Broadening my bass-playing horizons

[Bottle]

Hi Chaps

I've just been emailed a couple of songs to play in church tomorrow morning. We've recently had an influx of African students, mainly Nigerian and Ghanaian, so we're starting to incorporate some African songs into our set list. One of them has a really cool bass groove that I'm trying to replicate (so far with a little success, but needs some polish)

Verse Chord progression (in key of G-major) looks something like this: G G A B C, C D, D G

Chorus Chord progression: C G D E/D F#/D G, x2

I've been using a 1, 3, 5, 6 structure to move the bassline along but wondered if there's anything I can add to it?

HTH,
Ian

[ZMech]

correct me if i'm wrong, but would the full chords look something like this?

Verse: Gmaj7 Gmaj7 Amin7 Bmin Cmaj7, Cmaj7 D7, D7 Gmaj7

Chorus: Cmaj7 Gmaj7 D7 Emin/D7 F#dim7/D7 Gmaj7 x2

I've only recently started to appreciate and use all of the notes in the chord, I used to leave out the 7th quite a lot, but have now realised it adds a lot of character (as you can probably tell in the way i wrote those chords). Also, pretty sure that F# should have a diminished 5th, so that'll be interesting. Are there any extensions with 9th, 13ths etc? If so these will be reinforced by your inclusion of them

The general advice I was given for constructing walking basslines was to start each bar on the 1st 3rd or 7th, as these are the main defining notes, the 5th is fine but unless it's diminished like on the F# it doesn't add anything the root doesn't. My apologies if that's all obvious and patronising, but it's the kind of stuff that i've finally started just thinking about after 4 years of playing!

Edit: a youtube vid of the song you're playing over might help too

Edited March 19, 2011 by Zach

[Bottle]

[quote name='Zach' post='1168459' date='Mar 19 2011, 04:46 PM']correct me if i'm wrong, but would the full chords look something like this?

Verse: Gmaj7 Gmaj7 Amin7 Bmin Cmaj7, Cmaj7 D7, D7 Gmaj7

Chorus: Cmaj7 Gmaj7 D7 Emin/D7 F#dim7/D7 Gmaj7 x2

I've only recently started to appreciate and use all of the notes in the chord, I used to leave out the 7th quite a lot, but have now realised it adds a lot of character (as you can probably tell in the way i wrote those chords). Also, pretty sure that F# should have a diminished 5th, so that'll be interesting. Are there any extensions with 9th, 13ths etc? If so these will be reinforced by your inclusion of them

The general advice I was given for constructing walking basslines was to start each bar on the 1st 3rd or 7th, as these are the main defining notes, the 5th is fine but unless it's diminished like on the F# it doesn't add anything the root doesn't. My apologies if that's all obvious and patronising, but it's the kind of stuff that i've finally started just thinking about after 4 years of playing!

Edit: a youtube vid of the song you're playing over might help too[/quote]
Thanks Zach. I'm still getting to grips with walking basslines, so any help is gratefully received! I'm just looking at adding something else to my arsenal as a musician .

Well, you've got me thinking about the chords now as well - I've just copied them as written, but I can't see any reason why they wouldn't have sevenths. Hmmm, maybe something to check on.


My first attempt is looking like this (I've highlighted the root note for each progression);

Verse: [b]G[/b], A, B, D, [b]G[/b], A, B, C, [b]C[/b], E, G, A, [b]D[/b], F#, A, B ----> [b]G[/b] (Repeats again)

Chorus: [b]C[/b], E, G, A, [b]G[/b], A, B, D, [b]D[/b], F#, A, B, [b]G[/b], B, D, A (and rinse and repeat)

I've stuck with the root in the chorus, as the guitars and keys will be playing the slash chords in all likelyhood


Here's the video - it's in the key of C, so I came up with a bassline in that key originally, then transposed down a string to put it into G. BTW looks like the bassist in the video is playing a six-stringer, which really had me confused.



HTH,
Ian

[ZMech]

Sweet track, if my synagogue had stuff like that I might actually go occasionally! Definitely loving the rhythm, the bassist seems to be playing in a two bar sequence, going ONE TWO AND (three) AND (four) AND ONE TWO THREE FOUR, so on the offbeats of the first third and fourth beats, and then stocato straight crotches for the second bar. See if you can get that down, it'll certainly help. I'm not yet a master of melody, so I might let someone else go into detail of note choice especially with the split chords in the chorus, but I'd suggest you can happily use notes that aren't strictly in Gmaj as passing notes, e.g. playing C C# D to move from the C to the D, so long as you don't linger on the sharp.

Trying listening to other african music, might give you some general inspiration. Some of my favourites are Richard Bona, Amadou and Mariam, Orchestra Baobab, and Baaba Maal. Speaking of which, haven't listened to any Bona for a couple of weeks, time to change CD.

Edit: A general exercise I like which has helped me to play over chords is to get a standard e.g. Autumn Leaves, and try and just play the arpeggio of each chord as straight crotchets in time with the song. Once you've sorted that, switch the order e.g. 3rd 7th 5th root, and do it all again. If my maths is right there are 24 ways in which you can order 4 items, so plenty of variations. Sounds easy, but is suprisingly hard, but gets you used to thinking about the root third fifth seventh, and hearing the effect of each one on the chords, especially as a starting note.

Edited March 19, 2011 by Zach

[Bottle]

Thanks, mate for the tips - some really useful stuff there, especially the exercises. I don't practice the basic stuff enough, need to be a little more disciplined and motivated to get better . It'll come with practice - I've literally just been picking this stuff up today. Any extra stuff I can pick up along the way is all good.

I've taken on board what you've said about passing notes - I've had a look at the bridge link on our chord sheets and there is indeed a C > C# > D progression! There you go!

Thanks also for the references; I'll have a look on the 'Tube for more videos. I always liked to listen to some of the stuff that Andy Kershaw used to play on a weekend on Radio One back in the day, like some of the Senegalese music. Always had a great rhythm, pity I didn't pay closer attention or even play bass then.

Cheers
Ian

[ZMech]

No problem. Makes a change to be one giving advice, perhaps that means i've been learning!

[chris_b]

If you've got the Nigerians in, play them some Fela Kuti. He's a legend over there. His early 60's Afrobeats style merged African music, Jazz, Funk and political protest. Saddlers Wells is putting on the musical Fela in the next few months. It really is worth seeing if you have any interest in the music.

Edited March 20, 2011 by chris_b

[fatback]

[quote]If you've got the Nigerians in, play them some Fela Kuti.[/quote]

Only if they're over 40 I love Fela, but any time I've ever mentioned him to younger Nigerians it's been like mentioning Matt Munro to an 18 year old here. They all seem to be into Nigerian hiphop.

Seems even in other people's cultures I'm an old fart.

[ZMech]

[quote name='fatback' post='1169409' date='Mar 20 2011, 12:42 PM']it's been like mentioning Matt Munro to an 18 year old here.[/quote]
Who?

[chris_b]

[quote name='fatback' post='1169409' date='Mar 20 2011, 12:42 PM']....Seems even in other people's cultures I'm an old fart....[/quote]
I guess I'm the same. That's cheered up my Sunday, not!!

[JTUK]

[Bottle]

Thanks for all the help yesterday guys - just got in from playing this morning, and it went really well. Everybody got up and danced (so something musta worked!! )

Was also quite handy that I practiced noodling around in an Em scale yesterday too (just for s**ts 'n' giggles), because we ended up with a period of spontaneous worship that taxed my time-keeping skills

Thanks guys

Ian