The Major's Bass Boot Camp - Session 19

[Major-Minor]

The Major's Bass Boot Camp - Session 19

12 Bar Blues - Bass Riffs and Lines
There are 5 examples here, showing just a few of the very many types of lines and riffs you can play in a 12 bar blues sequence. Hopefully these ideas will help you on your way to creating your own blues related bass lines.



MBBC19a
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[attachment=46063:MBBC19a.mp3]
Key of A

One of the great features of any Blues is the ambiguous nature of the key - is it Major or is it Minor ? The melody line can often be peppered with minor 3rds (also known as the "blue note"), or minor 3rds bending up to the major 3rd. Sometimes the chords can be distinctly minor in flavour, or major, or a mix of both or neither.
In this example, the first chorus (12 bars) is purely a bass-lead riff - but notice how I've avoided the 3rds of each chord so we really don't know at this stage whether it will be major or minor. (So for instance in bar 1, which has an A root, there is neither a C or a C# to delineate the nature of the chord).

In chorus 2 (from bar 13) you will hear in the piano part (on beat 2) that we get both the C and C# (a 7th apart) giving us the unstable "is it major? is it minor? " feel, followed by a chord with neither notes - yet more questioning.

Bar 24 - last bar of the 12 - usually this would be the Dominant chord of the home key - E7 in this case. Here I have stayed on the tonic (home) chord of A7.

Chorus 3 (from bar 25) uses a type of harmony I love - the suspended 4th chord i.e. chords built in 4ths rather than the usual 3rds. So in bar 25, listen out in the piano part for A D G (root / 4th / 7th). 0




MBBC19b
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[attachment=46064:MBBC19b.mp3]
Key of A
A good old fashioned 12/8 Blues / Gospel feel to this one. "Down Home blues" style.
The 1st Chorus just uses the notes from the triads to create the bass line.
However in Chorus 2, we get that clash of Major and Minor again. The chords in the piano and guitar are purely Major, but in the bass part we get both Major and Minor 3rds (C and C# for instance under the A major chord).Because the C is fleeting in nature, the dissonance is also fleeting, yet it lends a nice earthy feel to the line. If the C was a held note (i.e. long) it would sound distinctly wrong ! (or should that be "challenging" ?!).



MBBC19c
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[attachment=46065:MBBC19c.mp3]
Key of E
This is all playable in the 2nd position i.e. 1st figure on 2nd fret (4th finger plays on 4th fret) but you could use a mixture of other positions and avoid the open strings (except the E of course, if you are on a 4 string bass).
Again we get the mix of major and minor tonalities.



MBBC19d
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[attachment=46066:MBBC19d.mp3]
Key of C
Loosely in the style of Stax records artists like Booker T and the MGs.



MBBC19e
[attachment=46062:MBBC19e.pdf]
[attachment=46067:MBBC19e.mp3]
Key of G

I could have written this in 12/8 (because that is what it is) but I've chosen to use the standard abbreviation of dotted quaver/semiquaver instead.
This rhythmic style is sometimes called a "Shuffle".



The Major