Jeff Berlin Chord Tone Article Bass Player Magazine 1998

[Fergie Fulton]

Hi all, i get many requests for this great article on chord tones.
The article appeared in BP magazine in 1998 and in my view is a 'keeper' as it is simple straight forward no nonsense info.... how you apply it is up to you...enjoy

 

[RWRLV]

All Jeff's material is gold.

 

[Nashrakh]

Thanks. His book(let) on chord tones is great too. Really miss him on TB.

 

[albertus]

why is it upside down?

 

[brianrost]

This is why Jeff lost his column in BP Not for the exercises but for his statements about studying things that don't need studying.

Yes, it is just a study in arpeggio patterns but it does open your ears working on this stuff, especially when you hit the second row in example 7. Nobody ever got fired from a gig for playing chord tones

As far as his 1987 Chord Tone book, just thought I should mention it comes without any instructional text, just the exercises written out for you to play. For example the blues progression exercise late in the book is “left for the reader”, just showing the chord symbols and letting you work out the lines on your own. The book can be downloaded for free from Scribd, using their 30 day free trial.

 

[Bunk McNulty]

Best bit, in so many ways:

"I invite eveyone to start thinking clearly--without emotion--to see if what you stand for has validity beyond just your feelings about it."

 

[elpancho]

Jeff is a good guy always spreading his knowledge

 

[JazznFunk]

Best bit, in so many ways:

"I invite eveyone to start thinking clearly--without emotion--to see if what you stand for has validity beyond just your feelings about it."

My guess is that was his continued thinly veiled dig against metronomes.

 

[dune]

All Jeff's material is gold.

Agreed. Sadly, far too often his delivery is anything but, especially it seems, when he is writing it online.

 

[mambo4]

Printed!
My plan is to ignore the writing ("delivery") and practice the music.

 

[DuluthDank]

Agreed. Sadly, far too often his delivery is anything but, especially it seems, when he is writing it online.

I think he might be persona non grata around here. I'm a fan of his, so I was following a Jeff Berlin thread a year or so ago, and it got deleted out of nowhere for reasons I wasn't completely sure of.

 

[evanrunyon]

Jeff is the world’s leading expert in playing like Jeff Berlin. If you want to play that way, he can be a super effective teacher and you should absolutely listen to what he has to say. If you don’t, then I don’t think you’re missing much.

 

[ahc]

Hi all, i get many requests for this great article on chord tones.
The article appeared in BP magazine in 1998 and in my view is a 'keeper' as it is simple straight forward no nonsense info.... how you apply it is up to you...enjoy

@Fergie Fulton Would it be possible to repost the pdf right side up? Or, is the secret to learning Jeff's knowledge reading the lines upside down? Thanks!

 

[dune]

I think he might be persona non grata around here. I'm a fan of his, so I was following a Jeff Berlin thread a year or so ago, and it got deleted out of nowhere for reasons I wasn't completely sure of.

I'm a big fan of his playing with Bill Bruford and Allan Holdsworth. I met him around 25 years ago when he did a clinic at a store where I was teaching, and he seemed like a nice enough guy in person. In most of what I've seen from him online however, he has come across as a jerk most of the time. He's not unique in that regard of course. I find it baffling how many people who are nice, or at least decent in person cannot show up that way in something they're writing and have the opportunity to read and edit ad infinitum before hitting "Post".

 

[mambo4]

the exercise is literally just permutations of inversions, which any one could outline with a bit of thought.

Repeat the inversion in Ex 1-6 using the chord qualities in Ex 7
In All 12 keys of course
BUT NO METRONOME

 

[DuluthDank]

the exercise is literally just permutations of inversions, which any one could outline with a bit of thought.

Repeat the inversion in Ex 1-6 using the chord qualities in Ex 7
In All 12 keys of course
BUT NO METRONOME

View attachment 6994344

In terms of actually learning to play bass, this PDF is the single most useful thing I've seen in over a decade of doom scrolling this site (at least on the BG side).

 

[JazznFunk]

I'm a big fan of his playing with Bill Bruford and Allan Holdsworth. I met him around 25 years ago when he did a clinic at a store where I was teaching, and he seemed like a nice enough guy in person. In most of what I've seen from him online however, he has come across as a jerk most of the time. He's not unique in that regard of course. I find it baffling how many people who are nice, or at least decent in person cannot show up that way in something they're writing and have the opportunity to read and edit ad infinitum before hitting "Post".

Part of that is that the written word, particularly in online correspondence, is horrible at actually communicating tone and inflection at times, and it's easy for something that is innocuous to come across as strident without meaning for it to be that way. Kind of like how TAB doesn't communicate pitch or rhythm in a way that actually gets the music in question across in the most effective way possible. A direct style of communication is sometimes taken as a confrontational one.... when it's just direct. Jeff was direct, bordering intentionally on being confrontational at times.

 

[FearNoEvil65]

Jeff is the world’s leading expert in playing like Jeff Berlin. If you want to play that way, he can be a super effective teacher and you should absolutely listen to what he has to say. If you don’t, then I don’t think you’re missing much.

Totally disagree, I've been reading through his Etudes for quite a while and it's improved my playing and understanding of music and I sound nothing like Berlin nor ever will. I use the knowledge gained just playing in a classic rock/metal band. You may not like his delivery but I feel he's correct on most of his musical opinions.

@Fergie Fulton Would it be possible to repost the pdf right side up? Or, is the secret to learning Jeff's knowledge reading the lines upside down? Thanks!

When I open the PDF, there's a tab on the top right that flips the content.

 

[mambo4]

When I open the PDF, there's a tab on the top right that flips the content.

I just printed it and flipped it IRL

 

[evanrunyon]

Totally disagree, I've been reading through his Etudes for quite a while and it's improved my playing and understanding of music and I sound nothing like Berlin nor ever will. I use the knowledge gained just playing in a classic rock/metal band. You may not like his delivery but I feel he's correct on most of his musical opinions.

When I open the PDF, there's a tab on the top right that flips the content.

My belief is that Jeff is a very, very good jazz bassist with a very idiosyncratic approach to practicing what is really a fairly conventional conception of harmony. If his stuff works for you? Awesome. In my experience, few students respond to it. But hey, some people watch TV when they practice and that’s fine too.