Back at it

[GeneralGuinness]

Hello everyone. Been reading but just registered to jump in with a noob question. I played about 20 years ago, by ear, with some groups around town, but being young and not really caring I never put a lot of thought into what I was doing. Now I've picked it back up and been looking at some things that I'd never have bothered with before. For some reason I landed on "rock this town" because the bass line always sounded cool to me. I was never able to grab this kind of stuff by ear easily at all, and I can find and memorize tabs, but I think I'd be able to learn quicker if I had an understanding as a foundation to work on. I think they are playing D, A, G. What I'm wondering is what are each of those little runs going to...and why do those notes work as a run-up to the next chord change? It starts on D and then I hear it land on A, but after that it moves so fast I cant tell what the root is. I hope I phrased that in a way that made sense. I guess in the end I'm looking for a better way to learn songs like that without memorization. If anyone is familiar with that song I'd love to hear their thoughts!

 

[Malcolm35]

This may help.
Stray Cats - Rock This Town (Chords) I use fake chord sheet music all the time. Google search words - chords, name of the song and Google will probably have anything you want. Fake chord is a bare bone rendition of the song, how you flesh it out is left to you.

Follow the chords and try a generic root-five or R-5-8-5 bass line for each chord. Using the major scale box.

Major scale box showing scale degree numbers
and the root note on the 4th string.
…….Index..Middle..Ring…..Little
G~|---2---|-------|---3---|---4---| 1st string
D~|---6---|-------|---7---|---8---|
A~|---3---|---4---|-------|---5---|
E~|-------|---R---|-------|---2---|4th string
​

• Find the D chord's root on the E string. Or use the D on the A string 5th fret.​
• The 5 from either root will be up a string and over two frets.​
• The 8 from either root will be up two strings and over two frets.​

Have fun.



​

 

[EarnestTBass]

For some reason I landed on "rock this town" because the bass line always sounded cool to me. I was never able to grab this kind of stuff by ear easily at all, and I can find and memorize tabs, but I think I'd be able to learn quicker if I had an understanding as a foundation to work on. I think they are playing D, A, G. What I'm wondering is what are each of those little runs going to...and why do those notes work as a run-up to the next chord change?

If anyone is familiar with that song I'd love to hear their thoughts!

Here are my thoughts on how I approach this song.

"Rock This Town" - key signature is D (F# and C#) , D major is the I chord. G is IV. A is V.
But- it is The Blues. *Watch for the dominant 7 in use over the I and IV chords.

The repeating bass line that you start with outlines the I with the root third and fifth. D F# A.
But- add the chromatic tones in between the third and the fifth.
The ascending and descending chromatic movement is what sounds "cool"

Repeat these two bars for the intro and several times for the first verse.

Then you outline the root third and fifth of the V chord with A C# and E.
But- you use the E and Eb as a descending chromatic approach to land back on D

*There's that C natural used as a dominant 7 in the first measure. Scale tones- 8, flat7, 6, flat7.
In the second measure you use a lower chromatic approach, F natural and F#, to land on G (the IV chord)
and, in the third measure, there is the *F natural / dominant 7 used over the IV chord

I am stopping here and I apologize for an incomplete discussion. This doesn't even get through the first verse. There is a lot going on in this song.

I learned from, and can recommend, Ed Friedland's walking bass books if you want to develop an understanding as a foundation. Start with "Building Walking Bass Lines" published by Hal Leonard. About $20, a good investment of your money, and your time.

 

[GeneralGuinness]

I had to read these two posts about 10 times each but I think thats starting to make sense. Going to check out that book. I appreciate it.