Category: bass

Bass day (1h 30m)

  • Chords
    • All 7th chords in closed and open voicings
    • Autumn Leaves in A- & G- with mixed voicings
    • Triads (harmonising C & F major scales)
      • Root
      • 1st inversion
      • 2nd inversion
  • Chords tones / walking bass
    • 7th chords permutations (harmonising F major scale)
      • All starting on 1
      • All starting on 3
    • Improv using permutations over Autumn Leaves

Bass day (1h 30m)

  • Chord tones
    • All in inversions of all 7th chords around the cycle
    • Apply over Autumn Leaves in A- & G-
  • Rhythm chops
    • Snare pad practice (rudiments + reading simple jazz solo)

Observations

As you can see, I added a little bit (just a little bit) of drum practice to my routine. Being a trained drummer, I still have my chops (and my sticks), so I thought it would be really beneficial to use them to improve my rhythm — as it’s one of my weaknesses. Also playing snare really helps with inventing new rhythmic patterns and getting unstuck when you notice that you tend to use the same pattern while improvising on bass. So, not doing anything crazy — as i have already enough to do maintaining my two instruments — just playing some rudiments and simple solos in order to solidify my GROOOOVE MAN.

Bass day (1h)

  • Chords
    • Recap all 7th chords shapes in open & closed voicings (harmonising C, G & D scales)
    • Cycle of 4ths transitions: minor to dominant, major to dominant
    • Playing along to Autumn Leaves
    • Triads

Observations

It’s really cool that I came to the chords course already being (semi-) familiar with mixed / shell voicings that I’ve been practicing on piano! So, for example, when Scott says, it’s a 3-octave-below-1-7 or a 7-3-5, I’m not confused at all, because I already got them under my fingers on keyboard! Also, I found it really helpful to practice transitions between different types of chords on bass in 4ths — just like I do on piano — e. g. Cmaj7 to F7 to Bbmaj7 to Eb7 to Abmaj7, etc. Then minor to dominant, then minor to major, and so on. Cycle of fourths rocks! (Or shall I say JAZZ?)

Bass day (1h 40m)

  • Chords (1h 20m)
    • Harmonising C major &  G major scales with closed voicings
    • Harmonising C, G & D major scales with open voicings
    • Playing along to Autumn Leaves with all closed, all open and then mixed voicings
    • Playing to All Of Me with mixed voicings + improvising using chord tones (AWESOME!)
  • Chord tones (25m)
    • Harmonising F major scale with all 12 permutations (starting on 1 and 3)
  • Pick
    • Trying out chords with pick (didn’t really work)

Bass day (1h 40m)

  • Chords (1h 15m)
    • Harmonising C major &  G major scales with closed voicings
    • Tenths
    • Playing along to Autumn Leaves mixing closed and open voicings
  • Chord tones (25m)
    • All inversions in all keys chromatically up the neck

Observations

Man, chords are fun! Especially for improvisation and soloing — priceless!