VA - First Bass Amp Amp Beyond 280

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: ............................................................................... 3
Transcription: Don’t Dream It’s Over......................................... 5
Video Tutorial 1 - Country House.............................................. 13
Video Tutorial 2 - Chain Of Fools.............................................. 18
Walking Bass Corner 3................................................................ 21
Deconstructing Tommy Shannon - Column 10........................ 34
Ask Paul........................................................................................ 45
2 | First Bass And Beyond | Issue 280 | 20 February 2015 | how-to-play-bass.com

INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Issue 280 of First Bass And Beyond.
What’s In This Week’s Issue:
The main transcription for today’s issue is Paul Young’s version of the
Crowded House song ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over.’ The bass line on this was
played by Pino Palladino - and without being over flashy it’s a great bass
line that illustrates the principle of playing for the song but being your-
self at the same time.
The first video tutorial for Issue 280 continues the 90s “Brit Pop” vibe we
started in Issue 276 - it’s another tune by Blur and it’s the Beatles-esque
tune Country House.
The second video tutorial for Issue 280 is the sixth of a mini series of
classic R&B tutorials. It seems to have turned into a mini Aretha Frank-
lin series too - today’s tune is the one chord vamp of Chain Of Fools.
In Walking Bass 3 we’re looking at a great 32 bars from Israel Crosby’s

bass line on But Not For Me as recorded in the late 50s with the Ahmad
Jamal trio.
In Deconstructing Tommy Shannon 10 we’re going to deconstruct an-

other Stevie Ray tune. In today’s column we’re going to look at a tune
called Tell Me Baby from the Texas Flood album. This is another shuffle
8th note song and I’ve never seen this transcribed anywhere so this was
an intersting tune to analyze.
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 DON’T DREAM IT’S OVER by PAUL YOUNG, bass
by PINO PALLADINO
I was chatting with Gordon the

other day about doing some
Crowded House video tutorials -
and we’ll get started with some of
those really soon! I mentioned to
him that I was probably going to
feature Don’t Dream It’s Over as
the main transcription this week.
When I went to iTunes and sorted

my library by ‘song title’ to get to
Don’t Dream It’s Over I first got the Paul Young version.
So I listened to that back-to-back with the Crowded House original. And

I’ve decided to feature both. I transcribed Pino’s version for this issue
and I’ll transcribe the original next week.
Here’s why: the original is interesting enough to transcribe. And then

this version makes a really interesting study in interpreting another
band’s song and putting your own stamp on it.
It’s also a masterclass in being yourself yet playing for the song.
Some things to listen out for:
1. The four note 16th note pattern that introduces most of the verse is
classic R&B - root down to 5th to 6th back to root.
2. The use of slides and slurs into notes ‘humanises’ the bass line.
Whether he’s playing fretted or fretless (it’s fretless here) this is some-
thing that is part of Pino’s sound.
3. The ear catching slides to the 9th before going back to the octave.
Puts verticality into the line, makes it sound ‘cool’ and jazzy but resolves
quickly to a very safe note (the octave).
4. Use of rhythmic contrast in the song - 16th notes versus notes that
sustain for two beats.
5. Use of contrast between linear sections and vertical sections.
6. Note how the one really ‘flashy’ run is saved until the tune is almost
over.
This is a line really worth studying deeply -and it’s not too difficult to
play for intermediate players.
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
another Blur tune.
This week we’re looking at a

tune called Country House.
Now this is probably my favou-

rite Blur tune - I was never a
big Blur fan - and having taught
quite a few Beatles tutorials
recently I can definitely see and
hear a big mid-period Beatles influence in this tune. Have a listen to the
song and listen in particular to the backing vocals and the breakdown.
There are 5 parts we need to learn - the first part is the intro:
Now take some time with this and watch out for the contrast from Bar 1
to Bar 5 where the descending 16th note run shifts over by an 8th note.
The pattern from bars 2 to bar 5 sets up the verse which is the next sec-
tion to learn:
The 2:4 bar transitions to the two bar pre-chorus - which I’ve bracketed
with the verse above - and then we get to the chorus. The basic chorus
looks like this:
The chorus leads back to the verse (and pre-chorus) and there is a tag at
the end of Chorus 2 leading to the breakdown:
After that we have a guitar solo - simply repeat the first four bars of the
verse twice. And then we hit the final choruses where we repeat the 8
bar chorus with variations if you like.
You can either use the chorus we’ve learned - or here’s a variation that
you can throw in:
Song Format
Here’s how the song lays out and what sections to use:
Intro - use the intro figure

Verse - use the verse figure
Chorus 1 - use the Chorus 1 figure
Verse - use the verse figure
Chorus 2 - use the chorus 2 figure
Break Down - could play a low A for first bar
Guitar - use first four bars of verse repeated twice
Chorus 3 and fade - repeat chorus with variations. Have shown one vari-
ation.
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 A
2. Aim for performance tempo to be around 90 BPM
3. Choose a style for practice. I chose the Driving BritRock 85BPM real
tracks style.
4. Mute the bass!
There are three sections that you need to program. The first section to
program is the intro and the verse:
Note that Bar 9 has a square around it because it’s a 2:4 bar.
The next section to program is the Chorus. This is an 8 bar section and
this is what we’ll use for Chorus 1 and Chorus 3 with repeats:
Finally there is Chorus 2 - which has a 2:4 bar and a three bar tag prior to
the breakdown on it:
Again, the square around the relevant bar (bar 8) is where there is a 2:4
bar.
VIDEO TUTORIAL 2 - CHAIN OF FOOLS by ARETHA FRANKLIN
This week’s second video tuto-

rial is the next in a mini series
of classic R&B lines and is yet
another Aretha tune!
Like Rock Steady this is another

tune that is based on one chord
- in this case the vibe is a C7
vibe.
Now the original was played by

Tommy Cogbill and I’m going
to show you the main patterns that Tommy used on the tune so that you
can play through.
Now when you’re confronted with a one chord vamp in your bass lines
it’s very easy to play something unstructured...in a normal song the
chord changes often provide a framework for the listener. But although
there is a melodic framework in the tune - the difference between the
verses and the choruses - it’s interesting to see Tommy create a two bar
groove to create a little bit of structure below the surface.
So let’s go through some patterns. First up here’s the first 8 bars that
Tommy plays. Notice how he’s effectively using the same pattern for the
majority of this section - but then he switches up the approach to the
downbeat in Bar 8 to signify/communicate the fact that the song is mov-
ing from the ‘Chain Chain Chain’ section to the verse:
Now you could play through the entire tune with this kind of pattern!
But Tommy varies it up with some simple variations - so we’ll go through
some of those.
Here’s the kind of 4 bar pattern that Tommy uses for the ‘verses:’
And he uses this selection of notes for a lot of the rest of the tune. Varia-
tions tend to be simple and rhythmic. Like this:
The one other variation I want to cover happens in the second half of the
song after the 8 bar section where the bass drops out. There is a nice
little run that Tommy uses that goes to the octave. Like this:
Now of course you can experiment with your own variations as well. But
the variations I’ve outlined above will get you through the tune in the
manner that Tommy plays through it.
One thing - when the bass drops out for 8 bars and then it comes back
in, the pick up note on the ‘and’ of Beat 4 of that eighth bar of the drop
out section is a Bb.
`
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 C
2. Aim for performance tempo to be around 120 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 just type C7 in for your backing track!
As always there is a bass less backing track on the Issue 280 page for you
to play along with.
Walking Bass Corner 3
WALKING BASS CORNER 3
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 tune called But Not For Me.
And this is quite a well known ‘jazz bass line’ - the bass line is played by
Israel Crosby and featured on the Ahmad Jamal live album ‘At The Persh-
ing.’
This album was recorded in the late 50s, and we are fortunate (as jazz
students) that there are several recordings of the Ahmad Jamal Trio from
this period that are readily and cheaply available. They are definitely
worth getting and studying - Israel Crosby was a really understated bass
player who created melodic bass lines. If you ever want to study ‘2 beat’
style then these recordings are required listening - Crosby and Jamal’s
Drummer (Vernal Fournier) were acknowledged masters of the 2 beat
style.
But Not For Me is a short song with an ABAC form - it’s only played for
three choruses. We’re going to study the middle chorus:
22 First Bass And Beyond | Issue 280 | 20 Feb 2015 | how-to-play-bass.com
The next step in the process is to analyze what’s going on in terms of
how the notes relate to the chords.
The kind of annotation I use is based on numbers, and those numbers

represent the scale degree. 5=the fifth. 3 -= the major third. b3 = the
minor third and so on.
Other annotations include:
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.
And so on. Here’s the analyzed version of the transcription:
So that’s what we’re going to be looking at in more depth. Let’s get ana-
lyzing.
1. The Downbeat
I always like to start by looking at what the player does on the downbeat.
Now Jamal’s trio had a very ‘structured’ and very distinct sound. And it’s
not an ‘outside’ sound in jazz - so it may come as something of a surprise
to see the notes that Crosby leads with.
Of course there are a good number of bars that start with the root - in
fact there are 16 - but you also find Crosby starting bars on the 5th, the
3rd, the flat 7th, the 2nd and also for the A+7 bar (Bar 14) he starts on
the augmented 5th.
(A quick ‘theory’ note: the A+7 chord is an A augmented 7 chord. That

is a chord made up of an ‘augmented’ triad and a flat 7. The augmented
triad is root, major third and sharp (or augmented) 5th. In the key of A,
the normal 5th is E, so the augmented 5th is E#. Hence E# is used on the
score. Enharmonically E# is the same note as F natural...but I’ve used E#
because that’s the ‘correct’ note from a theoretical point of view. In an-
other bar if that note was functioning as a chromatic note, then I’d use E
natural. But it’s a chord tone....so although some people would notate it
as F, I feel it should be notated as E#.)
2. Use Of Range Fretboard / Contrast Between Vertical And Linear

Lines
The next thing that’s noticeable about this 32 bars of bass line is how
much of the fretboard Crosby uses.
At the end of the 32 bar section he gets right up to high C - and he also
uses the open E string. So he’s using the entire range of the fretboard -
that’s a great idea to work on. It’s quite common for beginning walking
bass players to play down at the business end of the bass.
So a great exercise to take from this might be to make sure that in a 32

bar walking chorus there are at least 8 bars played where the line gets
above say E at the 9th fret of the G string.
It’s also worth noting how Crosby gets up into the upper register - and
how he transitions out of the upper register. (If you’re practicing this
specific transition then any walking bass examples can serve as exam-
ples of how to do this. So cross reference with other columns in this se-
ries.)
3. Octave Displacement
There are a couple of great examples of ‘octave displacement’ in Crosby’s

32 bars. Here is the last 4 bars to look at:
If you look at the notes that I’ve ‘bracketed’ you’ll find they are:
B - A- G- F- E- D- E and then the notes climb up.
So that’s a simple, linear sequence. But note that Crosby uses octave dis-
placement from the F in the G7b9 chord and jumps up to the next note
in the sequence (E).
So it’s a great way to inject verticality into a simple sequence. And you
can do this the other way too - you can create an ascending linear se-
quence and drop down.
Here’s another example that starts at Bar 21:
Again look at the notes starting from the Bm7 chord:
F# - E - D- B - Bb - Ab - G - F (shift) E - D - C - Bb
So again, a simple linear sequence that’s broken up by the octave shift.
3A - Octave Approach And Interval Jumps
You’ll also see Crosby uses the interval jumps to inject verticality into his
lines too. Here’s an example at the end of Bar 2:
Consider these 4 bars - bars 9 to 12 - and you’ll find two examples of

interval jumps using the octave AND you’ll find two examples of Octave-
5th-Root which is another common way of putting verticality into your
lines:
4. Use Of Fundamental Chord Tones
If you look at the ‘numbers’ on the analysis you’ll find a great deal of the
analyzed notes are either fundamental chord tones - roots or thirds (ma-
jor or minor), fifths (including the augmented fifth!), and sevenths (ma-
jor or minor) - OR they are primary colour tones. Primary colour tones
are the second and the sixth (and the 4th for minor chords).
There are very few chromatic notes or non-scalar notes used in Crosby’s
bass line. In the hands of someone inexperienced this could lead to
predictable - and mostly linear - bass lines. But Crosby’s use of octave
displacement allows him to create an interesting line that covers almost
the entire fingerboard and is never predictable.
He’s also great at using open strings to help facilitate position shifts and
just as part of his bass lines in this 32 bar section. All 4 of the open string
notes - E,A, D and G of course - tend to be notes found in the scales of
the chords through the song and Crosby makes use of this.
5. Predominantly Quarter Note Rhythm
Although this is a modest tempo, Crosby plays a predominantly quarter

note rhythm.
It’s possible this is deliberate - as if you listen to the full song you’ll find
that in the first chorus he plays a lot of ‘melodic’ phrases as part of the
‘head arrangement’ of the tune.’
There are some rhythmic skips and a couple of triplets used - but mostly
the rhythmic pulse is quarter note. And Crosby is another of those guys
who swings hard with seemingly no effort!
6. The 7-3 Resolution
This is such a great walking bass idea that there is a whole lesson (and a
bonus lesson!) devoted to this device in the Walking Basslines 101 course
- in Bars 4 to 5 here’s what we’ve got:
The b7 of the Am chord resolves by a chromatic step to the major 3rd
of the D7 chord - this is a resolution that’s used in jazz melodies, in so-
los and by the comping instruments with their chordal voicings - so it’s
great to incorporate it into walking bass lines too!
7. Starting The Bar With The b7 (And Also The 2)
Normally I tend to shy away with playing sevenths on the downbeat. If I

choose to use a note that’s not part of the major or minor triad I tend to
use the sixth or occasionally the 2nd.
But here Crosby starts two bars with the b7 - so you can use that as a
model of how to do it. (See below for more on this). And he starts mul-
tiple bars with the 2.
The whole purpose of doing this kind of transcription analysis is to find

ideas and devices that you don’t use - and work on adding the ones that
you like into your toolbox of ideas.
Now the reason I tend not to use either the seventh or the second is
that they are close to the root and using them has to be done carefully.
Again, this bass line contains examples of both that you can model.
8. An Approach For Chords That Are A Semi Tone Away
In Bars 21 and 22 there is a Bm7 chord going to a Bb7 chord. And Crosby
plays through this by walking down from the fifth in the Bm7 chord (5-
4-3-R) and then continuing to walk down on the Bb7 chord. The resolu-
tion is strong by going from the root of Bm7 to the root of Bb7 - whenev-
er you’re playing a song that has two chords that are semi-tone apart you
can model this approach.
You should also be looking to find other ways to play through these situ-
ations and add those to you book too!
How To Actually Use All This Information
I’ve had a couple of emails since this short series started about how to
actually implement the ideas that you find by examining a transcription
in the way we’ve done in the last two weeks.
And there’s a ton of great stuff in this Isreal Crosby line - so next week I’ll
devote this column to showing you exactly how you can go about imple-
menting and practicing these ideas that you find.
For me personally there are several ideas that I’ve found in this tran-
scription that I’d like to incorporate into my practice and my walking
playing - so next week’s column will illustrate exactly how I’m going to
do this and hopefully give you lots of ideas and practical examples!
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.
Analyzing this 32 bars pointed out several areas that I’d like to work on:
1. The use of predominantly scalar material in a way that combines lin-

ear and horizontal lines
2. Starting the downbeat with the b7 or the 2
3. The augmented 5th on the downbeat
4. Vocabulary for going from Bm7 to Bb7 (two chords chromatically

apart)
5. Octave approach notes and octave displacement
So this has been a really productive 32 bar analysis! And you never know
when you pick 32 bars to work on what you’re going to find until you go
beneath the hood!
We’ll pick up next week when we look at how to implement this material.
Feedback?
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 10
DECONSTRUCTING TOMMY SHANNON - COLUMN 10
Introduction
So far in Deconstructing Tommy Shannon we’ve had a detailed look at

Pride And Joy and Love Struck Baby from the Texas Flood album. We
also took small detours to start implementing with the information un-
covered in those bass lines.
In this column we’re going to start looking at another early Tommy

Shannon tune - a tune called Tell Me Baby.
Tell Me Baby - Overview
At the moment I’m trying to work through Tommy’s output in a sensible

chronological order. Also I’ll be working through swing 8th notes tunes
predominantly. Towards the end of the series - however long it runs! - I
will see how the patterns and ideas we uncover are used by Tommy on
ballads and 16th note style tunes. (I’ve already had multiple requests for
Texas Flood!).
Now Tell Me Baby comes from the first Stevie Ray Vaughan album TEXAS
FLOOD and is another mid tempo swing 8th note kind of groove.
It’s also another tune where Tommy (and Stevie Ray) are tuned down a
half step. In some ways that makes our job easier as I’ll be presenting
the musical info as if this is in the key of C, when it’s actually in concert
‘B.’
The song has a simple 12 bar format and there is no deviation to the
chords and no stop verses. The only ‘change’ to the 12 bar format is the
intro which is ‘from the five.’
(Paul’s Note: ‘from the five’ means that you play ‘from the V chord’ for
the intro. So effectively the four bars of the turnaround.)
The other thing to note about Tell Me Baby is that although it’s a swing
8th note feel, the rhythmic unit that’s used predominantly in the bass
line is the quarter note. There are some ‘swung’ 8th notes used as an
embellishment - but often they’re really subtle and played really late -
and the triplet is used as a rhythmic embellishment much more.
Also worth noting is another of Tommy’s ‘tricks’ - the use of essentially

the same pattern to mark the end of the 12th bar. And he starts that out
in the intro. And in Tell Me Baby he uses a two bar phrase to mark the
end of the 12 bar chorus.
Let’s dive in a little deeper and look at that.
1. The Intro
The intro is ‘from the five’ as discussed above and is four bars. The first
two bars are just guitar and then the guitar and bass come in.
Here’s what it looks like:
You’ll see this pattern crop up again and again with minor variations in
the tune.
From an analysis point of view it’s essentially a simple R-3-4-Chromatic

run to the 5th. But it’s broken up with the triplets on beats 2 and 4 - on
beat 2 we ‘bounce’ back to the root. And on Beat 4 we pivot from the
chromatic to the 4 and back to the chromatic. (I must think of a name
for this device as we’ve seen it before in Pride And Joy).
Let’s move onto the first chorus.
2. Chorus 1
Chorus 1 looks like this:
I haven’t marked the analysis in on the notation because so far it’s pretty
straightforward.
The main melodic pattern used is R-3-5-6 - a pattern that we’ve seen
Tommy uses in both Pride And Joy and Love Struck Baby - and Tommy
uses this pattern with slight rhythmic variations in 9 of the 12 bars.
2 of the 3 bars unaccounted for are last two turnaround bars - check
the pattern against the pattern played in the intro - and that just leaves
Bar 4 to look at where the tune transitions from C7 to F7 (I to IV). Here
Tommy plays a simple variation of the R-3-5-6 pattern - he goes down to
the third an octave below (open E), then plays the 5th and then plays the
chromatic note between the fifth and the root of F7.
So if you go back to Love Struck Baby and Column 9 where we created a
‘riff’ based bass line....this is essentially the approach used in Chorus 1.
This approach continues for Chorus 2 and 3....let’s check it out.
3. Chorus 2 and 3
Here’s what Chorus 2 (and 3) look like:
In these two choruses the rhythm is much more unified throughout -

and you’ll note I’ve added () to the note on the ‘and’ of Beat 3. This is so
you can really listen out for that note as it’s really subtle compared to the
‘and’ note on Beat 1. It’s also really late....you may need Isolating Soft-
ware to really hone in on this because of the drums.
You could replace that note with a ‘percussive’ click and not lose any of
the effect in the line.
Chorus 3 has minor differences to Chorus 2 - not enough to warrant
showing them separately.
Where the bass line starts to get more interesting is Chorus 4, which is a
solo, and Tommy starts to stretch out.
4. Chorus 4 - Solo
Ok, here’s what Chorus 4 looks like:
Now Tommy marks this solo in two ways:
1. He moves away from the riff based line he was playing

2. The pair of swing 8th notes is much more obvious as the rhythmic
pulse
Notice that he also uses simple patterns melodically to vary his line up -
patterns that we’ve already seen in previous analysis.
Notice also the creation of the two bar phrase in the first four bars.
Notice the use of fifths or chromatic notes to act as approach notes to

downbeats. The only bar where Tommy doesn’t use this is Bar 9 going
from G7 to F7 - and he uses an open A string to move his hand position
to get that low F seamlessly.
Let’s see what Tommy plays on the next solo chorus.
5. Solo Chorus 2
Now in this solo chorus Tommy is stretching out some more. But notice
that none of the ‘new’ patterns that appear are new to us.
We’ve first got the R-3-5-6 bar turned into a two bar phrase by going up
to octave and then coming back down - so 8-6-5-3.
Then we’ve got another two bar phrase that goes R-3-4-Ch to the 5th,
and then 5th, 6th, b7th and the chromatic and the octave which serves
as a dominant approach note.
On F7 we’ve got our old friend from Pride and Joy the 8-b7-6-5 pattern,
followed by the R -3-4-Ch pattern. The downbeat is made more interest-
ing by using a descending Octave-5-R triplet too.
On bars 7 and 8 we’ve got 8-b7-6-5 again, followed by a pattern that I

think is a ‘mistake.’ It’s a R-3-4-6 pattern - and I checked and re-checked
because it doesn’t make a lot of sense. I think maybe Tommy was going
to play R-2-4-Ch to approach the G, then changed his mind and ended
up just playing the open A string.
The first two bars of the turnaround give us a ‘new’ pattern on the V
chord that we saw in Pride and Joy - the R-3-8-Ch pattern. And then
we’ve got the 8-b7-6-ch pattern to lead to the turnaround.
Notice also that Tommy plays the turnaround down an octave and has
minor rhythmic variations too.
Paul’s Note
The tab locations shown on all of the notations are the default locations
that my Sibelius software is working too at the moment. But having
gone through this a couple of times with bass in hand - and specifically
the second solo sections - I’m starting to think that if I were playing this
I’d move the locations from the 3rd fret up to the 8th fret, and use the
open string as the swung 8th note. I’ve listened over and over and can’t
be sure that’s what Tommy is doing....
(when you listen to something a gazillion times you have to be careful
you don’t ‘hear’ what you think you should be hearing! And often when
this happens I drop a note to a bass buddy of mine and tell him what I’m
listening to and what the two options are and usually he can give me an
answer without even getting his bass out! When I wrote this column he
was out of the country for a couple of days....hence the note.)
6. Remaining Choruses
There are two choruses left in the tune. These are very much like Chorus
2 and 3. There is a simple ending in the last chorus...so for completeness
I’ve added it here:
Thoughts On Tell Me Baby
In Column 10 we’ve looked at Tommy Shannon’s bass line on ‘Tell Me

Baby’ from the Texas Flood album.
And once this has been transcribed and analyzed we find the following:
1. It’s based on a simple ‘riff’ pattern
2. The last two bars of each chorus are played almost as is every time to
act as a signal. The only variation from this plays the same phrase but
an octave lower.
3. When Tommy does stretch out in the two solo choruses, the ‘new’ pat-
terns that he uses are all patterns that we’ve seen before in Pride And Joy.
4. When he does stretch out he likes to create two bar phrases and end
each bar either on the fifth to act as a dominant approach if it’s the same
chord. Or he ends with a chromatic note if he’s changing chord. That’s
not 100% always...but it’s a significant trend.
5. Something I haven’t really mentioned...but Tommy has a crazy rhyth-

mic connection with Chris Layton (the drummer). On some of the vo-
cal choruses I’ve notated swung 8th note rhythmic variations - some of
those I’m not sure if Tommy’s actually playing or if it’s a drummed note.
Those guys are seriously tight!
6. So far in two tunes after Pride and Joy we’ve not really encountered
any new patterns. That’s interesting.
7. A couple of mistakes? In the second chorus of the solos there is the

R-3-4-6 bar in Bar 8 that I talked about. Also in that chorus in Bar 4
there’s a triplet on Beat 2 where it sounds like he meant to play the third
note of the triplet but missed it!
8. Talking of triplets....there are a couple of interesting triplets used for

rhythmic variety. There’s the Root-lower 5-root triplet. And the octave-
lower 5- root triplet. Both should be part of your rhythmic and melodic
tool box, so make sure you practice those.
Summary
Tell Me Baby is a simpler song than Pride And Joy in many ways. But it
has been interesting to transcribe and analyze this - I don’t think I’ve
ever seen this one transcribed anywhere (and there is quite a bit of Tom-
my Shannon transcribed in various places, guitar mags, books, etc).
One thing that I can tell you is that there’s a lot of value and mileage
to be had by transcribing and analyzing bass lines in this manner. It’s
something I highly recommend that YOU do. Even if you only manage
to transcribe 8 or 12 bars a week and analyze those....the physical act of
doing this will make you a more appreciative bass player and if you take
the things you discover to your practice area it will make you a better
bass player too!
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 the last two week’s
Ask Paul. I’m going to spend the next two columns going over
46 First Bass And Beyond | Issue 280 | 20 Februaryy 2015 | how-to-play-bass.com
how to interpret the symbols that are used to navigate through a score.
Now the kind of symbols that we’re talking about in this column and
next week’s are used to cut down on the number of bars of music that
sheet music publishers actually print. I don’t use a lot of these symbols
in FB&B because usually we’re concerned with checking out every bar.
But you do need to know them. And we’ll get to Nigel’s “love child of a
percentage sign and a drunken S” too! (Great description btw!).
So let’s get started.
Playing Through A Score
The score that we’re going to use is going to expand as we go through

this lesson. Plus we’re also going to print bar numbers on the score so
that I can really help you follow along.
Let’s start out with a simple, 8 bar blues in a score:
Now this is relatively easy to follow. You start at Bar 1, and then play
through to the end. The double bar at the end is what’s known as a ‘final’
bar and means the music stops here.
Now, compare the double bar line at the end of the previous example
with the double bar line at the end of Bar 8 in the next example:
In this example the double bar line splits the 16 bars into two sections.
There’s no ‘musical’ instruction from that double bar line - it’s a
‘courtesy’ marking to help you follow through the music.
You’ll also often see this followed up with rehearsal letters like this:
Now if you’ve been a subscriber of FB&B for a while you’ll be familiar
with this kind of lettering system - it’s something I use in all of my main
transcriptions so that you can quickly cue up sections in a recording and
match them to the transcription.
But I’ve adapted a musical convention - double bar lines and rehearsal
letters are actually used when you’re rehearsing orchestral pieces and
say there’s a really tough section at Letter D then the conductor might
just want the orchestra to rehearse the section that starts at Letter D.
These rehearsal markings allow everyone in the orchestra to instantly
turn their sheet music to the correct place.
Adding Repeat Bars
You may have noticed that the 16 bar examples above were created by
copying and pasting the original 8 bar section completely unaltered to
Bars 9 to 16.
Now there’s a more economic way of presenting that information on a

musical score. And that’s to use repeat bars.
Here’s what it looks like:
Now I tacked a one bar ‘ending’ on to really make this clear. Here’s how
this piece of notation works. The left and right repeat instructions looks
like this:
||: :||
And basically everything between these two bars is repeated.
So in the example above you start at Bar 1 (and note the ‘start repeat’
instruction). Then you play through to the end of Bar 8 where there is an
‘end repeat’ instruction. This ‘end repeat’ instruction sends you back to
Bar 1.
And then you play through to Bar 8 again. When you reach Bar 8 you
then ignore the end repeat instruction (because you’ve already repeated)
and play the next bar, which is the ending.
So this 9 bar piece of notation is actually 17 bars long when played!
Let me just break it down carefully again so you fully understand it:
1. Start repeat sign.

2. Play from Bar 1
3. Play from Bar 8.
4. End repeat sign
5. Go back to Bar 1
6. Repeat Bars 1 to 8.
7. Ignore End repeat Sign because you have already repeated
8. Continue and play Bar 9
9. At the end of Bar 9 is the ‘final bar sign’ instructing you to stop
playing.
To make things a little more complex, you can use the Start And End
repeat signs to repeat a section more than once. To do that you add
some text to the score.
See if you can work out how many bars you would play if you were sight
reading the following bassline:
If you answered anything other than 25 then you need to go back to the
start of the column and re-read it!
The ‘Play Three Times’ instruction tells you to repeat the sections within
the ‘start repeat’ and ‘end repeat’ section lines three times. So three
times 8 bars is 24 bars and then there is the one bar ending.
So 25 bars.
Now as well as writing ‘Play 3 Times’ I’ve also seen these text
instructions:
Play 3X
3X
Repeat 3 Times
Repeat 3X
I’ve also seen this instruction written adjacent to the ‘End Repeat’ sign as
well. (And it’s where I tend to put it...but I think it’s more ‘correct’ to put
it at the start.)
Remember when writing music for other people to follow that if you put
in a ‘start repeat bar’ that they will be expecting an ‘end repeat’ bar.
Also if you want other musicians to repeat a section more than once
then you need to write down the total number of times that section
should be played.
Next week we’ll expand out from this starting point.
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 start to look at instructions that guide you
through a piece of music. And we started by looking at these markings:
the final bar

the double bar
the double bar combined with a rehearsal letter
repeat bars
text instructions to increase the number of repeats
If you are not sure about any of this please drop me an email!

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Transcription: Don’t Dream It’s Over......................................... 5

Video Tutorial 1 - Country House.............................................. 13

Video Tutorial 2 - Chain Of Fools.............................................. 18

Walking Bass Corner 3................................................................ 21

Deconstructing Tommy Shannon - Column 10........................ 34

2 | First Bass And Beyond | Issue 280 | 20 February 2015 | how-to-play-bass.com

What’s In This Week’s Issue:

In Walking Bass 3 we’re looking at a great 32 bars from Israel Crosby’s

In Deconstructing Tommy Shannon 10 we’re going to deconstruct an-

3 | First Bass And Beyond | Issue 280 | 20 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 280 | 20 February 2015 | how-to-play-bass.com

I was chatting with Gordon the

When I went to iTunes and sorted

So I listened to that back-to-back with the Crowded House original. And

Here’s why: the original is interesting enough to transcribe. And then

Some things to listen out for:

5. Use of contrast between linear sections and vertical sections.

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 280 | 20 February 2015 | how-to-play-bass.com

The next tutorial in the mini-

This week we’re looking at a

Now this is probably my favou-

Intro - use the intro figure

How To Program The Sections In Band In A Box

This week’s second video tuto-

Like Rock Steady this is another

Now the original was played by

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 kind of annotation I use is based on numbers, and those numbers

Other annotations include:

L.c. equals a lower chromatic approach note.

And so on. Here’s the analyzed version of the transcription:

(A quick ‘theory’ note: the A+7 chord is an A augmented 7 chord. That

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

So a great exercise to take from this might be to make sure that in a 32

There are a couple of great examples of ‘octave displacement’ in Crosby’s

B - A- G- F- E- D- E and then the notes climb up.

Here’s another example that starts at Bar 21:

Again look at the notes starting from the Bm7 chord:

So again, a simple linear sequence that’s broken up by the octave shift.

Consider these 4 bars - bars 9 to 12 - and you’ll find two examples of

4. Use Of Fundamental Chord Tones

5. Predominantly Quarter Note Rhythm

Although this is a modest tempo, Crosby plays a predominantly quarter

6. The 7-3 Resolution

7. Starting The Bar With The b7 (And Also The 2)

Normally I tend to shy away with playing sevenths on the downbeat. If I

The whole purpose of doing this kind of transcription analysis is to find

8. An Approach For Chords That Are A Semi Tone Away

How To Actually Use All This Information

in the way we’ve done in the last two weeks.

Going through short transcription sections like this is something that I

1. The use of predominantly scalar material in a way that combines lin-

2. Starting the downbeat with the b7 or the 2

3. The augmented 5th on the downbeat