Music in Theory; Extended range Bass guitars and the Pentatonic Scale

This is the fourth post in a series of specific posts where I just talk about my passion for music theory, different exercises and things that i've thought up that may shed light on something or somethings that musicians are either struggling with or else it's a completely new subject to them or opens a completely different door to them musically.

If I can inspire my fellow musicians as much as they inspire me, then I can die happy.

So, here goes.

Lesson 5 in the aptly named: Music in Theory

Extended range Bass guitars and the Pentatonic Scale

Chris Severin and his Legendary 7 String

This article was not planned. It is 2am already and I am writing this immediately after having a discussion about pentatonic melodies.
This is actually the first Bass lesson I’ve ever written so it’s going to be super niche by comparison to the others, I have yet to decide whether or not I’ll do more instrument curated lessons.

The Pentatonic Scale

First off, You’ve heard it. I don’t know who you are as a reader, but provided that you have at least once in your life heard music, you have definitely heard the pentatonic scale in all its effective and simplistic glory. The pentatonic scale is the seed from which almost every genre and tibre of music is grown. It is common in everything from the latest modern pop hits to medieval prayer chant and the music of ancient Greece, Folk music, Traditional music, even Javanese and Balinese prayer song (gamelan) employ a type of pentatonic scale.
As the name would suggest, the pentatonic scale is comprised of 5 notes. In the major pentatonic scale, the 5 notes present could be described as an incomplete major scale, but in terms of tonality the pentatonic scale is complete by itself. I like to think of the notes it contains as the most harmonically obvious notes or as anchoring notes in the particular key; this is why rock guitar solos sound so great and why songs like the Cup song are so easy to sing without accompaniment.

To find the pentatonic notes of any key, you count ahead on the Circle of 5ths and rearrange those notes into the order of the musical alphabet so they fit into the space of one octave; so for example, The C Pentatonic scale will be 5 consecutive steps on the Circle of 5ths including C; C G D A E, in order of the musical alphabet you have C D E G A, and that’s the C major Pentatonic scale.
The minor Pentatonic, like the natural minor scale, contains the same notes as its major equivalent just beginning on the 6th degree. So, C D E G A becomes the A minor Pentatonic; A C D E G.

That’s all Well and Good But, What about the Extended Range Bass Part?

For those who don’t know, an Extended Range Bass literally means a bass that has a wider, more extended range than the traditional 4 string 22 frets variety, and they were first invented in the 60s with the introduction of 5 and 6 string Basses. Extended range includes the likes of 5-12 string basses or even Les Claypool’s 32 fret bass, but the variety I want to focus on for this lesson is the 7 string Bass tuned BEADGCF.

7 String Ibanez Bass owned by Hagrid

This actually came as a eureka moment for me while watching Chris Severin play with The Headhunters in the Sugar club in Dublin last September. Prior to that gig I hadn’t actually seen a 7 string Bass being played in the flesh, nor any bass with that level of virtuosity behind it. The performance was pretty mind blowing on so many levels, as can be expected from Jazz veterans such as the Headhunters.

If you are a bass player and you have touched on scales before, you’ve probably been taught the Pentatonic scale; the Major and minor pentatonic scales are usually more often than not; the first scales we ever learn. String instruments are very different animals to keys; the likes of scales take on shapes that are completely different all over the fret board whereas a pentatonic scale in one octave on a piano is going to be the same notes and the same shape as the next octave and the next. The Pentatonic scales are only really useful if you can play it in more than one octave and many teachers have different ways of showing students how to play this way on a 4 string bass; by using different starting notes and playing a number of different shapes up and down the neck of the bass.

The way I always understood it was there were 3 different shapes, major, minor and a kind of box shaped pentatonic that matched the notes from major to minor and followed the pattern, hardly the most academic approach to it.

The way a lot of online bass tutors such as Scott Devine and how the likes of Contemporary music colleges break down the pentatonic scale is by 5 different shapes, so in C your 5 shapes will each be C D E G A each starting on the respective notes; 2^nd position starting on D, 3^rd on E and so on.

I drew up some very rough, ghetto copy book diagrams which you can see for the sake of clarification here:

The 5 shape approach maybe is the best way to teach the pentatonic scale on a 4 string Bass, but it does encounter some problems once you decide to jump to a 5 or 6 string bass.
That’s why I’ve got this:

The Pentatonic Scale as it appears on a 7 string Bass.

This is a Diagram of the 7 string Bass, tuned in perfect 4ths; BEADGCF, that I mentioned earlier, and it completely rules out the need to study 5 shaped only to encounter issues along the way.
As you can see, on a 7 string Bass, without moving the position of your fretting hand, all 5 of the above shapes can be played in the one position.

And with only one shape or pattern to remember, it’s a lot more likely to free up the fret board for you, regardless of whether you’re playing a traditional 4 string or the bass belonging to a Jazz funk veteran.

That concludes today's lesson. It's 3.50am and i'm off to bed. 
I hope this lesson was helpful to some of you guys, I know the revelation greatly improved my concept of everything to do with pentatonics and their locations, and as always, if there is anything you want me to cover in the next lesson or something you want reclarified holler at me yo.

While writing this article I listened to Monk Montgomery's album Bass Odyssey and Joey Dosik's game winner EP.
I've been on a mad Joey & electric piano binge since the gig on Monday night. The guy sitting beside me was crying his eyes out, serious case of the feels but THAT is how good that gig was.

Music in Theory; Understanding Time

This is the fourth post in a series of specific posts where I just talk about my passion for music theory, different exercises and things that i've thought up that may shed light on something or somethings that musicians are either struggling with or else it's a completely new subject to them or opens a completely different door to them musically.

If I can inspire my fellow musicians as much as they inspire me, then I can die happy.

so here goes.

Lesson 4 in the aptly named: Music in Theory

Understanding Time

In a follow up to the last post I did that was all about music in 1959 I touched on the album Time Out by Dave Brubeck. For those of you who don’t know that album it’s a cool jazz/west coast Jazz album, and the first Brubeck released that experimented with unusual or uncommon time signatures. Inspired by time spent in Turkey as part of a state funded Eurasian tour, the album contains of pieces in meters like 5/4, 9/8 and 6/4.
You can’t really read the name Dave Brubeck and not immediately think “West coast Jazzy time lord” so I felt the need to break down the concept in my next Music in Theory post.
I’m not too sure what it is about time signatures that terrifies a lot of musicians, if it isn’t 4/4 it can’t boogie woogie or Rock n Roll, right?
It’s quite a generally misconstrued concept among beginner or untrained musicians, I’m quite sure I feared anything uneven around the time I first started studying in UCD but since then I’ve grasped more of an understanding and hopefully an easier way of explaining the concept of time in music.

Dave Brubeck

What are Time Signatures?

Time signatures in a nutshell are a type of notation that dictates the measurement and meter of one bar. They consist of two numbers, one on top of the other immediately after the Key Signature on the staff.
The number on the bottom dictates the unit of measurement (4 being a quarter note, 8 being an eighth note etc.) and the number on top tells you how many of those units make up a bar. So, take for example 3/4 is telling you a bar consists of 3 quarter notes.
Although usually uncommon, like the Key signature a time signature can change many times in a piece.

Simple Time & Compound Time

The main difference between Simple time & compound time is how the meters are “felt” each meter will have a specific pulse to it. In 4/4 that pulse can be said as “2 + 2” or like a soldier marching “left, right, left, right”. If the meter can be divided evenly in 2 it is said to be simple time.
All simple time signatures 2/4, 4/4, 8/4, 12/4 are divisible by two, the exception of which is 3/4 or ‘Waltz Time’. Waltz time is still regarded as simple time as it has an even feel of straight eighth notes and not a triplet feel. “1 and 2 and 3 and” which is different from compound time.

Compound time is where the pulse of the meter is measured or felt in triplets “1 and a 2 and a”. For example 6/8 will consist of a triplet feel “1 and a 2 and a” and consists of 6 eighth notes; 3/4 also consists of 6 eighth notes “1 and 2 and 3 and” but the pulses of both feel completely different. It would be incorrect, so to speak, to notate a 6/8 piece in 3/4, but it would not if it were noted as 2/4 and the triplets were labelled with the number 3 above the groupings.

Complex Time
Complex time, also known as asymmetric, odd, irregular, unusual, or unsquare time, is when the measurement of the meter cannot be equally divided in 2 or 3.
Instead, their pulses are broken down and usually felt with a combination of the two.
For example, 7/4 could be felt with a pulse of “2 + 2 + 3” or 11/8 can be felt with “3 + 3 + 3 + 2”, or any combination provided the beats match the number of the meter.

11/8 is an unusual one, like the example earlier given the difference between 3/4 and 6/8; I’ve come across a couple different variations of it in Jazz.
The “3 + 3 + 3+ 2” variation is a triplet feel; exactly like a 12/8 rhythm with one note missing, meaning in terms of quarter notes, it would be 3^2/3 quarter notes or 3^2/3/4. If we were to play 11/8 using straight eighth notes “1 and 2 and” instead of triplets, we get a rhythm of “2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 1”, which in terms of quarter notes would be 5 whole beats, and a half; 5^1/2 /4 but yet both variations consist of the exact same amount of eighth notes.

Though these can be difficult to feel or unusual for a musician to try and keep in time with, there are a few handy ways to keep in mind. Experimental Indian bass player Jayen Varma once broke down his style of playing odd time signatures as part of his TED Talk. By using a pattern of syllables, Jayen breaks down the rhythm into a simpler format for a musician to follow. The word Delhi has two syllables, Calcutta has three, therefore “Delhi, Delhi, Delhi, Calcutta” can be used to keep time in 9/8, “Calcutta, Calcutta, Calcutta, Delhi” can be used to keep time in 11/8 (3^2/3/4 variation)

Dave Brubeck features in the japanese version of Poker, 'Yugioh'
He can only be summoned by clapping 'Unsquare song' and highland dancing to the rhythm

Along the lines of the last few lessons I’ve written, I decided to post this example of what an unsquare or odd time feel sounds like. This is part of a song I’m presently working on and is based on a simple 12 bar blues structure with the turnarounds on bars 8, and 12. The structure freely slips in and out of a 5/8 and 6/8 meter that have a “2 + 3” and “2 + 3 + 1” feel respectively.
The complete structure is:

|5/8 | 5/8 | 5/8 | 6/8 |
|5/8 | 5/8 | 5/8 | 5/8 |
|6/8 | 6/8 | 5/8 | 5/8 |

Brubeck in 12

I’ve heard the term Half Time and Double Time before, how do they work?

Ok so, we’ve got common time (4/4) covered where we have 4 quarter notes in a bar. Think for example if we have a standard 4/4 drum beat where the snare hits on the 2 and 4 (1 2 3 4); Half time is where the note values are doubled without changing tempo, allowing the song to take on a slower more relaxed pace. Whereas beat 1 would take up the space of 1 quarter note, in half time; it takes up 2 quarters.
This therefore means that the snare hits in our 4/4 beat have now moved to beat 3 (1 2 3 4). In jazz, the movement to half time or double time usually only effects the rhythm section, the chord changes retain the same value, if a chord is held for one bar of 4, it is still held for that 1 bar. However, if the bass was playing a quarter note swing with notes landing on beats 1, 2, 3 and 4 for example, it will have dropped to half its frequency, playing only on beats 1 and 3.

A really popular example of changing from regular time to half time is that Half time drop in the chorus of Aha’s ‘Take on me’. The snare hits on 2 and 4 for the majority of the song but at the “I’ll be gone” point the snare has shifted itself to beat 3 just to be groovy.

Double time employs the same logic in reverse and is common in a lot of jazz solo sections. Instead of slowing down the pace, Double time speeds up the feel, again without changing tempo or where the chord changes are. A quarter note’s value is halved to an 8^th note. In terms of the 4/4 beat used in the last 2 examples, the snare hit would land on every ‘and’ following beats 1, 2, 3 and 4 (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +). And as for that swingin’ bass player; he’s now playing an 8^th note swing and really making his money.

But aside all that are there other types of funky time feel? I came for the jazz. where's the Jazz, man?
YES! Ok, now we can get into the real jazzy end of the whole time philosophy in music mumbo jumbo.

Dave Brubeck, head of the Timelord Council. as seen on Dr.Who circa 1976

The musician, as the performer of a note so to speak, has the artistic option to not always play exactly, rigidly on the beat or "in the pocket" of the meter.
A note can be played exactly on the beat; where everything sounds rock solid, or a sort of tension can be applied by either pushing or pulling the rhythm by playing either just a little too fast, or falling behind a bit in terms of feel.

The sound of which kind of odd to explain using words what I mean by this but pushing the beat makes the music sound very on its toes rhythmically. A lot of jazz soloists when creating a bit of tension in their coloring of the music will push the beat ahead a bit just to give things a bit more friction.
I had to really look about for a pop music example of this and the best The Police’s ‘Hungry for you’. The song regularly jumps from regular time to double time but the feel aspect of it sounds like it’s in a rush somewhere.
(probably to send out an S.O.S hehehe)

Pulling the beat is the opposite where everything feels more relaxed; a great example of this is the likes of Jazz funk, specially from the early 70's (check out the Headhunters version of ‘Watermelon man’) or like Earth Wind and Fire’s ‘Can’t hide love’ where the rhythm feels like it’s going toward the snare hits on beat 2 and 4 in a more lazy manner.
Pulling the beat becomes more extreme when you apply it to the offbeat like the drums in ‘Ticket to Ride’. The snare and tom hits on the offbeat of 3 and 4 are slightly different from each other; the tom hit is just a little bit more relaxed than playing directly on the ‘and’ of 4.

it goes like "Boom, Ka, B-boom, ..Ka .. Dom"

I’ve never really heard a drummer get that right. ;)

I hope you found this useful and as always, Thanks for reading and let me know in the comments if there is anything you want me to cover next time.

59 in music; The year of the P bass & Fender Bassman

A year can mean a lot of things for a lot of people. In 1959, the heart of the mid century, the world was beginning to go through a seismic shift; Castro and the 26^th of July Movement won the Cuban Revolution and Castro took over as Prime Minister, Russia launched the first spacecraft to reach earth’s moon, Barbie took the US market by storm, it was a big year in many regards.

The world of music too was building up the potential energy to completely explode in the 1960s but in the late 50’s a lot of these colossal changes were already set in motion.
in 1959 Roy Orbisson signed to Monument, Bob Dylan graduated from High School and moved to Minnesota where he discovered folk music and Jimi Hendrix bought his first electric guitar.

Fender ’59 P Bass

‘59 in many ways for me was the Chinese calendar year of the P Bass, and more importantly, the year of Soul. Berry Gordy founded Motown records; the first African American owned record label that specifically catered for mainstream RnB and Soul which very quickly gave way to the mainstream success of artists such as Smokey Robinson, The Supremes, The Shirelles and Marvin Gaye to name a few.

James Jamerson with the legendary 1962 P Bass

Any true bass nerd will associate the word “Motown” with the classic Precision Bass Funk sound of James Jamerson. Now, the famous Jamerson P Bass that all of those classic basslines were played on wasn’t a ’59 P Bass but in fact a model made in 1962.

A year before the Fender Jazz Bass hit the market however, The production team at Fender had made some very specific and relevant design adjustments to the Fender Precision bass that not only significantly boosted its popularity among musicians of the era, but also subsequently designed a bass sound that would be sought after by many musicians and held as a staple of the historic Pre-CBS era Fender American sound.
Some of the changes brought about in the ‘59 fender Precision Bass was the addition of a glued on Rosewood fretboard; Prior to 1959 the P bass neck was a one piece solid maple neck, and replacing the brushed Aluminium pickguard with a new layered celluloid variation.
By using rosewood for the fretboard, the new neck had a noticeably different, darker sound to that of a Solid one piece maple neck which is a feature that remained in place until after CBS had taken over Fender. 

The classic 1959-1965, Pre-CBS era Fender Basses associated with players such as James Jamerson and his Funk Brother contemporary Bob Babbitt, Bill Black (who played a 1960 P Bass), Phil Lynott (possibly ’60-‘62 P Bass), Pino Palladino (’62 P Bass ala James Jamerson) and Rocco Prestia offer a completely different variation of the P Bass sound to later eras or CBS era Fender Players such as Snarky Puppy’s Michael League (’76 P Bass), Tony Franklin (’76 and ’77 Fretless P Bass) and Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris (’73 P Bass).
So, that ’59 P Bass really set a benchmark for people getting all low volume and funky.

59 Bassman

Another huge breakthrough in the instrument manufacturing world, the Fender ’59 Bassman is arguably the most important amplifier of the late 1950s. It is not often that you get a product so popular in the instrument manufacturing industry that Boss feel the need to make a simulator pedal based on it, but the sound of the ’59 Bassman is truly unique and truly a classic.

If you’re not familiar, the story behind this amp is it was an all tube 4 x 10 combo originally made in the 1950s for the Fender Precision Bass, and of course for other electric basses that were available on the market, but by the 1950s the Precision bass was the only bass guitar Fender was producing.
Sooner or later, someone plugged a guitar into the amp and loved the rich full bodied tone as well as the warmth and robustness of the bass tube amp; an inventive musical move that is often credited to Buddy Guy.
Given how much of a legend Buddy Guy is in blues music, I’m going to guess that this attribution is 100% correct. Buddy has been on the road since about 1953 and from the get go he had made a name for himself as one of the most inventive musicians on the scene.
Here’s an example of Buddy’s recordings from 1958 where you can really hear that full bodied ’59 Bassman freshness in the guitar tone.

 Buddy Guy recordings from 1958

The Bassman as a guitar amp is a much sought after sound; to name drop some examples of its use, both John Fogarty and Brian Setzer used the amp throughout their career, Nevermind by Nirvana heavily features the amp as Kurt’s main guitar amp, as does Josh Homme in Them Crooked Vultures standalone album.
The importance of the ’59 Bassman model is stretched even further when you bear in mind that in the beginning of Jim Marshall’s venture into amp manufacturing in the UK, the ‘59 Fender Bassman was the model Marshall most wanted to replicate, at a more affordable price (cutting out the hefty import expenses) for the UK market and the future of British musicians.
So, like cause and effect, without the ’59 Bassman you don’t get the Marshall we know and you don’t get that killer 1967 Jack Bruce Fender VI into a Marshall Stack sound.
The world would definitely be missing something.

But that’s REALLY just a gear obsessed guitar or bass player’s account of what happened in 1959.
This is what actually happened in the music in 1959 which makes it such an important year.

Buddy Guy

1959 in Music

The Day The Music Died

The most significant events of 1959 happened specifically in Blues and Jazz. In many ways it was such a great year but in others it wasn’t. Pop music took a significant blow with the loss of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper in a fatal plane crash in February of that year. In his 22 year lifetime, Buddy Holly only ever got to record 3 studio albums but within those he recorded some outstandingly great tunes, and has been continually cited as an influence for many artists from the Beatles to Flat duo jets.

Buddy Holly

A personal favourite of mine is the song Girl on My Mind, which I first heard covered by Flat Duo Jets as part of MTVs The Cutting Edge.
The song was recorded as part of Buddy Holly’s last album That’ll be the day which is subsequently one of the most sought after records by collectors. (Pressings dated PRIOR to February 1959 that is)

  Girl on my Mind - Buddy Holly

  Girl on my Mind Flat Duo Jets

Writers Choice; Top Hits from 1959

1959 was a huge year for vocals, if you don’t agree you’re stupid.
In the same year where Frank Sinatra released No One Cares, his darkest and broodiest album, Ella Fitzgerald released her own grammy winning collection of Gershwin compositions; Ella Fitzgerald sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook, it’s an unusual choice for a relative unknown to be one of my hits of the year, but nonetheless, I’ve chosen Baby Won’t You Please Come Home by R&B singer Big Maybelle.

 Baby Wont' You Please Come Home - Big Maybelle

Ok, someone’s going to get angry about this and ask how I can have two versions of the same song in my top hits of the year but, I really can’t physically include one and not the other.
Purely coincidental that the same song be included in Billie Holiday’s last recordings, Holiday’s version was released the same year as Big Maybelle’s . But it’s one of those songs that have so many different recorded versions and all of them have amazing individual characteristics kind of like All Along the Watchtower both Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix’s version or the multiple recordings of Angel of the Morning. (Someday I’m definitely going to do a blog post on the top ten versions of Angel of the Morning)

Baby Won't you Please Come Home - Billie Holiday

So let’s compare the two, Big Maybelle’s version was recorded by Savoy in 1958 which as a label specialised in Blues, Jazz and Gospel recordings.
Best known for recording Jazz musicians such as Charlie Parker or Dizzy Gillespie, Savoy producers primarily worked with recording smaller scale bands such as quartets to sextets. There are exceptions to this rule of course, Charlie Parker with Strings involved a band of 12 members including conductor but for a lesser known blues singer such as Big Maybelle, the label just simply wouldn’t have provided the budget for anything more than a sextet.
(Bearing in mind that, in the 50s Charlie Parker was a cash cow for the label. He could easily demand a 12 man band including Miles Davis, Dizzie Gillespie, Buddy Rich and Ray Brown; because he was Charlie Parker and everybody knew it.)

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday’s version however, is noticeably much cleaner in production quality. It was recorded in early 1959 under the MGM Records label. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was a huge movie company based in California, (you know all those classic Spencer Tracy movies like Fury) and their subsidiary music label MGM primarily produced film scores and worked with symphony orchestras. Billie Holiday at the height of her career was no stranger to huge budget productions.  You can hear the classic MGM string sections, muted trumpet and incredibly clear walking bass throughout the song. 

By the time of recording however, Billie Holiday’s health had deteriorated significantly and Last Recording usually isn’t regarded as Holiday’s best work but plenty of people have starkly different opinions of how well Billie’s voice held up in the later years of her life. The Billie Holiday version of Baby won’t you please come home is definitely one of my favourites for a reason, the Billie Holiday nuances and the more minimal vocal approach to the crescendo finishing with the solo trumpet outro.

  How many More Years - Howlin’ wolf

With the release of Howlin’ wolf’s classic Debut album Moanin’ in the Moonlight, the sound of the blues changed forever. Although this song was recorded much earlier, in 1951, industry heads at Chess records insisted on releasing Howlin’ Wolf’s older recorded material as part of his first album release. The production quality of this song doesn’t hold up as well as other tracks on the album such as Smokestack lightning; the track is muddy and the bass is completely lost in the mix, but there is one incredibly important aspect of this song that really paved the path for a new breed of Rock n Roll in the ‘60s; the power chords played by the guitar.
The guitar is thick and dirty and throughout the song guitarist Willie Johnson can be heard chugging power chords, on the record released the same year as the Fender ’59 Bassman amp Kurt Cobain would ultimately use to record Smells like Teen Spirit 32 years later.

 Take Five - Dave Brubeck 

’59 was a great year for jazz. Two of the most influential Jazz albums ever written were released within 4 months of eachother, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue in August and Dave Brubeck’s Time Out in December.
With regards to Jazz albums it would be quite easy to write a short dissertation on what happened in both those albums that completely moved the direction of music, but for the sake of both explanation and simplification (and not adding 40,000 more words onto this article);

Miles Davis

Kind of Blue was a continuation of Miles Davis’ move away from the Hard Bop style (the very chordal harmony heavy stuff enveloped in complex improvisation) and more towards the modal style of playing he adopted from 1958 onwards.
As the name might suggest, Time Out was the first album Dave Brubeck recorded that experimented with obscure or odd time signatures. Throughout the album, the songs feature meters of 9/8, 6/4 and 5/4.
Completely unintended to be a hit, Take Five was composed by Paul Desmond initially to make room for a Joe Morello 5/4 drum solo, yet the song became a hit a couple of years after release and ultimately became the best selling jazz single ever. The experimental style of adapting odd time meter soon became Dave Brubeck’s signature style and was further elaborated in 1961’s Time Further Out which contains Brubeck’s classic Unsquare Dance.

In conclusion, 1959 was a big year for music, in many ways the art world was already reaching boiling point, ready to explode into the flamboyant technicolour acid trip that was the 1960s.
As always, thanks for reading and feel welcome to comment and let me know if there is anything else you think I should write about or if you want me to do your dissertation on Public Enemy for you. (Really, I’m down for that)





While writing this article I went on a really mad Neil Young binge, listened to the albums Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, Neil Young self titled Debut as well as the album Plays and plays and plays by Dave Brubeck (I listened to it twice it was so good) and We Like It Here by Snarky Puppy. Man, I really need a fucking Analog bass synth; my life feels empty without one.

RIFF BASED BLUES; HOWLIN' WOLF

This short essay was written in January 2016 as part of an assignment for the CPD in Professional Musicianship Instrumental Styles module.

Style File Essay

                                                                                                Craig McComish

                                                                                                                             03/01/2016

In this essay I will be discussing the style of Riff based blues paying close attention to the electric Chicago blues style of Howlin’ Wolf.

Howlin’ Wolf is often cited and largely recognized as one of the most foundational musicians in the Chicago Electric blues. Such a title depends heavily if not owes itself to the stylistic relationship of the rhythm section in Wolf's band; most notably the interaction of lead guitarist Hubert Sumlin, and the oscillating bass roll filled by electric player Andrew ‘Blueblood’ McMahon, and upright player Willie Dixon.

The lines created by Sumlin and McMahon are as unique as they are minimal, a quality often underrated and overlooked by musicians but not by listeners.
It was Wolf's understanding that the upright string bass and the, at the time, newly invented electric bass guitar were two completely different instruments in relation to timbre, and he made sure to treat them as such.

McMahon being primarily a blues guitar player although providing electric bass guitar duties in Wolf’s band is notable for his simple unison based style and often bright but thumpy tone given his guitar background and persistence for using his thumb whilst picking. This can be seen in songs such as Killing floor where the electric bass line follows the guitar line. The main purpose of this playing style is to layer the central groove as a nucleus for the song itself.

This is contrasted however in earlier tracks such as Wolf's 1962 self titled album and previous single releases. For example, the rhythmic suspensions and swift staccato bursts of notes we hear in Sumlin’s pentatonic guitar riff in Smokestack Lightning are allowed room to breathe such to speak by the Bassline created by Dixon.
The riff itself is exceptionally minimal and in nature given that for the entire song they do not stray from the chord of E. The use of flat 3^rd and 7^th degrees give it a minor, blues feel. The bass line provided by Willie Dixon follows a standard root to 5^th groove which serves moreso to lay a foundation for Sumlin’s riff on top instead of mirroring the guitarist in a unison line.

The minimal style of Dixon’s playing in the bass line of smokestack lightning originates from when Jazz bands played in marching bands and the bass was primarily played on a tuba. When the music moved indoors, bass players opted for the string bass for its acoustics and less boisterous voicing which settled better in a room.
The differences between Dixon and McMahon’s playing is obvious, given McMahon’s electric bass playing style is quite reminiscent of his guitar voicing and playing style in his later solo songs such as Change my way of living.

As well as its simplicity, Wolf’s music is recognized for his rawness and truthfulness, “he didn’t show up to sing in rags with a whiskey bottle hanging out of his pocket, he dressed and acted like a gentleman onstage, and he expected the same from his band. His music demanded respect, just like he did.” (King, 2004)

The Chicago blues contemporaries’ legacy and influence is widely visible in riff based blues and the style is widely associated with artists such as The Rolling stones, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin through their various covers of the work of Wolf and others.
A slightly more subtle and specific nod to Howlin wolf’s influence are songs such as Ball and Biscuit by the White Stripes which samples, in part, Sumlin’s riff from Smokestack Lightning, and a wider proportion of The Black Key’s material such as The Moan or Howlin’ for you, The former being originally intended as a cover/reworking of Wolf’s Poor Boy.

In conclusion, the riff based blues style is defined by groove based minimalism and its characteristics stemmed from artists such as Howlin’ Wolf to modern blues players such as The White Stripes and the Black Keys.

Bibliography

Segrest, J. & Hoffman, M., 2012. Moaning at Midnight; The Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf. s.l.:Pantheon.

Wolf, H., 2002. The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions. [Sound Recording] Listen (MCA Records).

 

Music in Theory; Functionality of Rootless Chords

This is the third post in a series of specific posts where I just talk about my passion for music theory, different exercises and things that i've thought up that may shed light on something or somethings that musicians are either struggling with or else it's a completely new subject to them or opens a completely different door to them musically.
If I can inspire my fellow musicians as much as they inspire me, then I can die happy.
so here goes.
Lesson 3 in the aptly named: Music in Theory

Functionality of Rootless Chords

Voicing?

Ok so, before I go diving head first into everything about rootless chords, there is one small term that I want to shed light on so that no one gets lost or confused and that is the term 'voicing' or 'chord voicing' and what is meant by it.
If we take a simple triad chord for example, C major, nice and simple. we know the notes of the C major chord are the root, C, the major third, E and the perfect 5th, G.
The term chord voicing refers to how those notes are arranged, which notes are at the bottom, which are doubled up etc.
For Example; CGCE, GCE, CGECEG are all different voicings of the C Major chord.

With that basic shit out of the way lets bang on to craziness. Mwuhahaha.

Rootless Chord Voicings

Rootless Chord voicings, sometimes referred to as Bill Evans chord voicings since he was a pioneer of the inventive interpretation of harmony that gave way for rootless chords, are effectively a chord without the root.
The End.
Bye - Bye.

I'm kidding. There is slightly more to it than that. Primarily, a Rootless chord will be a variation or an alteration in flavor of a chord, Usually a chord with a 7th degree in it, such as a Dominant 7, Major 7 or Minor 7, as opposed to a triad.

Bill Evans, being absolutely rad with his mad harmony

The root is removed from the chord, and an additional degree is added, usually the 9th, 11th or 13th.
A simple example would be, say we have a G min7 chord. The notes of which are G, Bb, D and F.
I want to remove the root and add the 9th of G min7; which then gives me Bb, D, F and A, which is our rootless chord.

Rootless chords arent particularly jarring in sound, some inversions of the chord will be more than others, but with the lack of a root, the chord does have a sense of ominousness or ambiguity to it.

If you are good with your chord theory you probably would have noticed that Bb, D, F and A are also the notes of Bb maj7.
likewise, if we start with  a G min7 b5 chord, the notes Bb, Db, F and A are also common to a Bb min maj7 chord.
Therefore, by removing the root, you are allowing the chord to evolve into something else momentarily, which serves as variation for the tonal quality of the chord you are playing.

The Key is harmony.
When the Bass is playing the root of a G min7, and the guitarist plays Bb, D, F and A it can sound bomb as fuck.

Other uses of the rootless chord rule is of course for soloing and improvisation. you may choose to apply a rootless voicing over a 251 progression.

I prepared an example of a Funk lick played over a rootless G dominant 9 chord which you can find below:

https://soundcloud.com/craig-mccomish/a-study-in-audiosynthesis-rootless-funk-over-g9-chord

The ambiguity of the chord voicing comes across in the note choice, in this case using the Major 3rd, flat 7th, major 9th and Perfect 5th. (it also includes an odd passing note which is the major 6th).

If you'd like to check out better uses of rootless chord voicings, my best recommendation would be listening to Bill Evans' work.
Sunday at the Village Vanguard (1961) by the Bill Evans is renowned for being one of the best live jazz albums of all time, and features the late great Scott LaFaro on Bass duties. 

Music in theory; a Question of Polymeters

This is the second in a new series of specific posts where I just talk about music theory, different exercises and things that i've thought up that may shed light on something or somethings that musicians are either struggling with or else it's a completely new subject to them or opens a completely different door to them musically.
If I can inspire my fellow musicians as much as they inspire me, then I can die happy.
so here goes.
Lesson 2 in the aptly named: Music in Theory

A Question of Polymeters

ok so last time I covered a lot about polyrhythms and kind of explained what they are in a nutshell.
We decided that, a polyrhythm is effectively different rhythms happening in the same bar, they are simultaneous and line up, starting and finishing at the same time.
A polymeter however is when different instruments play in different meters and come in and out of synchronization with eachother.

Today we're going to look at how that works.

Once again, i've prepared a sample track. I'd advise clicking the link below and getting the track into your ears before we progress any further.

https://soundcloud.com/craig-mccomish/a-study-in-audiosynthesis-polymeter/s-Ti4uC

Description

Ok so, for the first section, we hear 10 bars of a 3/4 rhythm at a tempo of 150 bpm .
This is the first rhythm we need to worry about and the beats we hear are "1, 2, (and) 3" with an accent on beat 1.

Simple, straight forward. Uncomplicated.

After those 10 bars, we hear a second rhythm. the Tempo is still static, 150bpm but the meter has now extended to hold two additional beats, becoming a 5/4 meter. The beats we are hearing are "1,2,3,4,5" with an accent on beat 1 and a second accent on beat 4.

Then, we hear both these rhythms playing at the same time. This is our Polymeter.

Both meters have the same tempo and start on the same beat; their respective beat 1.
This will of course mean, that the 3/4 rhythm will hit it's beat 1 again before the 5/4 rhythm.

So the second bar of 3/4 starts on beat 4 of the 5/4 meter.

The Meter's Movement is broken down below;

As you can see from the above diagram, both meters start on the same beat on the left hand side but then drift out of synchronization.

And towards the right hand side, we can see that the two rhythms have drifted back in sync.

Conclusion

We can now differentiate between a polyrhythm and a polymeter by remembering a simple rule.

Polyrhythm = Two Rhythms of different Tempo starting and finishing together in the same bar.

Polymeter = Two Rhythms of the same Tempo, starting together and drifting in and out of sync with eachother.

So, is there a simple way to figure out how many bars it will take for the two rhythms of a polymeter to drift back in sync?
There is.
Using simple maths, it will take the above rhythm of 3/4 and 5/4 exactly 15 beats to rectify itself.

3 by 5 = 15, which also means it will take exactly 3 bars of 5/4 for the rhythm to synchronize with the adjacent 3/4 rhythm, and
It will take exactly 5 bars of 3/4 for the rhythms to synchronise.

So simply put, you multiply the two meters together to find the number beats until the rhythms meet on beat 1.

As always guys I hope you found this helpful, Thanks for reading and let me know in the comments if there is anything you want me to cover next time.

Music in Theory: 5/4 4/4 polyrhythmic exercise

I feel like this is going to be a new series of specific posts where I just talk about music theory, different exercises and things that i've thought up that may shed light on something or somethings that musicians are either struggling with or else it's a completely new subject to them or opens a completely different door to them musically. If I can inspire my fellow musicians as much as they inspire me, then I can die happy.
so here goes.
Lesson 1 in the aptly named: Music in Theory

The 5/4 4/4 Polyrhythmic Exercise

ok so first up. what is a polyrhythm? what is a polymeter? are they related? did they go to school together? are they sleeping together?

A polyrhythm is effectively different rhythms happening in the same bar, they are simultaneous and line up, starting and finishing at the same time. a polymeter however is when different instruments play in different meters and come in and out of synchronization with eachother.

We're only going to worry about polyrhythms right now though. so the exercise will consist of 2 rhythms that will start and finish with eachother just to show how a polyrhythm works.

before we progress, hit play on this link so you can listen to the track. I'll begin to break it down in the next section.

https://soundcloud.com/craig-mccomish/a-study-in-audiosynthesis-54-and-44-exercise

Description

ok so, the first 9 bars. 9 is a bit excessive, i'm sorry.

So, for 9 bars we just have our fictional drummer, lets call him Rupert, just setting a feel with the kick and the snare at a nice, balanced and slow tempo. No hi hats, just the kick on beat 1 and the snare hitting on beat 3

For the second set of 9 bars, we have a 5/4 feel, 5 crotchet beats in a bar. But the kick and snare do not change tempo. written as 5/4, the Kick is still on beat 1, but the snare hit has now shifted to the second 8th note, or the 'And' of beat 3. The hi hats are holding the 5/4 feel and landing on beat 2,3,4 and 5.

And finally, for the last set of 9 bars, Rupert kicks things up a notch, and the Hi hats speed up to a straight 8th feel in 4/4 again.
Since we've returned to 4/4 feel. the snare has reverted itself back to beat 3. The Kick and the snare have not changed tempo since the very beginning.

Conclusion

In Keeping the same tempo, the kick and the snare have slipped in and out of a different feel. although the second set of 9 bars feel and sound like they are 5/4. they can easily be written as 4/4 with the hi hats written as quintuplets (5 crotchet notes in the space of 4). Resulting in Rupert's funky polyrhythm.

Additional Notes & How this was achieved

For musicians and producers who wish to replicate the above polyrhythm track, or anyone who is just curious how to move a metronome from a 5/4 feel to a 4/4 feel while maintaining the same kick and snare position/tempo, the breakdown of the track is as follows:

The metronome I use doesnt allow subdivisions so for 5/4 and 4/4 respectively, if i want to use an 8th note feel I need to make them 10/8 and 8/8 respectively.
Starting with the 10/8 beat, the Kick is on beat 1 and the Snare holds out until beat 6. the tempo for this is 286bpm.
in order to convert the 10/8 @ 286bpm to a 4/4 feel, you divide the tempo by it's present meter and mutiply it by the one you wish to change it to.
So, 286 /5 = 57.2
multiply that by 4 and you have 228.8, so 229bpm is the metronome mark for the 4/4 section.

I hope you found this useful and as always, Thanks for reading and let me know in the comments if there is anything you want me to cover next time.