THE HOW TO PLAY BASS MONTHLY EZINE - FEBRUARY 2014 Welcome to the free how to play bass monthly ezine for February, 2014. In this month s issue we re going to have part 1 of a two part tutorial looking at Paul McCartney s bass line to the classic Beatles tune Dear Prudence. Although I ve done the transcribing and put everything together for this issue of the free ezine - and for the next issue too - the video for both of the parts of Dear Prudence will be taught by guest teacher Gordon Clayton. Updates To The How To Play Bass Website Before we go onto the song tutorial I just want to take a moment to tell you about upcoming changes to the how to play bass website: 1. Firstly the website is being redeveloped/redesigned at the moment. I m not sure when the new layout will roll out...but it will be in the next couple of months hopefully. 2. Those of you who ve subscribed for longer than a few months will notice that the monthly ezines were erratic in 2013. That s something I m rectifying and from now on they will be regular. Every month there will be a new song tutorial and the previous months song tutorial will disappear into the archive of First Bass And Beyond. 3. Those of you who ve visited the website recently may notice that it hasn t been updated with new songs recently. That s partly because of the redesign that s ongoing. And partly because of a change of policy. For most of 2013 I ve been filming two video tutorials a week to tie in with my weekly magazine First Bass And Beyond. And I ve been posting versions of those tutorials on youtube and on the How To Play Bass website. I have nearly 300 videos on YouTube and have decided that although the 2 Free How To Play Bass Monthly Ezine Febraury 2013 how-to-play-bass.com
two video tutorials a week schedule will continue, I won t post many of these tutorials to Youtube anymore. Perhaps it will be one a month plus the free song tutorial like this one. 4. This policy is already under way - here are videos that subscribers of First Bass And Beyond have had access to that weren t uploaded to Youtube: Celebration (Kool And The Gang) Everybody Needs Somebody (The Blues Brothers) Oh What A Night (Franki Valli) C Mon Everybody (Eddie Cochrane) Tutti Frutti (Little Richard) Great Balls Of Fire (Jerry Lee Lewis) I Predict A Riot (The Kaiser Chiefs) Have You Ever Seen The Rain (Creedence Clearwater Revival) Johnny B Goode (Chuck Berry) Smile Like You Mean It (The Killers) Somebody Told Me (The Killers) 5. Upcoming tutorials will be focused on songs that are commonly played by gigging bands. That will range from soul and R&B classics to rock and rock blues tunes. Songs that will be featured in tutorials over the next few weeks include Easy Skanking and Satisfy my Soul by Bob Marley, Mr Brightside and Smile Like You Mean It And Somebody Told Me by The Killers, I Predict A Riot by The Kaiser Chiefs and more. 6. I ve added a new section to First Bass And Beyond called Working Basslines. That section features complete tutorials for songs that bands commonly play - these tutorials feature streaming and downloadable videos, notation in PDF and tab, instruction on creating individual sections in Band In A Box to isolate and practice (which includes necessary chords and keys and tempo information) and also bass less backing tracks to play along with. 7. Over the next few months I m going to serialise a book I wrote - called LEARN SONGS NOT SCALES - that details the background to why I don t think bass players should learn scales by rote. (Note bass players 3 Free How To Play Bass Monthly Ezine Febraury 2013 how-to-play-bass.com
DO need to understand scales and how they are formed...but we don t need to practice them by rote. It will all be spelled out over the next few months!) So things are changing. I ll keep you posted as the updates roll out. 4 Free How To Play Bass Monthly Ezine Febraury 2013 how-to-play-bass.com
DEAR PRUDENCE PART 1 by THE BEATLES - bass by PAUL McCART- NEY The song tutorial for February 2014 is the first part of a two parter. The tune we re going to be looking at is Dear Prudence by The Beatles. As I said in the introduction, the video portion of the tutorial will be taken by guest instructor Gordon Clayton. Now recently there was a version of the Rock Band computer game that focused solely on songs of The Beatles. And the music tracks for that game were taken from the Beatles masters. And some of the individual parts can now be found floating around the internet - if you search on Youtube you can find the isolated bass line for Dear Prudence and really hear clearly what Paul McCartney is doing. This tutorial - and Part 2 next month - are based on that isolated bass line. So I recommend you have a look on YouTube for that and take a listen to it. After a few seconds of guitar, the bass comes in for Verse 1. This is what we re going to be playing: 5 Free How To Play Bass Monthly Ezine February 2014 how-to-play-bass.com
The next section after this is Verse 2 - where McCartney gets a little busier: 6 Free How To Play Bass Monthly Ezine February 2014 how-to-play-bass.com
This leads to the bridge. This is the section with the vocal of look around on it: 7 Free How To Play Bass Monthly Ezine February 2014 how-to-play-bass.com
Following the bridge is Verse 2 - which is similar to Verse 2, but is a little busier again: We re going to finish Part 1 of this tutorial there...and we ll pick this up with Part 2 next month. 8 Free How To Play Bass Monthly Ezine February 2014 how-to-play-bass.com
LEARN SONGS NOT SCALES! 2 Why Learning To Play Scales By Rote Is Wasted Practice Time I finished the first installment in this series of articles by saying that Learn Songs Not Scales doesn t mean that you can be ignorant of music theory. In truth, perhaps the motto of Learn Songs Not Scales would more accurately reflect my thinking if it were: Learn Songs, Not Scales By Rote. That s what we re going to look at today - and I hope with the number of examples that I provide will help convince you of this. The reason this is important by the way is that it allows you to focus your practice time much more effectively. So Why IS Practicing Scales By Rote Wasted Practice Time? The reason why practicing scales by rote - and at the end of day playing scales up and down IS rote practice - is wasting your practice time is simple: You are practicing music in a way that you will never, ever use in your working life. Think about it this way: let s say your friend is a guitarist and the bass player has just left his band and he tells you to call up the band leader to offer your services. When you speak to the band leader - or any band leader for that matter - you ll never hear any variant of this question: So man, what scales do you know? Instead you ll be asked how long you ve been playing, who you ve played with, what kind of gear you have, whether you ve got transport. And probably the most important question: either what songs do you know? Or the band leader will run you through their set list and ask you what songs you know from that set list. 9 Free How To Play Bass Monthly Ezine February 2014 how-to-play-bass.com
If playing scales is a playing scenario that is never, ever going to be used in your playing career - why practice it? All of us are constrained with practice time...so why expend precious practice time on an activity that doesn t lead anywhere. Doesn t Practicing Scales Increase My Fluency And Overall Playing? In a limited way, it does. But any gains in fluency you get come at the cost of hours and hours of practice that (IMO) could be more effectively spent, and also the gains in fluency you get tend to translate only to playing scales or playing very scalar material. So if you were a classical musician, or wanted to play lots of classical music on the bass, then some of this music is more scale oriented than traditional bass lines. And you could make a case for practicing scales. Even then, I think you d be better off playing pieces (as songs are called in the classical repertoire) and working on the playing challenges that those pieces provide. What About Broken Scales? Broken scales - e.g. playing in ascending thirds, or fourths, or fifths - are better preparatory exercises than playing scales up and down. They have more benefits than rote scale playing - you ll encounter playing challenges that are more real world like, e.g. string crossing, position shifting and so on. Plus these exercises will subliminally help with your ear training - as by definition they focus on the playing of scalar intervals. And broken scalar fragments can be worked into bass lines - you ll find them in walking bass lines as well as rock and pop - so there are some benefits to practicing these. But I wouldn t recommend a whole bunch of time working on these. I compiled an exercise book for bass which effectively is a series of broken scales and scalar sequences - The Bass Hanon book - and using Bass Hanons for 10 minutes done very slowly is a great way to warm up and just 10 Free How To Play Bass Monthly Ezine February 2014 how-to-play-bass.com
focus on your left hand technique. And note three things I just said: 10 minutes; warm up; slowly. So not practicing those exercises for hours on end, and at different tempos. Even though they are much better exercises to play than scales straight up and down. What About The Cousins of Scales? Arpeggios? This is an interesting question. Because whilst you can t make good basslines out of scales, you can make good basslines out of Arpeggios. (Good here is defined as a bass line that fulfills the functions of what a bass line should do.) Indeed there are songs where the bass line is built solely off simple arpeggios - One Step Beyond by Madness springs immediately to mind. But there are dozens more. So although I still wouldn t practice playing arpeggios by rote - there is a case to be made for practicing arpeggio notes in various ways. For example take a simple chord progression - say C to F to C to G7 - and create a Band In A Box backing track and set that going. Then play through the arpeggios of each chord in various ways in quarter notes: e.g. R R 3 5 R 3 5 3 R R 5 3 and so on. And do this for every key. And different chord progression - and progressions that incorporate minor keys. And the exercise could be extended out with 7ths (or 6ths) added. Over time you would develop a very solid grasp of where these important arpeggio notes fall on the fingerboard - ALL bass lines are built off arpeggio notes, these are the principle building blocks of bass lines. 11 Free How To Play Bass Monthly Ezine February 2014 how-to-play-bass.com
So this would be good practice. Add in the subliminal ear training you get from playing with backing tracks that contain chordal material to the learning of where all these arpeggio notes are in every key and every quality, and you ll have a powerful knowledge to draw from when creating your own bass lines. Notice again the benefits of practicing arpeggios in this fashion: 1. Increases understanding of where fundamental chord tones are all over the bass - chord tones are the foundation stones of bass lines 2. Subliminal ear training of chord progressions plus the sounds of different arpeggio notes (3rds, 5ths, 7ths) against the harmony. 3. If you use lots of common chord progressions...it will increase the library of chord progressions that you know the sound of. In the real world you sometimes have to play songs you don t know - these songs will nearly always be made up of combinations of common chord progressions. You may not know the song - but if you know the progression you are well on your way to displaying confidence when you play. 4. You can play through a song with just arpeggios. And a subtle change of the rhythm you use can take you a long way - for example check out McCartney s reading of Roll Over Beethoven. If you examine that in terms of note choice you ll see that an awful lot of his playing is built around just roots (or octaves), 3rds and 5ths. If You re Still Not Convinced, Try This Exercise Take the chord progression I mentioned above - C to F to C to G7. Make each chord last either a bar or 2 bars. And try and create a line that uses a complete scale on each chord change. In the next installment of this series I m going to randomly take 16 bars from 16 different songs that I ve transcribed in the last three and a half years or so. Then I m going to analyze them and see how many scales I can find. 12 Free How To Play Bass Monthly Ezine February 2014 how-to-play-bass.com
Those 16 bar patterns are going to be drawn from different players, different genres of music, and totally at random. We ll draw some conclusions from those 256 bars of analysis then...but I think you ll find it informative. Maybe even shocking. I ve done this exercise before...and I was staggered. So till next month... 13 Free How To Play Bass Monthly Ezine February 2014 how-to-play-bass.com
FIRST BASS AND BEYOND - THE ULTIMATE SONG RESOURCE FOR BEGINNER AND INTERMEDIATE BASS PLAYERS If you ve read this far it shows that you re interested in detailed song tutorials for bass. How would you like to get access to over 200 song tutorials over the next year for less than a dollar a tutorial? Well First Bass And Beyond gives you that... Here s how it works. First Bass And Beyond is based on a magazine model and I publish a PDF like this one every Friday at 5pm GMT. Each magazine includes two song tutorials in the PDF that are complemented with video tutorials and MP3s as well. I publish 50 issues a year - so that s 100 song tutorials over the next year. Additionally there is a section of the website called Working Bass Lines - and new members will get a new song every week in that section of the website. That takes you up to 150 song tutorials in the next year. (See list at the end of this PDF) When you join you get access to the archive of the free How To Play Bass monthly ezine - there are currently 35 videos in that archive. That s 185 song tutorials. (These 35 tutorials are all immediately available - and to see what songs are available, see the list at the end of the PDF) When you join you also get access to the Bass For Beginners course which currently includes another 35 song tutorials - that makes 220 song tutorials. (And these 35 tutorials are available immediately). Plus if you subscribe as an annual member you get 10 back issues of the magazine as a bonus - that could potentially add another 20 song tutorials to your song tutorial library! There s more in the magazine too - a main transcription every week that is usually more advanced and doesn t have video to go with. Plus there s 14 Free How To Play Bass Monthly Ezine February 2014 how-to-play-bass.com
a theory column for bass players taught from the perspective of the bass player s role in a band playing songs. And there s currently a column deconstructing the playing of Rocco Prestia of Tower Of Power. When this column has finished I ll move on and deconstruct Tommy Shannon s bass playing. And so on. All this costs either $57 for a quarter or $187 for a year. The full details are here: http://www.how-to-play-bass.com/first-bass-and-beyond.html Contact If you ve got any other questions don t hesitate to email me via the contact form on the website. Have a great month, and enjoy. Paul PS - there are lists of what songs are featured in the Archive and what songs are featured in the Working Bass Line Section to follow. 15 Free How To Play Bass Monthly Ezine February 2014 how-to-play-bass.com
LIST OF SONGS INCLUDED IN THE WORKING BASS LINES SECTION OF THE FIRST BASS AND BEYOND WEBSITE When I decided on creating this section of the First Bass And Beyond website I polled the current subscribers who are currently in gigging bands and asked for them to post their set lists. The following list of songs is pooled from these set lists - and bear in mind that although the bulk of those who responded live and gig in the US, I also had responses from the UK, Australia and other countries. This section WILL be expanded to 100 songs in the future - and undoubtedly there will be more classic rock, more classic R&B, more Motown, a heap of blues songs and more! PLEASE NOTE: when you join FB&B these songs appear on a weekly basis...starting with Midnight Hour. 1. Midnight Hour by Wilson Pickett 2. Brown Sugar by The Rolling Stones 3. Proud Mary by Creedence Clearwater Revival 4. Jumping Jack Flash by The Rolling Stones 5. Superstition by Stevie Wonder 6. Play That Funky Music b7 Wild Cherry 7. I Feel Good by James Brown 8. Cocaine by Eric Clapton 9. Respect by Aretha Franklin 10. Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd 11.Sultans Of Swing by Dire Straits 12.La Grange by ZZ Top 13. Johnny B Goode by Chuck Berry 154. Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison 15. We Are Young by Fun 16. Light My Fire by The Doors 17. Who ll Stop The Rain by Creedence Clearwater Revival 18. Gimme Some Loving by The Blues Brothers 19. September by Earth Wind and Fire 20. Twist and Shout by The Beatles 21. Good Times by Chic 16 Free How To Play Bass Monthly Ezine February 2014 how-to-play-bass.com
22. Mustang Sally by The Commitments 23. Pride And Joy by Stevie Ray Vaughan 24. I Wish by Stevie Wonder 25. Long Train Running by The Doobie Brothers 26.Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix 27. Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones 28. I Saw Her Standing There by The Beatles 29. Summer of 69 by Bryan Adams 30. Lost In Music by Sister Sledge 31.Soul Man by Sam And Dave 32. Suspicious Minds by Elvis 33.Back In The USSR by The Beatles 34.Carwash by Rose Royce 35. Le Freak by Chic 36. Stand By Me by Ben E King 37. Pinball Wizard by The Who 38. Billie Jean by Michael Jackson 39. Honky Tonk Woman by The Rolling Stones 40. Hey Joe by Jimi Hendrix 41. Forget You by Ceelo Green 42. Locked Out Of Heaven by Bruno Mars 43. Let s Stick Together by Roxy Music 44. Stuck In The Middle With You by Stealer s Wheel 45. Brick House by The Commodores 46. Great Balls Of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis 47. Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5 48. Smooth by Santana 49.Roadhouse Blues by The Doors 50. Black Magic Woman by Santana Note: Tutorials for some of these songs can be found on my YouTube channel. The working basslines section has a fuller tutorial with tab and notation, has bass less backing tracks to practice with, and also has a tutorial section on programming the different sections of the tune with Band In A Box so that you can isolate sections giving you problems. 17 Free How To Play Bass Monthly Ezine February 2014 how-to-play-bass.com
LIST OF SONGS INCLUDED IN THE ARCHIVE SECTION OF THE FIRST BASS AND BEYOND WEBSITE A Love Of Their Own by The Average White Band After Midnight by Eric Clapton All The Small Things by Blink 182 Alright Now by Free Band Of Gold by Freda Payne 7 Nation Army by The White Stripes Sunshine Of Your Love by Cream Green Onions by Booker T Behind A Painted Smile by The Isley Brothers Black Dog by Led Zeppelin Crossroads by Cream Dock Of The Bay by Otis Redding Don t Stand So Close to me by The Police Factory Of Faith by The Red Hot Chili Peppers Get Lucky by Daft Punk Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac Grapevine by Marvin Gaye Hey Soul Sister by Train I Fought The Law by The Clash I Wish by Stevie Wonder Layla by Derek and The Dominos London Calling by The Clash Man On The Moon by REM Respect by Aretha Franklin Rock The Casbah by The Clash Sex On Fire by The Kings of Leon Signed Sealed Delivered by Stevie Wonder Stir It Up by Bob Marley Summer of 69 by Bryan Adams Superstition by Stevie Wonder Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd The One I Love by REM Valerie by Amy Winehouse When You Were Young by The Killers 18 Free How To Play Bass Monthly Ezine February 2014 how-to-play-bass.com