Category: Groove of the Week

Before we get into the groove, so to speak, I want you to make the following promise to yourself: “I will set aside 104 minutes of my life to watch ‘Miss…

Before we get into the groove, so to speak, I want you to make the following promise to yourself: “I will set aside 104 minutes of my life to watch ‘Miss Sharon Jones!‘”

(It’s even on Netflix; it’ll make a nice change from binge-watching Mad Men.)

Gabe Roth’s rock-solid groove on ‘Genuine Pt. 1’ is one of my favourite lines in this series; he somehow manages to weave together chromatic movement, wide interval jumps and head-nodding syncopated rhythms to form an instantly hummable bass part that had me immediately thinking ‘what was that?’.

Been really slack on these lately but actual gigs>silly Instagram vids… This one is for the late Sharon Jones: Groove Of The Week #46 – 'Genuine Pt. 1' #bass #bassguitar #bassplayer #bassist #bajo #baixo #baixonatural #bassplayersunited #bassdaily #bassporn #bassgroove #bassgrooveoftheweek #instabass #instagroove #funk #pbass #flatwounds #apogee #nobleamps #fender

A post shared by Tom Kenrick (@tommykrizzle) on Dec 21, 2016 at 5:37am PST

From the video you can see that the line doesn’t exactly sit in one position or fit under the fingers particularly comfortably – I tried all of the logical fingering options (and even a few illogical ones) until I arrived at the following approach, which I feel is the best compromise between consistency of tone and ease of playing:

May The 4ths Be With You

Sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun.

The first interval in the repeated section of the line is a perfect 4th (Eb to Bb and back again), which is one of the most common and most awkward things to do on a stringed instrument tuned in 4ths – you’re transitioning between the different strings but staying on the same fret, so there are three sensible options when it comes to the left hand:

Use two different fingers (as per the above example). This allows maximum control over the note lengths, so is the most preferable approach, although it might not be practical in other contexts.
‘Roll’ between the two notes using the same finger. This is handy when option 1 isn’t possible, but it’s easy to let the notes ‘bleed’ into one another or to pull on the string while rolling, making the second note slightly sharp.
Jump between the two notes using a single finger. This avoids the over-ringing and intonation issues of option 2, but it takes considerable practice to be able to maintain full note lengths while doing this and jump strings without an audible gap.

In an ideal world, we’d spend equal amounts of time working on each approach, but that’s not particularly realistic. Thankfully, the more music you encounter the easier it becomes to intuitively know which approach is best for the line that you’re playing.

Other instruments have a much easier time when it comes to playing 4ths – beware of saxophonists and keyboard players who thrive on writing hellish, 4th-ridden melodies like ‘Freedom Jazz Dance’:

No Comments

Groove of the Week

Groove Of The Week #45: Michael Jackson – ‘Get On The Floor’

Tom Kenrick

July 16, 2017 4:47 pm July 16, 2017

No Comments

Michael After Motown Michael Jackson’s 1979 masterpiece Off The Wall proved to be a pivotal point in the King of Pop’s remarkable career. Although it was 21-year old MJ’s 19th…

Michael After Motown

Michael Jackson’s 1979 masterpiece Off The Wall proved to be a pivotal point in the King of Pop’s remarkable career. Although it was 21-year old MJ’s 19th album and 5th record as a solo artist, the record was hugely significant in that it marked Michael’s departure from Motown records and the beginning of a working relationship with Quincy Jones which would last for over 30 years and result in some of the most iconic pop records ever produced.

What makes Off The Wall an absolutely essential album for bass players is Louis ‘Thunderthumbs’ Johnson commanding, propulsive sense of groove that anchors 9 of the 10 tracks (Bobby Watson of Rufus provided bass for ‘Rock With You’, every other track is LJ). Louis’ funk sensibilities and instinct for crafting grooving, hummable bass lines mean that all of the uptempo tracks on the album are filled to the brim with bass hooks; ‘Get On The Floor’ is no exception.

We’ve already heard from Louis Johnson in the Groove Of The Week series, examining his fingerstyle funk groove on Michael McDonald’s ‘I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near)’, but it wouldn’t be fair to let his contributions to the world of slap bass go unrecognised. ‘Get On The Floor’ showcases Louis’ consummate thumb work, opening with a rapid-fire line that requires a high level of right hand control to execute cleanly at tempo:

Groove Of The Week #45: Louis Johnson on MJ's 'Get On The Floor' #bass #bassist #bassplayersunited #bassporn #bassgroove #instabass #instagroove #bassgram #bassgrooveoftheweek #nobleamps #fender #pbass #slapbass #shlappadabass #bassforward #bassdaily

A post shared by Tom Kenrick (@tommykrizzle) on Nov 20, 2016 at 10:01am PST

The key to nailing this groove is getting a consistent slap tone on the D string, which can take some time and effort – the normal convention is to allocate the thumb to the E and A strings and pop everything on the D and G strings, but Louis Johnson and other slap champions including Marcus Miller rely heavily on the thumb to articulate notes on every string and produce lines that would be unplayable with popped notes. Here’s how the intro groove – which also serves as the chorus part – looks in notation:

While writing out the dots for the main groove I got carried away and ended up writing the whole tune out, note for note; the entire tune is a masterclass in how to play plenty of notes without taking anything away from the vocal and the verse line will present a challenge to even the most hardened slap veterans out there.

Michael Jackson – ‘Get On The Floor’ full bass transcription

More of LJ and MJ on the way soon – this album lives in my glovebox and is always the right thing to listen to when driving to or from a gig.

No Comments

Groove of the Week

Groove Of The Week #44: Squarepusher – ‘Iambic 9 Poetry’

Tom Kenrick

April 24, 2017 9:51 pm April 24, 2017

No Comments

Like many bass players, I became infatuated with the sound of harmonics on hearing Jaco’s iconic ‘Portrait of Tracy’ for the first time; somehow JP had managed to transform the…

Like many bass players, I became infatuated with the sound of harmonics on hearing Jaco’s iconic ‘Portrait of Tracy’ for the first time; somehow JP had managed to transform the mumbling, monophonic plank of wood that is the bass guitar into a rich tapestry of shimmering harmonic (in both senses of the word) textures:

Imagine the horror of being a bassist in 1976 and hearing THAT. Luckily I grew up in the era of TAB books and Hot Licks videos, so I was able to ‘cheat’ my way into executing a sloppy approximation of Jaco’s harmonic vocabulary without too much effort. Thanks, Stu:

(I would love to have been at the meeting where they agreed on the title, the cover shot and wardrobe for this)

Playing ‘real’ bass using harmonics

While many players are comfortable with natural harmonics, few can incorporate them into everyday musical situations and most of the time they tend to remain in the ‘solo bass’ realm; I thought that Groove Of The Week should focus on at least one line that uses harmonics and fretted notes in more practical, supportive role.

Enter Squarepusher’s ‘Iambic 9 Poetry’:

Nice little harmonic thing from Squarepusher for Groove of The Week #44 #bass #bassist #bassguitar #bassplayersunited #instagroove #instabass #bassforward #weplaybass #nordstrand #nobleamps #origineffects #apogeeone #bassgroove #bassgrooveoftheweek #squarepusher

A post shared by Tom Kenrick (@tommykrizzle) on Nov 3, 2016 at 12:57pm PDT

This is a real gem – a self-contained contrapuntal line with two distinct voices (fretted bass notes and a melody built entirely from natural harmonics) that provides a real workout for the left hand; dump your finger independence exercises and give this a go instead.

Everything in its right place

As if playing the thing wasn’t enough, notating natural and artificial harmonics is another headache altogether.

Most natural harmonics have a completely different sounding pitch to their position on the fretboard and because we tend to learn harmonics by their location on the fretboard rather than their actual pitch name it’s easy to get lost if we use conventional notation. We have a few options when it comes to writing this stuff down:

Write out all harmonics at sounding pitch, using 8va and 15ma markings to keep things as close to the stave as possible
Notate harmonics using the location of the fretted note where the harmonic is located
A hybrid of the above methods
Tablature

Let’s discount option 4 immediately since TAB is scientifically proven to weaken your sperm and significantly increase your chances of knowing less about harmony than most guitar players (don’t ask me for citations on the first part).

After much head scratching and hurling expletives at Sibelius, I opted for option 3. Here’s the most legible thing that I could come up with:

Good luck, and if you have an alternative means of notation for harmonics then PLEASE get in touch.

Do You know Squarepusher?

If you’re unfamiliar with Squarepusher (real name Tom Jenkinson), then ‘Iambic 9 Poetry’ is one of the more accessible cuts from the reclusive English bassist’s back catalogue. His recorded output ranges from intense, glitchy electronica with live bass (Hard Normal Daddy and Big Loada) to melodic 6-string bass explorations (Solo Electric Bass), and his current project Shobaleader One provides a live band take on his earlier electronic works:

No Comments

Groove of the Week

Groove Of The Week #43 – Marvin Gaye’s ‘Inner City Blues’

Tom Kenrick

April 24, 2017 8:49 pm April 24, 2017

2 Comments

Berry Gordy’s Other Bass Player Although The Funk Brothers’ catalogue of classic bass lines is normally associated with James Jamerson, there was another guy on the scene whose lines…

Berry Gordy’s Other Bass Player

Although The Funk Brothers’ catalogue of classic bass lines is normally associated with James Jamerson, there was another guy on the scene whose lines deserve attention when considering the tradition of the bass guitar.

That man was Bob Babbitt, who worked on many Motown hits between 1966 and 1972, sharing the Funk Brothers’ bass chair with Jamerson. During his tenure in Detroit, Babbitt added masterful bass lines to hits including Stevie Wonder’s ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’, Gladys Knight & The Pips’ ‘Midnight Train To Georgia’ and The Temptations’ ‘Ball of Confusion’.

1971 was a particularly significant year in Bob’s career, where he not only managed to get away with recording a 90-second bass solo on a single release (Dennis Coffey’s ‘Scorpio‘) but also played on one of Motown’s most important albums, Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On.

Legendary among bass players for the tales of James Jamerson recording the title track’s breathtaking bass part while lying on the floor because he was so drunk, What’s Going On also includes some of Babbitt’s best bass hooks on ‘Mercy, Mercy Me’ and ‘Inner City Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler)’.

Inner City Groove

Anchored by Bob Babbitt’s syncopated yet smoothly articulated bass groove, ‘Inner City Blues’ forms part of the essential education for bassists studying what the masters of the instrument play on a one-chord vamp:

Groove Of The Week #43: Bob Babbitt on Marvin Gaye's 'Inner City Blues' #bass #bassist #bassplayersunited #bajo #baixo #baixonatural #bassgrooveoftheweek #fender #pbass #flatwounds #bobbabbitt #marvingaye #bassforward #bassdaily #nobleamps #instabass #instagroove

A post shared by Tom Kenrick (@tommykrizzle) on Oct 20, 2016 at 8:54am PDT

The main line is comprised of a phrase built from the chord tones of Ebm7 that has two endings (the first on a high Gb, the second on a low Eb). The thing that hits me when I listen to the track while looking through the transcription is how little variation there is on each repetition, giving Bob’s warm Precision bass groove an almost hypnotic quality.

The line sits neatly in one position at the 11th fret apart from the low Gb in bar 6. As with everything that we ever play, being a stickler over note lengths will allow the line to feel right. Opt for a warm fingerstyle sound – roll the tone control on your bass down and move your right hand to pluck over the end of the fingerboard if your bass sounds too bright.

Later Years

Post-Motown, Bob managed to rack up over 25 Gold records playing for artists including Elton John, Frank Sinatra and Phil Collins and relocated to Nashville in 1986. His decision to take touring work during that period rather than remaining in town meant that his recording work began to wane, although the release of the 2002 documentary film ‘Standing In The Shadows Of Motown’ revived his career as people became interested in the men behind Motown’s signature sound.

Bob Babbitt left us on July 16th, 2012.

2 Comments