EmmanuelFolo Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 (edited) hey i enjoy playing a lot of gospel music and i also play for a few churches i just wonted to speak to someone who is into the same type of music and knew how to put together them crazy runs you hear them do cheers Edited November 25, 2007 by EmmanuelFolo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassbloke Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 Do a youtube search for Gospel BAss - some good stuff there. Also - www.gospelcops.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcgraham Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 I played in a gospel choir for the last 3 years and am putting together one where I'm located now. With regards learning, writing/developing and practicing those crazy runs I'd suggest doing what I was forced to do just because of the nature of the choir and now do by choice... transcribe. Even if it's starting small with just a chord chart, then working your way up to melodies, harmonies etc, practicing transcription skills is invaluable. I'd suggest picking a list of about 5-8 songs you like for whatever reason and transcribing a portion that grabs you and/or the complete song. A great song that has simple yet very cool bass fills is 'Your name' by Bob Rawleigh. The dude on bass has a beautifully thick bass tone, that I reckon is a P-bass. Israel and New Breed are another good group, 'You are good' in the verse instrumentals the bass has a simple, groovy yet melodic part, there's another song from their recent album 'A deeper level' that has a few lines that are verrrry gospel. I'll edit this to add it when I find the one I'm thinking of. Also, try thinking of a few lines, and transcribing them. Singing them out helps you to identify the right notes and in time will allow you to use your voice as a transcription tool. I tend to have a list of 8 songs always on the go that I now transcribe to score (reading and writing music in standard notation is a skill that I personally need to work on) I score out the vocal harmonies and chords at work in my lunch hour. So yea, transcribe! Hope that helps somehow! Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmmanuelFolo Posted November 26, 2007 Author Share Posted November 26, 2007 Kl Im going to give it a go, ive tried in the past but i couldn't stick to one song there was way to many that had tasty lines i was dumb founded. one thing i need to clear up is are the runs, are they do all in da scale that the song is in? A good gospel CD to listen to is Lisa McClendon really sweet grooves and licks. I have to much gospel on my mac i think i need to just pick one and wrestle with it. BeLowm if you give me your email i could send you some stuff and maybe we could both get cracking on it and see how each of us are doing and help each other out same goes for you mcgraham check leave ya emails. good luck Cheers Emmanuel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcgraham Posted November 26, 2007 Share Posted November 26, 2007 Hmm, the question of whether the runs they do are all in the scale/key of the song doesn't have a universal answer. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I'll detail my take and personal advice on scales and improv/ear training tomorrow when I have some more time and I don't crave sleep! I'll drop my email too. Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcgraham Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 Ok, early morning hello to you all... When I started in the choir these guys who were running it had been teaching songs for years and so didn't have chord charts for most songs and didn't have music for any. So as they'd start a song they'd (sometimes) call out a key of the song for me. However rarely do gospel songs stick within one key or at the very least only using diatonic chords i.e. chords that are ONLY in that key. They would add odd chords, side step, modulate briefly, modulate for quite some time, key change, potential unison lines, sax/horn/keys parts that demanded unison, harmony or at least support. Along with transcribing, I went about learning my scales. I learned the modes (and others) and what they were because they were used just as much as a standard major key. I practiced them for a little while but then stopped. Why? Practicing something serves more than just one purpose, the two main ones I identify from scales are musical ability and technical ability. Technically, I had no problem playing scales and there were plenty more permutations of fingering and lines that were far better for technical ability that still contained musicality. The musical aspect is the most important part that I benefitted from. The practicing of scales (amongst other things) was important for identifying various intervals and how they sounded over a single note, over a chord, moving between chords, moving between keys etc. As a result of that, I can fairly easily identify the function of chords up to about a 7th or 9th without an instrument (though it's not 'cheating' to use one, just not as challenging) and I can identify what a scale is simply by the unique sounds that various scale portions use. Similarly with everything I mentioned above, if you develop your musical memory in this way you can identify what any note/chord/scale is and what chord/scale/note would sound good over it. I'm not sure that's especially clear or instructive, in short I think scales are important primarily to develop musical memory and the ability to play by ear in the manner I described above and in my previous posts. Try to identify and LEARN what each note sounds like, what its function is. There are 12 intervals and many more possible two note combinations, and even more 2 note combinations over a given key/chord. There is a point to practicing scales that people often miss, the technical is good but they forget it's about music. Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmmanuelFolo Posted November 27, 2007 Author Share Posted November 27, 2007 Thanks again Mark uve been really helpfull im going to get cracking with transcribing them gospel tunes cheers Emmanuel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcgraham Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 My pleasure, feel free to message me or email at [email protected] if you have any queries, though posting them may be of more benefit as we get many opinions and everyone can read it. Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul, the Posted November 30, 2007 Share Posted November 30, 2007 Shamelessly bumping this so I remember to read it tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.