VA - First Bass Amp Amp Beyond 279

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: ............................................................................... 3
Transcription: Taxman by The Power Station............................ 5
Video Tutorial 1 - Song 2............................................................. 18
Video Tutorial 2 - Rock Steady..................................................... 23
Walking Bass Corner 2................................................................ 27
Deconstructing Tommy Shannon - Column 09........................ 39
Ask Paul........................................................................................ 47
2 | First Bass And Beyond | Issue 279 | 13 February 2015 | how-to-play-bass.com

INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Issue 279 of First Bass And Beyond.
What’s In This Week’s Issue:
The main transcription for today’s issue is The Power Station’s version of
Taxman which came from their little known second album. The bass on
this was played by Bernard Edwards - and long time subscribers of FB&B
will know how much I like Bernard’s work - which is woefully under-rep-
resented in the bass literature out there in bass land!
The first video tutorial for Issue 279 continues the 90s “Brit Pop” vibe we
started in Issue 276 - it’s Song 2 by Blur and we’re going to do some ‘Drop
Eb’ tuning too!
The second video tutorial for Issue 279 is the fifth of a mini series of clas-
sic R&B tutorials that Gordon is going to teach. Today’s tune is another
Aretha Franklin tune. This week we’re looking at Rock Steady - which
features a great bass line by Chuck Rainey.
As I said last week I’ve swapped the Music Theory Column out for a few
weeks for two reasons for a new column called Walking Bass Corner.
And in Walking Bass Corner 2 I’m going to take just 32 bars of a walking
bass line and transcribe and analyze it. Today’s analysis is on 32 bars of
Autumn Leaves by a player who’s less well known than he should be -
and that player is George Duvivier.
In Deconstructing Tommy Shannon 9 we’re going to walk through the

steps to create a ‘riff’ based bass line for a blues in Bb. For those of you
who’ve never done this before...hopefully this example will show you
how to do this in a logical fashion. We’ll be back with more transcribing
and analyzing in Column 10!
In Ask Paul I’m continuing the mini series of columns designed to an-
swer a question on music notation symbols and texts that has FB&B
subscriber Nigel Walden foxed.

How To Contact Me
If you’ve got any questions you can email me directly. My email address
is:
paul@first-bass-and-beyond.com
Or you can post on my Facebook Page, which you’ll find here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/How-To-Play-Bass-Dot-
Com/118787498204407
Have a great week.
Paul

TRANSCRIPTION to TAXMAN by THE POWER STATION, bass by BER-
NARD EDWARDS
We’ve already covered Taxman

twice in First Bass And Beyond
- first we covered the Stevie Ray
Vaughan version and then we cov-
ered the Beatles original.
Well I’ve got a third version of Tax-

man for you - this time it’s from a
little known album by The Power
Station.
The Power Station were a ‘supergroup’ formed of Robert Plant, Tony

Thompson (Chic) and John and Andy Taylor (Duran Duran). They re-
corded an album in 84-85 that did quite well...but the group disbanded
shortly after.
They reformed for an album in the mid 90s - John Taylor co-wrote some
of the tunes but due to his personal situation (rehab I think) he couldn’t
actually play on the album. So Producer Bernard Edwards stepped into
the breach and played on this album. (There’s talk on the Interwebz that
Bernard played some of the lines on the original Power Station album
that were credited to John Taylor too.)
The album was completed but Bernard died shortly afterwards and be-
fore the band could go out on tour. So as I said, it’s not very well known.
But I’ve transcribed Bernard’s performance on Taxman for the following

reasons:
1. It’s Bernard!
2. It shows how versatile a song can be - Stevie Ray swang it, there was
the Beatles original in their 60s psycho-rock vibe and The Power Station
played it with a funk rock vibe.
3. There are some great finger style funk lines to lift from this - and
transpose to other keys. In fact some of the lines look like slap lines
when you see the notation. But they are definitely played fingerstyle.
Here’s how the line lays out:
Letter A - Bass in - 0.15

Letter B - Verse - 0.15
Letter C - Chorus - 0.49
Letter D - Verse- 0.58
Letter E - Taxman - 1.15
Letter F - Guitar - 1.44
Letter G - Verse - 2.06
Letter H - Taxman - 2.23
Letter I - “My advice” - 2.31
Letter J - Taxman - 2.47
Letter K - Outro and fade - 3.11
Feel free to vary my tabbed suggestions to suit your own combination of

fingering system, bass size and hand size.

VIDEO TUTORIAL 1 - SONG 2 by BLUR
The next tutorial in the mini-

series of tunes that were brack-
eted in the ‘Britpop’ genre is
the anthemic Blur tune Song 2.
The hook of this tune - the

“Woo Hoo” section is used as a
sting on the TV all the time in
game shows, reality shows and
the like.
And it’s a good tutorial to look

at because it’s pretty simple (so
perfect for beginners) but it has the challenge of using Drop Eb tuning
and some distortion.
Let’s talk about different ways to get the low Eb in the song.
This song goes to the low Eb and there are three ways you can get down
to that low Eb if you’re playing this live. Firstly, you can detune your E
string to Eb. And then use the open string. This is called Drop Eb tun-
ing.
Secondly you can detune your E string to D and play the low Eb at the
first fret of the detuned E string. This is Drop D tuning and is a popular
alternate tuning.
Third if you have an octave pedal you can play everything an octave up
and dial in the low octave. At a pinch you could get away without need-
ing any distortion if you used this method as the OC2 (or OC3) does
change the tone somewhat.
I’m going to teach this with Drop Eb tuning. The easiest way to get Drop
D tuning in a gig scenario is to fret the 6th fret of your E string and then
play the open A string and tune your E string to this note. When the
open A string and the note at the 6th fret of the E string are in sync, then
you’ve ‘dropped’ the tuning by a tone and the open string should sound
like a ‘Eb’ now.
Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to get started. BUT DON’T FORGET
TO RETUNE WHEN YOU’VE FINISHED. Especially if you’re in a gig situ-
ation!
Song 2 only has 3 sections to look at, and they all share similar sections.
First up is the Intro (after the drums and the guitar):
The bass drops out for the verses and comes back in for the choruses:
Finally there’s the outro to play -simply tag this onto Chorus 2:
Song Format
Here’s how the song lays out and what sections to use:
Intro - Drums
Intro - Guitar
Intro - Woohoo! Play basic riff 4 times
Verse - bass drops out
Chorus - use chorus figure
Verse - bass drops out
Chorus - use chorus figure
Outro - use the outro figure
How To Program The Sections In Band In A Box
If you want to program and isolate the sections in Band In A Box (and
play with the tempos)here’s how to do it:
1. Set key to Fm
2. Aim for performance tempo to be around 130 BPM
3. Choose a style for practice. I chose the Roots Rock Guitar track.
4. I then muted the bass. It’s not ideal...but it’s not too bad.
Here is the main riff section of the song when programmed:
And here’s the chorus section of the song programmed:
There is a full length bass less backing track to practice with as well.
VIDEO TUTORIAL 2 - ROCK STEADY BY ARETHA FRANKLIN
This week’s second video tuto-

rial is the next in a mini series
of classic R&B lines that Gor-
don will be teaching.
Today we’re going to look at

some more Aretha - and it’s the
main sections for the classic
Chuck Rainey groove on the
tune Rock Steady.
Now Rock Steady was written

and released in the early 70s
when soul and R&B was getting a little funkier - and Rock Steady reflects
that in the chordal nature of the tune. The tune is based on either an
A7 type chord (with some alterations) or in the bridge there’s a D7 type.
(Note I’ve written ‘type’ - that’s because the harmony instruments are
using some chord extensions and alterations to ‘jazz up’ the harmony.)
There are a few bars of intro before the main groove comes in. We’re go-
ing to look at five variations of the main groove, and then one four bar
pattern for the bridge.
Here’s the first 4 bar groove section for the groove:
Here’s the second 4 bar groove section - notice the ear catching run to
the high G in Bar 3. That will be repeated in other groove variations:
Here’s the third groove - this uses the upper register run twice in the 4
bars:
Here’s the fourth groove:
And here’s the fifth groove - which is used prior to the bridge:
And finally here’s the bridge pattern that we’re going to play:
Ok, here’s how to put these grooves together to play from the intro to the
end of the bridge:
Play Groove 1 for the 4 bars prior to the verse.
Then to play through the verse - which is 24 bars - play Groove 1 twice,
followed by Groove 2, Groove 3, Groove 4 and groove 5!
And then play the bridge.
After the bridge there are 20 bars to fill before the second bridge. Then
there are 4 bars before everything bar vocals and drums drops out for 4
bars. And then we’re back into the main groove and we’re going to vamp
and fade.
Now I’ve deliberately not broken down the combinations you need to
play through the second verse. I advise learning the sections and then
practice playing through and switching them around on the fly. Or even
adding your own variations too - if you do, remember not to lose sight of
the main groove!
How To Program The Sections In Band In A Box
If you want to program and isolate the main sections in Band In A Box
(and play with the tempos)here’s how to do it:
1. Set key to A7
2. Aim for performance tempo to be around 105 BPM
3. Choose a style for practice. Band In A Box isn’t brilliant at creating
interesting one chord environments - but it can provide OK backing. I
used the Soul 70s guitar backing track.
4. I then muted the bass!
To program the sections you’re going to work with, simply work out how
many bars you want and either type A7 for the main groove, or D7 for
the bridge!
As always there is a bass less backing track on the Issue 279 page for you
to play along with.
Walking Bass Corner 2
WALKING BASS CORNER 2
Thanks for the feedback so far for Walking Bass Corner...please continue
to leave feedback and your thoughts on this new column. As I said last
week, I’ll run four or five of these columns before making a firm decision
on whether to continue doing this.
Interestingly, because this kind of analysis is so deep it was heartening

to see comments suggesting that it didn’t have to run every week. But
could be run every other week. Or even once a month.
I’ll monitor the feedback and make a more long term decision about
how this is going to run in a few weeks.
What Tune Are We Looking At Today?
The tune we’re going to look at today is a version of Autumn Leaves.
Now students of Walking Basslines 101 might be sick of the sight and
sound of Autumn Leaves - because it’s used extensively in the course as
a teaching vehicle - but I use it because it’s a fabulous song for people
learning walking bass to get their fingers around.
Not only is it relatively straightforward for beginners (both bass and

other instruments) but it’s also a moderate tempo. So it makes an ideal
choice for jams and open mic nights. It’s a tune that anyone learning
jazz should know - and know thoroughly.
The version we’re going to look at today is from the Derek Smith album
Love For Sale. (I’ll also screencast a video of the tune playing in my tran-
scription app - Anytune - so if you don’t have it you can easily cross ref-
erence.)
This version is in a different key - here’s what George is playing:
28 First Bass And Beyond | Issue 279 | 13 Feb 2015 | how-to-play-bass.com
I should also mention that this is the first walking chorus - which occurs
at around the 1.39 mark of the tune.
In order to look a little more deeply under the hood we need to analyze
the notes and how they relate to the chords. Here’s that analysis:
Before we start looking at this a little bit deeper, a quick word on the an-
notation below the notes.
If the annotation is a number, that’s the scale degree. 5=the fifth. 3 -=

the major third. b3 = the minor third and so on.
L.c. equals a lower chromatic approach note.

U.c. equals an upper chromatic approach note.
l.d. equals a lower dominant note.
os equals an open string.
Tri equals a tritone substitution
‘pedal’ means a pedal tone
oct means an octave approach.
Let’s get analyzing.
1. The Downbeat
I always like to start by looking at what the player does on the downbeat.
George Duvivier isn’t as well known as players like Ray Brown and Ron
Carter and Paul Chamber and the like - but he probably could have been
if he’d not decided to walk away from jazz in the early 60s to concentrate
on Hollywood style sessions.
But for anyone interested in a different mainstream ‘voice’ than the bass
players I’ve named above, you could do a lot, lot worse than listen to
some of George’s playing.
In the first 16 bars George only starts two bars on notes other than the
roots - and that’s bars 8 and 16 where the Dm7 chord lasts for two bars
and George creates a two bar pattern by walking up from the root to the
5th, hitting the 5th on the downbeat and then walking back down.
The majority of the remaining 16 bars also start on the root - with these
exceptions:
1.1. Bars 17 and 18 - George uses a pedal tone (see below)
1.2 Bar 20 - another two bars of Dm and George uses the 5th again
1.3 Bar 27. There’s a tritone substitution used going from Dm7 to G7 to
C7. More on the tritone sub in a moment. But I think this linear descent
causes the next non-root on a change of chord.
1.4 Bar 28 - two chords in this bar and I think George is focused on a
descending linear line and hits a B natural on an F major 7 chord. The
note is played staccato as if he realizes this instantly and he resolves to
the major 3rd.
(Another way of rationalizing it too is that it could be a #4, which sug-

gests the Lydian/F Major 7 chord. I’ve seen other bass players do this....
but that tends to be in less mainstream and more be bop flavoured ma-
terial. The staccato nature of this note makes me think it was a mistake!)
1.5 Bar 30 - This bar starts on the A - it’s entirely possible that the band
were playing to a different set of chord changes and are just playing to
an A7 chord there - in which case the pattern becomes a simple R-2-3-5
pattern.
1.6 Bar 32. This starts on the b7 - which is perfectly fine - and I think
comes from a descending linear run.
Let’s look at a couple of these instances in more detail.
2. Pedal Tone
In Bars 17 and 18 we’ve got these two bars:
What’s going on here is that George is using what’s called a Pedal Tone.
That is a single tone that is the predominant tone through this two bar
section.
Using a pedal tone is a great device because it creates tension which

then gets resolved when you switch back to walking. George uses it here
- and then uses the same idea on the next two bars of Dm7 - to create a
‘contrast’ to his walking lines.
Pedal tones are well worth checking out and investigating further!
3. Tritone Substitution (And Indirect Resolution)
have a look at Bars 25 to 28:
Look at the run from Dm7 to G7 to Cm7. George plays a run of D-D-Db-
Db-C-C over these three chords. That Db over the G7 chord might look
at first glance as if it might be a mistake.
But it’s a tritone substitution. Basically the chords of Db7 and G7 share
the same 3rds and 7ths - only turned around. So the chord tones of G7
are: G, B, D, F
And the chord tones for Db7 are: Db, F, Ab and B (or more correctly Cb)
So a common idea in jazz playing - for comping instruments as well as

the bass - is to substitute the Db7 for the G7 in a ii-V7-I.
So instead of Dm7 to G7 to Cm7 we get Dm7 to Db7 to Cm7. As bass

players that allows us to play a really strong descending linear sequence
through the change that really pushes the ear forward in the music.
I highly recommend practicing tritone substitutions with ii-V7-I pro-

gressions.
Also note in this example that this strong descending linear run is set up
with an indirect resolution in the A7b9 bar. George creates tension by
playing the upper chromatic approach note to the Dm7 on Beat 3 of the
preceding bar - which is NOT a chord tone (it’s a b5) - and then he plays
the lower chromatic note on Beat 4.
This combination of upper chromatic/lower chromatic is an indirect

resolution - sometimes also known as an enclosure. If you’ve got Band
In A Box set these 4 chords up and play through them slowly - the com-
bination of the indirect resolution to the D followed by the D to Db to C
linear descent is a great example of how two ideas/devices can layer to-
gether to create a great sounding sequence.
4. Use Of Stock Patterns And Arpeggios
If you look through the analyzed chorus you’ll see that a lot of the bars
are played with simple arpeggio based patterns, or simple scalar type
stock patterns. E.g:
8-5-b3-Ch
R-2-3-5
8-b7-b5-R (used on the Em7b5 chord in different locations of fretboard)
8-5-R-3
R-2-3-4 followed by 5-4-3-R (used on Dm7 lasting for two bars)
R-5-6-8
R-2-b3-R
R-b7-6-5
R-3-5-6
R-b3-b5-b5
None of these patterns are revolutionary. Yet when combined with a big
sense of swing and some rhythmic variations plus judicious use of other
ideas as we’ve seen above (pedal tone, indirect resolution, tritone) we get
a compelling bass line that supports the piano, drives the ear forward
and swings like crazy!
5. Use Of Range Fretboard / Contrast Between Vertical And Linear

Lines
George makes use of the entire range of his bass - this 32 bars has a
range from the open E string to the Bb at the 15th fret of the G string.
6. Use of Rhythmic Skips Plus Open Strings
Although this is played quite fast - a tempo of around 185 BPM there
is still room for some rhythmic swung 8th note skips. The majority of
these are accomplished using open strings or repeated notes.
A great example of using open strings as rhythmic skips comes at the
end of Bar 20:
The only change I’d make if this were me would be to play that last open
string on the D string as well. Like this:
But it’s entirely possible that George used the open G string so that he
could ‘rake’ from that string onto the D string.
7. Use of Open Strings To Facilitate Position Shifts
If you have a careful look through the transcription and see where there
is a reasonably large interval jump what you’ll often find is that this is
preceded by an open string which facilitates the movement of the hand
to make that interval jump. Don’t forget that the physical distances on
an upright bass are much greater than on an electric.
You’ll find the most striking examples of this in Bars 4, 9, 10, 12, 18, 23
and 31. Note that I’ve tabbed the bulk of this performance in ‘first posi-
tion.’
The combination of first position and open strings is something that a

lot of jazz bass players use.
Summary
Going through short transcription sections like this is something that I

find really fascinating.
The worse case scenario is that I find nothing new that I can add to my
own walking bass arsenal of tricks, but that the process reinforces to my
mind (and ears) which patterns are used frequently by the great bass
players.
The best case scenario is that I find something new that I can add. In
this instance the main takeaway for me was the combination of the indi-
rect resolution strongly followed by the descending linear sequence in-
volving the tritone substitution. That will be something that I take to my
practice space and start incorporating into my own toolbox of ideas and
playing devices.
As well as providing feedback on this column don’t hesitate to share

what the element you found the most instructive!
Deconstructing Tommy
Shannon - Col 09
DECONSTRUCTING TOMMY SHANNON - COLUMN 09
Introduction
In Columns 7 and 8 of Deconstructing Tommy Shannon we looked at

Tommy’s playing on the uptempo straight 8ths blues rocker Love Struck
Baby.
Now Love Struck Baby is a tune that has a conventional 12 bar section,
and also an 8 bar section.
Tommy’s playing on this tune can be characterized as ‘riff’ based. So he

took a riff and used it as the basis of most of his bass line. And notice
that in the solo that even though he stretched out, again he used a riff
based pattern to play through the solo.
And before we move on and examine Tommy’s style more deeply I

thought this would be a good point to pause our analysis and just talk
about playing through a 12 bar blues using a riff based approach and
give some examples.
Playing A Riff Based Blues
So that you can fully see how this applies to other chord progressions
and the like we’re going to create a bassline for a 12 bar blues sequence
and used a riff based approach. We’re going to play in a totally different
key - as before when we took our learning to a different key we’re going
to play the blues in Bb.
Now we’re going to qualify the blues in Bb further by imagining we’re at

a jam session or an open mic, and someone has suggested that the band
play an uptempo, straight 8th blues-rocker in Bb.
The first step in this scenario - because you don’t really know at that
point what anyone else is actually going to play! - is to pick a pattern (or
patterns) from your library of patterns that you’re going to use as the ba-
sis of playing through your first chorus of this blues.
Here’s a ‘safe’ but authentic and recognizable blues pattern that you
could use to start with:
What I like about this pattern is that it covers all the primary chord
tones, has a two bar question and answer feel, and depending on what
you hear everyone else playing once you get started is very easily adapt-
ed to a slightly ‘cooler’ pattern by playing the b7 on Bar 2 of the pattern:
Another way to get started is to combine two one bar patterns into a
two bar phrase. The secret here is to make sure that there’s some kind of
logical connection between the bars. Here’s a two bar pattern I like the
sound of which we picked up from Pride And Joy - but both of the one
bar patterns that go into this are standard parts of the blues repertoire:
In this two bar pattern, each bar ends on the 5th - which is a good ap-
proach note - and you’ve got the question and answer pattern built into
the phrase by the first bar descending from the octave to the 5th, then
the answering second bar drops to the root and climbs back to the 5th
via a linear run.
As I prefer the latter pattern I’m going to use that for our 12 bar blues. So
let’s start extending it out.
First, you’d play the first 4 bars in Bb7. The simplest way would be to
repeat those first two bars:
Now the next chord is Eb and here we’ve got a variation to deal with be-
cause unless you’re playing a 5 or 6 string then you’re not going to have
the low Eb root note to drop down to. So as we’re finishing each bar of
the 5th instead of dropping down to the root, we can jump up to the Eb
root note and step up by the linear run of 3-4-5 to the next bar:
Notice if we do that, that the 5th of Eb7 is Bb, so we arrive at the Bb early
and then have to repeat that note. Far better to vary the riff pattern
slightly and make the last two notes of the Eb7 bar the chromatic ap-
proach note so that we’re playing the R-3-4-Ch pattern:
Now the next four bars are the turnaround and we’ll just have to tweak
things slightly to make the turnaround fit nicely:
Some things to notice here:
1. The use of a distinctive phrase in Bar 12 to signal everyone that the

chorus is finished.
2. The chromatic variation of the 8-b7-6-5 run in the Eb7 bar/Bar 10.
3. The use of the 8-b7-6-5 line without variation in the first F7 chord - al-
though the connection back to the Eb isn’t strong...the thematic connec-
tion with the riff that the ear is used to and then the riff being repeated
with the chromatic variation in the Eb7 bar makes this work.
Now as you get practice at creating blues lines these are the kinds of
changes that are relatively easy to put in place in real time. The blues
course has a lot of this vocabulary contained within it, plus lots of bass
less backing tracks that you can practice with.
But for a first ‘chorus’ in the jam scenario that we outlined this would
support the form of the ‘song’ - an uptempo straight 8th blues-rocker
in Bb remember? - and you’ve set up a basic groove for the 12 bars that
leads the listeners ears through the chord changes, plays with authentic
vocabulary, and leaves you places to stretch out if needed on future cho-
ruses.
Some Thoughts On Stretching Out
This series of columns isn’t intended as a ‘how to create blues lines’ kind
of course - indeed it’s a supplement to that kind of course. And in this
series of columns we’ll look at the kind of lines Tommy Shannon played
so that you can:
(a) Play the Stevie Ray Vaughan kind of style if needed

(b) See how Tommy Shannon combined standard blues patterns with his
own rhythmic and melodic conception to come up with his own lines.
So, bearing that in mind, if this 12 bar pattern is the kind of pattern you
have set up as a starting point, here are some pointers for creating varia-
tions:
1. In a solo section you could get your bass into the upper register by
flipping around the order of the two patterns on the Eb7 chord. So you’d
start with R-3-4-5 from the Eb and then go up to the high Eb for the
8-b7-6-5 kind of pattern.
2. In a busy pattern like this you can either create rhythmic contrast
by going busier (e.g. triplets) or by going simpler (playing some quarter
notes).
3. Other simple ways of creating variations are by displacing some notes

by an octave.
4. On choruses later in the song - especially choruses where someone

is soloing - you can create extra variation by using more chromatic con-
nectors in the bars where you connect chords. E.g. going from Bb7 to
Eb7 you could play R-b2-b3-3.
5. On choruses later in the song - again, especially solo choruses - you

can open up your lines by playing two bar phrases that go to 5th. E.g.
R-2-3-4 then 5-6-b7-8 and so on. You don’t have to start the downbeat
on the root all the time.
Hopefully that gives you a lot of food for thought. The best thing of
course to do with these suggestions is to take them to your practice area
and work on them and see how they sound for you!
Summary
In Columns 7 and 8 of Deconstructing Tommy Shannon we looked at

Tommy’s line on Love Struck Baby.
In this column we’ve used some of the ‘principles’ we uncovered in that

bass line to talk about creating a ‘riff’ based line for a hypothetical Blues
in Bb7 at a hypothetical jam.
If you go through the line that I came up with - and follow along with the
different stages - then you should understand how it was put together
from a compositional point of view. Remember that with a relatively
small amount of practice and experience these are the kind of lines that
you’ll be expected to create in a spontaneous jam situation.
I also presented some ideas on how you could create further variations
in future choruses - especially solo choruses.
Questions
As we go through this column if you have any questions please don’t

hesitate to shout up - you can either email me directly or post a com-
ment on the appropriate magazine issue page on the FB&B website.
Ask Paul?
ASK PAUL!
I get lots of questions via email. And if they are from FB&B subscribers
I try to answer all of them! However it occurred to me that for each par-
ticular question there are probably several of you out there in FB&B land
who would be interested in the answer.
So if you have a question for me, here’s where you need to post it:
http://first-bass-and-beyond.com/other-pages/ask-paul-2/
A few weeks ago FB&B subscriber Nigel Walden posted this question on
FB&B:
“Hi Paul
This is probably the wrong place for this question, but it sits between a
couple of stools really. I am at the stage now where I get (or am given)
sheet music, usually guitar or piano sheets, to create a bass line for a song.
Sheet music seems to have its own language and I would like to ask if
there is somewhere on FBAB or elsewhere, that you could point me to, to
try to understand it?
Examples are things like “Rit” or DS Al Coda (not a detective of Italian

extraction apparently) I guess your superb layout of bass notation has
spoiled me. There are other terms and symbols that are not easy to
understand. I cannot show my favourite as my keyboard does not have
one, but I would describe it as the love child of a percentage sign and a
drunken “S”
I don’t recall covering this on “Sight Reading from the ground up” and
don’t expect it to figure in Music Theory either, so I thought I would try it
here!”
This is a great question and I started answering this in last week’s Ask
Paul. I’m going to spend the next two or three columns going over
48 First Bass And Beyond | Issue 279 | 13 Februaryy 2015 | how-to-play-bass.com
some more music notation conventions so that they are more
understandable. It’s important to remember that musical notation -
especially when applied to bass line transcriptions - is a guide to how
the line should be played. But it’s a subjective guide and it’s only one
person’s way of trying to communicate how he or she interprets that
music.
The bottom line is that if you’re working on a bass line transcription you
should ALWAYS be cross referencing with the original track.
In today’s Ask Paul we’re going to look at some more symbols that affect
how you interpret the playing of specific notes.
The Staccato Dot
The ‘Staccato Dot’ is a dot that’s placed either under or over a note
(depending on whether the staff is pointing upwards or downwards).
The ‘dot’ is always nearest the note. Here’s an example with a staccato
dot on the first note:
Now what this note instructs you to do is to play the note as a staccato
note. So you don’t let it sound for the note’s full written value. As a rule
of thumb I tend to aim to play a staccato note at around half of the note’s
written value. So I’d play this example above more like this:
Now the next obvious question is if the second example is a reasonable
interpretation of the first example then why not just write the second
example anyway and make it easier.
You could do that - but remember that the staccato dot is one person’s
interpretation of what may have been played. And you might actually
interpret it like this:
Or even like this:
By using the staccato dot that interpretation is left up to you. The other
reason why you use the staccato dot is to keep your scores as clean as
possible. Check out this variation of the example:
Now the instruction here is to play the last bar of 8ths notes in a staccato
style. Here’s what happens to the score if we make those staccato notes
16th notes (remember - a guide to staccato is to play approximately half
of the written value):
You see how cluttered the score starts to get. Let’s take it to extremes and
see what happens if you interpret that staccato 8th note as lasting less
than a 16th note - say the length of a 16th note in a triplet:
In the original example with the 8th notes dotted as staccato notes you
can instantly see where each of those 8th notes falls in the bar....in the
other two examples it’s less obvious.
The Tie
The tie is a curved line - like a bracket lying on its side - that connects
two notes of the same pitch together. Like this:
The important thing to note about a tie is that the note you play starts at
the point in the bar where the first note of the tie occurs - but that the
note lasts for the duration of the first note plus any notes that are tied to
it.
So in the example above we’ve got C as the first tie. This sounds on the
‘and’ of Beat 2 and that note is tied to another eighth note and so will
sound until the ‘and’ of Beat 3.
The second tie starts on the ‘and’ of Beat 3 and is a D. And it’s tied to the
D on the downbeat of the triplet on Beat 4. So this note lasts an 8th note
plus an 8th note triplet.
Now that first tied note consists of two 8th notes - and two 8th notes
make a quarter note. You can replace those tied 8th notes with a quarter
note. Like this:
However, convention seems to be - and this a convention that I use

- that if your tied note goes over beat 3 that you use a tie rather than
add two notes together so that it’s easy to see where the beats fall.
To illustrate, lets change the triplets on Beat 4 for two 8th notes and
maintain the tie on the D. Now we get this:
By using the tie on Beat 2 - but replacing the two tied notes on the ‘and
of 3/beat 4’ you should be able to clearly see where the beats of the bar
fall.
Note that a tie can be used over more than one note and more than one
bar.
The Hammer-On
The hammer-on is like a tie - it uses the same symbol, only it connects
two notes of different pitch. Like this:
The key thing to note about a hammer on is that you strike the string
with your plucking hand to sound the first note of the two notes connect
with the hammer-on notation - in this case the open D string on Beat 4
of bar 1 - and then you sound the second note with your left hand only.
Often you’ll see some kind of lettering used to indicate a hammer as well
- either an ‘h’ or an ‘ho’ - like this:
I tend not to use the ‘ho’ lettering - and often I don’t use the connecting
‘slur’ mark in the tab either! (That’s possibly because I’m not a natural
user of tab - and maybe it’s something that I should change!)
The Pull-Off
The pull-off is like the hammer-on - only the other way round. When
you encounter a pull-off you sound the first note as normal, and then
the second note is sounded by the LEFT hand pulling-off the string.
It looks like this on notation:
As with hammer-ons, often a small ‘p’ or ‘po’ symbol can also be used:
Hammer-ons and pull-offs are staples of slap bass lines. But less so for
fingerstyle bass lines.
The Accent
The final marking we’re going to look at today is the accent. This is a ‘^’
placed above note and instructs you to ‘accent’ the note. (Though an
accent never tells you how much!)
Here’s what it looks like in notation:
This kind of notation is used often when the bass is playing some kind of
unison ‘hit’ with the drums and/or the rest of the band. It’s also used -
and I use it like this - to signal a ‘pop’ or a pluck when using slap and pop
technique. Or when using that kind of technique as an embellishment
within a fingerstyle line.
Summary
I think this mini-series of Ask Paul columns on common musical terms

encountered when working with scores will actually be really useful. So
we’ll pick this up again next week.
In this week’s column we’ve looked at various embellishments you’ll find

on music scores and what they mean. We looked at:
1. the staccato dot

2. the tie
3. the hammer-on
4. the pull-off
5. the accent
Always remember that written music - especially as it relates to bass

players - is usually one person’s interpretation of that music. Cross
reference to the original track is always advised!

VA - First Bass Amp Amp Beyond 279

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

VA - First Bass Amp Amp Beyond 279

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Transcription: Taxman by The Power Station............................ 5

Video Tutorial 1 - Song 2............................................................. 18

Video Tutorial 2 - Rock Steady..................................................... 23

Walking Bass Corner 2................................................................ 27

Deconstructing Tommy Shannon - Column 09........................ 39

2 | First Bass And Beyond | Issue 279 | 13 February 2015 | how-to-play-bass.com

What’s In This Week’s Issue:

In Deconstructing Tommy Shannon 9 we’re going to walk through the

3 | First Bass And Beyond | Issue 279 | 13 February 2015 | how-to-play-bass.com

Or you can post on my Facebook Page, which you’ll find here:

Have a great week.

4 | First Bass And Beyond | Issue 279 | 13 February 2015 | how-to-play-bass.com

We’ve already covered Taxman

Well I’ve got a third version of Tax-

The Power Station were a ‘supergroup’ formed of Robert Plant, Tony

But I’ve transcribed Bernard’s performance on Taxman for the following

Here’s how the line lays out:

Letter A - Bass in - 0.15

Feel free to vary my tabbed suggestions to suit your own combination of

6 | First Bass And Beyond | Issue 279 | 13 February 2015 | how-to-play-bass.com

The next tutorial in the mini-

The hook of this tune - the

And it’s a good tutorial to look

How To Program The Sections In Band In A Box

Here is the main riff section of the song when programmed:

And here’s the chorus section of the song programmed:

This week’s second video tuto-

Today we’re going to look at

Now Rock Steady was written

Here’s the first 4 bar groove section for the groove:

Here’s the fourth groove:

Play Groove 1 for the 4 bars prior to the verse.

And then play the bridge.

How To Program The Sections In Band In A Box

Interestingly, because this kind of analysis is so deep it was heartening

What Tune Are We Looking At Today?

The tune we’re going to look at today is a version of Autumn Leaves.

Not only is it relatively straightforward for beginners (both bass and

This version is in a different key - here’s what George is playing:

If the annotation is a number, that’s the scale degree. 5=the fifth. 3 -=

L.c. equals a lower chromatic approach note.

Let’s get analyzing.

1.1. Bars 17 and 18 - George uses a pedal tone (see below)

(Another way of rationalizing it too is that it could be a #4, which sug-

Let’s look at a couple of these instances in more detail.

In Bars 17 and 18 we’ve got these two bars:

Using a pedal tone is a great device because it creates tension which

3. Tritone Substitution (And Indirect Resolution)

have a look at Bars 25 to 28:

So a common idea in jazz playing - for comping instruments as well as

So instead of Dm7 to G7 to Cm7 we get Dm7 to Db7 to Cm7. As bass

I highly recommend practicing tritone substitutions with ii-V7-I pro-

This combination of upper chromatic/lower chromatic is an indirect

4. Use Of Stock Patterns And Arpeggios

5. Use Of Range Fretboard / Contrast Between Vertical And Linear

6. Use of Rhythmic Skips Plus Open Strings

7. Use of Open Strings To Facilitate Position Shifts

The combination of first position and open strings is something that a

Going through short transcription sections like this is something that I

As well as providing feedback on this column don’t hesitate to share

In Columns 7 and 8 of Deconstructing Tommy Shannon we looked at

Tommy’s playing on this tune can be characterized as ‘riff’ based. So he