TABLE OF CONTENTS -...

2 | First Bass And Beyond | Issue 210 | 27 September 2013 | how-to-play-bass.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction: ...............................................................................

Transcription: Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out................................................................................................

Video Tutorial 1: With A Little Help From My Friends (Pt 1)....

Video Tutorial 2: Can’t Get Enough Part 1..................................

Deconstructing Rocco Column 4...............................................

Pop Bass Line - Careless Whispers..............................................

How To Practice A Groove Part 2................................................

Offers For FB&B Subscribers.......................................................

3

5

14

17

21

38

48

56


INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Issue 210 of First Bass And Beyond.

What’s In This Week’s Issue:

The main transcription this week is Carl Radle’s bass line on a Derek And The Dominos tune - it’s Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out.This tune illustrates just how ‘broad’ the blues can be - this is a tune in 6:8 with a 16 bar format....so quite different from a traditional 12 bar blues.

The first video tutorial lesson for Issue 210 is the first part of a two par-ter looking at Paul McCartney’s line on ‘With A Little Help From My Friends.’

The second video tutorial for Issue 210 is also a two parter - and it’s Part 1 of the Bad Company tune Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love. Gordon Clayton has already filmed the video tutorial for this - I’ll be posting it soon.

There’s also the fourteenth of our “Pop Bass Lines” series. This features a great bass line to a cheesy song - it’s Deon Estus’s masterpiece line on Careless Whispers by George Michael.

In the Deconstructing Rocco column we’ve got the transcription for a classic Rocco line - it’s the great Tower of Power tune, ‘Soul Vaccination.’

In the second ‘Practice A Groove’ column we’re going to take the minor groove from Column 1 and start practicing it in all 12 keys...

How To Contact Me

If you’ve got any questions you can email me directly. My email address is: [email protected].


Or you can post on my Facebook Page, which you’ll find here:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/How-To-Play-Bass-Dot-Com/118787498204407

Please note that whilst my Facebook How To Play Bass page is always open, I have started paring my ‘personal’ Facebook page down to just close friends and family. Please don’t be offended if I’ve ‘unfriended’ youfrom Facebook....I’m having to prioritize my time to remain productive and this is one of the things to help me do that.

Anyway, if you’re on Facebook you can find me on the How To Play Bass Dot Com facebook page - so don’t hesitate to stop by and say Hi!

Have a great week.

Paul




TRANSCRIPTION to NOBODY KNOWS YOU WHEN YOU’RE DOWN AND OUT by DEREK AND THE DOMINOS, bass by Carl Radle

This week’s main transcription is a Derek and the Dominos tune - which of course means Carl Radle on the bass.

I’ve been listening to two great albums recently - both live, both recorded at a simi-lar period and both featuring Duane Allman. One is The All-man Brothers live at Fillmore. And the other is Derek And The Dominos at the Fillmore. (there’s also a great King Curtis and Aretha Franklin live album

at the Fillmore too....)

Both of these albums are absolutely required listening if you are a blues rock fan - both Carl Radle (with the Dominos) and Berry Oakley were great players. And I’ve been digging again into their discographies as there is always more to find!

So I went back to the studio album to transcribe Nobody Knows You. As far as I have been able to find out, this was a ‘live recording’ in the stu-dio and there are interesting little nuances in the bass line. I also found out that Duane and Gregg Allman had recorded a demo version of this - which had been reissued - and I was excited to compare Carl’s line with Berry’s. Sadly, Berry didn’t play on that recording.

Here’s how Carl’s bass line lays out:

Letter A - 0.01Letter B - 0.18Letter C - 0.54Letter D - 1.29Letter E - 2.05


Letter F - 2.40Letter G - 3.14Letter H - 3.48

As always, the tab reflects my fingering system, hand size and scale length. If any of these differ for you - the probability of which is high - then feel free to change the tab positions around to suit YOUR playing system, hand size and bass length.


VIDEO TUTORIAL 1 -WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS PART 1 by THE BEATLES, bass by PAUL McCARTNEY

Originally I was going to fea-ture this as a more beginner level tutorial and have ‘gener-ic’ sections for you to play. But listening to it - and I found a great isolated version on the Interwebz/YouTube (which is on the blog section of HTPB) - I decided that it was worth teaching every sec-tion.

So it will be a two parter.

A really interesting thing to note - when you listen to the bass line and listen to the duration of the notes it’s hard to tell sometimes if McCart-ney is deliberately playing space or if his notes are just naturally fading. Being as he was a pick player and playing using a Rickenbacker 401 as his main bass by this time, I’d guess it was deliberate. So it’s a great les-son in space!

Here’s the first verse where the bass comes in:


Notice how this is all played in the upper register...so if you are more on the early stages of your bass playing journey learning this song will help you get around your bass more and learn/reinforce your learning of some of the notes higher up.

That verse goes straight into the chorus:

I’ve notated some notes with a ‘dot’ over them - that means to play them short and ensure that you have space between the start of the next note.

After the chorus we’re straight into Verse 2 - which is similar to Verse 1, but subtly different:


Then we’re back into the chorus - again this is similar to the previous chorus. However this is only 6 bars long and sets up the bridge. Chorus 2 looks like this:

And this is the bridge section that it sets up:

We’ll pause there and come back to the second part of this tutorial next week. Look out for a video tutorial and a backing track to play along to next week.


VIDEO TUTORIAL 2 CAN’T GET ENOUGH by BAD COMPANY

This week’s second video tu-torial is the great rock shuffle tune Can’t Get Enough by Bad Company.

Now I’m going to split this into two parts - but you can pretty much get through the tune in a basic fashion with the parts we’re going to cover in this week’s lesson.

Here’s the intro:

One of the things that makes this tune interesting from a bass perspec-tive is the use of notes on the anticipated 8th note - or the ‘swung and’ of beat 4.


From the intro we go to the first verse and the first pre-chorus:

And of course the chorus follows the pre-chorus:


Next up is Verse 2 and the second pre-chorus:

After this second pre-chorus we can repeat the chorus that we looked at above.

Then there’s a guitar solo - we’re going to go to just past the 2 minute mark in the tune...and here’s the bulk of the guitar solo and the last sec-tion we’re going to look at today:


We’ll finish up the tune in next week’s column. As always there will be a video tutorial to go with this...and I’m delighted to say that this will be filmed by Gordon Clayton.

Deconstructing Rocco 4

22 | First Bass And Beyond | Issue 210 | 27 september 2013 | how-to-play-bass.com

DECONSTRUCTING ROCCO 4 - SOUL VACCINATION

The next tune we’re going to analyze for the Deconstruct-ing Rocco column is Soul Vaccination.

Now this came from their self titled album - that album also gave us other Tower classics like This Time It’s Real, What Is Hip, Get Yo Feet Back On The Ground and So Very Hard To Go.

And probably What Is Hip? put Tower on the map as it were.

In the next column I’ll analyse the bass line and give you some thoughts - to get the most out of this series see if you can use what I did in the pre-vious column with Oil and see what YOU come up with. Then you can compare with what I come up with in the next column.

Anyway, here’s how Soul Vaccination lays out:

Letter A - Intro - 0.00Letter B - Verse - 0.21Letter C - Chorus - 0.38Letter D - Verse - 0.57Letter E - Chorus - 1.15Letter F - Interlude - 1.34Letter G - Sax - 1.52Letter H - Breakdown - 2.28Letter I - Verse 3.16 Letter J - Chorus - 3.33Letter K - Outro - 3.51


The tab reflects where I believe Rocco would have played this based on the guides you get to his left hand fretting/muting system in his great DVD Fingerstyle Funk.

Pop BasslinesCareless Whispers


POP BASSLINES - CARELESS WHISPER by GEORGE MICHAEL, bass by DEON ESTUS

Here’s a track that some of you will instinctively flinch from because it’s George Mi-chael and it is a bit cheesy.

However to do that would be to overlook another master-class in ballad bass playing.

This is a very different per-formance from Pino’s ‘Shoot Down the Moon’ that we looked at last week, this is a much more conventional

type of bass line.

The chord progression in the song never changes in the song. There’s a four chord progression that carries right through the tune (Dm to Gm to Bbmaj7 to Amin) and yet the tune has got natural build and variation. Some of that comes from the different melodies from verse to chorus (and the use of the sax break) - but some of it comes from Deon Estus’s bass line. Some things to note:

1. There is a ‘theme’ that runs throughout the bass line, anchoring the listener’s ear - even if they are not aware of it2. The melodic variations on the whole are very conventional chord notes - fifths, octaves. Allthough they are often ‘ornamented’ with slides into them.3. The duration of the notes are important and contribute massively to the feel of the line4. The ornamentations in the line are sparse and not overdone.5. There’s a clear build from start to finish


Here’s how Careless Whispers lays out:

Letter A - Intro - 0.01Letter B - Verse - 0.27Letter C - Chorus - 0.51Letter D - Verse - 1.30Letter E - Chorus - 1.54Letter F - Sax - 2.19Letter G - Verse - 2.45Letter H - Chorus - 3.11Letter I - Sax - 3.36Letter J - Verse - 3.50Letter K - Outro - 4.14Letter L - Fade starts - 3.14

As always, the tab reflects my fingering system, hand size and scale length. If any of these differ for you - the probability of which is high - then feel free to change the tab positions around to suit YOUR playing system, hand size and bass length.

How To Practice A GrooveColumn 2


HOW TO PRACTICE A GROOVE - COLUMN 2

Introduction

Here’s a quick recap on what we did in Column 1:

•Wetooka4bargroovefromOnlySoMuchOilInTheGround •Wesplitthatgrooveintothreeonebargrooves-oneinGm7and two in Eb9 •WethentransposedthosegroovestoC-Cm7andC9respectively to make comparative analysis easier

Plus I also highly recommended that you have some system for making practice tracks. The important criteria are: •arhythmicelement(metronomeordrumgroove) •aharmonicelement(e.g.stringpads,orkeysorguitar) •facilitytochangekeyquickly •facilitytochangetempowithoutaffectingpitch

Ok, let’s get going in Column 2. What we’re going to do is start working with the one bar grooves. And the first thing we’re going to do is to prac-tice in all 12 keys.

Practicing In All 12 Keys

Until you reach the rarefied musical position where you can conceive an idea and execute it instantly in the context of a song or a groove in real time you’ll probably have to practice groove and groove ideas thoroughly to add them to the library of ideas that you will build up.

Practicing a groove idea in all 12 keys is a great way to add an idea to your library of ideas - and it also makes you a better player because it makes you much more comfortable on the fretboard and I think I read Ed Friedland say something along the lines of: there are no weak keys, only keys you’ve not practiced sufficiently. So practicing in 12 keys will get you more comfortable with key centres that you perhaps don’t play in as often. (Most people’s ‘weak’ key areas


tend to match keys that have lots of sharps or flats. So C#, F#, B and Cb, Gb and Db. And of course this carries over with the corresponding rela-tive minor keys).

There are several ways of playing something in all 12 keys. None of them are intrinsically better than others - but you should make a point of practicing in all the ways I’m going to go through. Each of them is based on a different interval to move your key centre around - so as well as getting more comfortable in areas you don’t often play in, you’ll also get more comfortable at the common distances involved when moving from one chord to another.

There are two really common ways to practice something in all 12 keys - either the cycle of 5ths, or chromatically. Let’s start with the cycle of 5ths.

Practicing In Every Key With The Cycles Of 5ths

The Cycle of 5ths is a term given to a sequence of notes that moves in ei-ther ascending 5ths or descending 4ths and goes from any note you start from round a ‘cycle’ until it’s been through every key centre and lands back on the starting chord.

Here’s the Cycle Of 5ths starting with C:

C - F - Bb - Eb - Ab - Db - F# - B - E - A - D - G and back to C

Now one of the great things about the Cycle of 5ths is that chords in chord progressions often move in fifths and fourths - so it really helps with your ear training for hearing chord progressions.

For example in the Key of C, you’ll often go from C to F.Or from G(7) to C.Or Am to Dm to G7 to C in one common chord progression.Or Dm to G7.

So this movement is really, really common. So if you only have time to practice one way to play through in 12 keys - this is the one that I’d choose.


Here’s our minor riff from Column 2 - starting in Cm7 - and going round the cycle of 5ths:


Now when you first do this exercise this looks daunting - the pattern itself should be played at a reasonable tempo. And you’ve got all those different key centres.

So here’s how you get started:

1. Play through each pattern multiple times - out of tempo. This famil-iarizes your fingers with the locations of the fingerboard where you are going to play in the different key centres. And this also allows you to play those key centres that you’re less familiar with more easily.

2. When you are comfortable you know where everything is, then start out with a backing track set to a slow tempo - maybe 60 or 70 bpm so you can get through the full track.

3. When you can play through at say 60 BPM, then gradually bump up the metronome. Maybe to 65 BPM and play there. And play a few times at this setting before moving on.

4. Then you can move the metronome up until it reaches your target tempo.

There’s a variation of this method that you could use if this is the first time you have worked on playing something in all 12 keys - and that is to use each of these steps but expand the number of playthroughs you are making in each key centre.

So instead of playing once in each key centre, let’s say you start with four times. So you’d go through the above steps and play through the pattern in each key four times before changing key. This means you are shift-ing keys much less and can focus more on the groove in the different key areas. When you get to your target tempo then start again, but this time play the pattern only twice for each key centre. And when you’ve taken this to your target tempo then go back to the start and just use one bar per key centre as the example above!


The first ever time you do this exercise you should do it thoroughly and slowly - if you do that then you’ll be guaranteed to make success. And it will lay a platform for doing this kind of work that will help you succeed in the future too - you KNOW you can do it, because you’ve done it.

So let’s move on and practice in all 12 keys using the other common method of shifting keys - and that’s to shift keys chromatically.

Practicing In Every Keys Using Chromatic Movement

Moving ‘chromatically’ simply means to move in semi - tones. So if you were starting out in Cm, your chromatic sequence would look like this:

Cm - Dbm - Dm - Ebm - Em- Fm - Gbm - Gm - Abm - Am - Bbm - Bm and back to C.

Now you could also practice chromatically downwards - so Cm, Bm, Bbm, Am etc etc. I tend not to practice chromatically downwards - that’s because in songs you are much more likely to get a whole sequence of songs modulate upwards than downwards. (In fact I can’t even think of a tune where the chords modulate downwards - I’m sure there are some, so please don’t be shy about letting me know!!!)

So here’s how our one bar minor groove would look if you were practic-ing it chromatically (and chromatically upwards):


Again, you can use the same kind of practice sequence that I outlined above.

If you practiced JUST this one pattern thoroughly in the manner I’ve prescribed I guarantee that you’ll start to put a serious dent into any key areas that you feel are weak key areas.

If you move on and do the same practice with the two patterns in Eb9 - which we’ll look at in the next column - you’ll really start to feel comfort-able all over the fretboard. And like anything that you learn, the more you do this (i.e. the more riffs you take through all 12 keys) the easier it will get for you to transpose patterns to different keys. So this is highly valuable practice.

Some Thoughts On Practicing In All 12 Keys

The natural tendency when doing this kind of exercise is to start in a familiar key centre. Usually that’s something like C or D or F or E or A or G.

The sooner you do this kind of practice the sooner you’ll start to feel comfortable in key areas that feel strange (C# Major for example!). So once you’ve done it a couple of times I recommend that you start in a different key centre. Your fluency in all keys will quickly improve.

There are other ways to practice in all 12 keys too - but these two are the most common and probably the most useful. We’ll look at the other ways in two columns time - in Column 3 we’ll take the two Eb9 patterns through this process. And I’ll show you something interesting that hap-pens with the second of those patterns.

Offers For FB&B Subscribers


OFFERS FOR FIRST BASS AND BEYOND SUBSCRIBERS

This is a new section where I’ll list special offers for First Bass And Be-yond Subscribers.

Cracking The Detroit Code

Cracking The Detroit Code is now $367 for the Premium Option. First Bass And Beyond subscribers get a special price....the First Bass and Be-yond price is $297. If you want to enroll on CTDC and take advantage of the FB&B Discount, simply drop me an email.

Walking Basslines 101

You might remember the pre-launch for Walking Basslines 101 - the course is well and truly rolling now....I’m just working on Lesson 6 and it’s turning out really well. If you want to join the course at Lesson 1 you still can....here’s the page you need:

http://www.how-to-play-bass.com/walking-basslines-101-join.html

http://www.how-to-play-bass.com/walking-basslines-101-join.html

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