9 posts
Groove is a physical reaction to music rather than a concept to study, and before anyone else can feel it you have to feel it yourself. In this lesson I unpack the groove denominator, the simplest part you can play and still have the song survive, and how that mindset lets you walk into any gig and lock in.
The root-and-octave slap pattern is one of the most versatile building blocks in slap bass, showing up in funk, rock, pop, and fusion lines. This lesson sets up the right-hand thumb and pop, walks four octave pairs across the fingerboard, and covers the pressure release between notes that keeps both hands clean.
I used to think scales were the most important music vocabulary to work on, but the more I played the more I realized triads and arpeggios matter more. As I've said before, triads are the harmonic material of every bass line you have played or will ever play, so build your lines outward from the triad's harmonic and rhythmic core.
Triads are the core harmonic material of a jazz walking bass line. Root, third, and fifth outline the chord one note at a time, and stepwise and chromatic motion come later. I was amazed how much practicing walking lines using only triads improved my own harmony, groove, and swing before I ever added anything else.
A smart move for any bass player at any level is to make sure you're up on your triads. The notes of the triad are the life's blood of every bass line, past, present, and future. In this lesson I walk through practical ways to organize the major and minor triad notes across the bass neck.
Adding harmony to a bass line starts with listening. Beyond notes and rhythm, a line is shaped by duration, articulation, tone, space, and dynamics, and practicing with awareness of each is how a basic line becomes musical.
Changing one small detail in a bass line (an eighth-note rhythm, a pitch choice) can be the deal-breaker for the whole line. Practicing with strict attention to every detail builds the judgment you need to make informed, in-the-moment choices when you're improvising bass lines in a performance situation.
When creating a bass line, break it down to its simplest component, what I call the groove denominator. That is the simplest thing you can do in a bass line, both rhythmically and harmonically, for the music to survive. Building the line outward from there keeps it serving the song first, before any fills or embellishments ever get added.
Walking bass lines work best when built from chord tones rather than scale tones, because the main job of a bass line is to outline the chord sound, and a scale-based line can feel linear and under-support the harmony. In this lesson I walk through composing a walking bass line using triads as the core material.
Online bass lessons via Zoom for students of any level. Reach out to talk through your goals.
