Time Signature query

[ednaplate]

I'm currently working on Jr Walker's Home Cookin' bassline and the majority of the tune is in regular 4/4 time. There is a passage before the 2nd verse that is in 6/4 time and my query is this; is one bar of 6/4 the same as one bar of 4/4 and one bar of 2/4? This may seem obvious but I just want to clarify it with you theory bods out there.

Wishing you all a Basstastic New Year.

[jwbassman]

[quote name='ednaplate' post='110527' date='Dec 29 2007, 02:02 PM']I'm currently working on Jr Walker's Home Cookin' bassline and the majority of the tune is in regular 4/4 time. There is a passage before the 2nd verse that is in 6/4 time and my query is this; is one bar of 6/4 the same as one bar of 4/4 and one bar of 2/4? This may seem obvious but I just want to clarify it with you theory bods out there.

Wishing you all a Basstastic New Year.[/quote]

Indeed it is

[ednaplate]

Cheers. Much obliged to you sir.

[Beneath It All]

[quote name='ednaplate' date='Dec 29 2007, 01:02 PM' post='110527']
I'm currently working on Jr Walker's Home Cookin' bassline and the majority of the tune is in regular 4/4 time. There is a passage before the 2nd verse that is in 6/4 time and my query is this; is one bar of 6/4 the same as one bar of 4/4 and one bar of 2/4? This may seem obvious but I just want to clarify it with you theory bods out there.
........I remember the tune well. It was in the Jamerson book that came with a CD and featured lotsa top bassists doin' the old hits...Home Cookin' was the only chart I struggled with - far too many slurs that I kept reading as ties! I eventually rewrote it minus the slurs..Awesome bass line played on the CD[if I remember correctly] by David Hungate ex Toto..From a counting point of view, 6/4 = 4/4+2/4 but they are NOT necessarily the same; 2/4+2/4 =4/4 but likewise, they're NOT necessarily the same in terms of strong/weak accents and/or rhythmic intent....Good luck with the reading.
.

[ednaplate]

Thanks for the advice. It is the tab from the Jamerson book that I'm slowly working through (every bassist should have this book). I'm putting the tab into Guitar Pro as my reading skills are terrible. I'm also using a Tascam MP-BT1 Phrase trainer which is an invaluable piece of kit. I can enter the relevant bars in 6/4 time but the way GP interprets it makes it hard to read.

[Bilbo]

Stick with the reading, ednaplate, and watch those shortcuts. A reading bass player is a working bass player!

[MacDaddy]

[quote name='Beneath It All' post='112016' date='Jan 1 2008, 10:16 PM']From a counting point of view, 6/4 = 4/4+2/4 but they are NOT necessarily the same; 2/4+2/4 =4/4 but likewise, they're NOT necessarily the same in terms of strong/weak accents and/or rhythmic intent....Good luck with the reading.
.[/quote]

what I was gonna say.

[jwbassman]

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='112202' date='Jan 2 2008, 01:10 PM']Stick with the reading, ednaplate, and watch those shortcuts. A reading bass player is a working bass player! [/quote]

Couldn't agree more - I've been working with a drummer this week on a reading theatre gig and he doesn't read

Edited January 2, 2008 by jwbassman

[ednaplate]

Ironically, or perhaps as a result of tediously inputting the tab into GP for a few tunes, my sight reading is slowly improving. Rhythm reading in tab or in proper music format has never been a problem but the brain has to work harder at where dots and lines go on a neck. For example the Home Cookin' tab is in Ab as it has four flats so I know that a note on the d line on the staff is a Db and played on the A sting 4th fret and so on. It isn't instinctive but some of it is slowly sinking in. I have also noticed that many Motown/Jamerson pieces are played in these awkward keys ie anything other than plain old G and A that so many popular songs are written in.

I can now shortlist my favourite bassists as Andy Rourke, James Jamerson and Geddy Lee so that's pretty much most bases covered. Bad pun intended.