You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Bass-ic Instinct: How to Play Better Bass Lines

Episode Date: July 31, 2020

A knowledge of hip bass lines are one of the most overlooked elements of what makes a great piano player. Today, Peter and Adam show you some ways you can stand out from the rest.Today's episode is sponsored by MuseScore. The MuseScore sheet music catalog contains over 20,000 unique music scores uploaded by both professional and amateur composers, and is the biggest online catalog of publicly available scores. And thanks to their partnership with the You'll Hear It podcast, you can now get MuseScore PRO for 65% off! Just follow this link and join this rapidly growing community today! And while you're there, check out the MuseScore editor - the most popular free music notation software in the world with over 200,000 downloads per month.Today's Open Studio Live Events (All times in EDT):1:00 PM - Adam's Daily Guided Practice Session (for Members Only)3:00 PM - Live Guided Practice Session w/ Adam Maness on YouTube8:00 PM - Peter Martin's Shelter in Place Live #20 - Solo Piano Concert on YouTubeFor the rest of this week's calendar, follow this linkInterested in more music advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase. And be sure to check out our All Access Pass - every course from Open Studio on every instrument.Let us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

And I'm Peter Martin. You're listening to the You'll Hear Podcast. Advice and inspiration for music and life coming at you. You know I love the new tagline. You know it. I love it too. I'm still having to read it, which is a little embarrassing. But it's going to be coming off of my silver tongue shortly.

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Even some of the obscure monk tunes, really good quality arrangements and transcriptions and stuff. It's just a great meeting place. That's right. So follow the link below for your 65% discount on MuseCore.com, the pro subscription. Check it out. Today, we're going low. We go high. We go low.

We go way low. And it's all about the base. It is all about the base. Line. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah, this is exciting. because we both like to play bass lines.

We like bass players. We like listening to the bass. And I think that this, you know. Steady eddies, bass players are. Steady eddies. Steady eddies. They're great. But I think this is important, certainly for pianists,

but, you know, we're always talking about horn players, guitar players, vocalists, drummers. It doesn't matter what you play. You want to be getting some piano together or some guitar maybe so that you can really work out your harmonic concepts. And sometimes folks will overlook learning bass lines. because they're like, I've got a great bass player I play with. Well, this is the thing.

Even if you're playing with Christian McBride or Ron Carter every night, you still want to learn bass lines because you want to know how to play with them. You know, just like you want to learn. If you want to play with a great drummer, learn how to at least ding, ding, ding, and get that high hit, a little backbeat. What it feels like to do that enhances the experience of playing with great bass players or drummers or whatever so much. You know what to play when they're playing with.

they're doing. And then we're so many solo situations where we need to draw at least elements of this, even if we're not straight up walking a baseline all the time. Oh, yeah. This is completely practical for every pianist to learn a little bit of how to create some baselines. So let's talk about sort of the major points that we're going to talk about here. That's the two feel, right? The walking baseline. And then we'll get into some other grooves, maybe some bassa, maybe some funk, stuff like that. But really, it all starts for me, and I don't know how you feel about this, although I think I do. It starts with the two feel. And what do we mean by the two feel?

We mean that half note feel, right? Big, beautiful half notes is how our buddy Rubin Rogers describes the two feel, right? So it's not a one, two, three, four. This is a walking four field, right? The half note feel or the two feel is more like one, two, three, four. This is the basis, pun intended. For all of jazz, actually, like that entire swing feel, the four feel came after the two feel. Are you saying that you're going to want a base?

everything you do above and beyond that based upon. Okay. I'm saying they go low, we go high. No, no. So no, this is based. If you can kind of like get a good two feel together, I think it's easier than to do walking bass lines. It's easier to get some stride things together.

Like the two feel really is the basis of that. But I want you to consider, first of all, dear listener, that what we don't want with the two feel to start is this. Ooh, no bueno. That's not how it feels. right big beautiful like that that's right you force me to do that big beautiful half notes so nice like three um so even before we go like what are my note choices just like know that connected half notes right not not a quarter note and a quarter rest but connected half notes are really the

foundation of everything we're doing right and you know the first time you play before you did the funny but the very first one which is a little bit more kind of medium up um i was starting to clap and what this is is the way you were playing this and this is the way we're encouraging everybody to hear it and then to play it and to practice it and to interact with this great two feel is there's an implication as we play these simple half notes of the backbeat of the two and four actually so if and really you don't have to do anything more than understand and kind of internalize what that groove is you can do it by clapping along by listening by tapping your feet or just feeling it inside of you yeah that's enough but it actually can come out

because your spacing is right. And then you did a few. You know, little flourishes. Yeah. But even when they're not there. So on the four, of course, you know, we've got the chance to actually play that. But when you're playing the two-feel,

especially anything kind of median tempo and up. But even like walking ballad or two-fill on a ballad, it's the same thing. You've got to feel the notes you're not playing. But not, yeah, we're not doing that. We know that. But. so like I was like to think about it as something physical as you get used to it

of course you can you know you don't want to be like a nervous tick but you know yeah and then the listener as you play in that kind of thing whether the drums are playing or not like the feel should be there you hear a great bass player walking a two feel even if they're doing it on their own when the drums come in it already has that feeling it just kind of solidifies That's right. So let's talk a little bit about note choices here on the two field. The first thing that I think of when I think about what are my most optimal note choices, what are bass players actually play?

The flat second, right? Flat second is not right. Oh, dang. So close, though. No, but you know what I think you really want to start with is the triad. I think we want to be root base, right? Remember, you're holding down the low end. So there's no reason to go away from the root.

But if we want to connect from roots to roots, like you don't want to do too much of just like right if it's just all roots it gets a little boring what happens to the fat half notes man why you got to make it sound bad which which are all roots I can connect it's still bad so but if we add in the third or the fifth as an option to kind of connect our roots just those three notes on each chord yeah that gets us a long way

check it out one two three um right so just using the notes of the triad so here on a b flat blues on a b flat seven chord just having b flat d and f as my available notes gets me almost as far as you need to go. Then you can start adding things like the seventh is the next good option. The flat second is way up there as far as my options go,

I feel like. I hear what you're saying. So, all right, so this leads us to a good place in that, yeah, we have these no choices, but what if we're doing... Oh, no, no. I'm not putting them together correctly. I'm using the notes you said.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'm not telling a story. When the chord changes, in general, the root is your... your strongest option. Followed a little bit further back by the fifth is like the next strongest option. Followed a little bit further back by the third in my opinion. Agreed. So I'm just going to shift a little bit here still on the two field to all the things you are away from the blues just to show that it's kind of the same thing. And now we want to start setting ourselves up for success

on that walking four by thinking about the root in the fifth and maybe the third, seventh, but starting to think melodically because a baseline is always a melody. We don't want to forget that so you want to tell you a little story so if we look at so you're doing some chromatic approaches from above or below which is totally acceptable yeah so it's legal in most states yes please that's right no that's a great that's a great strategy to deploy though is some kind of chromatic approach always sounds good from above or below right absolutely and so then you know if you think about like a rhythm change or something that typically you play a little faster still with the two field you can almost go all root yeah rhythm changes you can go all roots no doubt

And it works. Root or fifth, too, can work really good. And then when you're adding in your step in notes, and this is going to take us right to the walking four, we're connecting the dots, right? So, yeah, this is where you can kind of evolve from the two field to the forefield, is this idea of connecting the dots.

So if we go back to, like, all the things you are, doing these little throwing quarter notes in. So, and I'm just literally doing diatonic scales, or chromatic approaches, quarter notes leading up to like two quarter notes before our target, right? Right. And then you can practice just keeping it going, right? Now you have a walking baseline. So, you know, a lot of like, we go.

Oh, sorry. I know. We have a lot of bass lines to go through. So if we go from F-liner to B-flat, whereas with the two foot, not a point. Five, one. Here we can go. So in connecting the dots, we want to. it's usually a void is.

So we add in one chromatic so that we get there on the one. Or you could go above. Or that's probably. But not too many times in a row. And then once you're walking here, now we actually repeating some notes, doing some Ray Brownisms. Yeah, especially if you go,

like if you're up high and then when you go high and then you go low, stay low, and then walk your way up. You go high and you go low. And this really brings us to, I think, an important point is if you want to learn great baselines, don't just listen to a couple of knuckleheads like us. But thank you for being here. If you're getting some out of this, like and subscribe.

Hey! But learn some baselines. Baselines are great to transcribe. You mentioned Ray Brown. Transcribe some Raybound. Ray Brown. Paul Chambers. Percy Heath, Christian McBride, Rubin Rogers.

You know, or just read through some transcriptions because you'll start to see the inner logic. That's right. because this, we're keeping it somewhat basic. But that whole thing. You can get very creative with very simple concepts. So let's just recap what we have so far. So we have the two feel, which is a half-note feel, big, beautiful half-notes, right?

We're going to lean on the root. Anytime the chord changes, like 90% of the time, you want it to be the root until you get a little more comfortable with adding in things like the fifth and the third, which brings us to our next point. The triad, the notes of the triad and sometimes the seventh of the chord

are kind of our most leaned on notes here. And then we can connect the dots using things like chromatic approaches, diatonic approaches, scales, things like that, until we're up at a four field, right? At a walking baseline field. Yeah, and one thing, just to jump back real quick to the two field,

we're not going to be able to obviously cover every way to play every kind of baseline. But... No, let's do it. Important to be thinking about on your own is the different temples. The general principles will stay the same, say on the two field,

like if you're like... Like one, like one, two, three, four. I'm sorry. One, two, three, four, one, two. But you're going to have more eighth note triplets, generally, because you have more space for them. So it's like... At the slower tempos, yeah.

And you can, yeah, you're going to have a bit of a hopier. Right, exactly. And you're going to hear those as you start to learn these and check out bass players. Totally. Just like if you were playing a solo, right? Like keep going. Like you're, in that regard, you're not always going like, you know, that's just not how we're soloing over that kind of stuff.

No, no. Triplets come in. So it's not that you have to do that all the time, but you want to learn that and kind of introduce that to your baseline repertoire slowly if you're new to this. A couple of advanced things that you might consider as you, if you're a more advanced player or you're getting more into this, are just some little ghost notes. And this is something you can take by transcribing bass play. players too. So again, if we're doing this like, like having these just, it doesn't, it doesn't actually matter what the note is. Like, bass players will often use like an open string to just ghost something. So like, like just that little. Yep, a little grace note. A little grace note. It could be,

it could be a E if you want to get real authentico with it. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But a little grace note can can add a lot of feel to what you're doing. And then some spikididoo's, you know what I mean. That kind of thing. Just down on arpeggio, essentially. So, like, again, that's just an E-flat triad. Assuming the bass player has an orchestral extension on his bass. Right.

If not, do not go below the E. It's not allowed. Yeah, and I mean, things you can do, too, with the, when you go down on arpeggio, that's kind of like just a straight, but you've also got, that's a good one, you know, augmented. Augmented. You know, Sharp 11 kind of. you could also you could do a little chromatic thing

before the lowest note so right nice little above a little above action totally good stuff yeah yeah cool well uh

two feel four feel let's talk about some other kinds of bass size because I always like to I always swing I don't do anything I mean you're so traditional so traditionalist I don't really care about

any of their feels but I like to think about other feel feels really in line all of these together because they're so connected especially as far as baselines it's just different techniques so if you think about something like like a funk groove and what's the most iconic one of the most iconic i thought you're going to do kenny g songbird okay no this is good too though or like two feet okay it's great but you know i'm saying well but but it's there it's the same thing yeah so with funk bass lines The other similarities are that, like, when we play solo piano with a two-feel or four-feel,

we want to learn how to play them, but we want to learn how to leave them and come back into that, because we don't want to be saddled with only doing that for a whole type of thing. Same with the funk bass line. So, but first, you've got to really get it, right? Yeah, the funk baseline, you're going to want to spend some time locking it in, just like you were a bass player in a funk band. Right. That's got to feel good first.

And a lot of these funk bass lines are based upon subdivision. as opposed to like an eighth note triplet to actual 16th notes. So if you think about bo-do-bo-bo-do-dac-d-ca-ca-ca-ca-tac-ca-tac-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-cac-cac-cac-cac. And so all the syncopations are not all of them, but many of them are lying within that subdivision that are 16th notes. So you've got... So the up is on the up of the 16th, not on the up of the eighth or the up of an eighth-note triplet. And you want to nail it because a lot of times people play this in their like, especially when they play it on piano. they're like,

oh, that's the worst. How bad does that feel? Well, here's another advantage. If you subdivide that 16 note, like, don't do, doodoo, dunkat, dunk, when you do that, now you're getting ahead of the game, right?

Because now when you want to add stuff to the baseline, doon, doon, do do do do. Like, whatever you add in there is going to be in that pocket, right? Would you add anything to this one? We don't really, but if you want... But maybe another one we might want to. No, no, but let's say you were putting some chords in there with it, right?

Yeah. Having that 16th note subdivision, now you're doing what drummers and bass players do, which is they do these subdivisions so that they can remain in the pocket the whole time. Why? Don't be the cocktail pianist playing the chameleon with the bad time. I know. I was trying to do it. I can't. I'm usually like, I tried to play it. Feeling terrible, but it didn't work. I couldn't actually do it. Actually.

And look, on all these baselines, the trick is to, you know, and funk baselines walking forward, really any bass lines, they're great exercises to learn them and then improvise or play the melody over them for independence and enhanced. Oh, absolutely. So like right there, check that out. Now the melody's on, that's one, but the melody's pink. Yep. That upbeat of the 16th note, the end of the Andean of four, what would you call it? So I hear a lot of people playing stuff like, it's not right.

Not what you did, but I did. No, yeah. No, that's... So that's a great little exercise for indepence of the hands. So, yeah, these are great ones in the pants of the hands, getting that kind of funky.

Y'all got that. Y'all got that. What are the grooves could we do? Well, let's do one more. Before we do, though, check out OpenSudioJazz.com for all of our courses. That's what we do around here.

That's right. We make jazz piano courses and other jazz courses. Check out the piano access pass, become a member today. It's easily the best value you can get for jazz education online. And piano access pass is great

because that gives you access to all of our piano courses, but I believe, correct me if I'm wrong here, if that gives you access to fundamentals of jazz bass, maybe it does it. No, I think it does. The piano access pass? That's the all access pass.

That's the all access pass. Piano access pass is only piano, but it's okay, we have like dozens of piano courses. But if you want to go next level and upgrade to the all access pass, And you might think I'm not a bass player, but you're a baseline player. Play, yeah, that's what you're here for. Yeah, yeah.

And Christian does some great concepts that can be applied to piano as well. Yeah, fundamental to jazz bass. And Ruben Rogers Jazz Baseline basics, which is actually really great for second instruments. So one secret little baseline thing we can do is something that I learned from our mutual friend, Romero LeBombo. And that is the actual way to play Basanova baselines. Everybody knows that it's this. except it's not. Right.

Yeah. So the Basanova, right, Brazilian, beautiful Brazilian style, one of the most popular styles of music all over the world. Floating along the beach. And somewhere in the 60s, it got into circles, and it got into those rhythm patches on home organs and digital keyboards that... Cassio tone, port-a-sounding, perhaps. Yeah, little casios and port-a-sounds and whirlitzer organs that this was it.

Stop damaging her ears with that nonsense. Show them the way it goes. So the way it goes is, you know, this is all based around the interpretation of the Samba on the acoustic guitar and slowed down in the 50s in Brazil, right? So we're talking about doing a little quiet nights. Oh, yeah, quiet notes. Yeah, quiet nights. So the cool thing is, is it's a lot simpler than that. And it's a lot easier.

Again, this is a two feel. This is big, beautiful half notes. All you want to do is use that root in that fifth. for the most part. Or just the root in the root. Even more so than a two-feel swing thing. You can just use roots. Yep.

And it's kind of on the keyboard, it's a little harder than on a piano or guitar, but if you think about a little bit more emphasis on that second one, maybe. Just slightly, yeah. And all your syncopation is in your right hand, really. That's right. So this is the important part that our friend Aalio Alves,

amazing Brazilian jazz pianist, also available to piano like this band, by the way, is that that six, that syncopation, right, that, that, uh, uh, all the syncopation, all the 16th notes on there, all in the right hand. Like, Aalya would even do things like, instead of, you know, not that. You can connect some dots here too. You can do little quarter note things like on this, but just simple half notes. And what's a great, so great about that, you know, you're laying such a great foundation of the groove down, even without guitar, even without drums.

and even without you know and all that stuff it's literally I mean just I don't think you left the half note that whole time

no I mean I've added a couple of quarter notes but you don't even have to do you can just stay on those roots you know Romero did this whole whole lesson about

you know sometimes on the guitar you just run on a real estate to do root five right so you could do this whole song just on like I mean you wouldn't want to

perform it the whole way like this but this is the feel right And then when you have in some roots. What's great about it, as you're hearing, what I'm kind of trying to do is like almost if I was playing with a guitarist, is that when that groove is being laid down as piano, you can just go up here because the bass is taking care of. We talk about the three zones.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, you've got the syncopation, you know, and you're doing a lot of, you know, active stuff with the eighth notes. That frees things up for me to still play within the groove, but floating above the groove. So I'm in the groove, but I'm floating above it in terms of rhythmically and then even some melodic things and stuff. It's a great feel for that. And it all starts at the bottom. It all starts at the bottom. They go high.

We go low. Be the opposite of Michelle Obama in this regard. That's right, right, right. Good. Well, there's a lot more we can talk about base. Maybe we'll do another episode if folks like this. I can't believe this is our first baseline episode. I know.

It's ridiculous. I mean, it's, but I think we've really, you know, set a foundation and we really set the framework and the base of something great to come later. You know.