevitably crash if it goes too fast. To practice precision, we must actually slow things down and practice playing lines and patterns at a tempo that allows us to play properly. I will often pick a challenging melody (say, “Freedom Jazz Dance,” “Got A Match,” or “Spain”) and when I work on that melody, I will only play it at a tempo that allows me to articulate every note Page 168

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properly and play it cleanly. Once I can do those two things, I gradually notch my metronome up, by a few clicks at a time, until I’m having trouble playing it. I will then stay there (or notch it back a tick) and work at that new tempo until I can again play it cleanly a few times in a row. Then I will repeat the process until the piece is up to tempo AND sounds the way I want it to! 3) Practice licks over changes. If it’s a lick that you are working on, there’s no reason not to try and expound upon it by altering the harmony a bit. If you’ve got a killer minor-scale lick, for example, try playing it over every other chord type (altering the appropriate notes to make it fit the new harmony— don’t just play the same lick). This really helps to expand your ability to play over different chord types, and it also gives you more vocabulary over changes; you’ll begin to see how your licks lay over the changes and work with them. Try this with every chord type you can think of. It’ll also expand your ability to think through changes. As with most things, it’s not so much about practicing but rather smart and efficient practicing. If you practice smartly, you can get more out of one hour than others might out of three hours in the shed. Make good use of your time and never take a shortcut. You’re only shortchanging yourself in the process. Go slow and work methodically, and it’ll pay off big time in the end!

Creating Bass Lines Q:

I’m struggling with the thought process behind coming up with bass lines. What advice would you

give for ways to approach and think about constructing lines? A: This is another question that is ripe for comments, as everyone probably has something unique to them going through their minds when developing a bass line. To start, a lot of what you come up with should be based on your surroundings: the sound of the room, the energy of the band, the style of the song, and so on. However, you may find you have one line you play on a specific song every single time, regardless of the outside influences, or that you change it up slightly every night for any number of reasons. So there’s no real “formula” here, other than the core ideas of playing bass discussed in this column over the years. The list starts with what might sound like a cliché any more, but is the core: Serve the song! Page 169

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NoTreble.com Articles Worry less about coming up with a great bass line or the world’s hippest line and just focus on

playing what you would want to hear there if you were listening in the audience, or in your car (and not as a bass geek, but as a music lover). Simple is usually better. This can change a bit, of course, depending on the style of music you are playing. But even in the noodle-fest of fusion groups, a solid bass line can contrast the wall of notes quite effectively. I often find that if the drummer and/or bassist simplifies while the rest of the band is shredding, it’s much more listenable. If everyone is soloing or shredding the entire time, the audience is likely to be unable to hang for more than a few tunes. If it’s inherently busy music, don’t just go crazy but consider the contrast your line can have against what is happening… But not always. Alternatively, a slightly busier line can positively contrast very simple music. It all really comes down to taste. I don’t know one person who has ever listened to Joni Mitchell’s “Dry Cleaner From Des Moines” and said, “Man… if only Jaco would have chilled out, that track would’ve been great.” Jaco is a good example of a guy who really knew how to sit in a track, even when he was playing a lot of notes. You always have to play with taste and be careful not to step on peoples’ shoes, musically speaking. Pocket! We’re bass players. The time and feel has to come first, then the notes. One note played with impeccable feel will feel better than the hippest of diminished licks scattered throughout your line. Get the heads bobbing, basically. Here are things that have served me well, whether it is with on stage, in the studio or in rehearsal: • How does the line feel against what everyone else is doing? My priorities are the drummer, the vocalist, and the primary harmonic instrument (such as guitar or piano). • Is the amount of harmonic information I’m adding helping or hurting the tune and vibe? Am you playing roots and chord tones or upper-structure harmony? Decide and then go there. • Am I playing from my ego or from my ears and heart? • Leave some breathing room. These days, I try to approach live playing much like my studio playing. To me, that means making the track sit properly and leaving some space. If we’re talking note choices, it’s good to really understand chords and how they are constructed, but it is probably more important to fully explore what others have done before you and cherry-pick things you like from bassists you enjoy listening to. When we first learn to speak a language, we learn by speaking with others and emulating what they do. If we hear a word we like or a phrase that expresses a thought well, we tend to perk our ears and Page 170

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make note of it, or ask it to be repeated and practice using it to incorporate it into our vocabularies. Music is no different. I’ve had some students say that they don’t want to transcribe because they don’t want to sound like anybody else. They’re afraid that if they spend time trying to copy someone’s licks, lines, or playing style, that they will never develop their own voice. That, of course, is complete nonsense. We must learn what others have done before us in order to develop our own vocabulary. It helps to gain an understanding of our instrument, the shape of a sound, the approach to a line, and helps us to define what we like and don’t like—another part of developing our own voice. You may speak in a unique way, but it is rare that someone develops a unique voice that people want to listen to without having learned a ton of tunes and without having explored other players we liked and emulating certain things about their style. Our musical voice generally comes to us slowly and (usually) only through exhaustive exploration of our instruments and how to play them well. Regarding note choice, here’s my list: • Don’t fear the root. The root is our job. We are there to define the foundation of the harmony happening around us (the roots of the chord) and assist with rhythm. We are the bridge between the drummer and the rest of the band. Don’t try and be a guitarist or piano player unless it’s for a very specific and intentional reason. • Don’t fear the quarter note, half-note, or whole-note. Be careful of over-subdividing. Sometimes, it has a really cool effect, but always ask yourself if what you’re doing is helping or hurting the song. If the crowd, bandleader, and bandmates love a Rocco- or Jaco-like thing on a tune, then go for it. But if you’re making the song hard to dance to or stepping on toes, it’s no good, no matter how cool you may think it sounded. Don’t be that guy. Check your ego at the door. • Eliminate repetition. If a line feels very repetitive, consider other leading tones to move between chords. Throwing a 3rd in as you move to the IV chord, for example, can be very cool and–especially if used sparingly and with intention—will never feel overdone or out of place. • Add some color. If I want to color a chord or add some spice to a line, I consider using other notes from the chord scale and, possibly, some chromatic approaches. My thought process might be something like, “Hmmm… what if I did a three-note chromatic approach to the ♭7 on that dominant chord, did the same thing a 4th lower, and then landed on the root of the next chord? The symmetry of the line might be cool, and the notes should all be cool enough.” And then I’ll try it. If I like it, I’ll remember it and maybe pick a spot here and there. If I didn’t like it, I’ll remember not to do that again. • Be brave. Never be afraid to experiment or make a mistake. The biggest problem with learning how to make music is that nobody wants to play with you until you can speak at their level, which makes it hard Page 171

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to learn. I say, screw that. Do the best you can but don’t be afraid of music. If you don’t like something, chances are that others didn’t like it either, and it won’t happen again. That said, be careful on the gig. I’ve known guys who say, “well, there are no mistakes” and used that as an excuse to play a lot of stupid stuff that wasn’t even close to appropriate or sounding good. Use your judgment. Always aim to make good music and make it better every time you play. You’ll probably notice that I didn’t give any examples of sample bass lines or talk in-depth about how to approach this chord or that. There’s a ton of that on the web, including here on NoTreble. I believe that you should transcribe lines and work out the problems for yourself (it has more of an impact that way). Instead, I tried to convey the idea of getting your mind right on the process. I hope that helps you start this journey.

On Endorsements From Companies Q:

I am in the process of getting endorsements, but I want to know what the most effective way to

get it done right the first time. I was at NAMM this year and spoke to a variety of people just to meet and greet, but I didn’t ask for artist endorsements. I have an EPK (pics, vids, recordings, and I’m building a website), but I want it to be stronger so it’s almost guaranteed to get the one of my preference. Any insights? A:

This is an interesting one. I know a lot of guys who chase endorsements for no other reason than

to have them. Honestly, endorsements don’t really do much for you other than secure artist pricing (which is typically wholesale pricing). Companies don’t really do “free” anymore unless you’re very high profile. Actually, if you are reasonably present in the music world, many companies will give you professional or artist pricing anyway. I will say a few things about this, though. 1) Many companies don’t even necessarily care how good you are. It’s more about visibility both online and onstage. If you don’t have any gigs and/or web presence, it’ll be hard to get the endorsements you want. They want you to be seen most nights of the week using their gear (preferably all over the country or the world, not just at that bar around the corner). They also want you to have a strong web presence. If there’s a buzz about you, then to a certain extent, there’s a buzz about your gear.

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2) Only bother endorsing what you really want to play. There are times when a company may make you such a sweet deal that it’s more of a business decision than a tonal decision. If you travel a lot (especially flying gigs), for example, you might want an endorsement with a company that has backline support all over the world. Perhaps your second-tier company offers you free stuff, while your first-tier company is expensive. Personally, I’ve decided to stick to what I’d prefer to play. I did recently switch one of my companies for one I used to endorse years ago. This was primarily because in addition to global backline support, I prefer the family vibe of this company, and I just plain love their gear. I’ll let you figure out who once it’s official and reflected online. 3) Don’t be a gear whore and try to accumulate endorsements like Scrooge hoarding his gold. It doesn’t really mean anything, and eventually, it’ll reflect poorly on you. Also, don’t exaggerate your resumé, pit companies against each other, or nag companies. These guys get assaulted daily by guys asking for gear. (I’m amazed by some of the emails I’ve seen shared by friends of mine at various companies). I once heard Andrew Gouché respond to a brazen bass player who declared, “You should give me one of those basses, man!” (I couldn’t believe the gonads on this guy). Gooch said it best: “I give to the needy, not the greedy!” If you’ve paid your dues and are working hard, playing hard, and taking what you do seriously, the endorsements will come! NAMM is a great place to form real relationships with people. I got my first endorsement at NAMM after Joe Zon heard me playing and I bought a bass from him (retail for the first one). We developed a friendship that I treasure to this day, and I became an official artist. Now, you may know that I also endorse Skjold basses. That’s because I needed another voice for certain playing situations, and I have a friendship with Pete. Between Pete Skjold and Joe Zon, I have everything I could ever ask for in a bass. That, on top of our strong friendships, is priceless. Play what you love to play! The endorsement thing should really be about a mutually beneficial professional relationship. That means that it’s about honor, integrity, and mutually supporting each other. They scratch your back (by lining up clinics, giving you artist pricing, building you basses to your specs, etc.) and you scratch theirs (by heavily promoting the gear online, actually using their gear on all gigs, but especially highprofile ones or TV appearances, etc.). Making yourself look good online is a big part of the puzzle, but it’s only a part. They will first look to see that you appear pro online, then they’ll check your calendar, and then they’ll listen to your audio/video. Google yourself. How much stuff comes up? That’s a great indicator of online presence. More often than not, though, these companies are much smaller than you’d imagine. Pete Skjold builds every little bit of every bass by himself, and Joe Zon has only one solid partner (Joe does the Page 173

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woodwork and Marc does the electronics, with a few helpers in the shop). Mark still builds most every Accugroove cab by himself, with a little help. That means that a) they can’t necessarily afford to give everyone artist pricing, and b) they don’t have much time to surf players’ websites, etc. NAMM socialization, clinics, events, etc. are great ways to foster a real relationship with these guys. Pursue the builders of the gear you love, and be patient. It’ll happen when the time is right!

Dealing With Nerves Q:

I tend to get very nervous before any live performance. How do you deal with performance

anxiety? A:

At some point in their development, everyone gets nervous before a gig or feels inadequate to the

task at hand. It’s natural. The best thing you can do is over-prepare. Still, the nerves are there. What do you do? This is my mantra: “I will do the very best that I can! I can do it better than some, while others could do it better than I. All I can do is give it my all!” As long as you give everything 100 percent, there’s nothing to be ashamed of, feel bad about, or regret. If you do your homework beforehand, stay focused and sober on the gig, and give it everything you’ve got, you’ll be fine! And even if you biff something here or there, you’re human. Forgive your mistakes and imperfections. I went through a long and painful phase in my development when I couldn’t stop comparing myself to my heroes. I’d hold myself up next to the best of the best and feel nothing but unworthy. This is very unhealthy. Also, it is inaccurate. I’ve seen my musical heroes in jamming situations, and they’ve made the same mistakes I’ve made. When we only see someone in the environment where they are to shine by design, it’s hard to see the human potential for mistakes in what they do. I’ve seen Victor get lost in a tune, John McLaughlin play a “huh?” solo (not on his gig, mind you, but sitting in with a band playing a tune he didn’t really know), Dennis Chambers drop a stick… you name it. We’re all human. The one thing that every great I’ve ever known or talked to has in common? They’re always simply doing the best that they can. Remember this: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent!” —Eleanor Roosevelt Truer words have never been spoken. Much of the time, our own minds are our biggest obstacles. If I feel nervous, I will play nervously and make mistakes. More recently in my development, I’ve finally gotten Page 174

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to a place where I’m not afraid to make mistakes. This is huge! It doesn’t mean that I won’t make any, but it means that I won’t be as affected by them, and my playing won’t suffer because I won’t be dwelling on them. They come and go. Who cares? The less I care about the mistakes, the fewer I make because my mind is in the music and not trapped inside of my ego. It’s a beautiful thing! Do your homework, prepare, breathe and relax. Your hands and ears know what to do, just don’t let your brain get in the way.

Travel Tips Q:

I’m going on my first tour with a band. Do you have any travel tips? Any travel tips relating to

driving or flying tours would be appreciated! A:

I most certainly do, and I’m sure the readers of this column do, too. In no particular order, here

are some things that come to mind: Flying Checking your bass underneath is a little risky, as even the sturdiest of flight cases can take a beating down there. Besides that, awkward sizes and shapes are the first to get left behind for a later flight, because many airlines actually make extra money on flights by shipping cargo for various shipping companies. This obviously can be a real hassle, as it requires you to waste a ton of time tracking your instrument and/or pulling your hair out. I once had my bass finally show up at my hotel a week later—at midnight—the night before I flew back home. I had to rent a bass for an entire recording session, out of the country. Not ideal. Get a sturdy gig bag in case you have to gate check it occasionally, but try and find one that is also as low profile as possible so it fits in the overhead compartment – and one that doesn’t scare any flight attendants from letting you board with it. Keeping your carry-on as small as possible will also make your boarding with the bass more likely. I usually have just use a thin laptop bag with my essentials in it (iPad, bluetooth keyboard, chargers, gum, etc.). Everything you won’t need on the plane can go in your suitcase underneath the plane. Be sure to have hand sanitizer and vitamins (or dissolvable vitamin C packets) on hand. This is a must.

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NoTreble.com Articles Be nice to ticket agents and air hosts/hostesses. They don’t care how often you fly and who else

let you do what. If you smile and ask politely, it could mean the difference between getting your bass onboard or gate-checking it. I’ve even gotten my bass buckled into an empty seat more than once on very small planes, primarily because I had a rapport with the hostess. More bees with honey, my friends. The Van If your bass is going in the trailer, you might as well use a hard case. Things get abused bouncing down the road. If you have a tube amp or tube pre, you may want to also consider a shock-mount rack. Also, carry extra tubes. You shouldn’t be aware of the person driving. If you worry about the driving, request that they slow down or change any bad habits. Never drive like you’re in a hurry. You don’t get there much quicker and the risk of an accident is too great. Plus, it costs more in gas. Make a rule: the driver should drive in a way that makes the most nervous passenger feel comfortable. No arguments. It’s everybody’s safety and lives at risk. The driver doesn’t drive sleepy. Get a hitch lock for your trailer and a quality lock for the door. Also, try to back the trailer right up to your hotel door space, if possible. Hotels are no place to take a chance with the entire band’s gear. That big Econoline with the trailer covered in music stickers? Prime target. On that note, be as nondescript as possible. Keep the van and trailer relatively free of stickers or other defining features. Don’t make yourselves a target, for police or for thieves. That small town you have to drive through with the 25 mph speed limit for all of a half-mile in-between stretches of open 65mph road? Obey the speed limit. The Bus I haven’t had the pleasure of a real bus tour, unless you count the biodiesel school bus I use to drive for one of my earlier touring bands. So the only thing that comes to mind here is: Respect the space. Clean up after yourself, don’t make a bunch of noise at night while the rest of the band is sleeping, and only leave liquid waste in the john. Be accommodating. Basically, be cool… it’s a fish tank with more fish than tank. The Hotel Not all hotels are created equal, but here are a few of my personal habits. Do not spread your stuff everywhere. Keep yourself contained, and you’ll be much less likely to leave things behind. Carry a compact power-strip so you can get all of your plugs rocking somewhere convenient, with all devices in one power-surging place. Page 176

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NoTreble.com Articles A hotspot or wi-fi extender can work miracles. Some hotels will have only an ethernet cable,

which does the iPad guys no good, unless you can turn that into your own password-protected wi-fi signal. Check the alarm clock before you fall asleep. People often leave it set for ungodly hours. I can’t tell you how many nights I’ve gotten jolted awake at 4- or 5-something in the morning because somebody left the alarm on. The comforter does not get changed or washed very often, especially in the budget motels. Pull that thing right off and leave it on the floor at the foot of the bed. Regarding coffee makers, I was told this by a frequent traveler (and I have no idea if it’s true): Flight crew members wash underwear and pantyhose in the coffee makers in hotel rooms. In case that’s true, you will want to avoid using the in-room coffee maker. An alternative is to have those Starbucks instant coffee packets, which are pretty good. (It beats hotel coffee, anyway). Just add water! “Do Not Disturb” signs are your best friend for a sleep. I also like them when there’s gear in the room. If you’re really worried about someone coming in your room when you’re gone, leave the TV on at a moderate volume, too (but not so loud it will disturb your neighbors). General Travel Tips and Tricks Insure everything, down to the pedals. It’s cheap, and if you need it even once in your travels, it will save you money. That stretchy workout shirt type material is great for travel clothes and underwear. Why? because it dries quickly. It may sound weird, but you can seriously reduce the number of undergarments and tshirts in your suitcase if you don’t mind washing a few things in the shower. They’ll usually be completely dry by morning. I know a guy who toured Europe for a month with only two pairs of underwear and two t-shirts because he’d wash that day’s clothing at night and let them dry through the next day. He was never without clean clothes. Polyester doesn’t wrinkle much. Although this is less common, for those who have the opportunity to go on an extended tour out of the country, you may get paid in cash. If you have over $10k on you, declare it on the customs form! I’ve yet to have to worry about this, but I’ve heard horror stories about musicians trying to avoid paying any fees on the amount of cash they have on hand coming home from a long tour, and getting hosed as a result of that decision. They can confiscate your money if you lie about it. Take care of yourself. Eat healthy foods and don’t drink too much alcohol. Traveling is hard enough on your body.

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NoTreble.com Articles Unless you know that the water where you are is cool, don’t take any chances (especially in other

countries). Have bottled water on hand. Even if the water is fine, there are various bacteria that we just may not be accustomed to. Also, as an aside: All bottled water is not created equal (some is even less helpful than tap water); pH balance has a lot to do with water’s effectiveness and absorption. Fiji and Glacéau Smartwater are my two faves.

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In Closing

I would simply like to thank YOU for taking the time to read this book. I also thank you for your future contributions to the art of making music. Never forget that it is an art, and individual expression is what it’s all about. Play what you like to hear, and play it with all of your heart! I would also like to thank the following companies and collectives not just for their support of me and my music, but also for the fantastic gear and services they provide to musicians. I don’t support companies just to support them—I use this stuff because it helps me to be the musician I strive to be.

Skjold Basses Zon Basses GruvGear D’Addario Strings Reunion Blues Cases MXR Pedals Tsunami Cables Basswitch IQ-DI 1964 Ears (in-ear monitoring)

This book was written on a Mac using: • Microsoft Word • Sibelius (notation) • iReal Pro (chord charts)

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T H E I M P R O V I S E R ’ S PAT H — T H E E R S K I N E B A S S M E T H O D

PRAISE FOR RIGHT HAND DRIVE: “Damian’s book proves to be another well thought-out text on presenting the fundamentals for any player to consider. A commendable array of scales, modes, chords, and their inversions are covered in depth, and presented in a lucid manner.” —Bass Musician Magazine Throughout Right Hand Drive, Damian covers a great deal of serious grooves, and rhythmic exercises and examples that pushed my playing to new heights as I spent a week pouring over the pages herein. Wonderful! “ —Bass Frontiers Magazine “There’s a world-class virtuoso bassist living in Portland, Oregon, and most nights he’s out there hustling like the rest of us.” —Bass Player Magazine

Damian Erskine is known for his ability to fit into any musical situation, extraordinary reading and improvising skills as well as being an educator and columnist. 

Damian has also written for Bass Player Magazine, NoTreble.com, Bass Musician Magazine as well as authoring his own books, Right Hand Drive, and now The Improviser’s Path.  © 2014 notneK Music, All rights reserved.

damianerskine.com

DAMIAN ERSKINE

He has played in the studio or on the stage with the likes of Peter Erskine, The Jaco Pastorius Big Band, Les McCann & Javon Jackson, Gino Vannelli, Jeff Lorber, George Colligan, Sveti w/Marko Djordjevic, Vardan Ovsepian,  Charmaine Neville, Tony Furtado and many others as well as being featured on the GospelChops.com Shed Sessionz Vol. 1 DVD.