Tag: chord tones

Bass day (1h 30m)

  • Chord tones (Phil Mann) — 40m
    • Diminished triads in all inversions around the cycle, spelling the notes out loud (40bpm), silently (60bpm)
    • Major and minor triads in all inversions around the cycle at 80bpm without stopping, only saying the root
  • Break
  • Walking bass lines (Scott Devine) — 50m
    • Partido Alto (Latin pattern from George Lopez & David Keif book) over Autumn Leaves in D-
    • Recap ii — V — I lines in G-, over Autumn Leaves in G-
    • Ghost notes exercise

Observations

Latin patterns are a ton of fun! You can take one and play it over a jazz standard that and it will make it sound completely different. Also it’s just so much fun to play (not only to a backing track, but also to a raw clave).

Bass day (1h 40m)

  • Chord tones (Phil Mann) — 1h
    • Major triads in all inversions through the cycle (44bpm calling the notes / 80bpm silently)
    • Minor triads in all inversions through the cycle (same)
    • Diminished triads: in root inversion (74bpm), in 1st and 2nd (without click)
  • Break
  • Walking bass lines (Scott Devine) — 40m
    • Bossa & Samba over Autumn Leaves in G-
    • Recap ii — V — I lines in G-, apply to Autumn Leaves in G-
    • R — 3 — P5 + chromatics + some ii — V — I patterns over new track (All Of Me by Gerald Marks)

Observations

ii — V — I patterns do really work! (Even when played not exactly over ii — V — I progression, they still do because of the very stable sound of it — well, assuming you’re not playing them to some crazy modulation). Also, talking about cycle of 4ths, here’s the Normal Human Version™ of it for diminished arpeggios practice (if you, like me, try to avoid double flats and weird things like Cb or Fb):

Cº | Fº | A#º | D#º | G#º | C#º | F#º | Bº | Eº | Aº | Dº | Gº

For minor I do play Bb- and Eb-, but that’s it for flat keys. Sorry Mr Wooten!

Bass day (1h 40m)

  • Chord Tones (Phil Mann) — 30m
    • Major triads in all inversions without stopping around the cycle, saying all notes out loud (44bpm eighth triplets), silently (80bpm eighth triplets)
    • Minor triads in all inversions — same
  • Break
  • Walking bass lines (Scott Devine) — 1h
    • Recap all major and minor ii — V — I patters and shapes in G-
    • Applying them to Autumn Leaves in G-
    • Same in Eb-
    • Also occasionally throwing in ghost notes (didn’t really work all the time, must practice them separately)
  • Soloing over Autumn Leaves in Eb-

Observations

If you’re frustrated with something (like transposing all ii — V — I shapes from G- to Eb-), sometimes the (pretty counterintuitive) way to overcome frustration is actually to keep doing this thing with an extra effort, but try to look at it from a different perspective for a moment (for example, in my case I stopped thinking how to move the shape and thought about the scale degrees that it comprises) — and then suddenly it might start to work.

Bass day (1h 30m)

  • Chord tones (Phil Mann) — 40m
    • Major triads in all inversions without stopping around the cycle, saying all notes out loud (44bpm eighth triplets), silently (70bpm eighth triplets)
    • Minor triads in all inversions — same, slightly slower
  • Walking bass lines (Scott Devine) — 50m
    • Ghost notes (above, below, open string upright style)
    • Break
    • Major & minor ii — V — I patterns recap: all major and all minor shapes over Autumn Leaves in G-
    • Trying out ghost notes in context

Observations

For the first time in a long while I had the same degree of engagement while practicing as I have when I’m producing music or playing bass or piano in a band. When the timer went off, I was like, NO, DUDE, I want more! I haven’t yet played Autumn Leaves in D-! You know what I mean? For the most part, my bass routine (piano is the different story) was like that: play the scales, walk over jazz standard, do some modal exercises, okay, time’s up, done. It was good, but not as engaging as creative processes are when you get in the state of flow and forget about time completely. This is what happened to me today although I was doing something that I would normally consider “boring” (arpeggios / shapes). So, I guess, I have to thank Mr. Devine for helping me focus and find fun in practice (a. k. a. get in the shed)! Apart from that, I also found that I particularly like the upright-style plucking around 18th fret (not above the pickup.

Evening piano session (30m)

  • Inversions & 7-3-5 shell voicings over pop song in iReal Pro
  • Studying chord chart (“Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps” in E-) and applying 7-3-5, 3-7-9, 3-6-9 and other voicings from Haerle book to find the minimum movement fingering — successfully played the whole thing after 3 slow passes

Bass day (1h 30m)

  • Chord tones (Phil Mann) — 50m
    • Major triads in all inversions around the cycle of 4ths, note names out loud (40bpm), silently (60bpm)
    • Minor triads in all inversions around the cycle of 4ths, same. Playing enharmonic sharp keys instead of Ab-, Db- and Gb-
  • Break
  • Walking bass lines (Scott Devine) — 30m
    • Static dominant chord lines (two octave major scales with b7, ascending on one chord and descending on the next one), around the cycle of 4ths
    • Major & minor ii — V — I patterns in G- recap
    • Autumn Leaves in D- — adapting ii — V — I patterns from G-

Observations

Because Phil in his lessons always emphasises the importance of “not viewing chord tones as shapes”, I was having hard time accepting Scott’s patternistic approach to ii — V — I patterns that are transposed very easily if you remember the shape & fingering. I had to somehow reconcile these two approaches (i. e. viewing arpeggio as a stack of intervals and viewing a walking line pattern as a shape), but at the end I think I’ve found the balance: when taking the ii — V — I shape to another key, first think about how it is constructed in terms of scale degrees / chords tones, and then apply the usual fingering. Also using open strings helps to get of out comfort zone (i. e. G- major ii — V — I pattern in D-).