Tag: chord tones

Bass day (1h 30m)

  • Chord tones (Phil Mann)
    • Harmonising the major scale with 7th chords — all inversions, tried different positions on the fretboard C major (45m)
  • Walking bass lines — 45m
    • Jazz standards in Latin rhythms (Cha cha cha + The Preacher by Horace Silver)
    • 2-octave dominant walking bass line (b7 ascending, b7 & b6 descending) round the cycle of 4ths
    • Soloing practice over blues progession (mostly trying to use b7ths a and b6ths and avoid pentatonic patterns)

Observations

Chord formulas are wonderful! It’s so much easier to quickly see and play any inversion anywhere on the neck with any fingering when you know that it’s, for example, m3 + M3 + m2 (maj7 chord in 2nd inversion) and not root… third… fifth… 7th… Thanks Mr. Mann!

Bass day (2h 10m)

  • Chord tones (Phil Mann)
    • All triads / all inversions round the cycle — 20m
    • All 7th chords / all inversions round the cycle — 20m
    • Harmonising the major scale with 7th chords — root inversions (20m)
  • Walking bass lines (Scott Devine) — 30m
    • Improvised bass line over jazz standard (The Preacher by Horace Silver)
    • Soloing over (slightly modified) 12-bar blues progression trying enclosures and chromatic passing tones
  • RealLifeReading™ — LOL — just picking up a random sheet with a bass transcription for a popular / jazz song and trying to fluently play and / or learn as much as possible within 30 minutes’ time. I think it’s a bit closer to the real life sight reading situations than endlessly going over contrabass etudes. Hence the name

Bass day (1h 20m)

  • Chord Tones (Phil Mann) — 40m
    • All triads in all inversions without stopping around the cycle (70bpm)
    • All 7th chords in all inversions without stopping around the cycle (70bpm)
    • Special focus on dominant and dimishied 7th chords
  • Break
  • Random reading / quick part learning excercise: Coldplay — In My Place — 40m

Obesrvations

Although I haven’t been sight reading too much recently, my skill didn’t noticeably deteriorate, which is fortunate! Also,  picking up a random song transcription and learning as much of it as you can within half an hour feels much better (and actually closer to real session circumstaces) than forcing yourself to sit down for the same half an hour and read contrabass etudes or walking bass lines (which I did for a long time, causing a lot of frustration, although it is also a wonderful exercise). Yikes, another routine improvement!

Bass day (1h 30m)

  • Chord tones (Phil Mann) — 30m
    • Major / minor / dim triads in all inversions around the cycle at 80bpm
    • Major / minor / dominant / dim 7th chords in all inversions around the cycle at 80bpm
    • Slow focus on dominant and diminished, not looking at the fretboard (as a singing bassist, I need to improve this skill)
  • Walking bass lines — 1h
    • Partido Alto + Cha Cha Cha over random blues progression from iReal Pro app, played in Latin rhythm
    • 2-octave dominant walking bass line exercise (b7 ascending, b7 & b6 descending) in all keys (well, not ALL 30 according to Victor Wooten, haha) around the circle of 5ths, very slowly

Observations

After all generations of music educators and thousands of practice techniques, the best piece of advice remains unshaken: EVEN SLOWER DAMMIT! 😆