The Major's Bass Boot Camp (Session 10)

[Major-Minor]

The Major's Bass Boot Camp (Session 10)

Reading in "Cut Common" (2 in a bar)

[attachment=40089:MBBC10.pdf]
[attachment=40090:MBBC10.mp3]

Its really very important to realize that TEMPO and NOTE LENGTH are 2 very different things. A crotchet (1/4 note) can, for instance, be played at any tempo.
So if we take that tempo up to say 230 crotchet beats per minute, the minim will become our natural "foot-tap".
As you will be aware, 4/4 is often referred to as Common Time - 4 crotchet beats in a bar. But if the tempo is fairly fast, such that the minim becomes the foot-tap, we call it Cut Common. This term is prevalent in the light music world (pop/jazz/theatre etc). In the classical world we call it Alla Breve .
The sign for Common Time looks something like this: C and is often used instead of 4/4.
You will see the sign for Cut Common at the start of the piece in the pdf, just after the bass clef sign. Its just a C with a vertical line through it. We also refer to this as "two in a bar". Sometimes on a part you might see "In 2". If a conductor tells us he will conduct a passage "in 2", we usually write ② under the stave (in pencil of course !).

Note the accent sign on the 4th beat of bar 2. Just dig in a little more on this note.

This exercise is designed to get you moving up the fingerboard. Watch out for the key changes !
From around bar 17, there are several ways one could finger this passage, but on reflection I decided this was the best. I'm not saying I would necessarily do this fingering on a gig - I might well do a combination of several options - but if you pin me down, I would think this works the best.
From bar 33 we get quite long passages in just one position, using the one finger per fret option. I tend to hover around this middle of the fingerboard area when I'm sight-reading. It's a good point from which to jump to either high or low positions as required.

This exercise has a swing feel. The underlying rhythm is compound ie each crotchet beat is divisible by 3. At this tempo it's difficult to hear this, but believe me its there ! So in bar 2, for instance, the quaver E is not exactly half way through the crotchet beat but is actually on the 3rd triplet quaver. In other words it is slightly later than a normal quaver would be. The whole "swing" thing is almost impossible to truly quantify, it being a matter of "feel" and groove. But I believe it helps to think of it in the way I have described here. If you are new to this style, don't get hung up on this. A feel for swing grooves will come with time and experience. Do lots of listening to jazz and funk and you will pick it up eventually.
Have a look at Bass Camp Sessions 2 and 2a for more on this.

The Major

[jakenewmanbass]

These are fabulous Major.
Really very useful info...
Jake

[Major-Minor]

[quote name='jakesbass' post='710810' date='Jan 13 2010, 12:49 AM']These are fabulous Major.
Really very useful info...
Jake[/quote]
Cheers Jake !

I hope everybody will realize that these Boot Camp Sessions are not meant to replace proper lessons with a good teacher! And I hope those who teach will use the material with their students if it fits in with their own methods.

I've done a lot of teaching in my time, and always struggled to find suitable written material for Bass Guitar (there being plenty of Double Bass stuff). Hopefully this Bass Camp stuff will help all on basschat.

It appears that many people want sight reading material more than theory lessons, so that is what I will concentrate on for now, but at all levels of difficulty, and I'll continue to put in the occasional theoretical paragraph.

The Major