The Major's Bass Boot Camp (Session 7)

[Major-Minor]

The Major's Bass Boot Camp (Session 7)

1st position sight-reading with key signature changes

Firstly, THE LECTURE !
If you have been looking at these Bass Camp Sessions and thinking to yourself "This is not for me. After all, my favourite band don't read music, don't understand theory, and the bass player only uses one finger on his left hand", then maybe you should ignore this stuff. That's fine by me.

BUT: If your mind is set on becoming a career bass player, doing nothing but music for the rest of your life, then I would encourage you to get stuck in, get your reading up to pro standard, start on the long road to understanding theory, and get your technique up to scratch.
As far as music reading is concerned, let me just say this:
It's not my technique which has got me good quality work over the years (although my technique is fairly good), it's not playing flashy slap stuff and 2 handed tapping, its not my knowledge of complex chords or solo improvising, it's quite simply the fact that I can READ to the highest standard, and interpret that written note as directed by the composer or arranger or Musical Director. When you are booked for a recording session or a concert or a theatre show, the fixer needs to be confident that you will play the notes as put in front of you, not be scratching your head over the ledger lines or a 5/16 time sig.
LECTURE OVER !


Now this Session:

[attachment=39326:MBBC7.pdf]
[attachment=39327:MBBC7.mp3]

The whole piece is in the 1st position (half position on DB):
1st finger plays 1st fret
2nd finger plays 2nd fret
4th finger plays 3rd fret.

Now, this piece has the same harmonic sequence (chords) running throughout, BUT it changes key several times. I've created this piece to get you used to the idea of key signature changes.
So we start off in F major and modulate (change) to G major at bar 9. You will see I have pinpointed the # sign at bar 9 that indicates that we are now in the new key. There is also a "natural" sign written around the B line showing that the Bb of the previous key is no longer in place. This is an optional sign. My software defaults to putting it in, but often it is missing.

Also note: the last 2 quavers of bar 8 are A and F#. Although the actual harmony at that point is D7, it is not vital to play a D. (The A and F# are the 2 other notes in the D triad).

Now you may have noticed that , for instance, at the end of bar 5, I have written an A when the chord is C major. This chord has no A in it, but the the A transforms the harmony for half a beat into Am7 (ACEG). Have a look at Session 1 and scroll down to Session 1A which has an exercise based on Major Keys and their relative Minor Keys. This might help you to understand why this A note works at this point.
This little theoretical point crops up several times during this piece.

In bar 16, there is an example of using the Ⅱ Ⅴ Ⅰ method of modulation.
We need to change from G major to Eb major. By taking the 2nd (Ⅱ) and 5th(Ⅴ) chords of Eb (Fm and Bb) and placing them before the new key, we get a nice neat modulation into this new key. This is very common - I'm sure you will recognize the sound.
This also happens in bars 24 and 32.

In bar 20 you will see I have put a SLUR under the last 2 semiquavers Bb and C.
This indicates a single right hand articulation ie you pluck the Bb and hammer on the C.
Please be clear about the difference between a SLUR and a TIE.
Look at bar 26. You will see 2 C notes joined together by a TIE. A tie is simply a means of showing the length of a single note that spans a beat (foot-tap). It's sometimes easier to "see" where the beat is on the page when written like this. The second note is NOT re-articulated. I'll be doing a further Session to talk more about this (Syncopation).

The Major

[essexbasscat]

thank you once again Major for giving so much time and effort to the forum. Top man.

much appreciated

T

[billphreets]

excellent major! keep the reading coming please!! ; )

[danthewelshy]

Thanks alot!! Working through this stuff nicely!

[velvetkevorkian]

Thanks for taking the time to do this Major. On a related topic, do you have any advice for material in a similar vein for those who play 5 strings with the low B? I always get caught out by notes below E because I see them so rarely.
Cheers.

[Major-Minor]

[quote name='velvetkevorkian' post='703591' date='Jan 6 2010, 10:33 PM']Thanks for taking the time to do this Major. On a related topic, do you have any advice for material in a similar vein for those who play 5 strings with the low B? I always get caught out by notes below E because I see them so rarely.
Cheers.[/quote]
I'll do some sessions specifically for 5 string BG reading. I play a 5 myself, and sometimes get a bit confused reading those extra low notes as i have an extension on my 4 string DB which goes down to bottom C, meaning that 1st finger on the ext is C# where as 1st fing on the BG (on the B string ) is C !!
So I empathize.
If you want to find other material, try looking at some cello parts. The cello's lowest string is C (an octave above our bottom C), but you can usefully use cello music to practice reading. Try to find some Baroque stuff - Bach, Handel, Vivaldi etc. Orchestral parts would yield more suitable reading matter than solo stuff.


The Major