• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

What was your breakaway moment?

Aussie Player

Aussie Player

Apr 20, 2011
2,860
3,609
#1
We have similar beginnings, we decided to learn bass so bought a bass and an amp and then something happened to all of us, that influenced a measurable breakaway moment in our growth.

I started with a teacher who was really a guitar teacher as there was no such thing as a bass teacher where I lived. He used music coaching books and we covered a page or section a week for 2 years with me not feeling much progress from these sessions.

One day I was talking with a guy I knew who was way ahead of me on bass and he introduced me to the band Free, played some records for me and pointed out some intricacies in Andy Fraser's playing style. What stood out to me was the note selection, the use of the whole neck and the tone of the notes.

I bought all 8 Free LP's and devoured them note by note. Within 2 more years I was in a quality rock band playing the circuit and within another couple of years we were offered a recording deal by EMI.

Free was my breakthrough moment and I still love them today as that admiration expanded to include the individual talents and masterful contributions from the other members.

How about you? A person? An Instrument? A band? A mentor?
 
#2
Played bass as a beginner, had bass lessons, was already 7-8 years into violin and a proficient sight reader.
Then I saw the Minutemen and learned how the humble electric bass could shape music. That’s not exactly the music style I ran with but it is the moment when I started playing seriously and with intent.
 
  • Like
Reactions: White Beard
#4
Patterns up the neck and chord/scale spelling.

My old standby chart of generic bass lines using the major scale box as a Rosetta stone.

Bass Patterns based upon the Major Scale box.

Major Scale Box.
G|---2---|-------|---3---|---4---| 1st string
D|---6---|-------|---7---|---8---|
A|---3---|---4---|-------|---5---|
E|-------|---R---|-------|---2---|4th string
You may recognize this pattern with dots.
Adding the numbers lets the pattern come alive.

Cmaj7 chord coming up in the song. Find a C note on the 3rd or 4th string and put this box's R over that C note. Then play the "spelling" for the Cmaj7 chord. That spelling is listed below and it is R-3-5-7. If you wanted to play the C major scale, that spelling is R-2-3-4-5-6-7.

Basic Chord Spellings



    • Major Triad = R-3-5 for the C chord.
    • Minor Triad = R-b3-5 for the Cm chord.
    • Diminished Chord = R-b3-b5 for the Cdim chord.
7th Chord Spellings



    • Maj7 = R-3-5-7 for the Cmaj7 chord.
    • Minor 7 = R-b3-5-b7 for the Cm7 chord.
    • Dominant 7 = R-3-5-b7 for the C7 chord.
    • ½ diminished = R-b3-b5-b7 for the Cm7b5 chord.
    • Full diminished = R-b3-b5-bb7 for the C with the little o - no strike through.
See a chord and play it's chord tones. As every key will have three major, three minor and one diminished chord it's a good idea to get your major, minor and diminished bass line chord tones into muscle memory so when you see a chord your fingers just know what will work. Now the song may only give you enough room for the root, or root five - adapt and get as many chord tones into your bass line as needed. Root on 1 and a steady groove from the other chord tones plus something to call attention to the chord change is what we do.

Scale Spellings Yep, gotta do our scales so our fingers know where the notes are and our ears get used to the good and bad sounds. Scales are a right of passage thing. Got to know them, however, chord tones is what we get paid to play.



    • Major Scale = R-2-3-4-5-6-7 Home base
    • Major Pentatonic = R-2-3-5-6 Leave out the 4 & 7
    • Natural Minor Scale = R-2-b3-4-5-b6-b7 Major scale with the 3, 6 & 7 flatted.
    • Minor Pentatonic = R-b3-4-5-b7 Leave out the 2 & 6.
    • Blues = R-b3-4-b5-5-b7 Minor pentatonic with the blue note b5 added.
    • Harmonic Minor Scale = R-2-b3-4-5-b6-7 Natural minor with a natural 7.
    • Melodic Minor Scale = R-2-b3-4-5-6-7 Major scale with a b3.
Let the major scale be your home base then change a few notes and you have something different. No need to memorize a zillion patterns. Let the major scale pattern be your go to pattern - then adapt/adjust from there.

Generic Notes - for your bass line.



    • The root, five and eight are generic (R-5-8-5) and fit most any chord. Remember the diminished has a flatted 5.
    • The 3 is generic to all major chords. So R-3-5-3 will fit under any major chord.
    • The b3 is generic to all minor chords. And R-b3-5-8 will fit under any minor chord. Why the 8? Well the 8 is just another root in the next octave.
    • The 7 is generic to all maj7 chords. Yep, R-3-5-7 fits nicely.
    • The b7 is generic to all dominant seventh and minor seventh chords. G7 = R-3-5-b7 or Gm7 = R-b3-5-b7.
    • The 6 is neutral and adds color, help yourself to 6’s. Love the sound of R-3-5-6 with a major chord.
    • The 2 and 4 make good passing notes. Don’t linger on them or stop on them, keep them passing.
    • In making your bass line help yourself to those notes, just use them correctly.
    • Roots, fives, eights and the correct 3 & 7 will play a lot of bass.
OK fine, how to use all that I know is the question. How about some generic riffs and or grooves:

Google seemed to always have what I needed. Plus that fish thing.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: cxc and Whousedtoplay
#7
Breakaway moment? How about breakaway 10 weeks?

In 1974, I got a call to audition for a "Ramada Inn band," piano, drums, bass, and female singer. Lots of standards, plus some contemporary gems like "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" and "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face."
The pianist was and old guy (48, which seemed ancient at the time) who had been a session musician in Fort Worth. You could name a standard, and he would write out a lead sheet with chords written in 10 minutes.
Playing those standards six nights a week, four hours a night, was like boot camp for me!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 12BitSlab and Aussie Player
#8
Aussie Player said:
Interestingly, I saw that video for the first time today after finding a Free DVD documentary. I know the song however and the recorded version is much better and more influential within the song and drives the beat tremendously well, but it is great to see them playing live.
Click to expand...
(Just a quick note.)

The (studio) recorded version produces (overall) a slightly different groove due to the "shuffling" percussion shaker part. The bass-line feels "more comfortable" (thanks to the shaker groove) to embellish the line.
I like that rhythmic bass-shaker interplay.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Aussie Player
#9
Killing Floor said:
Played bass as a beginner, had bass lessons, was already 7-8 years into violin and a proficient sight reader.
Then I saw the Minutemen and learned how the humble electric bass could shape music. That’s not exactly the music style I ran with but it is the moment when I started playing seriously and with intent.
Click to expand...

Trumpet, trombone, baritone, tuba... nothing fit for me until I picked up a bass guitar when I was 14. Started playing jazz, started playing double bass and was pretty good for being a kid, but hit a giant plateau in my late teens. When I was 20, I had just transferred colleges and was very much alone and at a low point in my life. I learned Mike Watt's Contemplating the Engine Room (the entire thing) on bass by ear. Twenty years later, I can still do it. Opened my ears in a way that I'll never be able to close again. That album will always have a very special place in my heart. It's essentially a song cycle in D Major.

Changed forever from that day.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Killing Floor

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back