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Double Bass New jazz bass video tutorial series
A great video! Again, to each his/her own. Depending on body and bass - but ... always looking for comfort and ease and sound production. No one wants hip/back/neck pain!
Craig
Craig
The first video alone already helped me a ton. Thank you so much, I'll definitely check out the rest of the video series. I just started out on EUB and brought with me tons of "bad habits" from BG, proper Jazz technique makes so much more sense than what I was trying to do.
I think one of the things that falls out, in a good way, from the video on posture/form/stance is that I've always been second guessing myself whether or not to proceed with my own unorthodox way. The video is an affirmation that we need to seek our own best form. It does indeed work for me but it's also telling me that the form may change over time and become even more efficient. We're all seeking our own optimal playing position and things will evolve differently for each of us.
Full speed ahead!
Full speed ahead!
Funny that you mention that now (I agree, BTW)...I have recently had someone very graciously offer to let me borrow an Eminence bass for my upcoming tour and series of clinics in Columbia. So far, although I can play the Eminence sitting down, I'm considering playing standing because the "foot" of the thing is so stable that it keeps the bass from turning. I'll get a few more hours in on it and see how my back fares, but it's all fluid as regards stance, and I definitely agree that it evolves.
I see that I'm way late to the party, but I finally watched the vid all the way through. Really, really, great! Chris, you're brilliant to take advantage of the nexus of heavyweight bassists at the Aebersold camp with such a complicated topic. I found my own posture in people I didn't anticipate, and thought it fascinating that all had great tone with dramatically different postures. I also found it very interesting to see which players analyzed their posture for hours and hours while others... didn't. Truly a singular addition to the URB pedagogy.
Hey Chris,
I've really been enjoying your video series. I was taking lessons, but I've been taking a break from them and have been using your videos to learn the basics of jazz bass. I was watching the theory video and noticed you didn't mention modes when constructing basslines or how modes are used in jazz. Forgive me if you've answered this before, but is there a reason for this? Did you not get to it or is this another technique in the videos? I'm a beginner and was wondering if I should be aware of modes when constructing basslines in addition to bassline construction.
Thanks!
I've really been enjoying your video series. I was taking lessons, but I've been taking a break from them and have been using your videos to learn the basics of jazz bass. I was watching the theory video and noticed you didn't mention modes when constructing basslines or how modes are used in jazz. Forgive me if you've answered this before, but is there a reason for this? Did you not get to it or is this another technique in the videos? I'm a beginner and was wondering if I should be aware of modes when constructing basslines in addition to bassline construction.
Thanks!
Mizmor - I personally don't ascribe to the "specific chord symbol always implies a specific scale or mode" approach to jazz harmony, so unless I'm playing a modal tune that was written with a particular mode in mind, I'm not usually thinking about modes when building walking lines over standards. I also don't like to think of most scales as having roots that you have to recalculate to a new pitch level every time a chord changes. Instead, I tend to hear in terms of key centers for larger combinations of harmonies in most progressions.
It's a subtle distinction - and may be one that could be confusing for a beginner - but I think it's an important one. If you take the chords of the first 8 bars of rhythm changes literally as producing scales/modes with no idea of the context of the key of those 8 bars, you might come up with something like:
Bb Ionian
G Mixolydian
C Dorian
F Mixolydian
D Dorian
G Mixolydian
C Dorian
F Mixolydian
F Dorian
Bb Mixolydian
Eb Ionian
E Whole-Half diminished
Bb Ionian
G Mixolydian
C Dorian
F Mixolydian
Even if you are playing the tune relatively slowly at say, Q=120, thinking this way means you would be thinking of a different mode every single second you are playing. And at Q=240, you would have to be thinking two modes per second for the duration of every A section of the song. IMO, this kind of paradigm is not the way to begin learning to play rhythm changes.
Instead, I tend to think of each chord as containing 4 notes with a possible stepwise note in between. The notes in between are ear driven and therefore subjective, but if you look at the progression as a whole, you can see that the whole 8 bars is really a big turnaround in Bb Major that modulates briefly to Eb in bars 5-6 before reverting back to a Bb Major turnaround. If you count only the notes contained in the chords, everything comes from the key of Bb except a few notes which lead to notes in the key of Bb (i.e. - the B natural in the G7 chord leads to C, the Ab in the Bb7 chord leads down to G; in the E07 chord, the E natural leads up to F, and the Db can resolve either down to C or up to D).
This may seem even more confusing than the modes, but to me it's easier to hear one big tonality (Bb) with toggle switches raising or lowering certain notes of the tonality for the duration of certain chords than to think of one or two different modes - each with a different root - per second.
When in doubt as to the active key center at any given time, the melody is usually my first and biggest clue. In the case of "I Got Rhythm", the original melody in the A sections only contained the notes Bb-C-D-Eb-F-G-Bb.
Hope that wasn't too confusing!
It's a subtle distinction - and may be one that could be confusing for a beginner - but I think it's an important one. If you take the chords of the first 8 bars of rhythm changes literally as producing scales/modes with no idea of the context of the key of those 8 bars, you might come up with something like:
Bb Ionian
G Mixolydian
C Dorian
F Mixolydian
D Dorian
G Mixolydian
C Dorian
F Mixolydian
F Dorian
Bb Mixolydian
Eb Ionian
E Whole-Half diminished
Bb Ionian
G Mixolydian
C Dorian
F Mixolydian
Even if you are playing the tune relatively slowly at say, Q=120, thinking this way means you would be thinking of a different mode every single second you are playing. And at Q=240, you would have to be thinking two modes per second for the duration of every A section of the song. IMO, this kind of paradigm is not the way to begin learning to play rhythm changes.
Instead, I tend to think of each chord as containing 4 notes with a possible stepwise note in between. The notes in between are ear driven and therefore subjective, but if you look at the progression as a whole, you can see that the whole 8 bars is really a big turnaround in Bb Major that modulates briefly to Eb in bars 5-6 before reverting back to a Bb Major turnaround. If you count only the notes contained in the chords, everything comes from the key of Bb except a few notes which lead to notes in the key of Bb (i.e. - the B natural in the G7 chord leads to C, the Ab in the Bb7 chord leads down to G; in the E07 chord, the E natural leads up to F, and the Db can resolve either down to C or up to D).
This may seem even more confusing than the modes, but to me it's easier to hear one big tonality (Bb) with toggle switches raising or lowering certain notes of the tonality for the duration of certain chords than to think of one or two different modes - each with a different root - per second.
When in doubt as to the active key center at any given time, the melody is usually my first and biggest clue. In the case of "I Got Rhythm", the original melody in the A sections only contained the notes Bb-C-D-Eb-F-G-Bb.
Hope that wasn't too confusing!
Theory gives me a headache as well, and always has! One of my best theory teachers back in undergrad said something once that always stuck with me: "Music theory is descriptive, not prescriptive. When used for the former end, it can be very helpful; when used for the latter end, it only produces bland, uninspired music."
Over the past 30 years or so, I've come to better understand what he meant. To me it means that the best application of music theory is as a set of labels to attach to sounds that we intuitively perceive in a much simpler, more visceral way. The labels help us communicate the ideas to others, and can help us isolate certain concepts so that we can hone our skills in dealing with them outside of live musical situations. We use theoretical concepts in the practice room, essentially to help us program our hard drive with information so we can access it later without having to re-import it every time we want to use a certain sound. But when making music in the moment, it's only the intuitive and visceral that we have time for. What we have learned up to that moment may find its way out if it is needed, but if we consciously try to use a concept in performance that isn't yet ingrained, it interrupts the flow state and degrades the music. As always, EEMMV, and EEMWCB.
Over the past 30 years or so, I've come to better understand what he meant. To me it means that the best application of music theory is as a set of labels to attach to sounds that we intuitively perceive in a much simpler, more visceral way. The labels help us communicate the ideas to others, and can help us isolate certain concepts so that we can hone our skills in dealing with them outside of live musical situations. We use theoretical concepts in the practice room, essentially to help us program our hard drive with information so we can access it later without having to re-import it every time we want to use a certain sound. But when making music in the moment, it's only the intuitive and visceral that we have time for. What we have learned up to that moment may find its way out if it is needed, but if we consciously try to use a concept in performance that isn't yet ingrained, it interrupts the flow state and degrades the music. As always, EEMMV, and EEMWCB.
Man Chris, that is an eloquent and perfect answer regarding theory. Thanks.
Here's the first episode of a new series I've had in the works for some time. Entitled "Theory In Practice", it's an attempt to explore some of the things that performers are thinking about when they are playing music. Each episode will consist of a recorded performance, a full transcription of what was played during the performance, and then a walk through of the performance and transcription by the performers involved where they can comment about what they were thinking at various points.. This will lead to a discussion of various theory topics brought up during the discussion. The full transcription and all documents involved in each video will be available for free download on my website.
The first video features a duet performance of "Bye Bye Blackbird' with myself and John Goldsby. The video quality of the performance is a little lo-fi but John and I both felt that the quality of the performance was good enough to justify using the video. I had hoped to get this one up a few months ago, but life got in the way! Anyway, here it is - the overall video is very long, but the video of the just the performance can be found at 3:20.
The topics covered are listed below by video timestamp:
0.00 Opening series title sequence
0.39 Series introduction
3:20 Bye Bye Blackbird duet performance with John Goldsby
11:50 About the transcription/introducing the split screen
15:12 John and Chris discuss the performance and transcription
39:08 Introducing the concept of "Load Bearing Harmony"
44:34 Creating a "Changes Comparison" template to identify important harmonies
48:00 Exploring different versions of "Bye Bye Blackbird" changes
55:20 Exploring some of the variable harmonic paths through the tune and their resolution points
1:09:43 Closing title sequence
Link Removed the link to the transcription, and Link Removed the link to the changes comparison document. Enjoy!
The first video features a duet performance of "Bye Bye Blackbird' with myself and John Goldsby. The video quality of the performance is a little lo-fi but John and I both felt that the quality of the performance was good enough to justify using the video. I had hoped to get this one up a few months ago, but life got in the way! Anyway, here it is - the overall video is very long, but the video of the just the performance can be found at 3:20.
The topics covered are listed below by video timestamp:
0.00 Opening series title sequence
0.39 Series introduction
3:20 Bye Bye Blackbird duet performance with John Goldsby
11:50 About the transcription/introducing the split screen
15:12 John and Chris discuss the performance and transcription
39:08 Introducing the concept of "Load Bearing Harmony"
44:34 Creating a "Changes Comparison" template to identify important harmonies
48:00 Exploring different versions of "Bye Bye Blackbird" changes
55:20 Exploring some of the variable harmonic paths through the tune and their resolution points
1:09:43 Closing title sequence
Link Removed the link to the transcription, and Link Removed the link to the changes comparison document. Enjoy!
Wow Chris, this is fantastic. I've only listened to the intro and the performance, but so good. Your tone is so great! Love how you both played together; wonderful comping and soloing from you and Obi Wan Goldsby! More comments to come.
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I'll catch the lesson later (every lesson you've recorded has been a winner), but y'all sound great on the duet!
Thanks Trey and Josh. For obvious reasons, I don't get to play with John very often, but I'm always happy on those rare occasions when I do. I think he has ESP or something... or maybe he just listens really well? I got to observe concerts during the 2 weeks where he was playing with Randy Brecker, Jimmy Cobb, and Chris Potter (not all at the same time), and took some notes on stuff I want to work on.
This is a great great concept for the next level of education.
Very much appreciated, imagining the hours of work that went into doing this, and giving it away for free. Blessed spirit.
Very revealing, specially the last part where you talk about (un-)generalizing the changes. It really gets you away from 'reading' and into 'listening' and therefore opens the real realm.
When I heard the intro talking about "what were we thinking while playing" I was very, but very curious ... And later, watching it, relieved to find out that you were not talking about thinking but about what you were doing ... (so: no purple elephants, eh?)
Very much appreciated, imagining the hours of work that went into doing this, and giving it away for free. Blessed spirit.
Very revealing, specially the last part where you talk about (un-)generalizing the changes. It really gets you away from 'reading' and into 'listening' and therefore opens the real realm.
When I heard the intro talking about "what were we thinking while playing" I was very, but very curious ... And later, watching it, relieved to find out that you were not talking about thinking but about what you were doing ... (so: no purple elephants, eh?)
Thanks, CZ. It did take awhile, especially the transcription. And you're right that it's hard to find the right words to describe the process of what you were "thinking" when most of the time you weren't "thinking" anything at all - just trying to stay open to what seems to be going on and being willing to go with it for better or worse. Most of the time when I'm playing well I have no earthly idea what the name of any note Im playing is, nor do I care.
None of this, of course, takes anything away from the importance of music theory in the practice room. You have to program the hard drive at some point, and there's no way to get around that if you want to get better. But for me at least, the act of playing is a leap of faith where what you have internalized to the intuitive level will come out, and what you haven't won't.
None of this, of course, takes anything away from the importance of music theory in the practice room. You have to program the hard drive at some point, and there's no way to get around that if you want to get better. But for me at least, the act of playing is a leap of faith where what you have internalized to the intuitive level will come out, and what you haven't won't.
Thanks Chris, again, that stance-video is just great! It`s wonderful to see and hear how different players handle your ( I quess ) bass, as I recall that your bass propably ain`t easiest bass to play. For me, the most valid information came from Rufus Reid and Lynn Seaton. It`s wonderful to see how differently they approach the same concept of handling the beast.
