Bass Guitar Secrets - Volume 2 by (C) Alex

Volume
II
“BASS GUITAR SECRETS!” – HOME STUDY COURSE
Discover the CG-X System to Playing ‘Killer’ Performance Grade
Bass Lines Right ‘Off the Top of Your Head’ Every Time
Groove Secrets
Exposed!
“BASS GUITAR SECRETS!” – VOLUME 2
Home Study Course
 2005 Alex Sampson / Bass Guitar Tips

14781 Memorial Drive, Suite #1067, Houston. TX. 77079
http://www.BassGuitarTips.com
Phone 217.636.4248
Welcome
Prelude to a Groove
Congratulations on finishing Volume 1 successfully and being ready to hit the

ground running with Volume 2.
In this module we’ll be getting deep into the entire aspect of ‘groove playing’ –
rightly considered by many as the very core of being a bass player, so I feel pretty
confident that this section will cover a good chunk of the things you boys and girls
are drooling at the jaws to find out…
Well I’m excited as heck too, and believe me when I say that you’re not going to be
disappointed!
I’m sure that looking back, any now ‘grown-up’ bassist, will freely admit that one of
the chief reasons he/she even picked up an electric bass in the first place was
because we were floored by the awesome power and irresistible magnetism of a tight,
well constructed bass groove.
In fact, more of the world’s top session bassists get hired for their ability to groove
play than for any other skill… And on the flip side, more bassists get ‘sacked’ and
avoided like the Ebola virus for their inability to piece together a ‘rock solid’ bottom
line.
…Sure thing… Fretboard fireworks are fantastic and I love ‘em as much as the other
guy, but there’s simply no escaping the fact that there’s more room out there for a
groove-oriented bassist than for a Steve-Vai-fret-shredder on bass. And that’s what
we’re gonna focus exclusively on for the next 150 odd pages.
It’s said however, and rightly so, that some things can’t ever truly be ‘taught’ but
must rather be ‘caught’… I believe that ‘The Groove’ (like for example ‘how to be Chris-
Rock-funny’) is one of those things.
…That kinda comic genius can’t necessarily be copied even if you were to hit the
stage and tell the exact same jokes and do the same routine Chris does… (But all isn’t
lost!)
That said, I still do 100% believe that even for ‘organic’ skills like humor and
‘grooviness’ there is a ‘method’ anyone willing enough can follow that (if stuck to) can
see that willing person catch ‘the groove’ or ‘the funny’ themselves.
That method is two-part and it’s;

1) Continually hanging around as many highly infectious persons as much as
you can (i.e. people who are funny as heck!) and
2) Learning, understanding and flat out knowing as much as you can about
your subject as possible. (That’s why stand up comics and comic writers are so well
read!)
If you fill your head and mind with as much ammunition as possible on a topic, and
hang around enough people who can demonstrate how to us that ammunition it’s
only a matter of time before your mind trains itself to deliver the goods fluently.
That point brings out two essential factors to learning to groove like a ‘puppet
master’…
Firstly you’ve got to listen to and be around as much infectious music as

possible. (For this reason this section will try to be very practical – lots of examples and
exercises.) And secondly you’ve got to feed your brain with as much immediately
useable ‘know-how’ as possible so you can appreciate, for example, little nuances like
ghost notes and the flatted 7th degree, that go into making a groove truly funky.
Sure as daylight anyone can show you what they think is a good bass groove for a
particular song, but at the end of the day that’d be only one, of literally a thousand
different ideas for that one song…
And over time you could become pretty good at playing what I or someone else
shows you, but would you have really learnt how to groove, or would you have learnt
how to play some songs? (And therein lies the problem with tabs! But you already know that
right?)
Now this is in no way a cop out for the information you’ll find in this volume... In
fact it’s quite the opposite. The entire CG-X method is built to facilitate those two
needs for you to become a better groove player… That is, infectious music and a
truckload of immediately useable ‘know-how’ and ideas for implementation… Not
to mention exercises to help awaken your own sense of groove!
But again, I just want you to understand the method we’ll be following. I want you to
understand that you’ll have to do a lot of listening, mimicking and a lot of
experimenting… I want you to understand that I’ll be trying to get you to ‘catch’
some things and that will only successfully happen if you’re 1) Truly interested in being
a better bassist and 2) Willing to consistently do what it takes in terms of practice
and listening.
You’ll have to continuously fan your own desire to become a better player… Excite
yourself about the instrument, take every opportunity you can to do something that
helps your ear, technique and heart grow and (again) above all, practice and listen to
good music like a fanatic.
So while no one will be able to make you groovy (just like a personal trainer can NOT
make you stronger) I can and will, show you;
1) Where to hang out so that you’re most likely to ‘catch the fever’ (and try to give you
some of the fever right within these page)…
2) The insider tips, tricks, practical lessons and know-how that act like sunshine,
water and some good ole’ fertilizer… And causes you to, in as short a time as
possible, grow your sense of groove as solidly as an oak tree.
That sense of groove that allows you to listen to an arrangement, any arrangement
and start laying out 1 of 7, 10 or a dozen or more different tasty bass lines that you
came up with yourself!
At the end of this course you’ll literally have developed a 6th sense that you don’t
even have to think about using, and the more ‘focused and correct’ training you do, the
more information you give your mind to work it for generating ideas, the more
‘hanging out’ you do around good music, the better and more fine tuned your sense
of groove gets… And therefore the better and tastier your bass lines get.
…So even better than just giving you a bunch of riffs and saying, “Hey bucko, go learn
these in all 12 keys and good luck ever using them!” – like some famous courses do – we
want to spend time with examples… Lots of examples…
…I want to spend time showing you the elements of a good groove and demonstrate
how to work these elements in context to performed music, so that you too can
appreciate what they do to a groove…
In short we’re not out to make, copycat tab addicts but to lead you to discover your
own sense of groove. So that’s the focus of this module…
There are certain mechanics of groove playing that you need to know, many
guidelines and many meaty morsels of knowledge that you need to posses if you are
going to uncover the treasures of your own sense of groove playing.
Hopefully I’ll be able to clearly lay them out on the table for you.
One thing’s for sure… I’m not going to hold anything back. What I know and think
is vital to your playing will be shared, and rest assured that these are many of the
same secrets that players worldwide relied on and continue to rely on, to
continuous hone there own groove skills.
Oh yeah… One other thing’s for sure ☺… Most everyone I bet is dying to find out
that in the heck CG-X means and how in the world it relates to your bass guitar
mastery.
Well let’s break the suspense.

BASS GUITAR SECRETS - MODULE 2:
“Insiders’ Secrets To Irresistibly Groovy Bass Playing” Lesson
The CG-X Method to Groovy Bass

1
Playing Exposed!
IT’S A SCIENTIFIC FACT that your mind better retains information that is
specifically labeled, illustrated and repeated. Think about it… Have you ever
wondered why a high school kid can remember the first 20 elements on the periodic
table because they learnt a silly little pneumonic for it?
Have you ever wondered why companies in all of their advertising, use short, precise
taglines? Often time less than 7 words long?
It’s like you watch an entire 30 second ad, and at the end the ‘idea’, ‘feeling’ and
‘core’ of what they were trying to sell (what they just illustrated) is labeled with a 7 word
catch phrase… and repeated for as long as it continues to sell product.
It’s simple and while it doesn’t necessarily cover everything the company does,
it hits you right between the eyes with exactly what their FOCUS is, and it’s
this simplicity and focus helps to develop what is called ‘top of mind’ awareness in
marketing.
Well that’s the entire point of my boiling down the “Bass Guitar Secrets!” method I
want you to follow into a simple, 3-point, specifically labeled system called CG-
X.
…To develop in your brain a top of mind awareness for what you need to be
focusing on to play better bass guitar, because in my experience most
beginner/intermediate (and even some so-called advanced) players have got it all wrong!
CG-X is NOT everything there is to bass playing, but out of this core fleshes out
everything you’ll study from now till the cows come home about bass playing.
As such, the term ‘CG-X’ will represent to you the essence of learning to play
better bass, boiled down into 3 simple steps and more importantly it’ll serve to focus
your mind on what I call the Big 3 of bass playing. We’ll be zooming in on, ‘illustrating’ and
repeating each of the three (3) main factors in great detail from here on in.
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“Insiders’ Secrets To Irresistibly Groovy Bass Playing”
Here’s what the acronym stands for;
C hordal understanding (Including Harmonic, Melodic and

Scale Know-how - i.e. What you hear)
G roove theory (Covering Rhythmic Proficiency, context

playing, genre studies and all that good stuff – i.e. How you
hear what you hear)
X factor (Arguably the single most important, magic eliXir for

adding NOS to your bass playing)
In volume 1 we discovered something very important… Namely that the bass guitar
can quite easily snuggle into at least two main categories of most any arrangement
you find yourself playing...
…Basically, the ‘what’ you hear, (i.e. outlining and implying chords and playing over/through
chords – In two words, note choice) and the ‘how’ you hear it (by twisting the ‘what-you-
hear’ into catchy rhythmic movements – In four words, Note Placement and Duration)…
Heck, we even mentioned the X-factor in passing, but we’ll expand and add a lot to
it. (Hint… It covers among many other things articulation of the notes.)
But before we delve any deeper into CG-X we need to complete a highly critical
exercise for your own good, if you’re ever to really maximize on the information
we’re about to share…
Here’s what to do NOW…
If, when you looked at the explanation of the CG-X formula, your first thought was,
“Huh? Is that it?!” you need to…
…Go into the kitchen right now, get a frying pan and…
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Smack Yourself Upside The Head With It!!!

(Don’t worry I’ll wait for you to go do that, ice your head off and come back.)
When you get back let me ask you a question…
If you ever find yourself in a bar fight against a 290 pound, 6 foot 3 inch, dude
named Rhino… Which skill would you prefer – Some complicated Tiger Claw,
Karate Kid, bull-crap or the cut to the chase, straightforward ability to totally wipe
out Rhino in 5 seconds flat with one well planted kick to the nuts?
I don’t know about you, but I’d take my chances with the 5 second wipe out then get
the heck outta the bar.
What’s the point you ask?
Well Pinky, the point is that **SIMPLE is good**… Scratch that… Simple is
GREAT… In fact, well executed simplicity, is pure GENIUS and it’s beautiful
genius at that!
Simple gets the job done, simple is easily remembered, simple is effective and
deadly… So the CG-X route may appear simple, but it as it unfolds you’ll see it
totally rocks!
As we go along you’ll discover truckloads of little nuances in the way I present the
formula that hopefully will totally blow your mind so I dare you not to discount it
because of any pre-conceived notions, because the fact is this approach and the
totally unique way it is explained is extremely sound as you’ll soon discover.
I mean it’s obvious when you think about it. The better your understanding of;
1) Your options for playing over/outlining different chords, joining chords

smoothly and harmonizing with the progression – the better a bassist you’re
gonna be…
2) …The more acute your rhythmic sense of groove is, the more you
understand your musical space and the spectrum you ‘own’ in a band – the
better a bassist you’re gonna be…
3) And without a doubt the more of the X-Factor (that we’ll reveal a bit later)
you can mix in and apply to your playing – the more firepower you’re gonna
pack…
(One more rant as we dig in)… As I’m writing this, I got a bass instrumental CD playing
in the background…
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It’s a celebrated session bassist who, I’m willing to bet is almost exclusively called on
for his ability to lock a solid and irresistible groove. And from what I’m hearing, the
grooves are technically simple… The mood and feel however are undeniably
powerful and heavily contributed to by the ‘background’ bass lines.
You see, getting a solid, dependable ‘in the pocket’ groove locked is one problem in
itself for most players, but above and beyond that is making it interesting enough, yet
follow-able enough (un-confusing if you will) to make people want to listen… Want to
tap their feet, want to bop their heads… Make musicians want to play over it.
I say that to say this…
Not Everything You Play Has To Be

‘Busy’ Or Cluttered To Be Good…
Not everything has to be loud… Not every bass line has to be filled top to bottom
with slap pop.
Sometimes it’s best to use simplicity thinking when you approach your grooves, and
often times ‘simplicity thinking’ where you look at the lowest common denominator
and build up, leads to fantastic ideas your mind would have ignored if you just
started out in crazy mode...
So what’s your approach instead? What is this ‘simplicity thinking’ and how can I use
it to build grooves that are mouth-watering?
(I’m about to say two EXTREMELY important things in the next chapter, and hope that you
catch them, so pay close attention…The rest of this volume is built on the foundation of these two
ideas and in fact if you really catch these two concepts alone they would have re-paid for the cost of
this entire manual by themselves. ) Read on!
1 Minute Summary: We are going to boil our groove

playing development down to three (3) main factors
that we’ll expand on as we go… 1) Better ‘Chord’
understanding and knowing what notes to play when we
see certain chords. 2) Better ‘Groove-ability’ in
the form of knowing how to rhythmically play in
context to the rest of the band and more
specifically the drummer. (Dealing a lot with note
placement and note duration) 3) How to apply the X-
factor to your bass playing to ignite the
tastefulness and irresistibility of everything you
play. That’s it… 3 powerful steps we’ll cover in
detail and you’ll be playing performance level bass
in no time.
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“Insiders’ Secrets To Irresistibly Groovy Bass Playing” Lesson
A Surefire, Two-Pronged Psychological

2
Approach To Making Almost Any
Groove You Play Literally Irresistible
To Your Listeners Ear!
There are two universally PROVEN psychological concepts I learnt about how the
mind processes information that at first glance may seem to have nothing to do with
bass playing… I later realized that nothing could be further from the truth! In fact
I’d now argue that they are indispensable to learning to groove properly… And I’ve
never quite seen anyone explain these two keys quite like this…
1) The More Clearly You Can Say Something

And The Fewer Words You Take To Say It
The More Powerfully It Is Received!
This is as true for music as it is for the written and spoken word. Think of any one
person you consider wise or very sharp. 9 times outta 10 these are people who don’t
talk a lot but choose their words carefully, say precisely enough to get the point
across and move on. (Even if they leave you thinking about it after!)
Now think about the person who talks too much or even worse… Explains a joke
long after the punch line was delivered… Don’t they just scream “Cheesy!”
Point… If you can say something in 15 words but choose instead to say it in 150
you affect and move your listener FAR less… In fact every ‘loose’ word takes
away more and more of the power of what you first said.
And that truth is the same for musicians.
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If you can present a grove idea with 20 notes don’t use 200… 99.999% of the time,
less is more! Short, CLEAR, crisp and essential is where it is at!
2) In The Context Of Presenting An Idea,

Gradually Building Upon Something That Is
Already KNOWN and ACCEPTED By The
Listeners’ Mind, Makes Everything You Say
To Them Based On That, 10 Times As
Powerful!
If I’m presenting some advanced formula to a math dude and I can tie it in to and
use as reference, ideas he already knows and accepts as true, so much so that I almost lead
him into ‘predicting’ the outcome himself, he’ll totally be blown away by my
genius. (In other words leading someone into an ‘AH-Ha’ moment rather than just telling them
outright.)
Same goes for presenting a new idea in song… If we can first give the listener
something accept as dependable and unwavering (done by repeating a short, clear,
crisp and essential groove line) and only then build on that accepted idea, in a gradual
follow-able sequence that engages them in the process, they will be blown away by
your genius.
…Establish a crisp, clear, to-the-point and dependable groove idea, repeat it so that
the listener comes to accept it as a ‘given’ and then build on that idea by making slight
variations to it as your proceed consistently keeping enough of ‘the known groove line’
so that the listener is always right there with you.
If you get only those first two concepts we just discussed you’re already easily
ahead of 80% of the pack… And since grooving well is one skill that you
absolutely positively need to hold as a bassist these concepts are as indispensable as
fuel is to a car;
1) Less is Usually More

(CD 2 Sound Sample 1)
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2) Establish A Well Accepted Motif and Only Then

Gradually Vary It (CD 2 Sound Sample 2)
..If you can mentally approach each song with these two secrets alone in mind I
guarantee you they will easily make every groove you play 10 times as powerful
to your listener’s ear, and go a long way into taking you deep into the world of very
advanced ‘magnetic-grooving’.
Ask bass gurus like John Patitucci, Alain Caron, Anthony Jackson and Victor
Wooten where the real beef is… They can dance circles around most anyone who
touches a bass guitar, and yet I bet they’d come right home and tell you in their own
words, exactly what I just said about grooving.
Make no mistake about it. These two concepts work every time. If you think I’m
fooling, “BUZZ! You’re wrong. Game’s over… Thanks for playing…”
So digest that and let’s move on. We’ve got an elephant to eat and it’s said that the
best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. You’ve already taken two very big
bites outta this elephant! No use in stopping now! So let’s dig in for some more!
1 Minute Summary: We’ve just covered two KILLER

concepts to guide us in our groove playing. 1) Less
is usually more so try to play only what is the most
powerful and essential when building a groove part.
2) Great bass parts are built over a motif (theme)
that is first well established, repeated and only
then gradually changed.
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Lesson
Chord Fundamentals & the Vital X-Ray

3
Glasses You Need for Finally ‘Seeing’
Your Scales and Chords like You
Should
We ended off Volume 1 talking a bit about how chords are formed (remember that
whole scary ‘diatonic harmonization’ thing?) and touched briefly on some patterns for
playing two common minor scales – The Dorian and Aeolian Minor Modes.
We learnt that when we’re diatonically harmonizing a scale degree we’re basically
stacking other notes on top and turning it into a chord with 3 or 4 notes.
We didn’t talk much about Minor Scales, but we did say and saw earlier on that
Western music is heavily built around the Major scale and as such we’re going
to approach most of the other scale types like we approached the modes –
With the mindset that they are simply variations of the major scale.
Keep this in mind. Hopefully we’re clear so far.
Ok, let’s examine the types of chords we met so far from this new angle. IE trying to
see how they relate to/differ from that magical Major Scale…
Minor 7ths (min7) built from the Dorian scale

Dominant 7ths (Dom7 or 7) built from the Mixolydian scale
Minor 7ths Flatted 5th (Min7 5) built from the Locrian scale
Diminished also built from the Locrian scale
SIDE NOTE: Everything we progress through are vital parts of the CG-X formula
and you really need to continue dedicating the effort and time necessary to
internalize all the concepts to the letter.
Please don’t totally skip over stuff that you don’t understand and while you’re going
through it all, be sure to do any and all exercises I give and make notes of any
questions you have.
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We’ll start by examining the C Dorian Minor Mode and the chord that we built from
it.
The C Dorian Minor 7th Chord

Dorian Mode & Minor
As you know these are the notes of the C Major Scale…
C D E F G A B C
We want to see now how the C Dorian Minor measures up to the C Major Scale to
see what we can learn. If you go to your bass and use either of the patterns you
learnt for the Dorian Minor you should be able to easily say that the notes played are;
C D E F G A B C
Looking at the two scales side by side;
Degrees 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH 5TH 6TH 7TH Octave

C Major C D E F G A B C
C Dorian C D E F G A B C
…we can see that the only differences are;
The note played in the 3rd degree…

The note played in the 7th degree…
…both of which are ½-step flatted in relation to their Major scale equivalent.
Everything else is exactly the same and needless to say this holds true for ANY key
you try it for. As such you can commonly think of a Dorian scale as a Major
Scale played with flattened 3rd and 7th degrees!
Bury that into your head… You’ll need it later. If everything is clear so far, let’s
continue.
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The Mixolydian Mode & Dominant 7th Chord
Let’s examine the Mixolydian mode and the 7th chord derived from it – the
Dominant 7th chord.
If you go to your bass and play the pattern for a Mixolydian mode, using C as your
starting note, you’d see that the notes of the scale pan out to be…
C D E F G A B C
C Mixolydian C D E F G A B C
Again in comparison to the Major scale we can clearly see that the Mixolydian scale
differs by only one degree – the 7th degree! It’s ½-step flatted, compared to what you
would have played had you played a Major scale.
And like the scale, the Dominant 7th chord also differs from the Major 7th chord by a
flattened 7th degree…
I.e. Major Chord (C, E, G, B) & Dominant 7th Chord (C, E, G, B )
So it’s safe to say that the Dominant scale/Mixolydian mode is a Major scale
played with a 7th degree.
The Locrian
Locrian Mode & Minor 7th 5 Chord
And finally before we move on, the Minor 7th 5 is really somewhat obvious now…

C Locrian C D E F G A B C
The mode associated with it is the Locrian Mode, (somewhat tricky, since when compared
to a Major scale it has several flattened degrees) – Like the Natural Minor Scale (Aeolian
Mode) it has a 3rd, 6th and 7th but further more there is a 2nd and 5th in there
are well.
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When we examine the chord in relation to a Major 7th chord however it’s a little bit
less confusing. Since we are only using the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th degrees to construct the
chord it’s easy to think of the Minor 7th 5 chord as a Dorian Minor chord with a
flatted 5th degree…
Meaning that in relation to a Major 7th Chord, the only difference noticed is that the
3rd and 7th degrees are flattened (just like in the Dorian Minor) and further – as the name
implies – it also includes a flatted 5th degree!
(In summary the Locrian scale is a Major scale with a 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 7th.)
Hopefully you can see that the construction of chords (which give you at least basic ideas
for what range of notes you can use as a bassist) is not that difficult, although it may at first
seem so.
The key is to understand (by learning a few simple rules about the names of the chords) how
whatever scale/chord you meet would differ from a Major scale/chord.
And the added advantage of this way of looking at a scale is that because you can
probably already cover the entire length of the fretboard using the Major scale
‘fretboard agility methods’ we talked about before, with very little practice you can
also do the same for any type of scale – Just remember to think in term of how
the scale varies from a Major scale! ;-)
And quickly here are the chords in Triad Form (i.e. three note chords instead of four note
chords)”…
Application to Triad Chord

Chords & Two ‘Strange’ Ones
Quite simply the only difference between a Triad and a 7th Chord is… [DRUM
ROLL please] that we drop the 7th degree. (But of course you already knew that ☺)
So;
The C Major 7th chord (C, E, G, B) becomes C Major Triad (C, E, G)

The C Minor 7th chord (C, E , G, B ) becomes C Minor Triad (C, E , G)
The C Minor 7th 5 chord (C, E , G , B ) becomes C Diminished Triad (C, E ,
G )
There are two more chords that we want to highlight… The Diminished and
Augmented chords…
A lot of self taught musicians I know get shaky when they come across these,
because unlike the others, the names don’t exactly give an obvious hint as to their
construction.
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The Diminished scale is constructed as follow… 1, 2 , 3 ,3, 5 ,5, 6, 7 and the

Augmented scale is constructed as 1, 3 , 3, 5, 5#, 7. We’ll see the chord tones
below.
There are loads of other chords and scales we’ll be covering and as we go on, a bit
more understanding of the rules at work to create the chords, but not surprisingly
we’ll be using the foundation you already have and the thinking process you just used
in this section as a spring board to go forward.
Just to whet your appetite however, later on in the bonus supplementary report on
“Insider’s Guide to Chord Mastery – Playing Comfortably Over Any Chord
Formation” we’ll cover the following chords;
5ths add 9 Minor Major 7th

MinMaj7th Minor add 9 add 13
Sus2 6 add 9 7b5
Sus4 Minor 6 add 9 7#5
6ths Dominant 7th 7b9
Minor 6ths add 11th 7#9
9 Major 7th add 7#5b9
Minor 9 11th M7b5
Major 9 Minor 7th add M7#5
Minor Major 9 11th M7b9
11 Minor Major 7th 9#11
Minor 11 add 11th 9b13
Major 11 Dominant 7th 6sus4
13 add 13 7sus4
Minor 13 Major 7th add 13 Major 7th Sus4
Major 13 Minor 7th add 13 9sus4
Minor Major 13 Major 9 Sus4
And with the understanding you now have it’ll all be a breeze. I bet that you can
already guess many of the constructions of the chords listed here even without our
help.☺
So again to summarize, throw in a few more scales and give an exercise…
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Chord Scale Degrees Chord Tones

Major 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 1,3,5
Minor 1, 2, 3 , 4, 5, 6, 7 1, 3 , 5
Diminished 1, 2 , 3 ,3, 5 ,5, 6, 7 1, 3 , 5
Augmented 1, 3 , 3, 5, 5#, 7 1, 3, 5#
Major 7th 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 1, 3, 5, 7
Dorian Minor 7th 1, 2, 3 , 4, 5, 6, 7 1, 3 , 5, 7
Dominant/Mixolydian 7th 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 1, 3, 5, 7
Minor 7th 5 1, 2 , 3 , 4, 5 , 6 , 7 1, 3 , 5 , 7
(Very Important side note… It is important to notice that these modified tones,
are generally used instead of and not in addition to the standard note played
in the Major Scale.)
In a following lesson we’re going to come to something I call the 1.3.X formula for
working out chords.
And as usual the lessons build on one another so we’ve just laid out a big piece of
that puzzle on the table there for you and you’ll be using the knowledge you now
own about chord structure and how they relate to their Major equivalent… So be
sure to let this lesson sink in!
Here’s an exercise to help…
STEP 1: Using your bass as a guide go through the following tables

and fill out the notes to complete each scale and chord type for all 12
different keys. You should already know from Volume 1 that we take
the 1st, 3rd and 5th degrees to create our triad chords and add a 7th
th
degree for 7 chords.
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Ionian Mode & Major 7th Chord Type
Key Notes In Scale 7th Chord Tones

(In relation to the Ionian Scale)
1, 2, 3, 4 , 5, 6, 7, 8 Root 3rd 5th 7th
C C, D, E, F , G, A, B, C C E G B
F F, G, A, A#, C, D, E, F F A C E
B
E
A
D
G
B
E
A
D
G
Triad Chord Tones
Dorian Mode & Minor 7th Chord Type

(In relation to the Dorian Scale)
1, 2, 3 , 4 , 5, 6, 7 , 8 Root 3rd 5th 7th
C C, D, E , F , G, A, B , C C E G B
F F, G, A , A#, C, D, E , F F A C E
B
E
A
D
G
B
E
A
D
G
Triad Chord Tones
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Mixolydian Mode & Dominant 7th Chord Type

(In relation to the MixoLy Scale)
1, 2, 3, 4 , 5, 6, 7 , 8 Root 3rd 5th 7th
C C, D, E, F , G, A, B , C C E G B
F F, G, A, A#, C, D, E , F F A C E
B
E
A
D
G
B
E
A
D
G
Triad Chord Tones
Locrian Mode & Minor 7th(Flat)5 Chord Type

(In relation to the Locrian Scale)
1, 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 Root 3rd 5th 7th
C C, D , E , F , G , A , B , C C E G B
F F, G , A , A#, C , D , E , F F A C E
B
E
A
D
G
B
E
A
D
G
Triad Chord Tones
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Diminished Scale & Diminished Chord Type
Key Notes In Scale Dim Chord Tones

(In relation to the Dim Scale)
1, 2 , 3 ,3, 5 ,5, 6, 7 Root 3rd 5th
C C, D , E ,E, G ,G, A, B C E G
F F, G , A ,A, C ,C, D, E F A C
B
E
A
D
G
B
E
A
D
G
Augmented Scale & Augmented Chord Type
Key Notes In Scale Dim Chord Tones

(In relation to the Aug Scale)
1, 3 , 3, 5, 5#, 7 Root 3rd 5th
C C, E , E, G, A , B C E A
F F, A , A, C, D , E F A D
B
E
A
D
G
B
E
A
D
G
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So here’s a quick and easy summary of what you know so far about chord
construction.
We now know that chords are built from scales by taking the 1, 3rd, 5th (and 7th)
degrees of their scale, and as such every chord has at least one default scale we can
fall back on to use when we have to play over it…
We know that it’s important to learn our scales in terms of how they differ from the
Major Scale… So when learning the minor scale, it’s helpful to remember that it is
just like playing a Major Scale, but substituting a 3rd and 7th degrees for the
natural 3rd and natural 7th degrees you would have played. (This thinking allows us to
continue using the Fretboard Genius method to play over the entire neck)
We’ve covered the two ‘anomalies’ that are the Diminished and Augmented Scales,
and discovered that they’re not that difficult.
Now here’s a quick table with what we have so far. It’s a very helpful chart so you
might want to print it out and stick up somewhere you can consistently see it.
We’ll extend this table a lot in a future volume, give some hipper sounding scale-
over-chord options and show you how to more accurately select a scale/mode based
on where in the progression that chord occurs so that it fits the chord even tighter,
(I’m planning a whole other volume that’s all about advanced soloing and improv), but for now
we’ll just stick to somewhat broader fundamentals and start grooving!
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1
Used Over
Common
Scale Degrees These
Finger
Chords
Pattern
Major Scale Maj, Maj7,
(Ionian) Mode R,2,3,4,5,6,7,R Maj6, sus4, 2,
5
Dorian
R,2,3 ,4,5,6,7 ,R m, m7, m6
Phrygian
R,2 ,3 ,4,5,6 ,7 ,R m, m7, sus4, 5
Lydian Maj7, 2, Maj6,

R,2,3,5 ,5,6,7,R 5
Mixolydian
R,2,3,4,5,6,7 ,R Dom7, 7sus4
Aeolian
R,2,3 ,4,5,6 ,7 ,R m, m7, 5
Locrian
R,2 ,3 ,4,5 ,5#,7 ,R m7 5, Dim
Major
R,2,3,5,6,R All Majors
Pentatonic
Minor
R,3 ,4,5,7 ,R All Minors
Pentatonic
Blues m, m7, 5,
R,3 ,4,5 ,5,7 ,R sus4, Dim
Dim
R,2 ,3 ,3,5 ,5,6,7 ,R Dim
Aug
R,3 ,3,5,5#,7,R Aug, 5
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What we want to spend some time doing now is getting these scales
under our fingers before we move on, so here’s your assignment for
today… And please don’t rush it or skip ahead altogether. You’re
in good shape if you can dedicate about 1 hour a day to this till you
have a certain degree of fluidity with the scales.
STEP 1: Using a metronome or drum machine set to 70 bpms, practice each

of the above scales (starting each time on the low G note) in ascending and
descending order over 1 octave, in four-note cycles.
STEP 2: Gradually increase the tempo by 5 bpms only when you can play
through each of the above scales fluently as instructed.
STEP 3: As you practice, keep referring back to the chart above to fully
internalize exactly how each scale differs from the Major scale pattern and
make conscious efforts to apply the Fretboard Genius methods we shared in
Volume 1 to these scales. (It will only seem unnatural till you get used to it, then you’ll
fly like the wind.)
STEP 4: When you’ve comfortably made it up to 140 bpms for each of the
exercises, reset your metronome/drum machine to 70 bpms and go through
the exercise again, running each scale now over 2 octaves instead of one.
(NB To help keep these tracks brief I’ll perform the samples at
100bpm) (CD 2 Sound Samples 3 - 14)
1 Minute Summary: Learn to think of all your scales

in terms of how they are different from the Major
scale. For example a Minor Scales is the same as a
Major played with a 3rd degree and 7th degree
instead. This way if you master playing your Major
scale, learning all the other scales and modes just
fall into place!
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Lesson
A Quick & Easy Look At Some Vital

4
Arpeggios
So far we’re moving solidly. This lesson will be short because you’ve already laid all
the groundwork for what we’re about to do.
What we want to do now is see what the chords we’ve covered so far look like on
the fretboard in terms of a visual pattern and start learning their characteristic
sounds. This is important because the ‘arpeggiated chord tones’ will form one of the most basic
frameworks for choosing what notes to play when grooving over that chord.
We’ll use what we know about how other scales relate to Major scale to make it
super simple.
Here’s a diagram showing the C major scale…
By eliminating all the other ‘non-chord tones’ we can see what one pattern for the C
Major7th chord should look like… So if I played the notes one after the other in
succession, I’d effectively be ‘outlining’ the chord, or playing the chord in an
arpeggiated fashion.
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Secondly, we know now that a Dorian minor chord can be thought of as a Major
chord with a 3rd and a 7th so the visual representation of the chord tones on the
fretboard is;
or
Continuing, the Dominant 7th chord reflects a Major chord with a 7th degree
instead of a natural 7th degree…
And finally the Minor7 5 chord is obviously formed by taking a Minor7’s chord
tones and using a 5th tone instead of a natural 5th.
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For the four (4) arpeggios shown here feel free to try ending them on the Root note
one octave up from where you started, and remember to get the triad version of the
chord pattern, (quite obviously) simply ignore the 7th degree (whether or not it’s a natural or
flatted 7th).
I’m really hoping that this methodical approach is clear and understandable in your
mind. Let’s take another woodshed break and see just how you’re progressing.
STEP 1: Using what you know about the formation of chords, fill in
the diagrams to show arpeggio patterns for the i) Diminished ii)
Augmented chords.
Now, just like you spent time internalizing the visual and sonic properties of the
different modes earlier on in Volume 1, so too you gotta dedicate some time to
memorize both the visual patterns and sonic qualities of the arpeggios.
STEP 2: As per usual, it’s really necessary to practice with a time keeper;
either with BGM MetroPlus metronome, your drum machine or the personal
on-call ‘drummer man-slave’ you keep in your basement. (Hey I ain’t judging
nobody.)
So, setting it to 70 bpm, practice playing each arpeggio straight through

forward and backwards, extending it to cover as many notes as you can, in
one hand position.
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I’ve also provided a backing track on CD 2 for you to practice playing

the arpeggios over. (Recorded @ 70 bpm) The progression is a simple
CMaj7 / Dmin7 / G dom7 / Bmin7 5
(CD 2 Sound Samples 15 + 16)
STEP 3: As the fluidity comes, continue to practice with a metronome at gradually

increased tempos. Remember to focus on listening for the difference in sound
between the different arpeggios and as you do, try to come up with emotive words
that describe the overall sound of the chord arpeggios. (e.g. Sad, happy, depressed etc…)
STEP 4: Next, using the BGM JamBox try playing some ideas using
only the chord tones to see what you can come up with…
The idea is NOT yet about soloing, being fancy or even grooving
properly… The sole and entire purpose is to start training your ear to identify the
sound of the arpeggios as a unit against a chord played by a comping (accompanying)
instrument.
Again, as you practice, make a conscious effort to try to hear the chord tones and
learn their ‘feel’ both as individual notes and as a single entity. At first it’ll totally feel
like you’re not getting anywhere, but don’t be disheartened… Your mind is
subconsciously programming itself to recognize the tones-of-best-fit for the various
chord types you come across, so keep heart.
IMPORTANT: For Step 4 of This Exercise

Please Use ONLY The Following Tracks
From The BGM JamBox:
Tracks # 7, 15, 24, 50, 70, 85, 94

(CD 2 Sound Samples 17 - 20)
1 Minute Summary: Arpeggio study and being able to

fluently control laying them out over one or more
octaves is a big deal because the chord tones used
to form them are one of the first and most basic
clues we have for what notes we’ll use if we have to
play a groove part over a particular chord.
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Lesson
A 15 Minute Crash Course in Rhythmic

5
Basics
When it comes to building a groove we know that a lot of things go into it… At least
two of those things are stuff like proper note choice (derived from our Harmonic
understanding) and imaginative note placement and note duration (that you derive from
your rhythmic understanding). I.e. the ‘C’ and ‘G’ parts of the formula…
So when you pick up a bass guitar you better believe that, in addition to knowing all
your scales and chord formations, to play well you gotta understand a thing or two
about the time properties of notes…
Let’s see if we can quickly cover a few of the vitals…
One of the most fundament divisions of a piece of music rhythmically is the

‘measure’ or the ‘bar’. And just for ease of reference a measure/bar can be thought of
perhaps as a single ‘loop’ of the group of beats that make up a drum phrase.
More specifically, a measure is the division of music that represents one rotation of
the meter given in the time signature. (Keep reading even if you’re slightly confused).
Did you notice how easy it is to ‘feel’ the point where the loop ends
and starts over? Well the length of time it takes for that 1 loop to run
through is what we’ll think of as a measure. (CD 2 Sound
Samples 21) BTW that mp3 covers 4 measures.
Therefore a measure is not really an absolute length of time in terms of minutes or

seconds, but rather it totally depends on how fast or slow the song is being played.
Now to expand… If you were to sound a note or have one beat that ‘accounts for’
the entire duration of the ‘measure’ then you have what’s called in music a ‘Whole
Note.’
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If we take the duration of that measure and fit 2 beats into it so that the beats are
both evenly spaced out across the measure then we’d have 2, ½ notes in the
measure/bar.
Likewise if we take the duration of a measure and fit 4 beats into it so that the beats
are all evenly spaced out across the entire measure then we’d have 4, ¼ notes in a
measure/bar and so on.
Let’s take a look at the diagram below.
One skill you’ll have to develop if you can’t already do it is to be able to listen to a
piece of played music and verbally ‘count in time’ to it using any of the note
durations shown above. (Well at least practically ‘verbally count’ up to 1/16th notes.)
In other words when you hear a song played, you’ve gotta be able to first;
1) Identify in your mind how long 1 measure is… (Pretty easy since most folks can
already instinctively hear when a rhythmic phrase ends and starts repeating itself, or most folks
can learn in no time by spending ½ hour listening to simple drum loops on a drum machine).
Once you can identify 1 measure, establish where beat 1 is and therefore know
the durational value of a whole note…
2) You should be able to count/clap/tap your foot evenly in any of the

subdivisions of the whole note.
Here’s a quick method most musicians use to ‘count time’ for note values from ¼
notes down to 1/16th notes. (Side Note…Verbally counting in 1/32nd’s is pretty
quick depending on the tempo you’re starting at, and usually trying to sound syllables
as a counting method ends up sounding like gibberish.)
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In time however you’ll have a ‘sense of time’ so developed that you’ll be able to lock
on to 16th notes, and mentally calculate how fast you have to play for 1/32nd’s and
even 1/64ths
We’ll focus on verbally counting subdivisions up to 1/16th’s for now.
Note Value # of Beats Counting Method (Sound these syllables in time)

¼ Notes 4 per measure 1, 2, 3, 4
1/8th Notes 8 per measure 1, And, 2, And, 3, And, 4 And
1/16th Notes 16 per 1, E, And, Ah, 2, E, And, Ah, 3, E, And, Ah, 4, E, And, Ah.
measure
Triplets 3 per measure 1, I, Go, 2, I, Go, 3, I, Go, 4, I, Go

As you can see, it’s pretty simple… There’s really no rocket science
there and it’s equally as easy to apply this counting method to most any
time signature once you know the syllable sequence.
Now when a member of the rhythm section is approaching a piece of music, one of
the first and most important things he has to identify is the ‘meter’ of the song, or
the time signature that the music is arranged in.
(Before any one wigs out thinking that we’re gonna get overly technical, don’t. We’re not gonna
journey to far off of our ‘practical’ course.)
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Basically the time signature is the pair of numbers at the beginning of the music
notation that kinda looks like a fraction. This pair of numbers basically tells the
musician how the notes (or ‘beats’ for drummers) in the measure are to be played.
The number on top defines the number of beats per measure and the bottom
number defines the note value you’ll be counting in.
So for example, the numbers ¾ tell us that there are 3 ‘quarter notes’ – we’re
counting in ¼’s but there are only 3 ¼ notes in every measure.
…The numbers 4/4 tell us that there are 4, ¼ beats per bar, 7/8 says
that we’re counting in 1/8th notes but there are only seven 1/8th notes
per measure and so on… (CD 2 Sound Sample 23)
The most common time signature you’ll encounter is 4/4 (in other words you’ll be
able to perfectly count ‘1, 2, 3, 4’ in time to the music) and hence 4/4 is usually
called, ‘Common Time’ (represented by this symbol on a musical staff - )…
Alternately this symbol, represents ‘cut time’ where each note’s value is cut in
half, effectively ‘speeding up’ the notated music to double its written speed).
If this sounds like a lot of jibber-jabber trust me, it’s actually pretty simple. Just keep
reading and the cloud will clear shortly. In fact the audio illustrations we’re about to
go through will clear a lot of it right up.
Ok let’s see what you’ve learnt. Below are 15 exercises that are
designed to test how well you can count and play in time to what you
count.
I want you to look them over and work out what you think the bass line should
sound like. The answers to the 1/16th exercises are included on CD 2 (the 1/8th
note exercises are pretty simple) but BEFORE you listen to them be sure to work on
them yourselves first.
Enjoy the challenge and try not to fold ☺…
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STEP 1: Go through the exercises with a metronome set at 60 bpm, tap your feet in
time with the time signature (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4) and count aloud in the sub divisions as
indicated.
Exercise in 1/8ths Notes
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Page 32
Exercises in 1/16th Notes
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Page 33
Answers to 1/16th exercises 1 - 10

1 Minute Summary: Whether or not you think you’ll

ever have to read sheet music, remember this… Each
genre of music has its own characteristic rhythmic
properties shaped by note duration and placement.
Having a rock solid method for counting in time and
identifying any subdivision of the beat is downright
crucial!
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Page 34
Lesson
A Comprehensive Lesson in Scale

6
Mastery & The Only Way I Know to
Accurately Set Your Inner Clock Fast!
Ok, partner… Suit up, we’ll be doing some heavy lifting here today and we’re gonna
dive right in.
If you did none of our previous exercises so far, you better get prepared to do this
one. Today, we’re gonna see if we can whip your internal clock into better shape.
This lesson is CRUCIAL because a lot of folks think their time skills are up to par
and they are dead wrong. (I still consistently work on my time and will continue to do so
forever.)
Now I’m not even going to waste any time convincing you that this is arguably one
of the most fundamental abilities you will need to sharpen as a bassist. If you haven’t
already grasped that, you know what to do... The old frying pan to the head trick should do
just fine.
Before you learn to play with anyone else and play in context to a drummer and a
band, you gotta bring your own sense of time up to par otherwise sooner or later it is
going to show up and embarrass the heck outta you. (You’ll notice that I’m instantly
making a distinction between your ability to play in time with others and ‘your own sense of time’.
This lesson focuses on the latter.)
Think of a basketball player at home practicing shooting jump shoots… Before he

can learn to play with any team, and learn any formation plays from the coach, he’s
gotta learn to put the darn ball in the net…
…Likewise you have gotta learn to place your notes with flawless timing,
independently of others because you never know when your drummer is gonna have
a bad day, and the upkeep of the rhythm section falls squarely in your lap.
We’ll be working with another valuable worksheet you need to print out. You’ll also
want to make a few copies of it and at first go through this exercise daily!
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You were given a very special piece of metronome software and I want you to
practice these exercises with this and only this metronome for a reason. (Yep, once
again the genius of the “Bass Guitar Secrets” home study course and software bundle shines again
☺…)
What’s so special about it you ask?
Well first you gotta understand something… You gotta understand that playing with
a normal run-of-the-mill metronome, while essential and a great way to measure and
track your progress, is a weak way to work at developing your own internal clock!
And NO! I haven’t been drinking any scotch, whisky or Vodka…
Let me ask you something though…
If you spend all your life riding with balance wheels on your bike, do you think you
will ever learn to ride without them?
The answer is, ‘obviously not!’ And so too if you only spend time practicing with a
metronome as your time-keeping guide, chances are you’ll never fully develop your
OWN inner clock. You will be able however to hear something played and play
along with it excellently so long as it keeps playing, but you wouldn’t have developed
your inner clock. You’d have just gloriously trained yourself to depend on someone
else for your time – and even if you did, you’d have taken a lot longer than if you
used the method I’m about to show you.
I personally think that this is a crucial form of practice for any musician/vocalist,
because I’ve been in situations where live drummers and vocalists had to play/sing
along with a recorded track and for the life of them couldn’t keep the tempo without
rushing it.
Point?… Get a clue! On stage you’re gonna find situations where others depend on
YOU for time – Get ready for it!
OK let’s just skip the niceties… Here’s the best way I know of, to develop your
inner clock.
You’ve Gotta Practice ‘Holding SLOWER

Tempos’ As Much As You Can Without A
Guide If You Want to See Any Real
Strides in Setting Your Inner Clock.
…And there’s where BGS MetroPlus comes in.
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Page 36
The trick is that you need the guide to get you started playing in exact time, and to
help show how well you are progressing in your drills, but you also need to play
equally as much without the guide to develop your clock.
The BGS MetroPlus is a new kind of metronome that randomly silences and resumes
itself, (without dropping the tempo you set) while you play along with it so that you get an
opportunity to train your clock…
I have personally never seen a metronome like it. (Although with the size of the Internet
something like it may be out there, but I have personally never seen it.) So I’ll gladly take credit
for coming up with the idea ☺
Two more important things to note…
First off, I’ll use the term ‘Perfect Speed’ to represent the tempo you can play an
exercise at for 7 consecutive reps, without making ANY errors whatsoever.
(And of course getting it ‘perfect’ still doesn’t mean that you can ditch the exercise, it just says that
you did well that one day – In other words keep practicing this for a long, long time.)
If you know anything about me and you’re a reader of my blog you know by now
how big a deal I make about going as slowly as it takes for you to do something
perfectly and using a metronome to measure your progress.
What you practice here will become a permanent part of you. Practice does
NOT make perfect, but it sure as heck makes consistent… Meaning that you have to
practice the PERFECT thing if you want your practice to make you perfect.
Well in this exercise there’s a twist! I mentioned that to really set your inner clock
you need to practice holding SLOWER tempos without a guide. And the obvious
reason is that IT’S HARDER TO ESTIMATE TIME IF THERE ARE LONGER
GAPS IN BETWEEN THE CLICKS (and therefore fewer clicks).
So our goal in this exercise strangely enough is to be able to play at gradually slower
tempos! – Aiming to hold our time accurate at 45, 30 even 25 bpms eventually. So
we’ll start at 100 bpms and gradually decrease in tempo by 5 bpms each time we
‘graduate’ past a tempo.
Each day you gotta measure perfect speed (PS). And you are not to slow the
tempo until you can complete ALL of the variations of an exercise 7
consecutive times perfectly with the BGS MetroPlus!
Yes! This is going to be a tough and exhaustive exercise, but you’re a bassist… If it
ain’t kryptonite it doesn’t faze you. ☺
That said here are the exercises you will be using daily along with BGS MetroPlus to
create a killer internal clock!
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Page 37
You did some of these exercises before, but we’re gonna step ‘em up a notch to
better memorize your scales and, in conjunction with BGS MetroPlus, to accurately set
our inner clocks.
STEP 1: Start by setting the BGS MetroPlus to 100bpm and selecting

the ‘Fixed Click’ option. Set the parameters to; Mute=4 & Clk = 4.
Later as you get the hang of this use the Random feature.
You’ll only decrease by increments of 5bpm when you’ve ‘conquered’ an exercise at a specific tempo –
meaning you can play all variations of it perfectly 7 consecutive times at that tempo. So don’t
expect to run these exercises in a day or even a week.
In fact I recommend that you focus on doing only one exercise per day and a
different one each day.
This is formatted to be an exhaustive lesson, used on a continuous basis through

your playing life so sometimes you’ll find yourself practicing a particular exercise at a
certain tempo for quite a while. No problem there. Just keep doing it.
STEP 2: Play through the exercises, and record your progress on the charts below.
If you can, record yourself and the metronome as you play… Examine the recording
and be brutal. The main thing you are looking for whether or not your record
yourself is to see if – when the metronome resumes playing after some period of
silence – you are still playing in time with it.
Exercise 1
Starting from the G note (3rd fret, 4th string) play each of the following
scales in ascending and descending order over two octaves; For the
following sample I recorded only the first part at 60bpm playing 1/4th notes.
1) The Ionian Mode…

2) The Dorian Mode…
3) The Phrygian Mode…
4) The Lydian Mode…
5) The Mixolydian Mode…
6) The Aeolian Mode…
7) The Locrian Mode…
8) The Major Pentatonic scale…
9) The Minor Pentatonic scale…
10) The Blues scale…
11) The Diminished scale…
12) The Augmented scale…
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Exercise 2
Again starting from the G note (3rd fret, 4th string) play each of the
following in ascending and descending order; For the following sample I
recorded only the first part at 60bpm playing 1/4th notes (CD 2 Sound
Sample 35)
1) The G Maj7 arpeggio immediately followed by the G Maj triad

arpeggio…
2) The G min7 arpeggio immediately followed by the G min triad
arpeggio…
3) The G Dom7 arpeggio immediately followed by the G dim triad
arpeggio…
4) Play the G dim arpeggio over two octaves…
5) Play the G Aug arpeggio over two octaves…
Exercises 3
Starting from the G note (3rd fret, 4th string), play each scale forward
and backward in cycles of 4 notes over 1 octave. (I.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4,
5, 3, 4, 5, 6, 4, 5, 6, 7, 5, 6, 7, 8 and back down). For the following sample I
recorded only the first part at 60bpm playing 1/4th notes.
1) The Ionian Mode in 4note cycles.

2) The Dorian Mode in 4note cycles.
3) The Phrygian Mode in 4note cycles.
4) The Lydian Mode in 4note cycles.
5) The Mixolydian Mode in 4note cycles.
6) The Aeolian Mode in 4note cycles.
7) The Locrian Mode in 4note cycles.
8) The Major Pentatonic scale in 4note cycles.
9) The Minor Pentatonic scale in 4note cycles.
10) The Blues scale in 4note cycles.
11) The Diminished scale in 4note cycles.
12) The Augmented scale in 4note cycles.
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Exercises 4
Starting from the G note (3rd fret, 4th string), play the following patterns
over 1 octave. For the following sample I recorded only the first part at
60bpm playing 1/4th notes. (CD 2 Sound Sample 37)
1) Forward through the GMaj7 arpeggio and back up through the G

Maj scale.
2) Forward through the Gmin7 arpeggio and back up through the G
Dorian scale.
3) Forward through the GDom7 arpeggio and back up through the
G Mixolydian scale.
4) Forward through the Gmin7 5 arpeggio and back up through
the G Locrian scale.
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DAY 1
DATE
DATE:
TE: _______
_______
Lowest
Exercise 1 1/2 1/4th 1/8th 1/16th 1/32nd Triplets
P.S.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
DAY 2
DATE: _______
Lowest
P.S.
1
2
3
4
5
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Page 41
DAY 3
DATE: _______
Lowest
P.S.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
DAY 4
DATE: _______
Lowest
P.S.
1
2
3
4
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1 Minute Summary: Developing your own inner clock

and developing the skill to play along in time with
a guide are two completely different things… If you
really want to quickly develop your own internal
sense of time, it’ll be like practicing your
balance… You’ve got to start training yourself to
‘ride slowly without the balance wheels’…
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Lesson
Developing Groove Sensitivity

7
(Or, How not to be a bass moron)
Ok sit back, get the CD player ready, a couple of your favorite ‘groove’ CDs and put
down the bass for a minute… Let’s you and I have a little talk ☺…
Has this ever happened to you? You walk into a band room or perhaps you’re just
practicing at home with your drum machine. You got a progression going and an
idea hits you… You start playing and you’re thinking, ‘Hmmm this bass line can work
pretty good for the groove the drummer is craving out… Darn, I’m pretty proud of myself…’
Then somehow you hear another more experienced bassist’s take on it. Maybe it’s
your tutor… Maybe it’s another bass playing friend, or someone on the radio playing
a song with a similar progression and instantly you feel like sinking into the ground
because the person’s idea, while often times technically simple enough, is just so much more
tasty than yours, that you could smack yourself for not thinking of it first.
Well it’s not uncommon to have that happen.
In fact it’s not uncommon to ‘feel’ a better vibe from a better bass line that probably
had far less notes than the one you did!
It’s a common cycle a lot of bassist go through...
When we get started, first we want to play fast…
…Everything has got to be really busy, overly cluttered, and often times the ideas are
NOT well executed, because we’re trying to pull off things that we aren’t yet capable
of, so stuff generally sounds out of place and plain ole doesn’t fit… (How could it?
How much time is truly spent on mastering left and right hand technique at this point?)
Every groove we play has to be played using slap pop… Every line has to be loud
and call attention to itself, and sad to say, everything usually sounds like garbage.
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Simple example… Go to any music store and take a look at the general newbie folks
shopping for and trying out some of the basic bass guitar packages… See if they
don’t plug in and try to pull of some book lick that’s either supposed to showcase
slap pop or speed. (Heck do your own survey and see if ‘book licks’ aren’t all they can play. No
beef against learning licks, or learning to funk up a song with slap techniques, I’m just trying to
make a friendly point here as to what we prioritize on when we’re just getting started.)
Many times these guys are total beginners, just getting their first bass and almost as if
we’re hard wired, we instantly tell people by our actions that what we find most
impressive is being able to draw attention. (Even if it means putting our bass up our butts
trying to pull off something we simply can’t do).
Don’t feel bad if this is you. I did the same nonsense when I was getting started. I
guess that somehow I ‘subconsciously’ thought that the electric bass was an ignored
‘lesser instrument’ and that I needed to do something spectacular to ‘earn my keep’
so to speak. (You know, the mommy, mommy look at me syndrome.)
Good news is that by and by our appreciation for the groove matures and eventually
we realize that when you’re doing it right, you won’t need to try to draw attention
with any smoke n’ mirrors… It wouldn’t matter if you’re playing simply, or if you’re
complex – If your sound is solid and unwaveringly dependable, your time is
accurate and your notes are well chosen in context to the chords being played,
people will instantly know it… Heck they won’t be able to help but notice,
consciously or subconsciously, and they will miss your playing in the band if you’re
ever unavailable.
That’s what you work on… That’s what you want to be of priority to you. Tight,
well chosen and well placed notes, executed cleanly! And one good way to
emphasize such a feel is through some degree of consistent repetition.
The human mind and by extension the ear is trained to recognize and take notice of
things that are repeated.
You spoke about the concepts of less is more and motif-based playing before in an
earlier lesson. Well that’s what it’s about… Specific well built themes or musical
patterns that stand out because it is constantly re-enforced throughout the work then
once properly established, varied but by and large not enough to take away from
what was previously ‘said’.
So as a reminder, one essential element of a good groove is some type of

flavorful, recognizable and dependable ‘feel’ that is repeated, solidly, cleanly
and with confidence. (Remember our definition before.)
So eventually young grasshoppers grow up and notice that bass playing isn’t all about
being busy and playing a million notes per minute. And while grooving is NOT the
be all and end all of the bass guitar, it certainly is deserving of a lot of attention.
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Your groove ideas need more importantly be focused on executing well selected
notes based on chord understanding, well placed notes based on rhythmic
prowess and well sounded notes based on splendid left hand/right hand
technique…
The end result should be digestible and highly magnetic chunks of music that
cements together the rest of the band… Not the over complicated ‘all-you-can-eat’
buffet that leads to one thing – Musical Indigestion!
Again let’s just set the record straight here…
I’m not saying that you can’t be fast or complex. We’re saying that it’s more
important to be tasty. It’s more important to understand your musical space so that
you don’t step on everyone else’s toes.
Let’s talk about that for a bit…
If say for example you’re in a band and you realize that the drummer is quite
aggressive in playing and he ‘attacks’ a lot then your options as a bassist are to either;
1) Eyeball the sucker and compete with him for a bigger share of the
rhythmic space or…
2) Compliment him (Whether the ideas be complex or simple)
If you try to compete with him, more likely than not you’ll find that the band sound
ends up sounding like a whole lot o’ raucous because you’d have two entities
rhythmically fighting for control of the same musical space (remember it’s not at all
difficult for especially for a bassist to get in the way of others… With great power Peter, comes great
responsibility).
So groove maturity is also a matter of being sensitive to where your musical space
lies in each and every individual song and being able to fill it without erupting all over the
place.
Next you gotta understand the band’s culture or the general band sound. And believe
me every outfit you find yourself in, will have their own particular approach and
interpretation of an arrangement based on the type of music they feed their minds
with.
Is it one that’s pretty jazz influenced with a lot of swing movement, extended chord
variations and bebop derived lines?...
Is it pretty smooth and laid back?… Perhaps it’s syncopated and funky… Loud and
aggressive? Ask yourself what type of feel you are expected to match.
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Then when you listen to the song, break it into at least two main parts in your
mind… The rhythmic half and the harmonic half.
Then start looking at how full each half already is… Is it being filled well? If the
band’s musicians are pretty competent and somewhat attacking in their playing you
as the bassist may be expected to lay low a bit until you’re openly afforded a solo
segment.
If you hear that the rhythm section is playing a lot and filling most of the rhythmic
subdivisions in the song… You may wanna lay back… If you notice that they play
either very little, or that they are leaving a ton of space in between giving some easy-
to-exploit subdivisions you may have a lot of room afforded you to ‘busy it up a bit’,
(unless of course the music is intentional arranged not to be busy).
If rhythmically the song’s pretty well locked up, and harmonically it’s pretty weak
then your note choices and outlining the chords become all the more important. In
short, when you find yourself in a situation playing with other musicians remember
this… The mindset needs to be that;
The Overall Band Sound Is More

Important Than the Sound of Your
Individual Instrument!
…And sometimes the other folks you’re playing with might need to hear this as well!
But a word of advice… In live settings the best choice is finding where you can lend
a hand musically and supporting the other instruments rather than retaliating against
the other members – even if they are the ones stepping on your toes… Let it be and
talk about it after.
If you’re playing solo or perhaps you got the sway in an outfit to say to the drummer,
keyboardist, guitarist etc., “Dude you gotta ease up/Pick it up…” then more power to
you.
But an inescapable ingredient in setting a useable groove is first and foremost

SENSITIVITY – not display of woodshed chops.
Now again to balance this off, please don’t interpret this to mean that you’re the
band wimp… That all you have to do is play slow, boring and/or simple. It’s
obvious for example that if you’re playing in a three piece band you would find that
you would be required to play a little more because of course there are less
instruments filling the music out.
When you approach an arrangement, you gotta train yourself to STOP first, listen
and ask yourself, ‘Hmmm… Rhythmically, are these guys leaving a lot of room in between for a
somewhat busy groove? Does the band culture/song arrangement/genre of music call for something
really colorful?’
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Are my guys purposely leaving groove room for me? Are a lot of the sub divisions of
the beat solidly occupied? Is it the culture of the band where the bassist takes a very
solid lead role?
Start to think of yourself as a chameleon and start developing a greater awareness

and sensitivity for what’s going on.
It’s a terrible thing to play in a band where everyone is on their own mission and
they could give a damn about listening to the group sound.
But again the golden key… The single best way to develop that sensitivity is to
discipline yourself to stop and learn to take more purposeful notice of what goes on
in other people’s music – Every song you hear and every song you play!
Let me explain… It goes without saying that you are what you eat… And ultimately
you are what you listen to.
If you listen to Marcus Miller type stuff all day long, and play even in an old
fashioned church band singing old fashioned hymnals you’re gonna find yourself
wanting to attack a song maybe with a lot of funky slap and pop techniques.
If you’re into listening to a lot of straight ahead jazz your grooves will want be more
along lines of walking the bass to a swing tempo feel… Folks who live and breathe
up-tempo Urban Gospel, (like that of Fred Hammond, Israel Houghton and so on) want to
add colorful riffs and lots of ghost notes to every groove they play…
So inevitably you are what you eat because everyone wants to emulate their musical
heroes. The PROBLEM is most NO young aspiring bassist listens to how these guys
are applying themselves in CONTEXT to what the other band members are
doing.
The fact is, a lot of things that Marcus Miller gets to do in his band, where he plays the
LEAD role, may not be as often afforded you in your regular garage band.
So you need to train yourself as a bassist not only to listen to what’s being played,
but WHY it’s being played… When I listen to music I try to be presently conscious
of what the drummer is doing and see if I can figure out why Maurice Fitzgerald was
able to stuff in such a long riff at the end of a phrase.
“Wow this dude is outlining chords in a very detailed way… Another is playing lots of melodic lines
or saxophone derived lines and it sounds great…” But am I looking at ‘why’ that’s so and
the musical space and culture of the band?
Can I apply the same thing that a lead bassist does, to all of the music I have to play?
Can I afford to be really distant and uncooperative when the band it struggling
rhythmically with a weak drummer?
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You’ve gotta learn to listen to the whole, the way the music is arranged and take close
notice of the overall ‘band’ sound and when/how and why the people you admire do
or do not flex their muscles from time to time…
You can’t just listen to a guy and say wow I’d love to play complex grooves like
that… Victor Bailey is super wicked.
You gotta learn to listen and realize, “Oh ok, this is a possible application of the bass suited
to a 4 or 5 piece outfit with a very in the pocket drummer…” or… “These other guys are
purposefully leaving room for the bassist to roll his goods out…” or… “This groove sounds so
simple and it’s because the keyboardist is presently soloing not comping... Heck I didn’t even notice
that!”
Basically we’re saying to train your ear to listen to the whole.
You can’t just be a reactive bassist, who first instinct is always to ‘redline’ your
engine… You hear music play and you reactive without thinking go “slap, slap, slap,
pop, pop, pop” – or go “@#$%... Stupid tech dude’s got my volume so low… I’ll just crank it up
and smack the strings around a bit harder!”
…You’ve gotta be more sensitive and aware of the musical environment. And to do
so you gotta know the ‘why’… The purpose.
Remember we spoke of the purpose of the bass earlier? Well sometimes you gotta
shape shift and role play. And it’s all about understanding why.
Remember that movie ‘The Matrix Reloaded’ where Neo, Trinity and Morpheus visit
The Merovingian and he ends up telling them that they come to him looking for
answers but without knowing any ‘Whys’ and therefore the come without any power.
If you listen to music and don’t start actively seeking to understand the ‘why’ behind
a particular mode of playing you’re not growing and empowering your sense of
groove as much or as quickly as you should.
Again, you are what you eat, and of course that means that if you eat nothing you are
nothing!
So you also can NOT ever hope to be a great bassist without listening to as many
quality bassists as you can put your hands on from as wide a stylistic spectrum as
possible. But when you do listen, listen to the whole and see if you can start ratifying
why your favorite bass lines are busy/laid back/bouncy/smooth/percussive, etc.
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Later on when you get into understanding the genre of music as well you’ll get more
insight into approaching a song but chances are you’ll want to come back to this
lesson and reread it often in the future.
For now however let’s move on.
1 Minute Summary: Being sensitive to the ‘why’

something is played, the amount musical space the
bassist has in a song and the culture of a band is
one of the most important understandings you will
acquire if you want to mature your playing! Re-read
this lesson often!
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Lesson
Note Choice Revealed!

8
OK so we’ve got all this chord theory in our heads. We know some scales, we’ve
been working at mastering them and we’ve got some chords we can derive from
them. (We’ve got a key piece of knowledge that each chord has at least one quick
and easy default scale we can fall back on for notes to play over it with, and if
all else fails we got the ‘safe’ chord tones to use).
We’ve a good grasp of our role as a bassist and hopefully some more ideal methods
to approach both listening to and practicing how to fill that role more effectively and
we’ve started covering some rhythmic basics.
So what now? Do we head out to the stage fire up the band and just start randomly
pulling notes hammering away at the ever safe ‘chord tone bag of notes’ or perhaps
just playing through the mode associated with each chord we come across in the
progression?
Well, believe it or not, all of the above are actually great practice methods for training
your ear to associate certain degrees with different chords and getting a progression
under your fingers so to speak, but ultimately a bit more direction is needed when
selecting notes for structuring a groove. (Ya think?!)
In fact, you’ll soon discover that even when using the ‘mathematically correct’ scale or
mode associated with a chord, some notes will quite simply fit better sonically
than others. Translated that means that not all the notes that you can use from the
scale/mode will be among the best possible sounding notes, (although NOT wrong) for
building a groove.
For this reason we’ll take a detailed look at some ideas for going about choosing
(what in my humble opinion) are better notes to use when structuring the main groove
phrase based on the chords you encounter.
Remember, we’re first going to try to establish some type of solid motif that is
rhythmically attractive and harmonically correct… Then and only then will we try to
incorporate variations of this groove.
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The Root Note

You almost can’t go wrong here. As a bassist playing most types of popular music,
solidly stating the root note of any chord you meet in proper time will almost always
‘fit’ and help anchor the harmonic side of the groove to the rhythmic.
This holds true for all of the various chord types we’ve been exploring so far and
works especially well when your keyboardist or guitarist is voicing his/her chord
openly. (i.e. when the chord tones are played over a wider range of octaves.)
Quite often however beginner bassists think that the only place you can use the root
note is dead on the beginning of the chord change. Well, it’s a great place to have the
root, but I’m sure with a little experimentation (as you’ll see in examples further in) your
playing can ‘grow up’ quite quickly with your ability to move the root around within
the outlining of the chord.
The 5th Degree

This is a pretty neutral note in terms of chord usage, since 9 times out of 10 times
the chords you’ll meet up with will allow you to use the 5th as a note that reinforces
the root.
You’d already know that for Major, Minor and Dominant chords the 5th remains
unchanged and perfectly playable over these chords.
The exception comes around when you meet chords that are diminished, augmented
or have an ‘altered 5’ (like the Min7 5). But by and large the 5th of the chord is a
pretty solid and usable degree for grooving.
The 3rd / 3rd Degree

Now remember earlier on we established that some degrees have far more weight in
terms of making the characteristic sound of the chord? The 3rd and the 7th were
two of those degrees that we identified.
And therefore the 3rd degree is another great degree to make use of when building a
groove especially since it so aptly helps shape the chord. Another advantage of using
the 3rd is that is helps determine the hand position you use.
Think back at the arpeggio forms we gave you earlier… When playing over a chord
with a Major 3rd, (Major and Dominant chords) you’d probably notice that the hand
position we used placed your middle finger on the root note… And with chords
using a Minor 3rd (Minor chords and its variants) the default hand position started with
the index finger on the root note.
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The 6th Degree

Here’s another one of those neutral groove notes.
Like the 5th, the 6th is also an unchanged degree in both the Major, Dorian Minor and
Dominant scales, although it doesn’t carry as much anchoring power as the 5th that’s
positioned sonically dead center of the scale. So we use it (the 6th degree), but mostly as
a passing note to get to a stronger chord tone.
SIDE NOTE: Ok let’s interject a little information before we move on. There’s
this thing in music that we refer to as dissonance and it’s when two or more notes
of different intervals clash and need to be resolved in order for the ear to be
satisfied.
And guess what… Some notes carry far more of this ‘dissonance’ than others.
(Now that’s not entirely a bad thing! Sometimes we can use dissonance in playing to make lines
sound hipper and sometimes a note with a high amount of dissonant can actually help us more
easily identify a nearby interval! For example, you should have noticed how easy it is to spot the
flatted 5th degree when playing the Locrian mode… It literally stands out like a light house on a
pitch black night, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing!)
Ok back to the notes that carry the most baggage. General rule of thumb, the closer
a note is to a chord tone, the more noticeable the dissonance it carries. Think of it as
a sonic magnetism that gets stronger as you bring two notes closer together… It’s
almost to the ear as if the chord tone has gone sour.
Therefore, when grooving we try to NOT too heavily emphasize these degrees and
just use them more as passing notes to get to a more grounded notes along the way.
The 4th and 7th Degrees

With that in mind we can instantly see that the 4th (being only a semi tone away from the
3rd), the 7th (being only a semitone below the root) are not the best choices for playing over a
Major chord except as passing notes.
They contribute fantastically if you’re playing a style that purposefully needs the
tension and for soloing and improv but as groove elements, stick mainly to using
them as passing notes.
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The 7th Degrees
When it comes to the Minor or a Dominant chord however the 7th is a fantastic
choice, seeing as how we moved it a semitone further away from the root and how
heavily it helps identify the chord.
Over minor 7th and dominant chords, next to the Root note, it is perhaps the single
most popular chord tone you’ll be making use of, especially in the octave just below
the root note.
The 2nd Degree

Here’s a note that’s dead center between two VERY strong chord tones (the Root and
the 3rd) and is not a chord tone itself. As such it carries with it a sort of ‘stuck-in-the-
middle’ suspended feel.
We’ll not stress this degree too often in our groove phrases, but we can use it to
create that ‘waiting-to-exhale’ feel of a suspended chord and as a quick and easy go
to note for short fills.
Ok let’s have some fun. We’ve just covered some very important
groove building blocks so let’s see how we can use them. We’re going
back to the BGM JamBox and using the following tracks;
Tracks # 7, 15, 24, 50, 70, 85, 94

…Let’s see if we can combine what we already know about using arpeggios over
chords with what we just learnt about more specific ways to choose notes for
building a groove.
At the moment there are no ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ groove… Try to keep it real simple
for now but do feel free to experiment with the chord tones we just studied.
On the sample and commentary CD 2 you’ll find some of my own

ideas. Remember, keep it simple for now and focus on hearing how the
chord tones you use compliment the chord being played. Oh yeah…
Also try to play your own grooves first BEFORE listening to those on
the CD. (CD 2 Sound Samples 38 - 41)
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1 Minute Summary: Major Chords: We’re good to go

with the Root, 3rd the 5th the 6th. With Major 7th and
9th chords I use the 7th and 9th as well but not as
much in groove building as in making fills.
Minor Chords: You’ve got your Root, 3rd, 5th, 6th and
7th degrees.
Dominant Chords: You’ve got your Root, 3rd, 5th and

7th
So what about the other chord degrees? What about

the modes we learnt? Well you gotta fill out your
phrases right? They make excellent choices for runs
and fills to join our chords, so don’t worry… You’ll
find plenty of use for your modes.
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Lesson
How to Electrify Your Bass Phrasing by

9
Learning This Secret ‘Groove-Suck’
Method
This is one of my favorite lessons of the entire volume… And here’s why…
I’m about to introduce you to a quick and easy 7½ minute ‘change’ (that’s about how long
it’ll take most people to read this lesson) that is guaranteed to dramatically boost the
magnetism, energy and ‘grooviness’ of your bass lines.
If you’re looking to put down bass lines that;
1) Sucks listeners in and gets them moving…

2) Adds some serious horse power to your jam sessions…
3) Gets you gigs, either to play with a band or do session work…
…You really want to get what I’m about to say.
When you’re a phenomenal bass player you’ll probably be able to look back on this
right here as perhaps one of the few more critical pillars that is responsible to having
your there.
Now I know that this sounds like a lot and that it’s a ton of very powerful
statements, but I’m still willing to bet that I’m 100% right. And you can decide for
yourself.
…I however truly and honestly believe (and know for a fact) that the process we’re
about to go through – that I affectionately call ‘The Groove Suck Method’ – can be one of
the single greatest mental turning points in the way most developing bassists see and
hear the instrument, that 9 times outta 10 will instantaneously put you on the road to
re-shaping and super-charging every single bass line you ever play after.
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Here’s a short story that shows how I stumbled across this ‘secret’…
Having started playing music myself first on drums then moving on to the guitar
until I finally permanently migrated to the bass guitar I, like many players who follow
a similar route, at first brought with me an entirely flawed perception of what playing the bass
was all about.
I incorrectly thought that playing bass was pretty much like playing guitar only with
fewer and thicker strings. (Can you believe it? What a moron right?)
Well things didn’t fare very well.
I still remember the first time I got the opportunity to play at a service in my church.
I thought for sure that this was the time to show the regular bassist (who also doubled
on guitar and had to fill in for a missing guitarist that day) my skills…
For song after song my approach was to belt out random lick after lick that I’d learnt
from various guitar and bass books -- And although theoretically they fit, I’d see the
other musicians grimacing in musical pain and looking away, though I couldn’t for
the life of me understand what I was doing wrong.
After the service the first bassist, sat me down and said one simple thing to me as he
was leaving… “Alex, before you do anything else at least make it groovy…”
Not much help I thought. Talk about telling me something I already know…
“Thanks for stating the obvious even though I’m already a groove beast…” I said in my mind.
I went my way, he went his, and my practice sessions continued along the same
random path… I didn’t get any better, and there was something that I continued to
feel was missing from my playing that the really go players had.
So I practiced harder and longer yet anytime I was given the opportunity to play with
other musicians the same cycle would be repeated… I’d throw everything I had at
them and at the end I’d stand alone wrapping up my cables and equipment.
It was frustrating as heck and at the time I simply couldn’t see what in the world I
was doing wrong.
Then I started learning about my musical space in a song and started to get the idea
that I should try playing less, rather than more…
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Page 57
Well I played less, but it still didn’t sound good. It was just a less busy version of
what I’d been doing before. And to add insult to injury the people I admired on the
bass could play 10 notes or 1000 notes and they’d still crush…
So playing less wasn’t the entire secret.
Anyway, fast forwarding the story a few years down the road, through scores of
hours of private tuition and a library fill of instructional books, countless hours of
listening to music better than I can play, I distinctly remember being at home
practicing, and taking a break to listen to an Urban Gospel type CD when, just like
that, it hit me square in the forehead…
I can’t explain what triggered it, but a flood of bits and pieces of information I had
gotten from a million different places started to ‘tsunami’ back into my head so
suddenly that I literally got dizzy.
…The same thing that my tutor had been trying to get me to understand, the same
thing the church bassist had told me in a nutshell and the same thing that I had been
‘hearing’ all around me in every bass CD I listened to…
At that moment I had a ‘revelation’ come flying outta nowhere, that literally forced a
total reconstruction of my thinking and approach towards playing the instrument
that thereafter finally had my groove playing skills start to balloon and got me far
more joy out of playing the instrument…
Something finally crystallized and from that moment onward in my practice sessions,
almost magically I could listen to a piece of music and finally start building bass parts
that (although not perfect) were 100 times better and more powerful than my anything
I’d been doing previously!
When I jammed other musicians noticed it to! Soon enough they were
complimenting my playing and a few even started asking if I could show them a
thing or two on the bass guitar!
It was incredible to say the least and I bet you’d like to know what my fantastic ‘ah-
ha’ moment was all about…
Let’s break the suspense. What I finally got was that;
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If You’re Playing The Bass Guitar

For Groove Purposes The Instrument
Isn’t A ‘Guitar’ At All… It’s Actually
A Hand Held Drum Kit!
Stay with me now… I haven’t lost all my marbles just yet.
Ok so maybe that analogy is a little strong, but before you start sending me emails
urging me to lay off the crack cocaine, try to understand how I had to start thinking
in order to grasp ‘how to groove’.
And as wacky as it sounds that’s how it came to me! Later on I refined that idea to
this one… “Playing bass for groove purposes is a lot more like playing the drum kit
than playing the guitar…”
And if that still sounds a little iffy to you, give it some time and you’ll see for
yourself.
I can tell you this… Once I started falling back on my drumming understanding and
incorporating some concepts from it into my bass playing, my grooving abilities
started to soar and my improvement was obvious!
I mentioned it before but I’ll say it again... The bass guitar, (although this is not its
exclusive role), should really be thought of FIRST as a rhythmic instrument, with
the added ability to voice and outline chord tones. (Go back and read the
section on the role of the bassist in Volume 1).
So what does that mean?
It means that many people need to re-think the way they approach the bass…
What’s literally needed is a big fat paradigm shift that gets you to think like this… If
I’m playing a 4 string bass with 24 frets, my bass guitar for rhythmic purposes
is a drum kit with 100 tiny different pitched drums! And what’s more is that if
you could hold down your rhythmic role properly even using just a well
chosen few of those ‘pitched drums’ you can be a superstar on many stages!
Yep, it may seem whacked I know… But the concept I’m trying to get you to
understand is that if you approach phrasing your playable notes in a rhythmic fashion
similar to the way a drummer would approach his/her drum kit you’ll see leaps and
bounds improvement in your sense of groove, sometimes so quickly that it will blow
your mind!
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So again it’s time to play, but we’re gonna try something way different today.
We’re going to start training our minds and ears to quickly recognize, suck up, adapt
and apply sweet rhythmic hooks into our playing based on listening to key parts of
what good drummers do and seeing how we can compliment those parts.
As a bassist this is one skill you won’t be able to live without. Being able to listen to
an arrangement and hear rhythmic twists and turns – either with the help of a
drummer in which case you need to be able to filter down to the core of what he’s
doing or without a drummer and to hear these ‘hooks’ on your own.
Needless to say to practice this skill we’ll need… A decent drummer!
Now I might step on some toes here but here’s how I see it… Garbage in garbage
out… Mechanical sounding drum beats in, mechanical sounding bass lines out. So
my first and only caution is this…
If you’re going to do this exercise, practice either with a real live decent drummer or,
actual recordings of real live drummers.
Now drum machines a great… There are a fantastic tool, but at the end of the day
very few of them can replicate the nuances and ‘imperfections’ that make a drum
groove mouth watering.
A word to the wise is sufficient!
Now you might not have a decent drummer at your disposal so we’ll be practicing
with one of the fabulous tools you got for free – the BGM Groove Station – it’s a
collection of real drum cuts from really groovy drummers, wrapped into a really
clever piece of programming that allows you to turn them into your own custom
grooves.
It’s really fabulous if I do say so myself. ☺
The exercise I’m about to show you, I have never seen described anywhere. It’s
something that I came up with for my own personal practice but I think it’ll do
wonders for your groove playing skills as well…
I truly believe that it’s a fast track method to subconsciously infusing some of the
great stuff a good drummer can do, (including playing 1/8ths, 1/16ths, 1/32nds, etc)
into your mind.
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Important Note:
I need you to bear in mind however that this is merely an EXERCISE, and that
the sole purpose of it is to whip you into rhythmic shape.
It’s one of the things you should add to your woodshed sessions daily, and even
though you’ll come up with some fantastic grooves along the way while doing the
exercise itself, it’s not meant to lock your mind into thinking so much about
the notes that you’re playing as much as it’s meant to get you thinking about how
you’re placing the notes and the time you’re playing in.
When it comes down to it, to perform the exercise we could play any arbitrary
notes… The notes themselves aren’t that important yet. (Just like a drummer can practice
playing on one snare drum, his leg or a block of wood). For this lesson we are focusing
entirely on your ability to listen to a drum track, and siphon out critical elements of it
and apply those elements to your bass parts.
So in other words, forget the notes that you’re playing for now – those are easily
substituted once you get the time and placement factors down… (You’ll see what I
mean when we describe it.)
Some other things that this exercise will do wonders for are your right and left hand
technique, your position playing and string crossing skills. If you perform the
exercises the way I instruct you, you’ll be simultaneously working out all of the above
and making yourself a far groovier player at warp speed.
Let’s jump right in. There are three (3) basic steps to this exercise called
the Groove Suck method and 7 different workouts in total.
STEP 1: Create a groove using the BGM Groove Station program... Keep it simple at
first. In fact I recommend you just start with one of the basic funk grooves and put
it to loop by itself.
STEP 2: Assign a few notes in one hand position to different drum pieces. For
example, in the demo I’m about to do, I’ll be using;
o The low ‘G’ note (4th string third fret) to represent the kick drum
o A ‘G’ note one octave higher (2nd string 5 fret) to represent anything played
on the snare drum. (Including cross sticks, rim shots etc.)
o An ‘F’ note (2nd string 3rd fret) to represent the closed high hats and/or ride
o An ‘E’ note, (2nd string, 2nd fret) to represent the open high hats
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o And four notes… A, A#, B and C to represent the toms/miscellaneous

fills
Incidentally the chord I’ll be playing over using this formation is a G 7sus4 chord in
hand position 3 but again don’t think about it that much. Concentrate on the
rhythmic value of this assignment for now.
STEP 3: Play the drum track from the BGM Groove Station and practice mimicking
on your bass (using the following workout plan) what you hear the drummers do.
Workout Plan:
(N.B. As you’re following through this workout, it’s a good idea… Rather let me
rephrase that… It’s vital that you learn to use your feet to ‘tap out’ the music’s
time signature.)
Using the notes you assigned on the bass to represent the different drum parts;
Phrase 1: Practice ‘locking into’ exactly what the kick drum and that alone is doing.
(In this case I’d be using the low G note).
Phrase 2: Practice locking the activity first of the snare drum only…
Phrase 3: Next locking into both the kick and the snare… (Now I’m playing using
the low G and one that’s an octave above it)
Phrase 4: Next practice mimicking the pattern played on the high hats as it opens
and closes.
Phrase 5: The pattern played out between the high hats and the snare as a unit is
your next challenge.
Phrase 6: Using the track simply as a time keeper now, practice playing through ¼
notes, 1/8th notes, 1/16th notes and triplet notes. (Play using the notes you assigned
to represent the toms and the snare)
Phrase 7: Turn the exercise into your own unique groove. Try for now to come up
with 5 – 7 variations of a groove by ‘accenting’ your choice of beats and spaces as
sounded by the combination of kick, snare and high-hat, then explore with
whichever drum pieces you ‘feel’.
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Don’t worry yet about what’s right or wrong, what’s conventional or un-
conventional… For now you’re trying to train your ear to hear and pick up rhythmic
patterns are spelt out by a drummer and to fit in and out of any time values you need
to.
In coming up with different groove ideas for exercise 7 only, try to repeat each idea
for not more than eight (8) measures/bars before you find a variation of it to play
and don’t stop till you’ve gotten at least 7 variations out of a groove.
Some ideas I use for changing the sound of the ‘groove’ in the workout would be to
simply rearrange the assignment of notes for each drum or perhaps ‘accenting’ a note
either slightly before or after the drummer does.
I also play around with varying the note duration and dynamics. (More later)
At first it might seem a bit tough, but trust me, the more you force your mind to
come up with ideas, the better the ideas are that eventually do come out. There is so
much fun to be had with just a little imagination, one chord and a decent drum track
that it ain’t even funny.
I really want to encourage you to practice this unauthentic workout and let me know
the results! Seriously… I’d love to get some feedback on this particular lesson, as I’m
willing to bet your progress will surprise you silly!
You can send you’re comments to Support@BassGuitarTips.Com – Looking

forward to hearing from you!
1 Minute Summary: Here’s the deal… As a bassist you

gotta be a real quick listener… You have to develop
the skill to listen to a drum groove identify and
pull out sweet rhythmic hooks you can apply to your
own playing and you’ve gotta be able to hear it in
the middle of a lot of other ‘distractions’… The
Groove Suck method is one I recommend consistently
using to help train your ear to identify and play
along with or against different drum parts.
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Lesson
10
Groove Mechanics Exposed!
Ok, we’ve got a lot of information down on paper now, we’ve covered a very
extensive workout for training your ear to recognize and ‘lock in’ or ‘sync up’ to
several different pieces of the drum kit that interact to create the drum groove. Now
let’s see how we can apply some of this knowledge and have some more fun…
For this lesson we’ll be mainly using the information we shared earlier on note
choice and some different ideas for applying them in context to different drum
grooves.
We want get started and focus on, as usual, good consistent time keeping, solid note
placement and experimenting with varying note durations to see how they affect a
groove.
The First and Most Important Step to

Playing a Solid Bass Groove.
Let’s start by examining a simple drum groove.
The beat you just listened to is made up of a combination of main

divisional and sub-divisional beats.
When we refer to the main divisional beats, we’re talking about the count that the
time signature indicates – In this case it’s common time, so the main divisional beats
would be those that fall exactly on the counts ‘1, 2, 3, 4’ – This is sometimes also referred
to as the ‘downbeat’ of the groove. [As a side note] It’s also common practice to refer to the strongest,
most defined beats of a phrase as the downbeats… (Usually in common time the beats ‘1’ and ‘3’).
When we start splitting up that main divisional beat and identifying ‘fractions’ (such as
1/8th notes) we’re counting the subdivisions of the downbeat.
Ok back to our drum groove.
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When we listen to this simple beat for example we see that our 4/4 or common time
downbeats are further sub-divided by the snare drum which is struck on beats ‘2’ and
‘4’, the kick dropped on the ‘1’ and ‘3’ and the high hats playing in 1/8th notes.
This is exactly how you want to approach a new song, and this is exactly the
purpose of The Groove Suck Method you just performed…
The first steps are learning to stop, listen and consciously identify the way the
drummer is dissecting the arrangement and forming his part of the overall
groove… And you need to be able to do so even in the midst of a lot of other
sounds.
It doesn’t matter how complex a beat you are required to play along with, one of the
things you should be practicing to do is being a very quick listener and being able to
accurately identifying the pattern played by various parts of the drum… Most
crucially the kick drum, snare and high-hats, and only then either attempt to
layer a part that either;
1) Matches the kick either;

a. Exactly, playing only on the beats of the kick or…
b. A general ‘on-the-kick’ feel i.e. For the most part it matches the kick
and embellishes it with notes that fall in between its main pattern.
The main feel of the kick is still unmistakably inferred, but the bassist
plays over a bit more than the exact kick pattern.
2) Locks into the smallest subdivision of the beat (usually spelt out on the high hats)
and;
a. Plays notes where the general feel is ‘off/against-the-kick’ or
b. Almost independent of the kick/snare patterns altogether.
Now you’ll find that most books categorize a groove into one of two main groups…
Either playing with the kick, or against and in between the kick. Well in my system I
like to look a little bit closer and identify four somewhat defined approaches as
illustrated below.
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The reason I do this is because I like to keep in mind is that there aren’t really 100%
hard and fast rules about the approach you take to come up with a line and so I
prefer to think of it more as a spectrum…
You’ll find that a groove generally falls somewhere along the line between being “a
strong kick oriented groove” to being an almost “kick independent groove”.
But no matter what you do, whether you are creating a pocket by playing
subdivisions off of the kick and downbeats or you’re playing dead on the kick,
remember that a dependable ‘in the pocket’ part is your goal. (Meaning that your groove
should still hold together well, and remain tight and unwavering as opposed to loose and jelly-like).
For the most part I find it depends on what you listen for and more purposefully
emulate that determines the structure of the groove.
Fact! A lot of people aren’t as good bassists as they can be not because they are
technically horrible, or don’t practice, but simply because they don’t know what to
listen for and how to compliment it! We’ll see if we can develop a system here for
you to use.
Side Note: One thing you always have to listen for however is the high hat. If you’re
playing a live gig, get next to the high hat, or make sure it’s coming through clearly
on your monitor. And of course (as far as drums are concerned) make sure you can also
hear the kick and snare parts clearly.
Usually one of the most obvious things the high hat indicates is the tempo of the
song. But for me the high hats do a lot more than just give the tempo and timing of
the song. They help clue me into the feel of the song as well.
For example by listening to the high-hats I can usually get hints to if the drummer’s
craving out a 1/8th note pulse-type groove, if he’s beaming away with 1/16ths (a good
indication that I might be able to throw in some finger funk lines. ☺ ) – I can also tell if there’s
a triplet or shuffle feel to the music like you’d find in Reggae music, a swing feel like
in straight ahead Jazz…
…It helps me feel out if the drummer is playing a lazy, laid back type groove or a
bursting, energetic groove, just by the dynamics I hear he’s hitting the hats with…
…The way he/she is opening and closing the high hats also indicates to me how I
can match the feel by playing in either a legato or staccato form.
So if I hear a long delayed high hat clap as opposed to a short snappy one, or if he’s
keeping the hats somewhat loose I’ll consider matching him with some legato type
notes.
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There’s a LOT to be learnt from listening to the high hats, and when examined with
the snare and kick you’ve almost got all the info you need to carve your own groove.
Some of the other parts of the drum kit that give you clues for your lines are the
cymbals… Usually indicating among other things where accents, breaks, breathing
spaces and where crescendos go in the song.
So your first steps are to listen to the drum, identify the beat 1, identify one
measure and see what time the high hats are playing in based on its division
of that measure.
When you know this you’ve pretty much got your feel, and you can use it in accord
with the snare and kick to start building the bass part.
We’ll now use this drum groove and examine different techniques for building a part
based on what we just said.
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Approach 1: “Emulating the Kick”
One of the most fundamentally secure and solid groove approaches for both
beginners and advanced players alike is to lock into exactly what the kick drum is
doing… No excessive flourishes or fancy business, just ‘becoming’ part of the drum
kit and giving one of its main parts a tonal voice.
This method that we’ll refer to as ‘mirroring the kick’ has been around forever and
bassist around the world have been using it effectively in recording session, garage
band practices, live performances in front of thousands of onlookers and at home
practicing in the woodshed.
And fact is it’s effective as heck!
Blend in 2 cups of good note choice, mirror the kick to establish the main theme of
the groove, add a few dashes of flavor by incorporating some of the 9 ‘magic’
techniques we’ll share later with just a shake of well executed fills and runs in between
the turnaround spaces of the progression as the song progresses and you’ve got
yourself a wicked bass groove baby.
Let it simmer with some know-how from the chapter we did on groove sensitivity
and you’re smoking even more!
Even though it’s not the only approach to playing a part, it almost never fails if
you’re in a bind for ideas, and often times acts as the most fantastic spring board for
new ideas that you’ll ever come across.
And yet again sometimes it’s not only effective but highly necessary! (Trust me, you’ll come
across some drummers that you may have to help ‘keep in check’ from time to time and ensure that
they keep the groove tight…) In such a case there’s nothing better than establishing a
strong phrase that perfectly emulates what should be the kick pattern.
With this approach as with any other, the most important thing is to make sure you
have that solid part, well-established BEFORE you begin now to work around some
variations of that groove.
Again remember, the method we are endorsing is that you lay a solid, somewhat
repetitious, ‘motif-oriented’ bass part that you only later proceed to make variations to
as the song goes on.
(CD 2 Sound Samples 58) is a typical example of a

groove structured using the process we earlier described.
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Technically and theoretically this is a dead simple bass groove, but for the genre it is
a highly suitable, unmistakably ‘magnetic’ and powerful bass line that will easily have
band members and audience tapping their feet and moving their heads… This is a
perfect example of the ‘less is more’ and ‘motif then modify’ concepts.
Here’s the progression for your reference: G min / B Maj / A min / D7
…I started by listening to and locking into exactly what the kick is doing using the
most fundamental chord tone – the root note of each chord. To add a bit of
variation to line because of its simplicity I simply varied the register (i.e. I played in a
higher octave) of the last note of the cycle, the D note.
And other runs were both simple and based around the overall 1/8th feel of the drum groove
(A lot more on fills a bit later) and the result was (hopefully) a suitable yet tasty bass line.
Here’s another groove that ‘mirrors the kick’ – This one however adds
slight variations around the kick pattern but the unmistakable feel of a
kick-oriented groove is still ever present.
Using the following ten (10) drum beats practice building several
grooves that for the most part lock exactly/mainly with the kick
pattern being played by the drummer using notes from the lesson
we did earlier on note choice, your arpeggios and work in some varying
the register for interest. (CD 2 Sound Samples 60 - 69)
Here are ten (10) progressions to work over these drum beats. Try to come up with
ideas for using each progression over each of the drum beats.
Chord Progression Progression Type

B min | G Maj | A Maj | D Maj Vi – IV – V – I
A 7 | G7| G 7 | F7 I7 – VII7 - VII7 – VI7
Cmin | A Maj | B Maj | B Maj Vi – IV – V – V
G Maj | B Maj | F Maj | G Maj I - III - VII - I
F Maj7 | G min 7 | B Maj7 | C7 I – ii – IV – V
G# min7 | C# min7 | F# min7 |B7 iii – vi – ii – V7
F Maj | D min | B Maj | C Maj I – vi – IV – V7
F Maj7 | G min7 | A min7 | B Maj7 I – ii – iii – IV
F min7 | G min7 | A Maj7 | B 7 ii – iii – IV – V7
F Maj7 | F# min7 | B7 | B7 I – #i – #IV7
That should give you a total of [10 drum beats * 10 progressions] 100 grooves that
lock into the kick pattern. (Either loosely or exactly)
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No need to get extravagant yet… For now we’re practicing our lock. So keep the
note choice simple.
One of the biggest problems beginner and intermediate bassists have is trying to
overplay… If you can play simple, you can learn to play complex… The opposite
however is not necessarily true! For now keep it simple and keep it TIGHT but still
try to be interesting.
Lock those notes spot on… Start by nailing grooves that mirror the kick exactly,
then try to work your way a bit further ‘right’ on the spectrum. Try creating some
grooves that aren’t exactly matching the kick but that are still kick oriented…
In fact I recommend going through the entire exercise above twice… 100 grooves
that are exactly kick locked… then 100 more that contain a bit more leeway while
maintaining the ‘general kick feel’
So you’ve got 200 grooves for homework. ☺
A lot of work but of course it doesn’t have to be done all in one sitting… This
should form part of a practice routine. Its vital to have a routine where you focus on
doing specific exercises, and targeting the creation of 200 ‘kick oriented grooves’ for
the next couple months would form a great part of that routine.
Listen for the evil little gremlins ‘unwanted open string resonance’ and ‘flams’ (where
your notes are slightly off either before or after the beat you are trying to hit it on) and try to attack
your notes so that the sound evenly in volume.
Oh yeah one more thing… I know you want to jam with backup music. Hold you
horses for now… This exercise has a specific purpose and that is to you get
marrying and honing the C and G parts of the formula.
You specifically want to see if you can start implying;
1) Rock solid rhythmic patterns (so keep the distractions to a minimum so

you can hear yourself)
2) A discernable harmonic structure without the help of a comping

instrument!
In other words for this lesson on groove mechanics work with just the drums and
your bass part... Don’t go to the BGM JamBox just yet and don’t go getting smart and
programming these chords into your sequencers.
P.S. (Final, final thing… I promise! ☺) You’ll find that some progressions are going to
fit more easily fit onto certain drum beats but don’t let that faze you… Purpose to
keep trying until you find ways to have any of the harmonies interpret well with the
drums.
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Approach 2: “Playing Around/Against Kick”
Now without discounting the effectiveness of the previous method you’ll soon
realize with more playing and listening, that in addition to playing ONLY ‘with’ the
kick you can also play around and against the kick.
Often times one of the things that make for a more interesting and unique groove is
when a bassist plays not only emulating the kick, but when he can lock into even
smaller subdivisions of the beat, (you can usually get a good guide for this from the pattern
played on the high hats) and plays notes that ‘weave’ in between the spaces in the
drummer’s kick pattern.
This works especially well if you’ve got a really tight and competent drummer who
you know for a fact you can feed off of, express slightly more varied ideas and still
have him hold together the rhythmic end like a rock. If he’s got the downbeats
covered, sometimes you don’t particularly want to mess with it and that’s ok too.
In a case like this and depending on the genre of music you’re playing, you’d
probably want to try working to compliment the drummers groove with your own,
rather than layering over everything he does.
So let’s try exploring the idea of playing off of the kick.
One of the simplest ways to approach this and to hear how different a feel either
method gives is to start mirroring the kick exactly and;
1) Slowly pull back from off of the kick and play slightly behind it.
2) Attempt to play a part that inserts notes just before the kick pattern.
Here’re two examples of bass parts that have a more ‘against the kick’ feel…
The first is pretty straightforward and plays notes that only occasionally match what
the kick is doing rhythmically, the second starts off locking into the exact pattern of
the kick but gradually pulls off and plays syncopated notes against the kick. It’s an
exaggerated example but I just wanted to illustrate a point.
(CD 2 Sound Sample 70 & 71)
SIDE NOTE: The technical term we use when we start to place accents on
otherwise unexpected beats, (as demonstrated in sound sample 71) either with anticipation
or delay, is syncopation.
The standard beats here again are the ‘1, 2, 3, 4’ – Those are the foundational counts
within the song. When you begin to play in-between the ‘1’ and ‘2’ or off of the
foundational downbeat timing, is when you start to play a syncopated part.
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SIDE NOTE: Another use of this type of ‘off-beat’ playing is when executing a
fill/run on the turnaround (or even when joining chords). For example if the drummer is
playing a straight beat, putting a fill pattern that’s in triplets is occasionally a nice way to
add some variety to what’s being played.
A variation of this approach is to find an even smaller subdivision and further

syncopate the pattern covered collectively by the kick and snare and fit in between
the spaces left by them both.
That may place quite a challenge to a bass player at times, but it’s actually good to
practice those types of things. If you’re playing a part to a groove and the high-hat
and the snare are already playing some sort of syncopated beats inside the music, try
first playing along with what they are doing then slowly pulling ‘off’ of their pattern,
while staying in time.
Here’s a groove (somewhat quirky if I do say so myself) that makes a

conscious effort NOT to play along with the kick at all. (CD 2
Sound Sample 72)
This is yet another way to create a groove that’s complimentary to what is happening
already.
Another Sub-Approach to Consider
One of the topics we gotta cover is how to play a particular genre and play it
authentically by learning the defining characteristics of the genre. And with the 1/8th
note pulse being a very popular Rock groove, we’ll cover it a bit later when we look
at genre studies, but for now remember it as another simple but highly effective way
to plot a bass line…
And I personally like to think of it as a somewhat kick independent groove. Now this
is not to say that the bass part will not coincide with the kick pattern.
As opposed to grooves where we are specifically attempting to be adventurous and

refrain from the kick, often times with a pulsing 1/8thsbass line there will be phrasing
with the kick!
But the thinking mindset is more along the lines of locking into smaller subdivisions
of the beat rather than seeking to emulate the exact kick pattern. Hope the difference
is clear.
To illustrate, here are two grooves that pulse over a 1/8th feel… As you
can see the bass line is almost totally independent of what the kick
drum is doing, quite content to phrase in a steady stream of 1/8th
notes. (CD 2 Sound Samples 73 & 74)
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Using the same 10 beats and 10 progressions from before, now work
them so that your bass lines are leaning more towards ‘kick
independency’… This is just for practice purposes for now and is a
good exercise to have under your belt.
Whether you’re pulsing in 1/8ths, laying some finger funk with 1/16ths based on a
funky 1/16th note high hat pattern (where suitable) or you’re just purposely playing in
between the kick pattern remember to keep your grooves tight as can be… And if
that means simplifying them first then gradually building up then so be it!
That means of course, another 100 grooves ☺
For this course, that’s the extent of the groove approaches we’ll cover… Sure there
are others approaches like the “walking” bass line and slap techniques (a soon to be
released volume is entirely devoted to Slap Bass Secrets so we won’t get into that here) but for
popular contemporary music that’s pretty much it.
You listen and either play with the kick, purposefully against the kick, by layering
your note placement in between the drummer’s pattern or making use of the steady
pulsating fashion…
After all is said however, unless your band is going for a pre-meditated 1) quirky, 2)
highly syncopated, 3) adventurous etc feel or you’re playing a style that calls for it,
you’ll find that you almost can’t go wrong in popular contemporary music (which
included Gospel, Rock, R and B etc. etc. etc.) approaching the groove with the kick (and
overall kick/snare) pattern at the fore front of your mind.
Now that’s not all I have to say on the topic of building a groove…
Far from it in fact! But the other intricacies are elements I personally like to think
of as ‘moods’ we can super impose on these main approaches to change the way they
articulate and that’s next.
But again it can’t be over stated… At the core of it all is your ability to listen… Not
just to the music that you have to play now, but to listen to as much music as you
possibly can where groove bassists are prominent.
Remember, in our learning to groove we said it’s equally important to hang around
good music as it is to know what to do.
Go to the music stores and get CDs…
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Get stuff by Anthony Jackson… Victor Bailey, Alain Caron… Chuck Rainey…
Anything Motown with the man James Jamerson… Francis Rocco Prestia… John
Patitucci, Jaco, stuff from the Dave Weckl Band and additionally anything you can
get from Tom Kennedy… Marcus Miller, Victor Wooten and listen… The Earth
Wind and Fire Collection… Listen some more…
I mean the list goes on forever, but these are just some right off the top of my head
so please don’t crucify me for not mentioning your favorite bassists/drummer.
To me every time I listen I am practicing, so intentionally schedule a time to do

nothing else but listen to music as that is as much part of your practice time as
playing your scales.
Submerge yourself in as much music as you can and you’ll find that you start to get a
feel for how to play in terms of complimenting a drummer and overall band sound.
And as you listen keep going back and daily doing the Groove Suck workouts.
We’ll explore a lot more aspects of playing a phat groove as we go along and cover
approaching fills, joining chords and playing parts based on the genre of the music
etc., but hopefully this lesson will continue to act as a spring board for further
concepts since when it comes down to it all the wonderful parts you can create will
come right back down to 1) how you decide to place the notes that you choose
to play and 2) how long you decide to play those notes for!
1 Minute Summary: You should already understand that

for groove purposes, the electric bass guitar should
function almost like a well played drum kit with the
ability to sound accurately pitched notes.
At the same time you also understand that you aren’t

afforded the multiplicity of simultaneous rhythmic
phrases that a drummer is, so it’s up to you to
listen to and filter out the strongest/most catchy
and useable ‘rhythmic hooks’ from the drum line for
your own use…
With that in mind you can’t go wrong with

appropriate use of one of these 3 approaches;
Hooks based 1) On the what the kick is playing

(either exactly or with flourishes)… 2) Against what
the kick is playing 3) More complex ideas based on
the smallest sub divisions of the entire beat
created by the high hats, snare and kick.
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Lesson
11
The Many Flavors of the Bass Groove
After determining what aspects of the drum groove will most influence the groove
approach that you choose and how you compliment it, you need to start thinking
about what flavor of that groove-approach is needed for the particular song, based
on the type of music you’re playing and the mood you want to help convey.
This is yet another place where how much listening you do will show you up because
if you do a lot of listening to the type of music you have to play, you’ll instinctively
know what flavors it usually comes in.
Here’s a list that will help you identify and categorize those ‘flavors’…
Flavor 1: “The Busy Body”
Listen to some upbeat Urban Gospel music, in the likes of Fred Hammond’s bassist
Maurice Fitzgerald… Some slap funk along the lines of Marcus Miller and Victor
Wooten… You’ll easily discover that their bass lines are usually characterized by a
LOT of activity: lots of fancy riffs, bustling energy and charging dynamics.
And while this often includes a lot more playing than would be required if we were
strictly ‘mirroring the kick and keeping it simple’ it does have its place dependent on the
arrangement you’re playing and the flair you want to inject.
Sometimes, (like with up-tempo Urban Gospel Praise music for example) a song calls for that
dynamic rush… But make no mistake about it… If you were to peel away at the
pyrotechnics layer by layer, you’ll still find that at the core they are still basing their
grooves on one of the major approaches we spoke of in the previous lesson.
…And while that explosive, attacking type of play can be very exciting a word of
caution is needed here… Just like you’d probably not like to eat pizza 3 times a day
every day for the rest of your live, you’ll give your listeners indigestion if this is the
only mood you ever play songs in.
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In this example there is a lot simpler and more laid back approach
that I might have been able to take that would have worked just fine.
However the line was made somewhat busy and calls a bit more attention to itself
with the choice of a lot of notes and connecting riffs between chords.
For a mellow song such as this where there is a full compliment of musicians I’d
usually save this ‘busier’ approach for a segment in the song where the bass is given a
spotlight or to lead into a bass solo.
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Flavor 2: “Stuck on You”
You may or may not have seen this term around – Ostinato – and had no idea what it
meant.
Well it’s Latin and directly translated it simply means repetitious, so bass lines that
literally repeat one core, generally static riff over a variety of changing chords for a
significant part of a song are described as Ostinato bass parts.
Here’s a quick example.

What is really interesting about this type of flavor is that when

applicable and used tastefully your static bass part works fantastically to
imply different harmonies over the changing chords underneath it…
What I mean is that in a simple progression such as;
C Maj / G Maj / F Maj / A min

…an Ostinato groove using the C note as its main building block will harmonize
against those chords in 4 completely different ways… First as a ‘Root degree’ (against
the C Maj chord), then as a 4th degree (against the G Maj chord), and finally as a 5th and
3rd degree respectively… Every time the progression moves, you now have the
bass harmonizing with the comping instrument by ‘relatively’ layering a different
degree over it. And that is super cool in its powerful simplicity.
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Flavor 3: “Note Durations – Staccato or Legato?”
As mentioned before, in addition to note placement, whether on the beat or off,

another huge factor in building a groove is note duration…
And while you might not think it at first, how long you hold on to a note and the
manner in which you sound it is a very large determinant of the type of ‘feel’ your
phrase has.
Let’s experiment a bit now with varying the duration of a note and see how it affects
the feel of a bass part.
Basically you can sound notes in one of two fashions – either with a legato feel,
(smooth, slurred, gliding and extended style of playing, that usually has notes flowing into each other)
vs. a staccato feel (where notes are sounded in a short, percussive and detached style, usually with
noticeable amounts of un-played space between them.)
Here are some sound examples displaying the difference in feel created just by
varying the note duration and most nothing else.
“Legato for Smooth and Laid Back Feel”
As a rule of thumb the mellower the song you’re playing, the smoother and more
legato the notes you’re required to play.
Here’s a quick example of how to convey a smooth, buttery feel to a

bass line. Lines like this tend to convey far less ‘aggressive movement’
than lines that contain blunt notes do, as the notes do more flowing
into one another than hopping around.
“Staccato for Blunt/Percussive and attacking feel”
And on the other end of the spectrum would be to play the bass line
that has a more percussive and attacking feel. I.e. notes are sounded for
shorter durations, usually have a more solid, ‘thud’ like, punchy feel to
them and employ at lot of free space in between notes. (It’s easy to hear
the difference in note length between this and the previous example.)
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Obviously these are the lines that can naturally be used to dictate a feel of more
movement. (Just think of the ‘walking’ bass line for example and you’ll see what I mean.)
With this blunt approach even when the notes of the bass line are sparse, if they are
sounded in a staccato manner, just because of how quick the articulation of each
individual note is, the feeling of movement is still there.
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Flavor 4: “Note Energies”
Moving on let’s take a look at three more ‘rhythmic flavors’ you can inject into a
groove to affect the mood of the music… These are again based on note placement
relative to the main pulse and personally I like to refer to them as the ‘energy’
qualities of the note.
Your groove notes can be phrased either;
1) Slightly ahead of the beat (on top of the beat)

2) Dead-center on the beat or
3) Slightly behind the beat.
Now here’s where it gets a bit tricky… Your intent is NOT to vary the note
placement so much so as to syncopate it, but just enough to inject a feel that the
music is either being slightly excited or delayed.
Listen to the following examples and see if you can gauge three distinct feelings
implied over the same progression.
Flavor 4a: “On Top of the Beat”
This first of these next two sound samples is one from the previous
chapter… I want you to listen to it again and take note of how the bass
line seems just slightly ahead of the main drum beat.
Even though we’re not noticeably changing the tempo, or syncopating the notes as
such, there’s certainly a feeling that I’m anticipating the next note almost in a
energetic, kid-at-a-candy-store kinda way… A great way to add a feeling of
movement, excitement and energy to your groove, especially with Rock and Metal
styled grooves.
Here’s a second example outside of the Rock genre.

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Flavor 4b: “Dead Center”
So far this is where we’ve been focusing all of our efforts… To playing
dead center on the pulse of ‘metronome time’ and here’s an example
that for the most part plays in that fashion.
This type of playing is easily the most secure and crucial feel to practice mastering.
It is so important that you are able to play in accurate time and provide a solid and
dependable feel (especially for members of the rhythm section), that today, it’s almost
standard practice that even very experienced drummers on stages and in studios
across the world record and perform alongside an external time source (like a
metronome click) to ensure that while they do insert their nuances and afford the band
the looseness of a human groove, their playing is still guided by an accurate meter.
Flavor 4c: “Behind the Beat”
Here again it’s important to note that we’re not purposefully

attempting to play in a manner that visibly changes the tempo of the
song, but with just enough of a minute variation to imply a laid back,
slightly ‘patient, un-unrushed’ feel to a listeners’ ears.
And the final flavoring we’ll talk about is whether or not the groove is being shuffled
or played straight.
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Flavor 5: “Beat Movement”
Just for reference sake, I like to refer to whether or not a groove is played with a
straight or shuffled feel as the beat’s movement.
Let’s jump right in.
Flavor 5a: “Shuffled Feel”
The most basic description of a shuffle feel is one where you fit three 1/16th notes
into the space that’d usually hold 2 and tie the first two notes together…
Now that the tech-head description is outta the way truth be told attempting to
describe a feel such as shuffle or swing is like attempting to tell an artist how much
red to mix into a yellow when painting a sunset… The word ‘feel’ obviously implies
that these moods are perceived rather than formulated! And to feel the feeling you
must listen!
As such the first and best piece of advice you can get when attempting to ‘learn a
feel’ is to seek out and listen to style of music that have the feel you are looking to
learn.. And then listen some more and some more.
That said I’ll now try to give a more practical example of what constitutes a shuffle
feel and point you in the direction to learning how to soak up that feel your self.
Here’s what to do…
STEP 1: With your right hand tap out an even 4/4 timing on the table at a
moderate tempo and count aloud with it, ‘1,2,3,4’. When you’ve
established the even 4/4 time, insert with your left hand two pre-beats
and sound the syllables “and” “uh” before the main beat being played
by your right hand.
The result should be that you are counting in rolling time, “and uh 1, and uh
2 and uh 3, and uh 4”.
STEP 2: Now just add a little bit of delay on your main down beat so that
the right hand is holding out a beat just long enough for the following two
beats on the left hand to feel rushed…
The result should sound like a horse galloping.
STEP 3: Next perform this same exercise using track 59 with the BGM
Groove Station as your back drop.
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If you completed the exercise correctly you’d have been playing a shuffle beat.
Here’s an example of a slow shuffled rock groove.

Characteristically the feel is one where some notes have a sort of dragged, lazy feel.
It’s almost like playing in triplets where the first and second notes of the triplet steal
a bit of time value from the third.
Again, it’s easier learnt by listening than by description and as such you need to listen
purposefully to music styles that often use shuffled beats such as Reggae and
Blues… So feel free to listen to the sound samples over and over until you can
identify a shuffled beat wherever it’s played.
Flavor 5b: “The Straight Feel”
The straight feel on the other hand is way simpler to describe since it’s
what we’ve been practicing all along as standard metronome time… If
all the sub-divisional beats values used are spread out evenly across the
beat, you’re playing in straight feel.
Ok we went through this entire chapter without any bass-active

woodshed breaks… Well here’s goes. This one will be a dozy but will
work miracles for your playing if you are consistent with it! I
PERSONALLY GUARANTEE IT!
STEP 1: Over the next 33 days, I want you to purposefully listen to three songs a
day, from as many genres as you like. Using a note book that you set aside just for
this exercise I want you to describe the ‘groove mechanics’ and the ‘groove flavors’
behind each song in as much detail as you can.
That means I want you to examine a song and see what approach the bassist is using
to compliment the drums… Is he playing a kick oriented groove or kick
independent? Is it pulsing or is it syncopated? What’s the genre of the music? How
many instruments can you identify in the band and how much freedom is the bassist
given? What do you think the bassist’s musical space is? Is he out front or receded to
the back playing a supportive role?
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Is the groove busy? Is it laid back?... Is it played dead center or are the players
varying the note energies to portrait a rushed or patient feel?... Is the groove a
shuffled groove? Is it a straight groove?... etc. etc. etc.
I hope you get the idea… In short you need to create 3 (what I call) ‘groove
summaries’ each day for the next 33 days!
It’ll be like writing a short book review, except a lot more fun ☺.
Now I know that this sounds like a lot of work and it is! Because the ideal groove
summary should be at least 2 - 3 short paragraphs of solid investigative information
about the groove… Ideally you should be able to pass it on along with a chord sheet
to a competent bassist who has never heard the song before, and have him replicate
a reasonable representation of the mood of the song from your description and
chord chart alone.
Now sorry to say but you lose some MAJOR cool points if you ignore doing
this! In fact not only would I deduct some cool points I’ll also throw some
loser points your way as well.
I mentioned before that learning to be a great bassist takes conscious not just
passive listening… This exercise is a crucial part of your learning. If you’re not
doing all the steps, please don’t complain down the road when your bass playing
hasn’t matured 1/10th of what it should have…
Do the steps… Do this exercise and do it consistently for 33 days. ‘Nuff said.
STEP 2: For each day that you do 3 groove summaries, I want you to now take
them and individually apply the ‘essence’ of that groove to a completely different
arrangement.
So, go to the BGM JamBox and pick a progression at random and do two things…
1) First, play the first most suitable groove that comes to your mind – the one that
you feel just by hearing the music, and
2) Secondly choose a groove summary from your note pad and try to imply those
characteristics onto the groove you’re now going to play.
Hopefully you understand. Hopefully you have a way to record yourself. Good luck
and have fun.
1 Minute Summary: It’s not just about the math of

which notes you play anymore… It’s also about the
‘how’ you play them… Clues for the how’s are in the
music around you – Listen attentively and learn ☺
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Lesson
12
7 Jealously Guarded Ways to Come Up
With Super Cool Riffs & Fills for Your
Songs
There are tons of different ways you can create riffs to use in your playing and a
tasty, relevant run is very well accepted in your bass part… But this right here is it!
…If you’re looking for some quick, easy-to-remember but powerful routes for
building your own riffs you’re reading the right section.
These are 7 of my personal favorite, most jealously-guarded ‘options’ you can start
using right away to create colorful fills to join most any chord change or even to
incorporate in the main structure of your grooves.
With a little experimentation you’ll quickly see how these 7 options by themselves
can single-handedly open up literally countless new ways for you to create great
sounding fills and runs on the fly...
What’s most important however Mr. Scientist is that you don’t get carried
away and start over-using fills and runs in your playing!
Your riffs are merely the icing on the cake.
The groove is still the main focus and over-icing and over-decorating ‘the cake’
usually creates an instability in the groove that almost always sucks the life right outta
everything you’ve worked to build.
The point of a fill is to color your groove with something slightly varied… If you
turn the entire groove into, ‘colorful unexpecteds’ you’ve totally strayed from what
grooving is! (Remember our talk on building a motif?)
So here’s a word of advice to the wise… Be sparse and be relevant with the fills!
It’s also usually best to not stray too far away from the general phrasing of the main
groove. For example, if your main groove is a 1/8th note pulse, you’re usually looking
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to phrase the notes in your fill relevantly to a 1/8th feel… It’s probably best not to go
for an explosive burst of 1/32nds notes, know what I mean?
Be responsible and think of the other musicians who are building ideas that stand on
your groove part. Remember when we talk of fills here, we’re not talking about
soloing. You’re still grooving! I’ll say that again… Your riffs are NOT mini solos!
So whenever you do make a fill, think of it as ‘stealing a base’… Do it, don’t delay
unnecessarily and get back to base before you’re caught with your pants down/skirt
up.
More tips you say? Ok… Keep your riffs mainly for the turning points of the groove
– Like at the end of a four or eight bar cycle. Furthermore if you’re using a riff as a
variation to the main groove (and not just to fill the space at the end of a cycle) I
personally find it’s best to do so very sparsely at the beginning of the song…
As things progress and only after I have properly established the primary motif in the
listener’s mind to the point where I think they can almost repeat it now on their own,
will I start to vary and color the existing groove with a few changes.
Now hopefully all that I’m saying here; 1) Is sinking in and 2) Is by now common
sense to you. You know what you role and purpose it by now. Fill it and fill it well. If
you still don’t get it, in no unclear terms: Less is more!
If you think that I’m slapping you on the wrist… I am! But it’s not to be cruel. It’s
because most beginners and intermediates I know approach a groove with the ‘can’t-
wait-to-light-this-baby-up’ mindset.
Please, please, please don’t sound like that in your bass playing… ‘Nuff said and here
goes those options…
Side note: The first four (4) are ‘chord type specific’ and the last three (3) options are
approaches you can take with any chord type. While these are not all the options for
have for making fills you have more than enough, (if you’re even the least bit creative) to
spice up grooves from now until pigs learn to fly.
I have a lot more options for riffs but we’ll reserve those for the more advanced
Improvisation/Soloing aspect of your playing.
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1. Major Chords
Most generally speaking to make riffs either directly over or into a Major chord (or
one of its cousins Maj7, Maj9 etc) you’ve can use select portions of the root’s Major scale
and/or the Pentatonic scale.
If you’re wanting to spruce that up a bit, another great set of options is to make your
riffs using select inserts from any of the Major scale’s modes you learnt before… In others
words, you can use portions of the D Dorian scale, to make a fill over a C Major
chord when the C Major chord is the key of the song.
If the Major that you’re playing over occurs over the 4th degree (for example playing a
riff over a C major chord if the key of the song is G Major) you’ll want to stick to using either
the C Lydian mode (the default mode of the 4th degree) or a regular Major scale.
The real beauty of being able to use any of the modes of the Major scale to make
runs for a Major chord is that just like with the inverted arpeggios, you now get to
highlight different degrees of the scale rather than just being attached at the hip to
the root.
But be careful to choose your notes vigilantly. You’ll always find that some notes fit better
than others.
In private, I encourage you to try experimenting with riffs that use all the different
modes whenever you have to play into a Major chord, and remember that what’s
important here at first is not to try to make overly complex riffs... But to make riffs
that fit and sound good.
So again, at first go slow and keep it simple.
Go slow and just get your riff to fit contextually. Don’t try to make them overly
complex because chances are you’ll end up practicing riffs that don’t fit. On the
other hand DO experiment with ways to lead into chords using tones other than the
root note.
2. Dominants Chords
o With dominants chords of course you have the option of playing your
dominant (Mixolydian) mode starting at the root of the Dominant chord.
o Want one more hip option for riffs over a Dominant chord?... Try using
fragments of a Diminished scale starting at the 3rd degree. ;-)
o That’s enough… We’ll keep the rest for soloing.
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3. Minors Chords
With minor chords it can get a bit tricky since there are so many different types of
Minor scales and modes. However here are some general quick and easy options you
can use now.
o Use the Natural minor (Aeolian Mode)… It will fit well over most Minor
chords.
o The Pentatonic minor is yet another obvious plug-n-play choice.
o Starting from the 3rd degree of the minor scale, you can incorporate
ideas from a Major scale or Ionian Mode. E.g. to make a riff over a C
minor chord you can use the E major ( 3rd of C minor).
o Starting from the 5th degree, you can incorporate ideas from yet another
natural minor mode. E.g. to make a riff over a C minor chord you can
use the G natural minor scale ( 3rd of C minor).
o Fills that start on the 9th degree and play through the minor scale either
ascending or descending usually make for interesting ideas over most
minor chord forms.
o Here’s a very hip option… Create some tension by starting a very brief
riff on the natural 7th degree of the scale (an ‘off note’ seeing as the minor
usually makes use of the 7th degree) and quickly resolve back to one of the
notes in the natural minor scale. (We’ll talk more about what you are really
doing hear in the volume on soloing and improv. but it has to do with playing from one
of the other strains of the minor scale.)
4. Min7 5 & Dim. Chords

o Use select portions of the Locrian Mode over starting from the root note of
the chord.
o Use select portions of the Pentatonic minor scale from the root of the chord
o The Blues scale is another great choice for riff ideas here.
o Finally here’s one more hip option for the minor7 5 chord… Starting at the
5th degree, try boiling up some ideas for runs based on the half diminished
scale (the one we shared).
Ok now on to some options that fit any type of chord.
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5. Open Arpeggio Voicings

This might have been the first and most obvious option for coming up with riffs…
Playing the chord arpeggio.
Because we know that an arpeggio is a chord played in a linear fashion, using the
arpeggiated form of a chord is almost never wrong when looking to fill-in spaces.
Where it gets really interesting is when we play these arpeggios in an ‘open voice’…
Meaning that we mainly highlight chords tones other than the root, and we do so
over a wider range on the register.
One example would be to play the arpeggio form of the Minor 7th chord backwards,
starting on the 3rd degree in the octave above where you’re playing your main
groove and work your way back down to the 7th below the root.
Experiment using inverted arpeggios in both ascending and descending forms, over
one, two or even three octave ranges that span both above and below the octave
you’re currently building your main groove in.
6. Use the 5th of the Following Chord As A Node.

Here’s a very solid option that fits most chord types.
o Identify the 5th degree of the following chord and use it to introduce that
chord.
o As simple as this is, it’s a very effective ‘fill’ for introducing the following
chord that works every time.
o It doesn’t have to be as dry as plainly playing the 5th either… Try

incorporating slides, hammer-ons and pull-offs, playing chromatically into it
from 2 or 3 semitones below etc. to make the articulation of your ‘5th degree
run’ all the more interesting.
o Also remember you don’t only have one 5th degree to play with. Try using 5th
degrees from as many different octaves as you possibly can.
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7. Play Chromatically Into a Strong Chord Tone

Here’s a simple chromatic approach to a decent fill.
o Identify any of the chord tones of the following chord and think of it as your
target note. (Some good target notes are the Root, 5th and 7th, 7th degrees).
o Play in succession a string of 1 – 3 chromatic notes either ascending or

descending into that target note.
o This approach creates a good amount of tension and release as you resolve to
the chord tone your ear wants to hear and is well employed in funk and jazz
type lines.
When making your fills it’s important that you know where you want to end up.
Again we’ll think of these as our target notes. And everything you play before it in
the fill, as our approach notes.
Now with this understanding and all the various options I just shared with you, hit
the woodshed and start practicing. Remember to keep your phrasing in context to
the main beat and don’t over do it. YOU DON’T HAVE TO PLAY A FILL
AFTER EVERY CHORD.
And finally remember that all the ideas shared here change drastically in sound and
effect when you learn to apply them over more than one octave! Get into the habit
of spreading out your riffs for practice purposes so that you are comfortable with as
many options as possible.
A good way to know how to vary the register you play in is to simply follow the
melodic line. ☺ For example if there is a vocalist singing with you and he/she hits a
high note, it’s a good indication that the riff can be taken to a higher octave and
brought back down into the groove register.
...I guarantee you'll be bowled over at just how much you can do in terms of runs
and fills, when you really get into experimenting with what I’ve just told you,
especially when you apply the 9 magic factors we’ll talk about in a minute.
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1 Minute Summary: Think of making your fills as

stealing a base… Do it quick, do it simple, don’t
delay and get back to the main groove fast. Learn to
‘see’ and ‘hear’ where you want to go before you
start the fill and think of it as your destination…
With the destination and starting point it’s now
simply a matter of finding the route you want to
take to get there…
…Easier than it sounds? Well get started and you

tell me!
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Lesson
13
The 5 Minute Change That Will Boost
Your Musicality And Fluidity With Your
Scales and Arpeggios
If you’ve ever heard a bassist play and you can distinctly feel that his groove, fills
and/or solo lines have a starchy by-the-book ‘exercise-like’ feel to them you can
identify just how much that can take away from your musicianship.
The catch 22 is that scales and most of the patterns we learn and have to use are
indeed exercise-like by their very nature.
I mean here you have a fixed progression of notes, with a certain fixed interval
between each note that are commonly played starting and ending on one fixed or
particular note…
How much more ‘exercise-like’ can you get? So it seems we’re in a bit of a spot… We
need to use scales and patterns, but don’t want the inherent ‘boxy’ feel that can come
part and parcel with them.
So what do you do?
Well here are some of the more obvious ideas… Quite simply we break the mold! –
Break up your patterns and chord arpeggios (they are after all only tools for our use any way
we see fit…) and;
1) Re-arrange their starting points…
2) Change the pitch of the notes played by playing through to

higher/lower octaves (varying the register by learning to play thru
more than one octave)
3) Re-arrange the order in which you chose notes from the scale… (Vary the
intervals between played notes.)
4) Express and emote the notes differently by sounding them differently…

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For now, we want to focus especially on numbers 1 and 2 from the above list…
Better and more imaginative use of your arpeggios by starting and ending them on
different degrees and playing through more than one octave.
Now twisting and rearranging the starting points of scales should be something
you’re already quit familiar with because earlier we saw how re-arranging a major
scale so that it starts and ends on different degrees is how we create the different
Modes of the major scale.
Here reprinted for your convenience are the 7 different modes of your major Scale in
one octave.
By now you should have committed them to memory. If not, you’re slacking and you
need to get up to speed and more so go a step further and practice playing not just
one but two back-to-back octaves of each mode.
These modes are going to come in increasingly useful especially when we it comes to
building fills and runs, for joining chords, improvisation and soloing etc. etc. etc.
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Secondly as bassists we should also understand that a major tool we use to groove
(and create fills) over a chord and ensure that we are in sync harmonically is the
arpeggio.
If you didn’t ‘get’ that from the lessons thus far, get it now. Arpeggios are a
fundamental tool we lean heavily on to come up with bass line ideas, especially when
approaching a new song or reading off of a chord chart in real time.
Well in a manner of speaking arpeggios have ‘modes’ too… So far we’ve learnt one
‘mode’ of each arpeggio. The ‘mode’ that starts from the root chord tone.
But in the effort to prepare to make our lines more musical we purposed to twist and
turn things around right? Well in that case each arpeggio has several of its own
‘modes’ (and I use the term loosely) that we also need to commit to memory – A mood
that starts on each of its chord tones.
When we re-shuffle an arpeggio like this, (by starting and ending on a chord tone other than
the root) we refer to the ‘new arpeggio’ as an inversion. For ease of illustration, an
‘inversion’ is to an arpeggio what a mode is to a scale.
Here are the inverted forms of the four main arpeggios we’ve met so far.
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Major 7th Arpeggios

(1st – 4th Inversions)
Dominant 7th Arpeggios

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Minor 7th Arpeggios

Minor 7th 5 Arpeggios

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Now there are several advantages of being able to play your arpeggios starting at any
of the inversions but for our purpose I want to point out two of those big
advantages here…
1) Not getting stuck in a rut looking for the root note!
Now I don’t know you personally but I can predict this with some degree of
certainty… Even if you don’t yet realize it ☺.
If you’ve been playing for a bit and still find that one of your biggest
challenges is that you frequently get stuck and freeze up like a deer in the
headlights when playing over chord changes, I’m willing to bet it’s because
you have one main route burned into you mind to execute most of the chord
‘shapes’ you want to play. Don’t sweat it… It’s a very common problem.
Think of it like this. Which is better – Knowing one route from your home
to the pizza parlor or four? If you only know one, what happens when there
is traffic, or a detour caused by road works on that road?
You freeze up like a deer in the headlights that’s what!
Well it’s the same thing on the fretboard. In addition to having your chord
interpretation sound boxy if you can only start at the root and play the one
arpeggio form you know, there’s also the added disability of getting stuck
more easily.
If however you are just as comfortable starting an arpeggio on the 3rd as you
are starting it on the 1st, your playing life and fluency is much more
multiplied.
2) Giving more variety and color to your chord interpretations for your
fills, the main groove and when soloing…
And as we already said and explained before, and as you’ll see a little later
when we look at creating fills, the flexibility to start and outline a chord
starting on any of its tones will do wonders for the maturity and fluidity of
your bass parts.
Today’s exercise is learning the four inversions of each chord arpeggio

so that you can fluently play them at the drop of a dime both forward
and backwards in all 12 keys. You’ll get to use them shortly, for now
get them under your fingers good and proper.
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1 Minute Summary: It’s a fantastic idea to learn to

play your arpeggios starting from any degree, just
like you learnt to play the Modes of the Major
scale. This gives you more freedom to join chord
fluently and makes your playing sound less robotic
and ‘exercise-like’.
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Lesson
14
9 Dummy-Proof Techniques That
Magically Transform Your Groove
Every Time!
Anyone who’s into woodworking would unequivocally tell you that with any project,
the finishing techniques you employ are equally as important, if not more so than the
actual work of putting the thing together.
As such there are cabinet makers and then there are cabinet makers… Two guys
can do the exact same woodworking project, follow the exact same assembly
instructions, but use different ‘finishing’ techniques…
The result?.. One gets paid $500 and the other $5000.
So too it is with building a mouth watering groove.
Two bass players can play the exact same notes, use the exact same phrasings, but
the guy who can ‘finish’ his notes with more clarity, finesse and accuracy gets the
gold, glory and the girls every time.
So understanding the many different ways you can embellish, dress up or ‘finish’ a
groove is as essential as the understanding of how to structure the groove in the first
place… Otherwise, like the novice woodworker you end up with something boxy,
crude and in our case mechanical sounding.
So in this lesson we’ll discuss 9 of my favorite groove embellishments, some advice

on executing them properly and give some assignments to help you assimilate them
until you don’t even have to think about the mechanics anymore.
The important thing here is experimentation to the point where you’re not afraid to
play something less than perfect at first. You need to find your own ways of finishing
a groove that put your signature on it and I’ve found that the best way to come up
with ideas is to simply keep trying as many different things as you can without
snuffing out any of your initial ideas…
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10, 15, 45 minutes down the road of playing over the same line, the grooves you’re
practicing evolve into a fantastic new monster that’s a product of all the
experimentation you’ve been hammering away at.
Keep this in mind as you go through the lesson. Remember music is and always
remain an artistic LANGUAGE form. So is pays in spades to invest the time
necessary getting so used to your ‘bag of tricks’ that properly interpreting the ‘feel’
and mood of a song by playing ‘more than just notes’ is second nature.
However you must remember that this is not something that comes overnight. The
literature expert who doesn’t stumble around for words even when called upon to
give an impromptu speech is only that fluent because he/she spent time, reading and
writing!
You as a bassist will continue to get far more groove proficient 1 month, 1 year, 3
years, 10 years from now, if you spend the time that’s necessary listening and
playing!
And since it happens progressively you’ll probably not even notice it! Soon enough
however you’ll start hearing the embellishments you want to use split seconds before
you play them, just like the poet finds words he wants to say, split seconds before
he/she says them.
As you go through the lesson please, please, please don’t make the sad mistake of
ever thinking, “Oh ok… I can do this… No need to spend much time here…”
Proper technique and execution is something no one will ever be done practicing
and just when you think that you can articulate a note as best as possible you hear
someone better!
These are usually the skills that separate the men from the boys, so to speak. Study
and practice them well!
At the end of this lesson I will give you an example drum beat, and a plain, no frills
interpretation of a bass line over that drum beat… Then I’ll re-do the bass line a few
times, each time using one of the finishing techniques we’re about to discuss so you
can see how far they go into polishing a bland groove.
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Slides!
The first embellishment we’ll look at is the slide. Basically there are three (3) main
applications of the slide…
1) Sliding down into a note…
2) Sliding up into a note…
3) Sliding away from a note then going back home to it. (I like to refer to this as
the boomerang slide. Hey, I’m silly sometimes.)
As the name implies a slide is simply the sound produced when you sound a note
then slide your finger along the string making sure it keeps contact with the fretboard
all the way into your destination note. The slide is then arguably the most basic
application of the chromatic scale and playing chromatically into a note.
The thing is, along with vibratos (that you’ll meet later) it’s one of the most deceptive
techniques to conquer… Most players fall into the trap of thinking of it as ‘a piece of
cake’ when in fact their executions are so off that it’s sad. So as with all the
techniques you need to focus just as industriously on 1) Proper placement 2) Timing
3) Clarity.
So how does ‘timing’ apply to executing a simple slide?
Well what you want is that you don’t ‘arrive’ at your destination note too quickly or
too slowly and by that I mean that you don’t want the slide to sound rushed or
‘delayed and out-of-time’ in context to the other played music...
You also don’t want your slide to sound un-even while it is played (e.g. if you’re doing a
long slide over a full measure down the neck into the low G note (the 3rd fret), you don’t want to get
all the way down to the A note on the 5th fret with only 2 beats gone.)
In terms of usage, applying any variation of slide is a quick way to make a noticeable
change to any established groove… It’s also one of the simpler ‘runs’ you can use to
fill the space between chord changes.
So here’s how I practice.
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STEP 1: With a metronome or drum machine playing at 100 bpm start

at your 13th fret and practice sliding down into the 1st position first over
a 4 count (or whole note) beat, then over 3 counts and finally over 2
counts.
STEP 2: Repeat the exercise using the forward slide and boomerang slide as well, all
the time consciously taking note of your starting point, destination note, and trying
to sound the notes in between as evenly as possible.
STEP 3: Try making your own variations of this exercise, like starting at different
notes, different strings and using different tempos on the metronome.
The reason we are practicing it very slowly at first is because it’s often a lot harder
to control ‘rushing’ a long slide at a slow tempo than playing a very fast one.
Usually if you can nail a long slide at a slow tempo you can pretty much easily adapt
to playing a faster slide.
So basically try to do as many variations of the forward, backward and ‘boomerang’

slide as you possibly can. The important thing is not so much me showing you a list
of exact exercises, but you being sure to impose clarity and evenness into any slide
you do.
Exercise 2
The second exercise in our practice regimen for slides attempts to train you not only
for proper time execution and clarity but also placement and usage.
Here’s how.
STEP 1: Take any chord, identify the main chord tones and figure an
arpeggio that starts on each of the chord tones respectively. (See
lesson on variations of arpeggios).
STEP 2: Using a metronome, play the first inversion of the arpeggio but;
a) Slide forward into the last chord tone from the tone immediately below it
b) Slide backward out of the last chord tone into the tone immediately below it
c) Slide forward out of the last chord tone into the tone immediately above it
d) Slide backward into the last chord tone from the tone immediately above it
e) Next repeat A through D replacing a straight slide with a boomerang slide
(CD 2 Sound Sample 89 - 93)
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STEP 3: Repeat the exercise using each of the other variations of the arpeggio.
STEP 4: Pick another chord and go through the entire process again.
When you get into it you’ll see just how exhaustive an exercise this is that teaches not
only your fingers to move evenly but your ear to hear the intervals you’re covering as
executed by slides… A very advantageous skill to have if you want to be fluent in the
impromptu application of slides in your runs.
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Bend and Releases!

A bend is a move that quite simply alters the pitch of a played note upward by
increasing the tension on the string.
It goes without saying that you can only bend a note (whether you push the string upwards
or pull it down) and produce a higher pitched sound since either way you chose to
bend the note always puts more tension into it… The release of a bend can also be
accomplished in two ways…
…Either as part of the played bend OR by bending the string before playing it,
sounding the note and only then doing the release so that what the listener hears is
only the release of tension. This creates a drop in pitch of the played note and creates
something of a nose dive effect in the music.
STEP 1: Using a metronome, set your tempo to 70 bpm. Sound any

note (starting off you might want to use one that’s towards the middle of the neck
and higher as it’s easier to bend your strings there than lower, closer to the nut)
then sound the note that’s ½-step higher than it. Repeat this a few
times until you can easily hum both notes.
STEP 2: Now practice bending the first note until it you hear the second ½ step
higher note sounded. Try to get this bend and release motion evenly executed over a
whole note, ½ note and ¼ note duration respectively.
STEP 3: Repeat the exercise practicing the bend and release with each fretting
finger of your left hand in sequence and varying the tempo incrementally by 5 bpm.
(I guess I don’t need to say any more that you DON’T move on to a higher tempo until you’ve
gotten as close to perfect as you can at a slower tempo.)
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Vibratos
Here’s another biggie! In fact I think it’s one of the most powerful and widely used
techniques for adding life and emotion to any played note, but again as with the slide,
the thinking that it’s simple and doesn’t need practicing is a colossal mistake.
Quite the contrary as a matter of fact… Vibratos are in my mind one of the more
difficult embellishments to master.
There are three main types of vibratos common to string players.
1) The classical vibrato, produced by sounding the note and moving the
fretting finger back and forth across two adjacent frets in a horizontal
motion, causing the pitch of the note to fluctuate between a sharp then
flattened sound.
2) What I call the contemporary vibrato where the note is sounded and the
hand rocked at the wrist to produce a pivoting up and down motion. (The
fretting finger does not cross over frets here but the string is forced up and down.)
When this is done rapidly you can literally hear the note ‘trembling’.
When executing any vibrato, I tend to think of each individual

movement my fretting finger makes to produce the effect, as sub
divisions of the beat. Sound samples for classical and contemporary
vibratos respectively. (CD 2 Sound Sample 94 -
95)
Said simpler, I attempt to play each motion, be it side to side, or up and

down perfectly evenly in time with the beat. (Usually in 1/16th notes).
STEP 1: Set your metronome to 70 bpms and count in 1/16th notes to the beat. (i.e.
1, e, and, ah, 2, e, and, ah…)
STEP 2: Practice each of the vibratos with your smallest motion in time with a
1/16th note count.
STEP 3: Rinse, repeat at a higher tempo.
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Harmonics
We met harmonics briefly before. Now we’ll expand just a wee-bit on them. There
are two types of harmonics… Before we talked about playing the Natural Harmonic.
These are produced by lightly touching the string just above the actual fret line (so
that the string is touching nothing but your finger) and playing the string. The best natural
harmonics are produced directly over the 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, 17th, 19th, 21st and 24th frets.
Because the chief characteristic of a natural harmonic is that even if

you remove your finger and continue playing elsewhere on another
string the note continues to ring out, they are an excellent
embellishment for creating a chordal backdrop in the midst of a
groove. (CD 2 Sound Sample 96)
To play what is commonly called an artificial harmonic you actually need to use both
hands to ‘fret’ the note, and in another motion pluck the string to sound the note!
First you actually fret the note you want to sound with a finger from your left hand,
then you lightly touch the string (in natural harmonic fashion) exactly 12 frets above the
fretted note with either your right index or your right middle finger…
Whilst maintaining these two fingers in position, use your right pinkie finger or
thumb of your right hand to ‘pluck’ the string and sound the note.
With practice you might even be able to get an artificial harmonic sounded by
fretting with the left hand and simply tapping your middle finger 12 frets above. This
takes perhaps an even greater amount of practice, and a bass guitar that is even more
sensitive to your touch.
Just from the description I guess you can see how tricky a technique this is to master!
And if you’re wondering what’s the purpose of this draconian death move, it quite
simply that it allows you to 1) Get a more noticeable harmonic for more notes on the
fretboard and 2) To perform a bend/bend and release on a harmonic note without
bending the neck of your bass guitar.
Side note: If you want to bend a natural harmonic, simple play it then use your left
hand fingers to press down on the string in the area between the NUT and the
TUNING peg!
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Here’s a diagram showing a list of easily played open string (natural) harmonics on
the 4 string bass… To make best use of them you need to know what notes are need
to create what chords.
Now while you will not be able to get all the possible notes with the natural
harmonics illustrated below, you can with practice make many triad (and even 7th
chords) by using the harmonics you can get and filling in the unavailable notes by
fretting and playing them. For example in sound sample 96 above I was able to play
the following progression – C Maj | D min11 | B Maj7 | C Maj - as follows;
Chord Harmonic Notes Fretted Note

C Maj E & G (5th fret) C
D min11 D & G (5th fret) F
B Maj7 A & D (5th fret) B
It doesn’t matter that the lowest note I am playing is the one I am fretting… I am
simply playing another inversion of the chord. Sit a little while and you’ll see just
how many chords you can create playing harmonics this way!
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Hammer-ons and Pull-offs

A hammer-on is a technique that incorporates two or more notes, effectively ‘tying’
them together…
What you do is that you sound the first note by fretting and playing the string as
usual, then using another ‘fretting finger’, drop it onto the string to sound the second
note.
While two notes are distinctly sounded, only the first note is played with the help
of the right hand.
A common variation of the ‘regular’ hammer on is what we call a ‘Cross Hammer’ –

where the notes played are NOT on the same string… Same action, it’s just that the
hammering is performed on a different string.
On the flip side, the ‘Pull off’ is almost like the reverse action of a
hammer. The higher of the two notes is the one that’s initially sounded
with the help of the right hand plucking the note. Next, the fretting
finger used to play that note is removed in a downward-dragging
motion to sound a lower note on the same string.
STEP 1: Set your metronome to 70 bpm. Using your index finger and right hand to
sound the ‘primary note’ hammer on to a note one whole tone above it with your
ring finger then proceed to perform a pull off to ‘re-sound’ the original note. Be sure
to sound the notes in time with the metronome.
STEP 2: Repeat the above exercise hammering on with your middle left finger one
semitone above and finally with the left pinkie finger a Minor 3rd above (an interval of
3 frets higher) the primary note.
STEP 3: Practice nailing these middle/ring/pinkie finger hammer on and pull offs
first in single time and then double time. (At this point you’re still practicing on just 1
string)
STEP 4: Go thru this hammer on exercise at gradually increasing tempos starting at

70 bpm playing in single time ¼ notes. NB. BE SURE TO USE THE
FINGERING SHOWN IN THE DIAGRAM.
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STEP 4: When you’re ‘hammering’ and ‘pulling off’ cleanly on one string, take that
to the next stage and practice first a cross hammer, then outlining your arpeggios
over various strings.
It’s quite common to use hammer-ons and pull-offs to outline minor 7th chords. (E.g.
Outlining the A minor chord as follows)
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Right and Left Hand Muting

A muted note is one that is purposefully snuffed out to dampen its sound. The result
is a very funky, punchy sounding note that can be used in all sorts of imaginative
ways.
There are man different ways to achieve the muted note using either your left hand
or your right hand…
Some people use the non-fretting fingers of the left hand to lightly lay it across all
the strings and therefore mute the played note… So if you’re using the index finger
to sound the G note on the 4th string, your middle, ring and pinky fingers will lay
very lightly across the strings just next to the played note to absorb most of the
vibrations.
You might also find it helpful to fret the note either very close to or even on top of
the fret line and raising the ‘lows’ & cutting the heights when pulling off this left
hand mute technique.
On the other hand (no pun intended) we can also use the right hand palm to help create
the muted sound. This position usually works best when your right hand is in a ‘guitar
finger-style’ picking position.
STEP 1: Practice with a metronome to play muted notes with either

your left or right hands and go through your Major scale ascending and
descending over two octaves.
STEP 2: Practice the following pattern replacing fully sounded notes

with muted notes. (As usual, 70 bpm, work to perfection and then increase
gradually by 5 bpm each time.) (CD 2 Sound Sample 98)
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Ghost Notes
A Ghost Note is a sound produced by a string that has no discernable pitch. They
are produced by touching the string just lightly enough to not have them actually fret
a note (in harmonic like fashion) except instead of touching the string directly over the
fretwire, you touch it towards the middle of the fret as you’d play normally.
This technique is another big favorite of mine not only because of the built in
funkiness it carries, but also because they are a great tool in helping lock into smaller
subdivision of the beat.
For example, if I’m playing a finger funk groove using a lot of 1/16th notes, I get the
benefit of using my picking fingers in a ‘time-keeping’ fashion, while not actually
sounding notes in a way that’s obtrusive to the main phrase.
In fact one of the very reasons ghost notes are so associated with funk styled music
is because they are heavily used by bassists almost as guideline, time-keeping notes to
help establish other syncopated notes that are to be sounded.
We’ll explain with an example...
(Sound example demonstrating how to place the note after the beat with the help of
a ghost note)
STEP 1: Practice playing ghosted 1/16th E notes over a metronome

click in our usual gradual increasing method.
STEP 2: Here’s our previous ‘muting exercise’ amended to include the

use of ghost notes as ‘guideline’ notes. This example is a bit exaggerated but
it’s so to help you get the point.
(The notes in the parenthesizes are to be played using the ghost note technique.)
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Double Stops
A double stop can be thought of as one of the simplest forms of a chord… It’s
where two notes from the chord are played together usually either in a plucking or
strumming motion.
Usually when I do double stops I incorporate a slide or a short chromatic lick that
leads into one of the two notes, and the two notes that I usually choose from within
the chord are those that most strongly highlight it… For example;
o The 3rd and the 7th for a Dominant chord…
o The 3rd and 7th for a Minor chord…
o The Root and 5th degrees also make a useful, widely applicable combination.
o Or any other pronounced degree from an extended chord. (I.E. 9th in a Major
9th etc.)
STEP 1: Practice doing double stops as demonstrated for as many

chords as you can think of. This is an extremely useful and popular
technique for use over a Dominant chord that wants to resolve to the
Major tonal center.
STEP 2: Analyze your chords now and find a way to interchange

which of the two notes is played at the higher pitch… E.g. switching
around which note is pitched higher between the 3rd and 7th in the
Dominant double stop. (CD 2 Sound Sample 99)
(Here’s an example of how you can turn around a double stop!)
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Dynamics
Dynamics refer to any form of noticeable change in the part being played to create a
distinct and dramatic effect of movement and life in the part. Methods for applying
dynamics include, but are not limited to, varying 1) Volume and/or intensity 2)
Tempo 3) Note durations, 4) Tension and release and 5) Pitch of a note.
It’s a fantastic way to add feeling and emotion to a line and ‘take the robotic’ out of a
bland sounding phrase.
And while you shouldn’t really be told when to use or not to use dynamic
movements thankfully it’s an understanding that comes with listening. Just keep
playing, practicing and listening and you see that you totally begin to feel where the
music is progressing and use that sensitivity to attempt to match the mode.
From a growing crescendo effect, to the opposite decrescendo/diminuendo of a

phrase you will learn to portray a range of different feels from introverted, sadness
and gentleness to rushing power and strength.
Listen to and memorize sound sample 101 and individually apply each
of the finishing techniques we just discussed. I want you to use the
techniques INDIVIDUALLY to emote the bass line in a way that feels
suitable to you. The drum beat is provided as sound sample 100.
Sound samples 102 – 109 are a few ideas off the top of my head (using
slides, vibratos, harmonics, hammer-on/pull-offs, palm muting, ghost notes, double
stops and dynamics respectively) but please only listen to these AFTER
having done your own.
1 Minute Summary: The key is to recognize that how

you say something is even more important that what
you say…
As such, there are no two ways about it… You simply

have to learn the musical equivalent of facial
expressions and body language, and just like no one
needed to teach you to turn up your nose and scoff
at someone your dislike or to open you eyes widely
when startled, you can and will naturally learn
forms of musical expression that have nothing to do
with the played note if you dedicate the time to
listening attentively for it in played music.
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Lesson
15
Cracking the Genre DNA Code!
As you spend more time listening to and playing different genres of music, you’ll
notice something (apart from the fact that in popular/contemporary music a lot of
common chord progressions a widely used and repeated from song to song across
different genres)…
You’ll notice that each genre or style of music has its own rhythmic, sonic (and
sometimes harmonic) characteristics that set it apart from another. So, playing a
chord progression for example;
A min7 | G Maj | F Maj | F Maj
…in a Latin ‘mode’ requires a different method of thinking than playing the same
progression in a Rock ‘mode’ if you want to be true to the form.
By and large the chord understand required and note choice basically remains the
same (although as styles change you will find some chords degrees are more popular choices than
others).
The most noticeable changes however are in the rhythmic dialect effecting your note
placement and note choice… Which is a testament to how crucial those two
factors are and how much sway they have in making an arrangement say two
completely different things!
So faced with a different style, it is not enough to just randomly choose notes and
play them over a chord. If we understand the genre of music we’re playing we’ll be
given a lot more clues and hints as to how to make the part we play even more
authentic.
Not barring that there are various cross genre fusions where styles are mixed and
grafted and unorthodox phrases inserted into the music, an understanding of how
the a particular style of music is created authentically is a huge asset.
We want to examine now some of the major contemporary genres, and see if we can
identify the properties and ‘ingredients’ that help create that genre and how to
emulate and enhance your playing by using what we discover.
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Now obviously we will not cover every style of music, (far from it) BUT the info here
will help you in your own digging – As you’ll now know what to look for when
trying to crack a genre’s DNA code.
Let’s put some of these strains of music under the microscope…
P.S. Rather that continuously re-state the obvious I’ll just say it once
upfront… You are to take a woodshed break after we examine each
genre style, go to both the BGM Groove Station and the BGM JamBox
and practice creating at least 7 – 12 grooves from each genre style.
So while you won’t see my indicting several woodshed breaks in this chapter take it
as a ‘given’ that you DO have homework. (Just as you thought you got away too huh?)
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Rock
At the heart of rock is an unmistakable “pulse-driven” statement that is
created by a groove usually centered around evenly spaced 1/8th notes
and played with enough energy and excitement to create an ‘on top of
the beat’ feel. (CD 2 Sound Sample 110 - 112)
So under the microscope the bass part is a pretty busy one, as it often plays over
every subdivision of the related drum beat, however because of the steadiness and
consistency in sound (note placement and duration) and the characteristic ‘simplicity’ of
the note choice it’s easy for the part to somewhat snuggle into the backdrop of the
music if you know what I mean…
…The sense and urgency is there and felt but not in a flashy ‘here-I-am-momma-
look-at-me’ kinda way.
Drum grooves are usually focused on the beats 1 and 3 and come in both straight
and shuffle flavors. (No surprise there.)
Now of course that doesn’t mean that for every rock groove all’s you can do is
phrase exactly in 1/8ths – There are evolutions of Rock music today that use funky syncopated,
1/16th notes – but as a general rule of thumb you can’t really go wrong with a
“pulsing” Rock bass line.
In terms of note choice, rock parts make heavy use of the pentatonic scale of the
chord you’re playing over because of the inherent use of somewhat common
chords… (Majors, minors, dominants and even some ‘boiled-down’ chords like the 5th chord a.k.a.
the Power Chord)
The most common variations from this use of ‘more simple chords’ found in this
genre is when you start to get into a bit more tense categories of Rock music where
you find that uncommon degrees such as the 2nd (and 2nd chords) are stuck in there are
well.
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Latin
Most bassists who have been exposed to playing any of the various
forms of Latin music (yup, the term Latin music umbrellas a very large range of
music), will probably readily admit that it is one extremely catchy and
fun style of music to play.
(CD 2 Sound Sample 113 & 114)
…Highly infectious when you dig into it. One of the things I believe contributes to
this ‘hook’ is the distinct feel of an ebb and flow motion in the ‘energy of the notes’.
Truthfully it’s easier to feel out than to explain but if you’ve ever seen a good bassist
perform a Latin arrangement and see his/her body get into the movement you can
tell that here’s a ‘sometimes-on-top’, ‘sometime-behind’ feel he’s varying in between.
(You’ll better understand in the example – hopefully ☺)
Again there are many mutations of the style (from Samba to Bossa Nova, Afro Cuban to
Rhumba) so I’ll try to give you just a basic foundation of the most common concepts.
Commonly you’ll find that arrangement follow a straight feel with consistent
emphasis on off beats – The bassist as such is often emphasizing these off beats by
playing syncopated anticipating notes on the 1/8th notes before the main downbeats…
One sure fire way create a Latin feel in a progression is to start playing in time on the
1 beat and within the first 1 or 2 bars pull off of the beat and insert your syncopated
anticipation notes.
And nicely enough playing both staccato (with lots of ghost notes) and legato (with lots of
slides) type lines work just as fine. Leave it up to your ear.
In terms of note choice, while not 100% restricted to this, the authentic phrases
often include a Root, 5th, octave line over the chords. Where the 5th degree of the
following chord is often used as the main connector in many of the riffs made.
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Funk
Like most genres the funk form can further be sub-divided into other
more specific niches, however there are a few unmistakable keys that
go into the soup… (CD 2 Sound Sample 115 & 116)
…Staccato-ed notes, lots of chromatic approach tones, 1/8th and

1/16 notes (often in ghost note form), and the all important 7th degree –
th
Form an almost perfect recipe for funk!
Probably no other style we’ll examine so heavily depends on one particular degree of
the scale to make or break it as this one. So listen to the examples below and see just
how much of a cornerstone the 7th is.
Further, when you think of funk you should think ‘attitude’… and it seems that
syncopation and the use of ghost notes were created for this style of music. So that’s
one key characteristic… Staccato like lines centered around the 1 and 3 beats, heavy
on the syncopation and lots of ‘anticipating’ ghost and approach notes.
Because of the generous use of ‘upbeat syncopations’ around the snare pattern and
pronounced focus in the bass groove around the 1 and 3, (both strong downbeats) there
is a distinct snappy feel created by the rhythm section’s accenting of those two
‘polarized’ beats…
And unless you’re playing 1/16th note finger funk, space is also an extremely
important factor for accenting the notes that you do choose to play.
The way I think of it is that to more powerfully emphasize the notes that are played and
give them their punch and attitude they almost need to come outta nowhere… You
want that unoccupied space in your bass line that’s somewhat abruptly pierced by a
punchy staccato note, often times briefly introduced by a few of his ‘passing note’
friends.
Now you almost won’t find a study of funk that doesn’t take you down the road of
slap and pluck unless you’re majoring in the finger funk stylings of Jaco and Rocco et
al. But again we have an entire volume dedicate to slap bass on the way so I won’t
get into that here but here’s what…
…Go get some James Brown, Victor Wooten and further get surrounded by some
finger-funk (my personal favorite) like that of the men Jaco Pastorius and Rocco Prestia.
And if you’re looking for a few quick ways to flavor your funk grooves, with slides,
vibratos and Dom7 double stops, you almost can’t go wrong ☺
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Reggae
Here’s another one of those really catchy and fun-to-play ‘World’
genres.
In my mind one of the things that gives Reggae it’s ‘snazzy’, is the
degree of freeness that is allowed rhythmically and the looseness you’re
allowed to play the lines with. There’s really ‘a cool vibrations’ that is built into the
style. (CD 2 Sound Sample 117 & 118)
Really ‘rootsy’ Reggae drum beats commonly incorporate one of a just a couple
different kick patterns… A single ‘one drop’ kick pattern played either one all four
downbeats or on beats “2” and “4” accompanied with a snare drum that’s usually
adding some syncopation around that.
And although Reggae comes in both straight and shuffled, smooth and clipped
staccato forms, my personal favorite Reggae grooves are where there’s a legato,
shuffled high hat pattern that gives you the opportunity to play ‘sweet buttery’ bass
lines.
But shuffled or not, legato or percussive, what really brings the Reggae flavor out is
the unmistakable and purposeful refrain from playing “beat 1” (as is commonly done in
Rock and Pop) and the syncopated accenting of the upbeats, (again revolving around the 2
and 4.)
It’s a fantastic genre and the accenting of the upbeats followed by the pronounced
‘thud’ of the ‘one drop’ on beats 2 and 4 lend to a highly emphasized strong bubbly
feeling.
Again, you just gotta love the magnetism of its freeform and the breathing room left
inside.
Note choice is often in the register below the root as a warm, low, foundation like
rumble is required (centering around the more basic chord tones – In Major chords the Root, 3rd
and 5th). And of course where shuffled, your bass parts should be built around a nice
triplet feel.
If you’ve never played the style before at first it might seem a bit tricky, but once you
get the slightly unusual groove form programmed into your groove-o-meter, you’ll
fly. And here’s one other little clever tip… Depending on required feel, (if disjointed
rather than smooth legato notes are to be chosen) some right hand palm muting to add to a
degree of warmth to the note, will go a very, very long way!
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A Word on Other Contemporary Styles

Now obviously we’ve only covered a tiny fraction of a fraction of the world of
genres of music, for 2 reasons…
1) It’s impossible to do them all anyway… Most music forms are comprehensive
studies all by themselves.
For example authentic Jazz and Bebop literally are whole different languages,
packing its own vocabulary. The purpose of analyzing a few of the more popular
contemporary styles is to get you to understand what to look out for when
you are listening to music. Following these are blueprints you can now start to
analyze music style on your own and see what characteristics make them unique.
2) Most popular contemporary genres, like Urban Gospel for example, are simply
fusions of those broader ones we have described. (N.B. If you’re interested in
doing a more extensive, high detail, ‘nook-n-cranny’ examination of any
particular genre, (e.g. gospel, hip hop, rock whatever) send me an email to
Support@BassGuitarTips.Com and just let me know… I’ll get back to
you.)
The Fred Hammonds and Israel Houghtons grew up on the same ranges of
music that are in the music stores for you to go listen to… So go get them and
listen! You have available many of the same tools your favorite song writers and
arrangers do for as little as $14.95… See, hear and feel the influences of Rock,
Funk, Soul and R&B in your modern Gospel…
Appreciate the Funk ‘Flava’ and Ballard-like Rock etc. in your pop and
alternative music… The idea is to dig the fact that most everything that you hear
today is a mutation, marriage and offspring of stuff that’s still around you! Either
in recorded or live format.
I don’t know if you get what a wonderful advantage that is to you, but when you
do discover the treasure that lies in your nearest music store I hope you exploit it
to the fullest!
You got the tools, you got the process, now get the practice and have some fun!
1 Minute Summary: You should have noticed that in

our analysis of different genres we were
categorizing them most heavily based on the ideas we
studied in our lessons on ‘Groove Mechanics’ and
‘Groove Flavors’…
‘Nuff said!
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Lesson
16
“Groove Analysis”
Ok this is the section where we bring it all together!
We’ve gone into a lot of detail about the various ingredients that go into a solid bass
line. We’ve shared tons of ideas, techniques, methods and mental concepts that
if applied will (I guarantee you) quickly propel your bass playing to a whole new
level.
There’s no two ways about it… If you do your due diligence, follow-up with the
exercises I gave and spend the time required in the woodshed practicing and
listening, what we’ve covered so far is going to prove to be of tremendous worth to
you as a bassist…
Earlier on I mentioned that there’s an inner game that separates the deadbeat bass
players from the ‘rhythmic puppet masters’… We’ve spent a recognizable portion of
time looking at that inner game so far in some of the previous chapters, and now we
have one more major part of the formula to go over… The X factor…
But before we do, let’s see if we can put a couple grooves under the microscope and
analyze exactly what’s going on, and how I’m applying the concepts we spoke of, to
create (what I hope are ☺) tasty bass lines for some chord progressions taken off of the
BGM JamBox.
Remember this though… The idea is not about one thing being right or wrong as
such… Some ideas are perhaps just more suitable. So I want to encourage you to
find alternative approaches to the ones I took whenever you do practice using these
progressions yourself.
And as you do, again I do hope that you have some way to record yourself so you
can listen back to what you did as a third person.
It’s a great way to catch flaws in left hand/right hand technique, poor note choice
and time keeping issues. And finally if you want to drop some of those recordings
over, no problem I’d love to hear them as well.
…
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This is one of the things not commonly done in most bass instructional products
and in my own studies I always wished that there’d be a section that took apart a
groove and analyzed the thinking behind it for me.
If you’re looking for something like that, then let’s get started!
Hope the following lesson helps!
Track: BGM JamBox Track #4

Progression: Bmin7 | A7 | Fmin7 | Fmin7
Chord Tones:
Bmin7 – B, D, F#, A
A7 – A, C#, E, G
Fmin7 – F, G#, C, D#
Description: By and large I’ll try to play a ‘dead center’ groove

over the drum pattern… You’ll notice however that the
keyboardist phrases some of his chords ‘slightly behind the beat’
which lends to a cool, laid back feel.
In this first sound sample, we’ll start by simply locking into and
mirroring exactly what the kick drum is doing. This is almost always a
valuable approach to consider even if you are looking to later develop
your bass lines to incorporate even more complex ideas…
So I’ll start by locking onto the kick, using just the root notes of the respective
chords. (CD 2 Sound Sample 119)
Now I am going to expand on the previous groove to include some

more notes. By looking at the chords you notice that the root and the
b7 are strong chord tones for each of the chords in this progression. So
I’ll start by making use of only these. Then as I go along, I will start
inserting the 5th degree. (Remember, in most cases the 5th degree can act as a
very stable and standard ‘reinforcing’ chord tone so using it helps anchor the chord you’re playing in
the listener’s mind).
All the time however I keep following the main pattern of the kick drum... Even
though I’, starting to use different notes I am still implying the pattern that the kick
is etching out. (CD 2 Sound Sample 120)
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Now one of the factors we talked about varying earlier was not only
note placement but note duration… So let’s try locking with the kick in
a smoother, legato form, with notes that sound out longer. Now
although I’d obviously miss playing some of the beats in the kick’s
pattern, the general feel of what the kick is doing is still there.
Again it’s glaringly obvious just how the two different approaches convey totally
different moods – Even though I’m generally using the same notes and playing in the
same register. (CD 2 Sound Sample 121)
Ok let’s go a little further and start inserting some syncopated

‘approach’ notes in between the kick pattern… These approach notes
are placed in 16th note timing and so give a very ‘hip’, funky feel to the
bass line.
Generally speaking the same notes are being used i.e. the root, 5th, the 7th and the
octave. Just to add some funk I am playing chromatically from the 7, to the natural
7th then up to the octave.
I’m still keeping the note choice somewhat simple and based mainly on the use of
chord tones… Now all that’s varied is the rhythmic placement and number or notes
that accompany the drum beat. (CD 2 Sound Sample 122)
And finally, keeping the main groove I established in the last example, I
am going to start inserting some riffs in between the chord changes.
The riffs are going to be based around the same 16th note feel and if
you listen carefully you will hear the use of the ‘four-note-cycles’ that
we practiced our scales in.
(For the most part I’m playing a four-note cycle of the A Mixolydian scale in descending order,
starting at the 5th degree – I throw in some chromatic approach tones as well before and after the
main segment of the run) (CD 2 Sound Sample 123)
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Progression:
Gmaj7|Gmin7|FMaj|FMaj|E Maj7|E Maj7|DMaj7|D7
Chord Tones:
GMaj7 – G, B, D, F#
Gmin7 – G, A#, D, F
FMaj – F, A, C
E Maj7 – E , G, A#, D
Dmaj7 – D, F#, A, C#
D7 – D, F#, A, C
Description: If you listen to the progression you’ll notice that to

compliment the feel and maintain the mood of the song you’d be
required to play a smooth laid-back type bass line as opposed to a
busy, movement-filled one. If you overplay, chances are you’ll
draw too much attention to the bass part and detract from the
song itself.
Also, I’ll try to avoid notes that create tension and stick mainly to
the strongest chord tone in each chord.
Again we are going to start with a groove that for the most part locks
into the kick. Occasionally I’ll place notes that fall off the kick pattern,
(on the ‘and’ beat just before beat 1) but I do it just to match the syncopated
phrasing that the keyboards are playing. And in establishing this
rhythmic pattern, I’m going to choose for now to use just the root
notes, sounded in a legato fashion.
As simple as it may sound if I stuck to this groove for the main portion of the song
I’d be fine. The very simple [octave – 9th slide] runs are perfect fills for the spaces
and in all honesty not much more is needed for the main groove.
Now what I’m going to do is start inserting some legato riffs as I move
from one chord to another…
While I’m not trying to get too complex or to ‘showboat’ (because I’m not
looking to draw unnecessary attention to the bass line and go against the grain of the
song) admittedly I am going to be playing somewhat busily.
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Just to be clear however, this is more movement than I would normally use if I were
playing the song for performance or in studio and the slight exaggeration is caused
by my trying to demonstrate the use of the riffs and slides in such a short space of
time.
Usually, over the course of a 4 minute song, if I am going to be playing with this
much movement I wouldn’t start doing that until the groove is properly well
established… (CD 2 Sound Sample 125)

Progression: Fmin11|Fmin11|Fmin11|Fmin11
Chord Tones:
Fmin11 – F, G#, C, E , G, A#
Description: Listening to this song I sense a some what up-

tempo, gliding yet snappy feel to it. This is probably caused by the
funky sharp pattern of the kick and snare, combining with the
smooth extended play of the keyboards… We’ll see how I attempt
to play with both in the following sound samples…
As usual I’ll start by loc king into what the kick is doing using the root
and the 7th degree… As you’ve probably guessed by now when you’re
playing over minors type chords (and Dominant 7th type chords) you can’t
go wrong using your root and 7th degrees. And again I take the
approach that leads me to follow the kick pattern.
Now here’s where you see how important it is to listen to a song first and gauge the
feel… This is the exact approach I want you to take with your bass lines. Rather than
to simply start playing it’s good to stop, listen (and by now you know what you’re listening
for) and find ways to describe the feel and flavor of the groove you want to think
about matching.
Before, I described the song as having both snappy and smooth qualities implied by
drummer and keyboardist respectively… Yet another indication that you don’t listen
exclusively to the drummer alone when deciding on a bass line. In an earlier lesson
we spoke of understanding your musical space, band culture and feel that your band
as a whole is trying to recreate.
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So on this first attempt, I’ll try to mix in both staccato and legato notes while
matching the kick, to create a somewhat ‘gliding’ groove interrupted by two staccato
hits in time with the kick…
Keeping the same simple motif that only rarely includes a simple chromatic run from
the 4th degree to the 5th I am able to imply some feel of added movement by varying
the octave the groove is played in. This same run is used to carry the groove back to
the original octave. (CD 2 Sound Sample 126)
To continue and just for the sake of example, I start by ‘busying up’ the
groove, using a lot of 16th approach notes that syncopate against the
kick.
Generally speaking the degrees used are the same except that now I am
using the 3rd in the octave above where the main groove lies and I’m filling the
space with a short chromatic riff from the 4th to the b5th to the 5th. (Same as before)
Remember, in this case both the 4th and the 5th are chord tones (since the 11th degree used
in forming the minor 11 chord is the same as a 4th degree).
One thing that gives this groove some solidity even though it is somewhat busy (with
such a relatively ‘small’ number of instruments it is not hard to lose that solidity if the bassist
overplays) is how I continuously come back to ‘beat 1’ dead on top an accented hit of
the kick drum.
The use of ghost notes in this groove serve two important purposes for both listener
and bassist… 1) The listener can hear them just enough to give that funky 16th note
feel throughout the groove that the busier version is going for and 2) They also serve
as constant guide lines to me for exactly what the 16th note timing is.
Concerning the runs here, it’s a simple hammer-on run using the chord tones 4th-5th,
7th-octave then ending on the 3… And again to display how varying the register
can give movement, I repeat the run in a higher octave.
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Progression: E 6addd9|G#Maj7| E 6add9|G#Maj7
Chord Tones:
E 6add9 – E , G, A#, C, F
G#Maj7 – G#, C, E , G
Description: This progression is a somewhat simple one that is

really just a ‘fancied up’ version of a I – IV. Because it’s in a Latin
mode we can expect to see syncopations employed by all the
musicians and the bassist is no exception.
The first and most important thing to notice about this groove is that
the kick is placed on the ‘and’ just after beat #4, (1, and, 2, and 3, and,
4, and) so I’ll start by highlighting the root notes of each chord in time
with this syncopated kick.
Remembering, that in Latin music especially the 1st, 5th, 7th and octave are all
commonly used chord tones, to add to the syncopated, anticipatory feel even more I
also insert some ‘lead in’ ghost notes that anticipate the kick, all the time ever
conscious that of maintaining some portion of a smooth legato type line.
To demonstrate an even smoother bass groove I’ll convert most of the

notes to a legato feel and throw in some slides. You’d notice that the
main emphasis is still on placing notes that accent the kick. The 5th
note is used as a passing tone to introduce the root of the following
chord and a slide at the turn-around helps maintain the smooth Latin
feel I’m going for now. (CD 2 Sound Sample 129)
How’s about if we now take the same main groove from the previous
example and modify to include a more staccato, almost ‘shuffled’ feel by
inserting triplet ghost notes in between the notes I was playing
before…
In the section where we analyzed Latin genre I mentioned that the style often
employs a somewhat ‘back and forth’, ebb and flow movement that can be implied
by playing sometimes ahead, sometimes behind the beat.
Well by mixing these staccato and legato notes I am able to alternate between a
somewhat rushing then laid back feel as well.
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This sound sample demonstrates a similar use of ghost notes

rhythmically, but now accenting different degrees, mainly the 1, 5 and
octave degrees. (CD 2 Sound Sample 131)
Here’s one more example of a groove built by mixing legato and

staccato notes and using only the first and fifth degrees, a common
take on a Latin bass part.
This is a good demonstration of just how much you can do, simply by varying the
note duration and note placement (rhythmic properties of your bass line.) (CD 2
Sound Sample 132)

Progression: E min7|A 9|E min7|A 9
Chord Tones:
Bmin7 –
A7 –
Description:
Now I’ve left one up to you… Listen to the track on BGM JamBox
first, then using the same process I followed of identifying the chord
tone and describing the feel, I want you to analyze this sound sample in
as much detail as you can think…
Then set off to the BGM JamBox yourself, search out some backing
music and continue the exercise on a regular basis. Have fun!
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Lesson
17
The X-Factor Revealed!
Now that the ‘C’ and ‘G’ parts of the formula have been more than adequately
covered, we’ve ‘finally’ arrived at the mysterious X-Factor… Something I’ve been
hinting at for the entire volume so far, and now I’ve got a little surprise for you.
The magical X-factor is perhaps the most un-teachable section of the entire course…
You see it’s no one technique as much as it is a creed of 11 individual secrets I have
personally come to believe are the real prime ingredients for taking a fair bassist,
(heck even a damn good bassist who understands what notes to play where) and making him
truly outstanding.
Again I beg you not to down play the importance of what I’m about to teach you…
These choice secrets were brought to my attention over the years as I spent a lot of
time listening to, reading from and looking at bassists I consider 10,000 times better
than I am.
And apart from the skills and the technical know-how they all have, there was
something(s) about them… Some things they do on stage and on camera that caught
my eye, some things they openly say in interviews and teach to others, and again
some things they seemingly ‘lightly hint’ to and move on.
For me the X-factor represents 11 of those can’t-live-without things that I’ve filtered
out from literally scores of tips I’ve been exposed to.
At first glance, not all would seem connected -- Except for the fact that as far as I
have seen, all are secrets that the best bassists (and musicians as a whole) hold on to as
exceedingly precious.
And I can tell you right now, not all are immediately applicable. (For example, the advice
in the second X-Factor bullet will probably be best adhered to when we get into soloing and
improvisation and when you become more masterful at executing the ideas that were already
presented here.)
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My hope however is that you get the combined weight of what they have to say
because I can assure you that all technical stuff aside, you’re about to uncover 11 of
the most powerful guidelines you’ll find for accelerating your success and kick
starting your development whenever you seem to plateau out and ‘stop growing’.
Have fun reading and implementing…
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X Factor #1: “Practice Listening!”
I am yet to come across a great musician who doesn’t openly admit that all of his
best ideas, the sum total of who he is musically, is an evolved result of influence by
not one or two, but MANY players he at one time considered better than himself.
The fact remains that no one man is an island and being open to the ideas of others
and appreciating as much good quality music as you can (no matter the instrument, so long
as the quality is at a place you want to be) is the first cornerstone and commandment
to becoming a better musician yourself.
It literally does not matter how much you practice… How much you read, or
how much you intuitively know… Music is an art form, a language… And both
spoken language and various other art forms are expressions of mimicry… Subtle
mimicry and ‘twistings’ of life and of ideas…
And just as the spoken word is learnt almost exclusively by hearing and mimicking,
so too the musical ‘word’ is learnt by hearing as much as you can, mimicking
greatness and as you’ll see in a bit, making those ideas your own.
So the first pillar of the ‘X-Factor philosophy’ to unlocking great musicianship is to

make listening to quality music a recognized and scheduled part of your practice
session…
Again I’m not just speaking about hearing music… I said and meant making a
conscious effort to listening carefully and asking yourself…‘What’ is being played,
trying to figure out ‘why’ it was played, ‘where’ it was played (i.e. the context in which it is
played based on what else was going down) and ‘how’ it was played. (I.e. how the tools of
articulation are used to give life to the ideas.)
Don’t worry about it being a big task either. As a child you learnt to speak that way.
You learnt to associate certain tones with certain words. You learnt sarcasm, how to
express disgust and how to form sentences that make sense, all by mimicry. All
because your ears and eyes were open.
And you found that the wider the range of people you talk to, and the more
intelligent those people are, the better your use of the language gets.
Remember as a bassist you are training yourself to converse, and if you grow up in a
house with lots of cussing and yelling, that’s the way you’ll speak… So be careful
about what you choose to listen to, but DO make it a permanent part of your
practice routine to just listen to music… Lots of music…
…Different genres… Different instruments… Listen to the old… Listen to the

new… Listen to simple stuff, complex stuff… Stuff you can and cannot presently
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do… Stuff you like and stuff you don’t like… And never stop listening too. Because
when you fall out of practice your speech will get slurred or worse yet – You plateau!
It’s only a matter of time till it happens that your musical pulse flat lines and dies.
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X Factor #2: “Experiment Fearlessly & Let Your

Imagination Be Master of Your Technique”
“There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge” – Napoleon Hill
“Imagination is more important that knowledge” – Albert Einstein
Earlier on in this volume, I told you that there is really no such thing as a right note
and a wrong note. Just better/worse choices and the effectiveness of everything
depends on how you lead into and release it. So while there are rules, and
conventions that you have spent the past 150 odd pages studying, at the end of the
day there is no such thing as a right note or a wrong one. ☺
Here’s another big brick in the X-Factor foundation. I’ve found that most really
great musicians use the rules of this ‘language’ as springboards to do crazy and
unconventional things. And the only way you can achieve what’s truly creative and
musical is when you let your inhibitions go, let your imagination do your thinking
and experiment outside the box.
It’s almost like you learnt the rules so you can know what to bend and twist.
Now I’m all for authenticity and order, but only you can make yourself heard in the
way that you want to be heard. And ultimately your creativity should never be solely
based on the opinions of others. (Hey dem is what rules is right? ‘Udder peoples opinions?)
In the wood shed... In private, it’s good sometimes to just let go of what you’re
supposed to do, and just do what you’re feeling. Eventually with constant practice of
both the conventional ways to do stuff, mixed in with a dash of your own wacky
ideas you’ll find that the mutation start getting a bit more shapely and eventually
evolves into more presentable ideas you can actually use.
And while you’re not trying to ‘act the fool’ just for being quirky sake, the end result
of ‘screw-the-rules’ thinking and experimentation will almost always produce something
that at least silently takes a listener by surprise… A good surprise ☺
For example, believe it or not, I’m actually a better speller and a lot more
grammatical if I want to be than what you’ve read in these pages. But for
communication sake it don’t matter! If I think that the words “ain’t”, “dem” and
“udder” are going to help me communicate ya bedder darn well believe I’m ah use ‘em.
So do you think that a 5th degree would sound good here, even though technically
it doesn’t fit? Well then USE IT! Perhaps it’ll work – perhaps it won’t… So what? If
it doesn’t then ditch it and go back to the drawing board.
But I’ll end how I started… Imagination is more important that knowledge!
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X Factor #3: “Practice Perfect Practice”
There’s a very strong bias I have towards practicing and practicing properly because
for me every single performance anyone does is a direct indication of what they do in
private… Whether or not they recognize it!
So aren’t some people born with a knack for playing bass? Sure. I’d not be surprised
if somewhere right now there’s a 6 year old rocketing through “Coltrane’s Giant
Steps” however chances are, you are not that 6 year old.
And what you lack in knack, you can make up for with practice! – Perfect practice.
And if you don’t already know what I consider perfect practice, it’s this…
Consistent, persistent and purposeful effort to do a thing as near perfect as
possible, no matter how slowly or simply you have to start, conquering that
level and ONLY then gradually upping the ante.
Perfect practice is also one with a specific goal and a specific schedule that
revolves around that goal. (I.e. today I’m practicing Major and Minor Scale patterns from
the lowest note on the neck to the highest note, in the key of F# -- I was able to pull it off perfectly 3
days ago at 80 bpm today we’re drilling at 85 bpm.)
Bottom line… All the knowledge in the world will not make you a great musician.
To become a great musician you must fervently apply X-factor #3 and consistently
put in the required work.
It’s said that John Coltrane, practiced even in between gigs… Charlie Parker
spent up to 14 hours a day practicing for a period of 4 consecutive years! –
Thomas Edison created over 1,000 different versions of the light bulb we
know today before he found one that stayed lit more than a few minutes…
Albert Einstein himself admitted, “It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I
stay with problems longer.”
Were these guys geniuses in their own rights? Sure were. 9 times outta 10 however
what we perceive as genius was just persistent effort.
Really smart people are, in secret, just really persistent buggers and most really
awesome bassists are nothing more than ‘in-the-closet’ really great ‘practicers’. Develop
a purposeful practice routine and DO IT… DO IT… DO IT!
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X Factor #4: “Learn To Sing What You Want To Play”
There’s an old jazz maxim that says if you can sing it you can’t play it. Now before
you get all scared and start trashing your house as your dreams of becoming a better
musician are crushed since you can’t hold a tune with your croaky little voice, steady
yo’self my man.
Unless you’re medically tone deaf (i.e. have amusia… Here’s a site where you can take a
quick test for that – Test for amusia) you can vocally express what you hear in your
head…
…A hum, a whistle, a yodel, a grunt ☺… The fact is that the single best way of
assimilating the unique ideas you want to play… transcribing a song, picking up the
key of a song, listening to licks and playing them on the fly…
…The single most valuable tool in your arsenal is being able to sonically re-
produce in your own closed little space a tone you hear!
And usually if you can’t sing/hum/whistle something it really means that you can’t
yet identify and match up that tone in your head… As such you can’t replay it.
Now again for some folks it’s just a matter of practice. Take the tone deafness test
and see if you pass.
If you don’t and you suspect you may have amusia, try to seek out professional help.
If you pass I’m telling you that you already got what it takes so get started ‘singing
what you play.’
Here’s a stupid little method I pretty much stumbled over and used when I was way
younger. You have to promise not to tell anyone this ☺
At the start of a song I’d pinch my nose, ‘blow air out my ears’ and simultaneously try
to hum a note I was hearing if I had to find the key of a song. I found this method
of internalizing the sound was SO helpful as it somewhat filtered out most other
distracting sounds and amplified my own ‘voice’ while still allowing me to hear the
music being played.
Now I’m a big boy and can do it without pinching my nose, but I still vocalize
everything I try to reproduce.
I hear a bass line on the radio, I vocalize it… I hear a solo on a CD, I vocalize it…
In fact I personally find that the best ideas I come up with for riffs in a bass
line are when I put a song to play, and ‘scat’ my way through a lick…
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…I keep doing it repeatedly till I can ‘scat’ it without the recording and then go to
my bass and slowly, bit by bit, teach myself to play the scat. It’s the whole idea of
practicing to play what you hear in your head.
And I’m telling you, this X-factor works wonders for your playing!
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X Factor #5: “Get A Brutal Coach”
I have this weird thing I say.
I think you can never really hear yourself playing till you stop playing. And that’s one
of the reasons a coach is important for explosive growth in any pursuit of life…
Runners have coaches, people who do professional speaking have coaches, swim
athletes have coaches and you need a coach, because in the heat of doing what you’re
doing you can never objectively examine yourself.
So that’s one argument for getting a personal tutor that I personally agree with
hands-down. But that’s not so much what I want to bring to the fore today. This X-
Factor points to you getting not just any coach, but the most brutal of coaches…
Yourself!
If you don’t already do it start NOW… Get anything that can record and record
everything you play… It doesn’t have to be a fancy multi-track digital workstation,
just a tape player with built in mic will do. Or maybe an inexpensive audio interface
so you can hook your guitar up to your PC and record it.
When you’re done recording yourself put it under the microscope and be as brutal as
you possibly can be. Listen for excess fret noise… Listen for flaws in technique and
ill placement of notes. Listen to see if your timing is impeccable… Listen and see if
you can sing a better line than you just played.
Now I warn you this could be humbling.
Just when you think you have a hold on something is when you use this method and
really hear it for the first time – At first, it can totally shatter your ego.
But that’s a good sign! The fact that you can spot errors means that you know what
you should be doing and that’s excellent!
There’s nothing worse than doing something wrong and being ignorant of it. So
record yourself and examine it like a bad, bad man… Don’t give yourself any breaks!
Be a tyrant. Give it to a friend… Give it to your tutor… And if all else fails give it to
me if you’d like me to take a quick look at it and give you some pointers.
The fact is you gotta get an objective view of what you play and your first and most
immediate and picky coach is usually yourself. USE HIM/HER!
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X Factor #6: “Movement Is Necessary”
Here’s another colossal point for bassists that at first isn’t as obvious.
Quit Taking Baths In Instant Starch And

MOVE When You Play.
And this does a lot more than just give you a stage presence… Did you know that a
conversation had over the telephone while pacing the floor comes across completely
different than one done slouching in a chair?
This X-Factor is about getting into the music you play. So much of what we have to
play is based on feeling out what’s going on with the other guy and that means
getting into the groove and chemistry of things to really work your magic.
And no matter how timid, how reserved, or how inconspicuous the movement you
better believe you ain’t getting into nothing if something ain’t moving.
One of the first motions you gotta make part of your playing is to tap your feet in
the meter of the arrangement. No matter how fast, or how slow you’re playing, it’s
a priceless idea to get into the habit of using your feet to tap out the time signature
of the music.
Think is it an unimportant X factor? – LOL – No X-factor is unimportant bucko.

This is all proven to improve stuff I’m sharing here and believe me you can ignore it
at your own risk…
Now I ain’t saying that you gotta jump around and bounce on your head. Hey
my man, Anthony Jackson sits and plays most all the time, and Lord knows he got it
going on, but look at him play and you’ll see that on the other end he’s NOT a stone
idol.
So leave the ‘You Got Served’ moves for the gym and the ‘Raving’ for the laser light
show parties. But you DO need to animate a bit.
…Unless of course you don’t want to infuse your music with feeling by going and
doing something stupid like actually becoming a living, breathing, organic being with
some expression of life and love for what you’re doing!
Fact… If you don’t do the ‘human thing’ chances are you won’t do the music thing
very well. Nuff said!
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X Factor #7: “Emote Your Notes”
Here’s something I guarantee will totally floor you…
A bunch of very smart scientist-type people put themselves in a room somewhere,

did a load of expensive and extensive testing, (probably complete with the white lab
robes, bubbling test tubes and white hot Bunsen burners) and conclusively deduced
(meaning those cats found out) that words said account for a scrawny 7 percent of
the information communicated between persons!
The tone used accounts for a whooping 55 percent and other forms of expressive
body language (both conscious and unconscious) tell the other 38 percent of the story!
In other words, how you say what you say is roughly 9 times as important as
what you said! And there you thought that playing more notes would make you
better – That’s mind blowing isn’t it?
Now I ain’t no scientist and I ain’t never played one on TV, but I’d guess that the
numbers hold more or less the same for all forms of communication.
So a few quick calculations… [If you take the 7% multiply it by 5, add the 3 and carry the 1,
it means that…]
“All The Scales In The World, All The

Arpeggios, All The Knowledge Of
Chord Tones Account For Less Than 10%
Of What It Means To Be A Great Musician!”
There’s an X-factor if I ever saw one!
The sensitivity and way you put across your notes in context to what is presently
going on and is presently being said by the band to the audience is a 50 pound
cannonball in your musical arsenal all by itself.
[Tip... Read the chapter on groove sensitivity again… And go back to the 9 magic ways to light up
your groove playing and work on honing them!]
Listen some more and see how others emote... Where they use slides, where they use
dynamics. Listen for the tonal qualities of the instruments your heroes play… How
bright are their instruments for a certain song? How loud, how warm is the tone?...
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See how others dance in context to their band sound and musical space. Is there
always a flurry of notes?
Aim to stop being a RAM-goat and assaulting your listener with Random Acts of
Madness (i.e. just shooting off random notes from your scales while the right half of
your brain sleeps)… Learn how to make your scales tools and not exercises…
Again, sing what you play! It’s a fabulous way to get emotion into a line. The melodic
you can make a solo, improv piece or heck even a groove the more a listener can
appreciate it.
Want another big emotion to add to your playing?
Here’s one… CONFIDENCE!
Exude confidence and surety about your groove playing. People are attracted to
confidence like lemmings to a cliff… Bees to honey… Good looking chicks to ‘the
wrong type of guy’… It’s proven that it’s one of the sexiest qualities a human can
possess, and in all your emoting learning to display confidence when you’re playing
well turn any plain bass part into an electromagnet ☺.
So you’re playing through a song that’s relatively new to you… Well remember
earlier on we learned two powerful concepts… 1) Less is usually more and 2)
Establish a motif and modify…
Well break down the chord structures and choose a basic line that fundamentally
does what it should do… And play it solidly! You know one other cool thing about
confidence?
Even if you’re ‘winging it’ no one can really tell if you’re flying by the seat of your
pants or if you’re just so freakin’ cool that you feel like playing it simple ;-)
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X Factor #8: “The Ear Is King!”
Ok this one is so important that even though it falls under other sections it deserves
a mention on it own…
You absolutely MUST take every opportunity you can to train your ear to recognize
tones. When you learn a scale it’s great to learn and understand the pattern visually,
but to really ‘hear’ the degrees and how the intervals interact with each other is 1000
times more important.
Great musicians can spot a flat 7th degree without looking at their instrument to see
where it lies in relation to the root… They can spot a 5th degree and a flat 5th a mile
away.
Can you even begin to imagine the freedom and confidence this skill will give you in
your playing? And it’s not impossible to get. It’s all about practice and patience.
I guarantee that your playing and articulation will SOAR when you don’t have to
look at the fretboard to see what you’re playing, but instead can concentrate on
hearing what your head and heart has to say, as it’s beaming you awesome lines to
play.
The number one reason I think that some of our playing is hindered is that we are
too busy making sure we ‘play what’s right’ to hear the fantastic ideas our mind
wants us to play.
“But Alex, what if I’m already a sight reading monster?”
Puhleez… That’s weak.
The ear is that part of the X-factor that every musician needs to hone whether or not
you can sight read music better than you can read a bright yellow billboard.
I mean first off, you’re not going to have sheets for everything you play and secondly
great musicians always try to make melodies and harmonies better as they play…
And to do that you need to hear, what you mind says, hear what you just played and
hear what you have to go next in relation to that!
Train your ear as astutely as you train your fingers.
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X Factor #9: “Personalize Everything!”
I remember this one time visiting a friend’s church and hearing their house band
play… They were good. Very tight and well organized… Unfortunately I’m still
waiting to hear their bassist play…
You see that night I heard a reasonable replica of Maurice Fitzgerald but I didn’t
hear the guy on stage play and that’s sad ‘cause he was probably pretty good.
Earlier on I told you to listen. And you gotta do that. You gotta learn from others,
but you also gotta put your stamp on it.
See there’s a way that only you can articulate a note, if you be yourself. And that
won’t come out if you spend 90% of your effort trying to be someone else. Now
understand. I’m still advocating listening, learning and mimicking. But I’m now
throwing in ‘mixing what you learn with who you are!’
You hear a lick that you like… Fine… Learn it by all means!
But change the way it’s articulated. Start on a different note, end on a different
note… Try using some slides. Trying using it in a context other than the one you
heard it used before. Personalize, personalize, personalize, and don’t be afraid to be
YOU…
That’s the reason anyone is listening anyways.
If I want Marcus, I’ll pick him up at the CD store for $20… Listen to him 1,000
times in a month but if I’m paying or spending time to hear you… Let’s hear YOU!
So again, practice changing EVERYTHING you successfully learn from others

because down the road someone wants to learn from YOU!
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X Factor #10: “At All Times K. I. S. S.”

“Anyone can make the simple complicated…
Creativity is making the complicated simple!”
– Charles Mingus
I really like this X-Factor… It’s especially important for us groovers and there’s a
few people I know I’d like to take into a metal room with no windows, a locked steel
door and beat them over the head with this one. ☺
KISS is an acronym and it stands for Keep it Simple Stupid.
We started off talking about the concept of ‘less being more’ and we’ll close on it as
well. It’s that important.
And while I don’t want you to think that the idea is to shut out creativity and be
bland, on the flip side you don’t want to come across in your playing as a member of
the society who approximates your propinquity with the individual and inherent
premeditated ambition of pontificating to yourself upon their procurement of an
opulence of vocabulary understanding….
“Huh?... What the heck is Alex smoking?!!”
Exactly! When you talk like that people want to beat you over the head… And you
shouldn’t come across in your playing like that either – You know as the
dude/dudette who is trying to show off a bunch of big words they just learnt even
when they don’t fit in contextually.
Again a scale is a tool. That doesn’t mean that you have to play every note of
every scale for every chord you play… If the notes don’t fit well sonically it’s
better to leave them out than to over play.
Advanced players get this. They understand that in being a great bassist, there’s an
understanding needed that let’s you know when you’re overplaying…
There’s an internal meter that checks their grooves, their licks and their note choices
to see if they are fitting…They understand that while they can play a million notes a
minute, they gotta understand when to do so.
But most of all what I’m saying it that the person understands that they are
only ready to express more complex ideas when they can take those
complexities and execute it so that it comes over smoothly and seems like a
piece of cake to the on-looker.
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If you’ve ever heard a very complex solo, then seen the video live and thought,
“…Man he makes this look so easy!!…” that dude was keeping it simple because for him,
it IS THAT SIMPLE!
Think on that.
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X Factor #11: “Memorize Everything”
I picked this one up from music educator Jamey Aebersold…
He absolutely believes in being able to read your sheet and charts, but won’t hesitate
a second to tell you that you gotta free yourself up to where you can play without
thinking about it. My hero John Patitucci says the same thing. You gotta bring
yourself to the point where you can play without forcibly thinking about it!
And I think he’s on to something.
It’s funny, but I know sharp musicians who are otherwise forgetful, who still knock
the wind right outta me when I see how quickly they can go through a song and
systematically store it in their internal hard drive!
And it ain’t coincidence either… It is part of becoming really good… Being able to
quickly internalize what you have to play, so that your mind can start chewing over it
and produce ideas for its version of what to play.
And the longer you take to digest the music, the longer you mind takes to start
processing it.
So how do you get better at memorizing music on the fly? – Easy… PRACTICE!
And you may not have noticed it, or you may at first have thought it was a silly slip
up, but the BGM JamBox is crafted to help you practice that very skill!
The chords for any progression are purposefully scrolled on the screen and invisible
for a length of time that is totally independent of the timing the music is played in!
That’s not a slip up. It’s done to help train you to internalize the arrangement on
the fly.
Use it! And use it often!
You can thank me now, or feel free to name your first born son after me for
providing you with such wonderful toys. ☺
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1 Minute Summary: You may not yet recognize it, but

the lesson you just completed detailing the X-Factor
‘creed’, contains little gold nuggets that when
adopted can literally revolutionize your bass
playing.
Be careful to continuously examine them and put them

into practice… They are not my ideas or the ideas of
any one person but they are principles I try to
adhere to because I’ve discovered that people a lot
better than I use them almost religiously.
Here’s the 11 point list again for quick reference.
Make dedicated listening a recognized and

scheduled part of your practice session.
Learn the rules but let your imagination and
ear be master of your technique.
Practice perfectly, practice consistently,
practice ‘specifically’, practice methodically
and practice persistently.
Almost without exception, if you can’t sing it
you can’t play it.
If you can, record everything you play; it’s
some of the most accurate ‘feed-back’ you’ll
ever get.
Grooving is about energy that produces
movement…if you’re not moving, chances are
you’re not grooving.
All the scales in the world, all the arpeggios,
all the knowledge of chord tones account for
less than 10% of what it means to be a great
musician…emote your notes.
Train your ears as astutely as you train your
fingers and then some.
Personalize everything.
…“Creativity is making the complicated simple.”
-Charles Mingus.
The longer you take to ‘digest’ what you have
to play, the slower your mind is at giving you
good ideas to play. Practice memorizing
arrangements on the fly.
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Lesson
18
Closing Comments
Well there you have it.
You started this volume looking for a methodical approach to playing better bass
lines… Hopefully you’ve already realized that such a system is staring you right in the
face, but the only way you can benefit from it though, is to make it yours
internally.
You’ve gotta practice, you’ve gotta do the steps, do the exercises. Not once, not
twice but consistently.
Just reading this manual and sitting next to it, as much as I would love to say, will
not make you a great bassist… Practicing, re-reading, practicing again, listening,
studying what was said and analyzing all the examples over and over and over again
is what will make you better than you are now.
The fact remains that the CG-X system is rock-solid and that it works. My
biggest hope is that you make it work for you!
You’ve been very patient and I’m glad to have had you read this far. In closing I
welcome your feedback. If you think there’s something that could be
better explained or added, let me know by emailing me here… Because
remember, I will constantly be upgrading this course and every time I
do add to these manuals you’ll have an email show up in your mailbox
with those updates.
Support@BassGuitarTips.Com
God Bless and keep grooving!
Alex Sampson. Founder,

www.BassGuitarTips.Com
www.BassGuitarSecrets.Com
www.BGMGrooveStation.Com
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P.S. If you haven’t already done so, visit the Bass Guitar Tips Blog often. There’s
some darn cool stuff, advanced lessons and wicked bassists lurking around there.
Truth is that it’s a continuing and masterful lesson in bass playing in and off itself.
And it’s FREE. www.BassGuitarTips.Com/blog
Nuff said ☺
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Bass Guitar Secrets - Volume 2 by (C) Alex

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Volume

Home Study Course

 2005 Alex Sampson / Bass Guitar Tips

Congratulations on finishing Volume 1 successfully and being ready to hit the

That method is two-part and it’s;

Firstly you’ve got to listen to and be around as much infectious music as

Well let’s break the suspense.

The CG-X Method to Groovy Bass

Here’s what the acronym stands for;

C hordal understanding (Including Harmonic, Melodic and

G roove theory (Covering Rhythmic Proficiency, context

X factor (Arguably the single most important, magic eliXir for

Here’s what to do NOW…

Smack Yourself Upside The Head With It!!!

When you get back let me ask you a question…

What’s the point you ask?

1) Your options for playing over/outlining different chords, joining chords

I say that to say this…

Not Everything You Play Has To Be

1 Minute Summary: We are going to boil our groove

A Surefire, Two-Pronged Psychological

1) The More Clearly You Can Say Something

And that truth is the same for musicians.

2) In The Context Of Presenting An Idea,

1) Less is Usually More

2) Establish A Well Accepted Motif and Only Then

1 Minute Summary: We’ve just covered two KILLER

Chord Fundamentals & the Vital X-Ray

Keep this in mind. Hopefully we’re clear so far.

Minor 7ths (min7) built from the Dorian scale

The C Dorian Minor 7th Chord

As you know these are the notes of the C Major Scale…

Degrees 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH 5TH 6TH 7TH Octave

…we can see that the only differences are;

The note played in the 3rd degree…

The Mixolydian Mode & Dominant 7th Chord

I.e. Major Chord (C, E, G, B) & Dominant 7th Chord (C, E, G, B )

Degrees 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH 5TH 6TH 7TH Octave

Application to Triad Chord

The C Major 7th chord (C, E, G, B) becomes C Major Triad (C, E, G)

The Diminished scale is constructed as follow… 1, 2 , 3 ,3, 5 ,5, 6, 7 and the

5ths add 9 Minor Major 7th

So again to summarize, throw in a few more scales and give an exercise…

Chord Scale Degrees Chord Tones

Here’s an exercise to help…

STEP 1: Using your bass as a guide go through the following tables

Ionian Mode & Major 7th Chord Type

Key Notes In Scale 7th Chord Tones

Dorian Mode & Minor 7th Chord Type

Key Notes In Scale 7th Chord Tones

Mixolydian Mode & Dominant 7th Chord Type

Key Notes In Scale 7th Chord Tones

Locrian Mode & Minor 7th(Flat)5 Chord Type

Key Notes In Scale 7th Chord Tones

Diminished Scale & Diminished Chord Type

Key Notes In Scale Dim Chord Tones

Augmented Scale & Augmented Chord Type

Key Notes In Scale Dim Chord Tones

Lydian Maj7, 2, Maj6,

STEP 1: Using a metronome or drum machine set to 70 bpms, practice each

1 Minute Summary: Learn to think of all your scales

A Quick & Easy Look At Some Vital

Here’s a diagram showing the C major scale…