THE HOW TO PLAY BASS MONTHLY EZINE - July 2014

Welcome to the free how to play bass monthly ezine for July, 2014. In
this month’s issue I’m going to feature another excerpt from a course I’m
teaching on Walking Bass Line playing.

In this month’s ezine we’re going to include an excerpt from a bonus re-
port for the Walking Basslines 101 Course. In June’s free monthly ezine
we published an excerpt from Lesson 29 of my Walking Basslines 101
course. That excerpt was taking some ‘2-5-1 vocabulary- from a tran-
scription of Autumn Leaves played by jazz great George Duvivier.

In this month’s free monthly ezine we’re going to take just one piece of
vocabulary from last month’s excerpt and I’m going to show you some of
the ways you can practice this...and talk about why this is important.

(The Bonus Report that this month’s excerpt is taking from is called
Walking Bass Lines: The Futsal Way. For those who don’t know, Futsal is
a version of soccer that involves a smaller pitch, less players and a small-
er, heavier ball. To find out how this applies to walking bass lines you’ll
have to enroll on the Walking Basslines Course!)

Updates To The How To Play Bass Website

Before we go onto the song tutorial I just want to take a moment to tell
you about upcoming changes to the how to play bass website:

1. Firstly the website is being redeveloped/redesigned at the moment.

I’m not sure when the new layout will roll out...but it will be in the next
couple of months hopefully.

2. Those of you who’ve subscribed for longer than a few months will no-
tice that the monthly ezines were erratic in 2013. That’s something I’m
rectifying and from now on they will be regular. Every month there will
be a new song tutorial and the previous months song tutorial will disap-
pear into the archive of First Bass And Beyond.

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3. Those of you who’ve visited the website recently may notice that it
hasn’t been updated with new songs recently. That’s partly because of
the redesign that’s ongoing. And partly because of a change of policy.

For most of 2013 I’ve been filming two video tutorials a week to tie in
with my weekly magazine First Bass And Beyond. And I’ve been posting
versions of those tutorials on youtube and on the How To Play Bass web-
site.

I have nearly 300 videos on YouTube and have decided that although the
two video tutorials a week schedule will continue, I won’t post many of
these tutorials to Youtube anymore. Perhaps it will be one a month plus
the free song tutorial like the one that usually features in the free month-
ly ezine.

4. This policy is already under way - here are videos that subscribers of
First Bass And Beyond have had access to that weren’t uploaded to
Youtube:

Lets Spend The Night Together (Rolling Stones)

Our Song (Taylor Swift)
Sympathy For The Devil (Rolling Stones)
Telegram Sam (T Rex)
Ring Of Fire (Johnny Cash)
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (Taylor Swift)
Schools Out (Alice Cooper)
More Than A Feeling (Boston)
Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash(
I Walk The Line (Johnny Cash)
Tumbling Dice (Rolling Stones)
Shake (Otis Redding)
Boys Are Back In Town (Thin Lizzy)
20th Century Boy (T Rex)
Fa Fa Fa Fa (The Sad Song) - (Otis Redding)

5. Upcoming tutorials will be focused on songs that are commonly

played by gigging bands. That will range from soul and R&B classics to
rock and rock blues tunes.
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6. I’ve added a new section to First Bass And Beyond called ‘Working
Basslines.’ That section features complete tutorials for songs that bands
commonly play - these tutorials feature streaming and downloadable
videos, notation in PDF and tab, instruction on creating individual sec-
tions in Band In A Box to isolate and practice (which includes necessary
chords and keys and tempo information) and also bass less backing
tracks to play along with.

7. There are two new sections to the First Bass And Beyond members
area. The first of these is a section on Theory. Each of these lessons is
serialized in the weekly issues of FB&B and then it is transferred to the

website and any musical examples are filmed and embedded at the ap-
propriate place in the lesson. That way this becomes a permanent theo-
ry resource for members of FB&B. So far we’ve covered 22 lessons - and
we’ve looked at intervals of the major and minor scale as basic building
blocks of music, along with an introduction to time signatures.

In September I’ll start adding to this with a detailed look at modes and
chords and scale relationships.

The second new section of the First Bass And Beyond website - so new
it’s not even officially published until Friday! - is a mini course on how
to create and play bass lines from chord charts. Again, this is serialized
in First Bass And Beyond and then transferred to the website. There
are tons of exercises to practice this skill, plus MP3 backing tracks with
no bass to practice with! Again, this will be another great resource for
members of FB&B.

8. Over the next few months I’m going to finish serialising in the free
monthly ezine a book I wrote - called LEARN SONGS NOT SCALES - that
details the background to why I don’t think bass players should learn
scales by rote. (Note bass players DO need to understand scales and
how they are formed....but we don’t need to practice them by rote. It will
all be spelled out over the next few months!) This month’s issue is so big
that I’ve left this out this month.

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Excerpt From Walking Basslines 101 Report - WALKING
BASSLINES - THE FUTSAL WAY

Introduction

In last month’s free ezine we looked at extracting some 2-5-1 vocabulary

from a transcription of George Duvivier’s performance on a tune called
Autumn Leaves.

In July’s issue we’re going to look at some of the ways you can practice
this.

Why Is Practicing 2-5-1 Vocabulary So Important?

The 2-5-1 progression is found throughout jazz. If you look at just about
any improvisation tutorial book for other instruments - e.g. saxophone,
piano, guitar etc - it’s common to find a number of solo phrases that fit
over 2-5-1 progressions followed swiftly by the recommendation that
you should practice them in every key.

If this is important for solo instruments, why should the bass be any dif-
ferent?

The answer is of course that it’s not. When you find a phrase that fits
the 2-5-1 progression and that you like - as we did last month by lifting
phrases from George Duvivier’s bass line on Autumn Leaves - then in
order to be able to use that in different jazz tunes you need to practice
this vocabulary thoroughly in order to assimilate it so that when you are
playing you can use this vocabulary without really thinking about it.

Before we can learn how to practice a piece of vocabulary thoroughly we

need to identify a piece of vocabulary that we can use as a model.

Here’s a nice piece of vocabulary that we’re going to use for the rest of
today’s process:

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Without practicing this in all 12 key areas, and with different ideas and
permutations, you won’t truly master this vocabulary. So let’s start look-
ing at some of the ways you can practice this so that you can thoroughly
assimilate this vocabulary.

(Paul’s Note - this vocabulary has a very deliberate rhythmic focus - as

you can see the line is strictly comprised of quarter notes. Once the
vocabulary is assimilated it’s a relatively easy step to vary it with differ-
ent rhythmic articulations.)

Let’s start assimilating....

1. Practicing Through Individual Key Areas Individually

The featured piece of vocabulary is in the key of Bb. The first step is to
practice this piece of vocabulary individually in all 12 keys.

Now that sounds fairly basic...and it is. But even with this simple first
step there are multiple ways of practicing this.

1.1 Practicing In Different Locations Of The Fretboard

If you remember from the June issue the original vocabulary was actu-
ally pitched an octave higher. We know it works at that octave...so we
should practice the vocabulary in that octave too:

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If you look closely at the tab you’ll see that this has all been tabbed out
on a single string. And you can walk up the neck in this manner. But
you should also practice playing in different locations. For example
starting at the 10th fret of the D string:

1.2 The Perpetual Motion Practice Exercise

When you get comfortable playing this line in different places on the
fretboard then you can turn this into a perpetual motion exercises.
Here’s how this works. You pick a place to start the line...and you can
ONLY play the assigned pitches in the order shown in the line.

And you have to keep playing forward - set yourself a number of repeti-
tions of the basic four bar sequence. For example, let’s say you are going
to play 16 bars.

So the challenge becomes having to shift locations by using octave dis-

placement. Here’s one way you could use octave displacement to get
through 16 bars:

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Notes:

1. Octave displacement works best (IMO) on beats 2 and 4

2. Anytime you use a note that corresponds to an open string is a

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great chance to use octave displacement using the open string.
3. Any time you get a repeated note in a bass line - e.g. the repeated Bb’s
in Bar 3 - you’ve got another great opportunity to use octave displace-
ment.
4. Octave displacement works displacing up as well as down. In this
example I’ve used down exclusively - that’s because the shape of the line
is upwards.

1.3 Disguising The Line With Rhythmic Variations

You can also practice disguising the line with rhythmic variations.

(Excerpt not shown)

1.4 Practicing In This Manner In All 12 Keys

Once you’ve worked through Bb, then work through the remaining 11
key areas using these ideas!

When you are comfortable in all 12 keys then you can move onto Prac-
tice Exercise 2.

2. Practicing 2-5-1 Lines With Progressions That Modulate Through All

12 Keys

Once you have thoroughly mastered the line in the individual keys
you can start practicing with longer chord progressions that modulate
through the 2-5-1 progression in all 12 keys!

Now the obvious ways to string these 12 key centres together are either
via the cycle of fifths. Or chromatically (either up and down). But you
should practice moving the 2-5-1 progressions in major seconds (two
cycles), minor thirds (four cycles) and major thirds (three cycles).

Here for example is our basic line played around the first three key cen-
tres if we were moving in descending major seconds:

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When you’re practicing like this you can use octave displacement to ex-
plore the line over the full range of your fretboard.

Practicing through the different possibilities that cycle through all 12

keys help thoroughly prepare for how 2-5-1 progressions modulate in
real world jazz songs.

Some things to remember when practicing in this manner:

1. Always start exercises in different keys. That ensures you are equally
comfortable in Gb major as you are in C major. There’s no such thing as
a ‘weak’ key - there’s only key areas that haven’t been practiced as thor-
oughly as other keys.

2. Always practice with tracks that have rhythmic as well as chordal

backing. That way you’ll get a ton of subliminal ear training practice.

3. Always start out slowly. Better to be able to play through successfully

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at 80 BPM than scuff through at 120 BPM. Greater facility WILL come
with practice - always aim to practice at a speed where you can practice
as perfectly as possible.

Let’s move onto Practice Exercise 3.

3. Convert Major 2-5-1 Lines to Minor 2-5-1 (and Vice Versa)

Here’s a reminder of our Major 2-5-1 line:

Let’s convert it to a minor 2-5-1. In Bb, the minor 2-5-1 chords would
be Cm7b5 to F7b9 to Bbmin7. This particular line needs two note to
change to make it fit:

When changing from Cm7 to Cm7b5 - the basic change to make is that
any fifths change to b5. We didn’t need to make any alterations there -
though we could have changed the ‘2’ to ‘b2’ if we’d wanted a more sca-
lar sound.

When changing from F7 to F7b9, the second (or ninth) is the scale de-
gree we need to amend. In this example I duplicated the root note and
then played the b2 (b9) before jumping to the major third.

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When changing from Bbmaj7 to Bbm7 the main notes to look out for are
the major 7 and the major third - both of which should be flattened.

When you convert major 2-5-1 lines to minor - and vice versa - some-
times you’ll come upon moderately interesting variations (like this
example). And sometimes you’ll come up with really interesting varia-
tions. My recommendation is that if you come up with something that
you really like the sound of, then take that back to Step 1 and practice it
thoroughly. If a conversion sounds only OK....that’s a guideline that it’s
something to take note of, but perhaps not invest lots of hours of prac-
tice time.

Time for Practice Step 4.

4. Trimming Line to 2-5 - Practicing In Cycles of 2-5

The next step is to trim the 2-5-1 line down to just a 2-5 line and then
practice that in cycles. Here is our original line trimmed down to a 2 bar
pattern:

And here’s the first few bars using this line and moving through the Cycle
of fourths:

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Notice the use of the open D string to facilitate octave displacement and
a position shift in Bar 5.

As with the 2-5-1 progression , there are multiple ways of practicing

modulating the basic 2-5 chord unit. Make sure you practice them all!

5. Using the 2-5 Line On The Bridge Of I Got Rhythm

Back in Lesson 22 we looked at playing through the bridge section of I

Got Rhythm. That bridge section looks like this:

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But as we saw in Lesson 22 you can ‘suggest’ the 2-5 as an implied chord
progression. That looks like this:

And here’s this implied Rhythm Changes bridge with our 2-5 line:

And of course you could use this line as part of your I Got Rhythm prac-
tice in all 12 keys - or you could just isolate the bridge and practice that
in all 12 keys. Or you could extend this progression through the Cycle of
5ths to practice this in all 12 key centres.

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This idea is something that we can also add to our modal bass line cre-
ation.

6. Using 2-5 Lines On Modal Tunes

As we saw in Lesson 27, one way to create more interest in our bass lines
on modal tunes is to use this idea of implied chord changes that we used
in the I Got Rhythm bridge.

So instead of looking at a section of a tune like So What? as 8 bars of

Dm7, we can look at it as four two chord units going from Dm7 to G7.
And that gives us a further opportunity to practice and use our 2-5 line.

Here’s 8 bars played with this implied two chord progression - and using
octave displacement to play over the fretboard:

Of course you can use this idea over the Ebm7 section of the tune as
well.

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Summary

This excerpt is from a bonus report called Walking Basslines - The Fut-
sal Way. And hopefully as you can see you can get a lot of mileage from
just ONE walking 2-5-1 line.

The benefits of practicing in this thorough manner are:

1. Assimilation of authentic repertoire to the point that it can be used in

multiple tunes and chordal situations
2. Increased fluency across the fingerboard
3. Subliminal ear training (if practicing with realistic backing tracks with
chordal material as well as rhythmic material)

Additional practice should include:

1. Incorporating practice repertoire into deliberate compositions of lines

for songs
2. Disguising cyclical exercises by connecting up sections with different
approach methods
3. Cataloguing songs where 2-5 or 2-5-1 progressions are used. And
catalogue those were these progressions modulate in a specific way (e.g.
in Stella By Starlight there is a section with 2-5 chords modulating in
descending major seconds) then make sure you take that modulation to
your practice space.

Each time you practice a piece of repertoire in this manner you’ll find
that the amount of time it takes to assimilate new repertoire decreases
as you get more comfortable with the process.

Walking Bass Lines 101

For more information on my comprehensive walking bass lines course,

please see this page:

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

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 FIRST BASS AND BEYOND - THE ULTIMATE SONG RESOURCE FOR
BEGINNER AND INTERMEDIATE BASS PLAYERS

If you’ve read this far it shows that you’re interested in detailed song tu-
torials for bass. How would you like to get access to over 200 song tutori-
als over the next year for less than a dollar a tutorial? Well First Bass And
Beyond gives you that....

Here’s how it works.

First Bass And Beyond is based on a magazine model and I publish a

PDF like this one every Friday at 5pm GMT. Each magazine includes
two song tutorials in the PDF that are complemented with video tutori-
als and MP3s as well.

I publish 50 issues a year - so that’s 100 song tutorials over the next year.

Additionally there is a section of the website called Working Bass Lines -

and new members will get a new song every week in that section of the
website. That takes you up to 150 song tutorials in the next year. (See list
at the end of this PDF)

When you join you get access to the archive of the free How To Play Bass
monthly ezine - there are currently 35 videos in that archive. That’s 185
song tutorials. (These 35 tutorials are all immediately available - and to
see what songs are available, see the list at the end of the PDF)

When you join you also get access to the Bass For Beginners course
which currently includes another 35 song tutorials - that makes 220 song
tutorials. (And these 35 tutorials are available immediately).

Plus if you subscribe as an annual member you get 10 back issues of the
magazine as a bonus - that could potentially add another 20 song tutori-
als to your song tutorial library!

There’s more in the magazine too - a main transcription every week that
is usually more advanced and doesn’t have video to go with. Plus there’s
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 a theory column for bass players taught from the perspective of the bass
player’s role in a band playing songs. And there’s currently a column
deconstructing the playing of Rocco Prestia of Tower Of Power. When
this column has finished I’ll move on and deconstruct Tommy Shannon’s
bass playing. And so on.

All this costs either $57 for a quarter or $187 for a year. The full details
are here:

http://www.how-to-play-bass.com/first-bass-and-beyond.html

Contact

If you’ve got any other questions don’t hesitate to email me via the con-
tact form on the website.

Have a great month, and enjoy.

Paul

PS - there are lists of what songs are featured in the Archive and what
songs are featured in the Working Bass Line Section to follow.

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LIST OF SONGS INCLUDED IN THE WORKING BASS LINES SECTION
OF THE FIRST BASS AND BEYOND WEBSITE

When I decided on creating this section of the First Bass And Beyond
website I polled the current subscribers who are currently in gigging
bands and asked for them to post their set lists. The following list of
songs is pooled from these set lists - and bear in mind that although the
bulk of those who responded live and gig in the US, I also had responses
from the UK, Australia and other countries.

This section WILL be expanded to 100 songs in the future - and un-
doubtedly there will be more classic rock, more classic R&B, more Mo-
town, a heap of blues songs and more!

PLEASE NOTE: when you join FB&B these songs appear on a weekly
basis....starting with Midnight Hour.

1. Midnight Hour by Wilson Pickett

2. Brown Sugar by The Rolling Stones
3. Proud Mary by Creedence Clearwater Revival
4. Jumping Jack Flash by The Rolling Stones
5. Superstition by Stevie Wonder
6. Play That Funky Music b7 Wild Cherry
7. I Feel Good by James Brown
8. Cocaine by Eric Clapton
9. Respect by Aretha Franklin
10. Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd
11.Sultans Of Swing by Dire Straits
12.La Grange by ZZ Top
13. We Are Young by Fun
14. Brown Eyed Birl by Van Morrison
15. Johnny B Goode by Chuck Berry
16 Who’ll Stop The Rain by Creedence Clearwater Revival
17. September by Earth Wind And Fire
18. Good Times by Chic
19.. Gimme Some Loving by The Blues Brothers
20. Twist and Shout by The Beatles
21. Pride And Joy by Stevie Ray Vaughan

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22. Mustang Sally by The Commitments
23. Get It On by T Rex
24. I Wish by Stevie Wonder
25. Long Train Running by The Doobie Brothers
26.Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix
27. Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones
28. I Saw Her Standing There by The Beatles
29. Summer of 69 by Bryan Adams
30. Lost In Music by Sister Sledge
31.Soul Man by Sam And Dave
32. Suspicious Minds by Elvis
33.Back In The USSR by The Beatles
34.Carwash by Rose Royce
35. Le Freak by Chic
36. Stand By Me by Ben E King
37. Pinball Wizard by The Who
38. Billie Jean by Michael Jackson
39. Honky Tonk Woman by The Rolling Stones
40. Hey Joe by Jimi Hendrix
41. Forget You by Ceelo Green
42. Locked Out Of Heaven by Bruno Mars
43. Let’s Stick Together by Roxy Music
44. Stuck In The Middle With You by Stealer’s Wheel
45. Brick House by The Commodores
46. Great Balls Of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis
47. Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5
48. Smooth by Santana
49.Roadhouse Blues by The Doors
50. Black Magic Woman by Santana

Note: Tutorials for some of these songs can be found on my YouTube

channel. The ‘working basslines’ section has a fuller tutorial with tab
and notation, has bass less backing tracks to practice with, and also has
a tutorial section on programming the different sections of the tune with
Band In A Box so that you can isolate sections giving you problems.

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LIST OF SONGS INCLUDED IN THE ARCHIVE SECTION OF THE FIRST
BASS AND BEYOND WEBSITE

A Love Of Their Own by The Average White Band

After Midnight by Eric Clapton
All The Small Things by Blink 182
Alright Now by Free
Band Of Gold by Freda Payne
7 Nation Army by The White Stripes
Sunshine Of Your Love by Cream
Green Onions by Booker T
Behind A Painted Smile by The Isley Brothers
Black Dog by Led Zeppelin
Crossroads by Cream
Dock Of The Bay by Otis Redding
Don’t Stand So Close to me by The Police
Factory Of Faith by The Red Hot Chili Peppers
Get Lucky by Daft Punk
Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac
Grapevine by Marvin Gaye
Hey Soul Sister by Train
I Fought The Law by The Clash
I Wish by Stevie Wonder
Layla by Derek and The Dominos
London Calling by The Clash
Man On The Moon by REM
Respect by Aretha Franklin
Rock The Casbah by The Clash
Sex On Fire by The Kings of Leon
Signed Sealed Delivered by Stevie Wonder
Stir It Up by Bob Marley
Summer of 69 by Bryan Adams
Superstition by Stevie Wonder
Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd
The One I Love by REM
Valerie by Amy Winehouse
When You Were Young by The Killers

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