The Weekly Lesson - Lesson 3 Part 1

[rslaing]

[b]The Weekly Lesson - Lesson 3 - part 1[/b]

This week, I have recorded a backing track that will hopefully give all interested players an opportunity to apply all of the stuff covered in previous
lessons. It is one the most melodic songs ever written, with many different key centres and some wonderful "movement" because of the superb chord sequences. It's called All The Things You Are by Jerome Kern.

The leadsheet is attached (below)

The backing track has been played by me, with the melody, bassline and chords all played on the same bass. I did the track in literally 15 minutes, directly
to my Boss Micro recorder so excuse the quality and a couple of gaffes (and the fact that it isn't well balanced!). It is a slower version than normal, to facilitate the things we will be addressing when learning it.

If you want to hear different versions, try spotify - the youtube stuff is a bit disappointing to say the least - the ones I could find anyway.

Remember, the idea of the tracks are to assist you in your learning process, they are not an example of good musicianship or quality recording methods.

The first track is the whole thing, melody line an octave higher than the songsheet, a made-up-on-the-spot walking bassline, plus chords. And in the second
track, I have played chords only at the point of change (no frilly widdly bits) so you can play over them, learning the melody (very important), develop your own bassline, and perhaps improvise over the changes. It is ideal though, for studying the attached songsheet and namely:-

1).Creating bass lines by applying diatonic/modal scales to an actual song

2).How to recognise key centres and find the "right" notes to use in creation of melodic flowing lines.

3).The cycle of fifths.

4). II - V - I's

I have numbered the bars in red for reference purposes.

Can I suggest (in order to make this lesson as effective as possible) that for now, you simply listen to the tune as many times as possible and learn the melody. Learn the chord sequence by heart by singing the root notes of the chords as you play them on your bass. This helps to develop your ear, and bypass the thinking process by developing your ability to play intervals immediately on your bass at first hearing.

I would appreciate it if we don't start analysing the tune or asking questions until I post the VERY comprehensive study of the song on Monday (3 days time), because it could complicate matters as I have structured it in a way that will hopefully, simplify things. We could be working on this song for a couple of weeks because of it's complexity and amount of technicality. This is a great tune to develop aspects of your bass playing.

By all means use the previous lessons information on scales and modes while you are "experimenting".

If you are "chomping at the bit" and can't wait until the support material on Monday, by all means PM me with your questions!

Rob

[url="http://www.trds.co.uk/music/all-the-things-ur-bassandmelody.MP3"]Link to first track with melody, chords and bass[/url]

[url="http://www.trds.co.uk/music/all-the-things-ur-chords-only.MP3"]Link to second track with just chords for you to play along with - melody is on attached songsheet with chords.[/url]

[url="http://www.trds.co.uk/music/all-the-things-you-are.pdf"]Link to songsheet[/url]

Edited July 26, 2009 by rslaing

[ZMech]

am i being a bit dim? I can't sew anywhere where you've actually said the song name. Every time you seem to say 'the song'

Edit: have realised it says it on the song sheet, but it might be worth saying at the beginning anyway.

Edited July 24, 2009 by Zach

[rslaing]

[quote name='Zach' post='550574' date='Jul 24 2009, 09:01 PM']am i being a bit dim? I can't sew anywhere where you've actually said the song name. Every time you seem to say 'the song'[/quote]

It's on the top of the songsheet

[rslaing]

[quote name='Zach' post='550574' date='Jul 24 2009, 09:01 PM']am i being a bit dim? I can't sew anywhere where you've actually said the song name. Every time you seem to say 'the song'

Edit: have realised it says it on the song sheet, but it might be worth saying at the beginning anyway.[/quote]

OK, I'll doctor the post - apologies.

Rob

[ZMech]

awesome. Just did a search on youtube and found [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIIQCSleSRg&feature=related"]this acapella version[/url] which is pretty cool.

your recordings are really impressive, shall have a play along to them tomorrow.

[foal30]

Ha! nice choice of tune
great chords, I love the descent 29-33

there is a Latiny-Bossa type playalong in John Goldsby's Very Good Jazz Book

the intro is the live pick up for Charlie Parker "Bird of Feather" too.