Gadaffi Duck - Mark King

Currently unreleased, this is a rather obscure change of direction for Level 42 as there is some speculation as to whether it will appear on a new EP this year.  The composition is a look back to the early material of the UK’s favourite funk band but King has already performed it live with various line ups over the last few years and it sounds great.  It has a strong B mixolydian quality which explains why I wrote it out with an ‘E’ key signature.

Play it at the 7th fret on the E string for optimum results.

Reach Out (I’ll Be There) - The Four Tops

Maybe my favourite ever Motown record, this one features the AMAZING James Jamerson on bass.  This verse groove is rather unsyncopated for a Jamerson line compared to others which leads me to believe it was written out for him (something he didn’t like much) but that doesn’t stop him adding the cheeky chromatics and ghost notes.  This line really drives the song the way he performs it. JJ plays the semiquaver rest in bar two as a ghost note (or a low A flat later in the tune).  I didn’t notate it because this 16th changes between the two so use whatever you want there.  I’ll be posting some more Jamerson stuff I think - it’s too much fun to play! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnDm3qr1Knk

At a recent jam night, another bassist asked me about how important Facebook is to being a working musician and while I can only speak for myself, I do have some thoughts.  Rather ashamedly, my online presence is quite poor.  I have no official YouTube account and my Twitter account is used for seeing what my favourite musicians are up to.  However, one site I DO use is Facebook.  Alot.

I get quite a bit of work through Facebook.  As well as being a social thing (family and friends), at least half of my ‘friends’ are musicians.  And about 20% of those are professional.  Some I’ve met or played with, others I can only dream of working with.  Some ‘friended’ me, and I ‘friended’ the others.  I see alot of the semi-pro or amateur musos falling into these traps and as a result, any potential employers will be put off IMMEDIATELY.  I’ve seen it happen all too often and I’ve fallen into a few of them myself.

So, to the DOs and DO NOTs of Facebook (and any other site for that matter).

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1)  I like to call this the “Hey guys, I’m a musician!” trait.  Anyone worthy of being a ‘friend’ on Facebook will already know you’re a musician.  There’s no need to update your status EVERYTIME you learn a new tune or have a rehearsal.  Unless you’re trying to promote a product or event, keep these kinds of posts to a minimum.  Only use these types of updates if it’s REALLY cool or of interest to people (ie. you’ve just given Victor Wooten a lesson or something…)  You’ll just annoy people. 

2)  DO ask peoples opinion.  People love to know they’ve aided someone in a quest for a new instrument, theory knowledge or studio time.

3)  Drop the negativity.  DON’T slag off other musicians/producers/The X Factor/etc..  You really don’t know who knows who in this business.  If you don’t like it, keep schtum - they could be paying your wages one day.  This also includes techniques and ideas such as slap bass, autotune and getting your girlfriend to drive you to the gig.  It’s the industry.  You don’t have to like it, but you’ll be doing yourself a favour.  Instead of a status like “Isn’t Justin Bieber a pile of rubbish?” try “Has anyone heard the new Beyoncé track?  I love it.”

4)  DON’T involve yourself in the arguments at all.  Even if you’re invited into them.  Even when you know you’re right.  Even when your hatred for ultracrepidarianism is overwhelming, stay away.  Don’t even associate yourself in any way with that conversation.  That way, you won’t go taking any sides and you won’t look like a pillock.  If you really feel the need to talk about the subject, do it in person.  That way there’ll be NO NEED FOR THE CAPS LOCK SHOUTING!!!

Photo:  Janek Gwizdala - not only an animal musician but a guy who REALLY knows how to make his online presence work for him.  (Courtesy of http://daviddevereuxmusic.tumblr.com/)

5)  As if in complete contrast - don’t be boring and ‘safe’.  You can express yourself without looking like an egotistical, opinionated dipstick.  Strike a balance.  If you’re unsure, just think; are you writing this to prove yourself as a musician or person?  If it is, don’t… your playing will do that for you once you’re hired.

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These are just some of my own thoughts and advice on this matter.  Read Victor Wooten’s Twitter feed.  That should provide ample proof of what I’m saying.  I’d recommend Janek Gwizdala’s book ‘You’re a Musician.  Now What?’ and the Twitter article in the latest musicians union newsletter.  Get in touch with any thoughts, tips or ideas.  Greg.

http://janekgwizdala.com/home/youre-a-musician-now-what/

The Feel - Gail Ann Dorsey

This track from her 2003 album ‘I Used to Be’ demonstrates some marvellous bass playing.  This lick is just a simple minor pentatonic run with an overall A7 tonality but it can be a bit of a finger twister so experiment with finger positions to make it as easy as possible to play.  Have fun!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Used-Be-Gail-Ann-Dorsey/dp/B0001W0FCU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1355408279&sr=8-2

Here I am going to discuss some walking bass ideas that I’ve never heard about via any source other than the jazz recordings I own.  They are purely my own findings since struggling (unnecessarily) to back jazz musicians effectively.  All you need is a few insiders’ secrets, although I can’t promise they’re very exciting – some of them are way too simple for that!

Sure, walking bass does entail all the stuff the books and DVDs are full of such as chords, scales, licks, and whatever else – I’ll get to that in a later post because this is more important.

Personally, I’m still experimenting and finding my own ways of handling these situations so if you have any ideas for me, e-mail me!  

The humble root and fifth is the KEY to good walking bass.  At this point, I’m going to assume you have a little knowledge of harmony.  There are only really three types of fifth: flat, sharp/augmented and perfect/natural and all of these can be easily identified on a jazz chart or lead sheet in the chord name.  Cmaj – perfect 5^th, C7+ - augmented fifth, and C-7b5?  Yeah, you guessed it.  Getting familiar with the way chords are notated will put you in good stead for being able to just ‘walk’ in and start playing right of the bat. 

So, to business.  After getting sick of panicking as soon as I started playing any jazz tune, I went back to the woodshed and started playing the root note on every crotchet in the bar.  Obviously, there’s no ‘walking’ involved here but it did lead me to start transcribing real basslines from popular recordings of standards.  This is because I started hearing the repetition in these parts once I was familiar with playing them myself.  Suddenly, the odd bars of root notes were jumping out at me and I got to writing the entire lines down right away.  What I discovered was these three points:

Walking basslines does NOT always mean four in a bar.

Roots, fifths and thirds were the most common choices for walking.

Earlier jazz contained very little work further up the fingerboard – much of it remained in one position.

As an exercise, I suggest you pull up a medium to fast swing chart such as ‘A Train’ or ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ and (for now) play two root note crotchets on beats one and two and the chord’s relevant fifth on the second two beats.  If there is more than one chord per bar, just play the roots to each chord [see example]. 

Another key to this is nailing the sound, so try and get that thud and remember that the bass doesn’t stick out so neither should you.  The written example doesn’t make an awful lot of musical sense - it’s only really there for you to get an idea from.  Work on nailing the feel down and supporting the harmony - that’s the gig!  We’ll get to more intricate details next time.  Have fun!

Bass Concerto in D Major - Johann Baptist Vanhal

This has been a favourite of mine since I heard it nearly ten years ago - before I was even playing bass!  Although I dabble, I’m not a double bass player so I’ve posted this passage taken from my full bass guitar transcription of the concerto (coming soon).  If you are playing on bass guitar, try to make the melody sound bowed.  I would love to hear this on fretless - it truly is beautiful music.  If you like this, check out Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf’s bass concerti.  The video is of Rinat Ibragimov (principal bassist with the LSO) and Catherine Edwards on piano.  This would have been performed in Viennese Tuning (A, D, F#, A) which makes fingerings for an instrument tuned in fourths rather interesting.  This recording, although wonderfully played, does lack the wonderful string arrangement backing it as it would have done in the 1700s.  I’d recommend Chi-Chi Nwanoku’s recording for this.  Enjoy! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt-bNf6h0tI

You Are the Universe - The Brand New Heavies

Last night I had the pleasure of watching (and meeting) one of my favourite bands.  They were brilliant.  This song from 1997 is a popular one in the bands back catalogue and for good reason – top groove and top production too.  Andrew Levy’s bassline is tight and funky.  It outlines the chord progression effectively without being bland or ‘safe’ and that’s what I love about his playing.  I learnt alot from him last night.  You’ll either need a five string bass or a detuned ‘E’ string to play the groove in the corect octave.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzDhQAiND4U

My Old Man - Ian Dury & the Blockheads

This tune is one of my favourites from a very cool band.  It’s a simple line but it feels great to play.  The whole tune is based on this line but you can find these exact four bars at the beginning of the first verse.  It’s based on the B major pentatonic scale so incorporating some of his licks into your own grooves should be quite straightforward.  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIs_YRaOXzA

A Waltz for Albert & Jean

I came up with this short piece early last year.  It’s a rubato 3/4 in A major with a few sneaky bars of 4/4 in the middle section.  It’s very simple to play, but I liked the tune and decided to dedicate it to my grandparents.  It’s only a demo that I recorded at home for my own personal reference so there’s a few scuffers in there.  I hope to record it properly one day.  It was recorded on a Zoom H2 and I added some reverb in Audacity afterwards.  I’d love to know what you think! 

Greg

Love is Stronger Than Justice - Sting

Quite frankly, this album is among the best ever recorded by anybody EVER as far as I’m concerned.  The ‘7’ feel can difficult to nail so try feeling it in 7/4 if that helps.  It just goes to show how natural Sting can make a time signature sound even when it’s tricky to get right.  Vinnie is on fire here alternating between half time and standard.  The G note at the end of the extract should be ‘bent’ to an unspecified pitch somewhere between G# and A (at least that’s what Sting does) but a little subtle vibrato instead should do the trick.  I’m posting the whole album video because not only is it beautifully filmed and recorded, you get to see that band doing it for real.  It’s one of the most magical things I have ever seen.  Buy the album.  You won’t regret it.

P.S. - watch out for the falling bass!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkLiFuRivzY