Hello and thanks to those who gave me what ongoing bass education I have! I've owned an electric bass since March but played classical guitar for over 40 years, went to school for it etc.. Besides lurking here for most of the year, I've spent time sight reading bass clef as my only contact with it was the LH of piano when in school. And that.. was a while ago. I bought the Compleat Beatles on Ebay for a very good price and have been running through McCartney's bass lines. What a kick. Quite a few need an edit or two to be actually what he's playing but what the hell, such fun!
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Finally got an electric bass earlier this year!
- Thread starter Tommyc
- Start date
Reading bass players can get the work. Writing your own lines is icing on cake. What you do not want to do is sound academic. I'm sure you're very aware of that. McCartney don't sound academic whatsoever, do he? Nuh uh. That man the most lyrical of bassists. The sound of his bass on record was rivaled only by some of the artists on VJ records which was the Beatles label. John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom" had the bass mixed hot. The bassist was James Jamerson. I have no idea how he was recorded for Hooker but that record shook my walls when turned up. And what a groove. I hope you have great fortune as a reading bassist. Bass is the place.
Well, right now it's either copy what I've heard or read. Improvising, that is, creating a compelling bass line from chord changes is a skill I admire and can only do in the most rudimentary way ala Country and Western tunes. Not taking anything away from the Country & Western genre, it's just easier for me at this point to construct 4ths and 5ths linked up with scale steps. Now walking bass lines over a bunch of chromatic chord changes is another thing. I watched Ron Carter on Youtube just toss off lines from the top of his head and I was full of admiration.
Hint - walking bass lines using chromatic steps - piece of cake.
Chord coming up - target it's root (find it) but miss it by 1, 2 or 3 frets and then walk one fret at a time and land on the root at the chord change. Have to work on the timing of the leave early so you arrive at the root dead on the chord change, but, other than that it's an easy drill.
On F going to G. Back up and sound the E, then F, then F# and land on G.
On C going to F. Grab C#, then D on the bottom string and then jump up to the 3rd string for the E and land on F for the chord change. My point; does not matter how you get there - just walk one fret at a time.
BTW, welcome.
Chord coming up - target it's root (find it) but miss it by 1, 2 or 3 frets and then walk one fret at a time and land on the root at the chord change. Have to work on the timing of the leave early so you arrive at the root dead on the chord change, but, other than that it's an easy drill.
On F going to G. Back up and sound the E, then F, then F# and land on G.
On C going to F. Grab C#, then D on the bottom string and then jump up to the 3rd string for the E and land on F for the chord change. My point; does not matter how you get there - just walk one fret at a time.
BTW, welcome.
I think this is great! Speaking of YouTube, someone pirated Jaco Pastorius' one and only instructional video "Modern In Electric Bass." Just from our brief exchange I encourage you to watch the entire interview with my friend Jerry Jemmott. We both have Jaco in common.
Jaco's video is so musical. I believe that's what you want to get to -- your musicality on the instrument. Jaco goes straight for the jugular, gets your hands working properly and gets your ears open to melody, voicings and, of course, the funk. The environment Jaco and I worked in was grueling nightclub work up and down the Ft. Laud. strip in cover acts that were very competitive. All the cats talked shop constantly. Jaco brings all that to this video. One thing you should walk away with is the aspect of stamina. You want to sound like you've gone 15 rounds with Mohammed Ali.
