Bass Grooves Ed Friedland Pdf
Carolina Bornman
One of my favorites. It gathers together many of my ideas about time keeping, metronome work, internalizing subdivisions, grasping the anatomy of drum beats by learning how to program your own beats, as well as how the tone and thickness of your notes effect the groove. It balances out the mystical thinking of groove metaphysics with hands-on, practical examples of 25 classic groove styles, with drum notation!
This invaluable guide and accompanying online media give bass players both the musical background and training needed to get on with their grooving. With lessons guided by a metronome and presented in various musical styles and rhythmic applications, bassists increase their ability to internalize rhythm. The book also breaks down classic styles and grooves from rock, blues, R&B, jazz, Afro-Caribbean, and other traditions. Each example includes a notated version of the drum part and details how to program it into a drum machine. The audio is accessed online using the unique code inside each book and can be streamed or downloaded. The audio files include PLAYBACK+, a multi-functional audio player that allows you to slow down audio without changing pitch, set loop points, change keys, and pan left or right.
Last night I was working on my time as our esteemed moderator Ed Friedland discusses in The Metronome As Guru . (This is a great article and every bass player should read it.) In the other room, one of my sons starts banging away on his drum kit. The tempo he was playing was very different from what my metronome was keeping. I was hearing two tempos and having trouble locking into the metronome. By the way, I'm still having trouble even without the distractions.
My question to you is: How do you keep time when, say, a backup singer is beating a tambourine out of time with what you are doing? What if the drummer wants to rush along with the singers? Any other suggestions on how to better keep time? Thanks for your help.
First of all, it may take a while for the work to really take hold, eventually it becomes a part of your being and you carry it wherever you go. That's when you notice the effects, give it several months before it becomes a bodily function. Practicing with your kid playing another tempo in the next room is tough at this stage, but it's a great challenge, and good training for playing with most drummers that are usually playing in their own room, even when you're onstage together!
After awhile, you'll be able to screenout the "interference" and lock in with the internal clock. Until then, get some headphones, or practice when your kid's not home. It's YOUR job to hold the down the fort in the band, a backup singer is NOT the person to control the groove, don't follow them if you can help it. If it becomes a problem, try tapping your foot on the downbeat, a solid, physical "ONE" can help you stay focused. There are lots of ways to get your time together, and in my opinion they mostly involve using the metronome. The Working Bassist's Toolkit has a chapter that combines several of my time/groove articles. Beyond the scale work, there are grooves to play with various metronome configurations.
On thing that I've taken to heart was the comment that a band is the intersection of the "time" of each musician, not just a bunch of guys following a drummer. (The drummers explained it better than I did.) Since then, I've been trying to develop my own "stand alone" time, and I believe (from recordings) that my playing has improved significantly. Those drummers have some pretty cool "time" tricks!!!
ultimately if you really listem to your playing, you will be able to identify your personality. if you are an edgy kinda hyper person, you may have a tendency to play ahead or "on top" of the beat. i.e....stewart copeland.
Depending on the song or how I'm feeling that day, I'm hyper, laid back, angry, peaceful, whatever. Usually I channel that energy into the notes and phrasing. Now I need to add timing to that equation.
dansouth, I did the search you suggested and found the right article; man, you post a lot! I then cut and pasted the URL from the top of my browser into a reply surrounded by the URL UBB code (square brackets).
I forgot to thank Ed Friedland for his response. I know that improving any skill takes time. I have to keep reminding myself that nothing worth while can be mastered quickly. After all, if it were easy, every one would be doing it.
[My question to you is: How do you keep time when, say, a backup singer is beating a tambourine out of time with what you are doing? What if the drummer wants to rush along with the singers? Any other suggestions on how to better keep time? Thanks for your help.]
I keep time by listening to our drummer. The problem with our band is that the guitarist/singer has a tendency to rush a lot, and I have a tendency to want to drag things on occasion. Which, given he has to sing and play it can get away from him when he's concentrating on one or the other. Our drummer, too, has a tendency to rush on occasion. We do communicate well with each other enough to know ourselves, or tell one another to watch the tempo. If one song gets away, we will bring it around with the next song and be more concientious about minding/listening to the tempo.
If you play in a regular band, one thing I suggest is to take the bass lines from your set and play them with a metronome. It'll be a good reality check. When you learn a tune in the context of a band, you unconsciously compensate for the other players. Playing your band tunes with a metronome will not only help you see where you do this, but once you've spent some time with it, you'll go in to your gig and re-align things. The band will sound better, and maybe you'll get a new drummer out of the deal!
Good advice! If all else fails, and only if I'm CERTAIN that I'm really the only one right about the time, I'll resort to stepping forward and DANCING in tempo as i TURN up my bass enough to wake up the rest of the group. I turn down IMMEDIATELY after it's obvious that my bandmates have "snapped out of it". I always make sure to look slightly apologetic ! The ol' eye contact with the drummer really helps as two "heads" (ahem, sorry...) are better than one for convincing everyone that the beat's gone awry. Please note, that in my personal case DANCING is a VERY loose term! Please also be aware that this technique can make YOU the target of that bottle of coke! I guess this is one reason why it's preferable to gig with a band you've rehearsed with enough to know ahead of time if time is going to be a problem so that you can opt out.
A walking bass line is the most common approach to jazz bass playing, but it is also used in rock music, blues, rockabilly, R&B, gospel, Latin, country and many other types of music. The term 'walking' is used to describe the moving feeling that quarter notes create in the bass part. The specific goal of this book is to familiarize players with the techniques used to build walking bass lines and to make them aware of how the process works. Through the use of 90-minutes' worth of recorded rhythm tracks, players will have the opportunity to put the new learning directly into action. This book literally gives bassists the tools they need to build their own walking bass lines.
Bass Builders is a series of technique book/audio packages created for the purposeful building and development of your chops. Each volume is written by an expert in that particular technique. And with the inclusion of audio - either CD or cassette - the added dimension of hearing exactly how to play particular grooves and techniques makes this truly like a private lesson.
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