In this lesson, you're going to learn exactly  what to do if you want to improvise on bass,
  but you're not sure where to get started.
  In fact, you'll get an entire system to  go from being a clueless bass improvisor to
  taking a great, simple bass solo that you  can be proud of creating.
  Hey I'm Luke McIntosh from becomeabassist.com  and in the next few minutes, you'll learn
  the secret to making your bass solos great,  even if you've never taken a bass solo before.
  [Video Intro]
  Improvising can be scary, right?
  Most of the time, you stand at the back of  the stage locking it down with the drummer
  - you're usually not in the spotlight.
  Every once in a while though, you might get  the nod from someone - they want you to take
  a bass solo.
  And what happens?
  Your heart rate skyrockets, your palms start  getting sweaty.
  Where you were once calm and relaxed before,  now you're just a ball of tension, and what
  comes out?
  Nothing good, right?
  Maybe you just play the same old bass line  you've been playing the whole song.
  Maybe you play that one lick you know over  and over until you put everyone to sleep.
  Maybe you try to play some scale that you  know 'should' work, but just ends up sounding
  horrible.
  Or worse yet, you may completely freeze and  play nothing.
  If any of those sound like you, you are going  to love this video!
  You see, improvising on bass - taking bass  solos - it doesn't have to be nerve wracking
  and stressful.
  It's actually supposed to be fun and I want  to show you the secret to playing something
  that you know is going to work, but more importantly,  I want to show you how you can take a bass
  solo that you can be proud of - something  that you can listen to afterwards and instead
  of cringing and hating the sound of it, you  can listen to your playing and smile and be
  satisfied that you created something special.
  To do this, we need a song to improvise over,  right?
  For us, let's use the Stevie Wonder Song  "Isn't She Lovely".
  Honestly, you could use pretty much any song  for this, but this will work well for us!
  Now have a look at the chord progression for  this song up here.
  There's a lot of chords in there, right?!
  Now conventional wisdom would say that in  order to improvise, you need to know every
  scale and every arpeggio that goes with every  chord.
  What does that look like in this example?
  Well if we analyse this song with it's chord/scale  and arpeggio relationships, we'd end up
  with this.
  Woah!
  Lots of things to learn here, right?
  Dorians, Lydians, some weird diminished scale,  that G#7b9 chord.
  But hold up - we're not going to use any  of this at all!
  Scales and arpeggios can be a great way of  building bass solos and they're super useful,
  but when you're just starting out, a lot  of the time, they get in the way of the music,
  so in this lesson, we won't be using them.
  By the way - I'm not suggesting you never  use scales or arpeggios.
  Once you get the hang of them, they can be  amazing for finding new sounds and creating
  more complex and interesting solos - not to  mention they'll really open up the fretboard
  for you.
  But if you're watching this video, chances  are that you're not quite ready for that
  yet.
  Even if you do know how all this stuff works,  we're going to put it aside, just for now.
  We can always come back to it later.
  So what do you do instead?
  If we're not going to use scales or arpeggios,  what is left?
  Do we just use the roots of the chords?
  That'd get pretty boring pretty fast, right?
  So what's the secret?
  How do you go from being lost in a bass solo  to knowing exactly what to play without using
  scales or arpeggios?
  The secret is to play the melody!
  Oh my god - it baffles me that more people  don't do this!
  The melody IS the song, but most people when  they get to a solo, they try and play everything
  except the melody.
  But think about it!
  You already KNOW the melody works with the  chords, you'll never get lost playing the
  melody, and best of all, your audience is  going to love it too.
  The melody is like a 'hook' for your audience.
  They hear it, recognize it and are immediately  drawn in because they can relate to the melody.
  They're going to appreciate the melody a  whole lot more than a bunch of random scales
  that go nowhere and don't make sense.
  Even Stevie Wonder knew this.
  When it gets to the harmonica solo in the  song, what does he play?
  The melody!
  Listen to the recording - it's right there!
  So how do you get started with this idea?
  Simply learn the melody to whatever song you  have to improvise over.
  With Isn't She Lovely, that would look like  this.
  I've got a quick little practice track here  - so imagine you've just been given the
  nod for a bass solo.
  You might do something like this.
  [plays melody] How simple is this?
  There's absolutely nothing in there that  wasn't already in the song.
  The melody - it's already part of the song,  even that lick at the end there [plays lick]
  That's in the song too.
  If you're truly stuck and really just don't  know what to do when it comes to your bass
  solo and you don't just want to play the  same old bass line you've been playing the
  whole song, play the melody exactly how it  is on the recording.
  You're guaranteed to always sound good and  you'll never play a bad note!
  Now I know what you're saying right about  now - you're saying "Luke - that's not
  improvising!
  That's just playing the damn melody!
  How can I start making up my own bass solos!?!?"
  First of all - calm your farm just a little  bit! [laughs] You could definitely make the
  argument that this method doesn't leave  you improvising because you're just copying
  the recording, so if you want to level up  your solos, here's what to do next.
  We're going to take that same melody that  we've just played - the same notes in the
  same order and play with where you place them  in the phrase.
  You're playing with the phrasing of the  melody here - the same melodic line but just
  played slightly differently.
  How do you do this?
  The first thing to try is take the melody,  but instead of playing it perfectly in time,
  like we did before, you're going to play  every phrase just a little bit later.
  Instead of playing this melody exactly where  it should be, we'll just delay it by a bit
  - you're pulling the melody back.
  Just like this.
  [plays delayed melody]
  Of course at the end there, you have to kind  of play that lick in time or it's going
  to sound pretty bad.
  Again though - it's the same melody, but  now you're putting your own spin on it.
  You're deciding how long to delay that melody  - you're improvising with the phrasing - even
  though you're using the same melody.
  Pretty sweet, right?
  You can actually do the same thing but instead  of delaying the melody and laying back, you
  can anticipate the melody; pushing it forward.
  You'll end up playing the whole melody a  little bit earlier than it is normally.
  That might sound 
  like this.
  [plays anticipated melody]
  Now personally, for me, I find this just a  little bit trickier than delaying the melody.
  You might be the same way, or this pushing  the melody might make way more sense to you.
  So now we have 3 different ways of taking  a bass solo JUST using the melody!
  How great is that?!?
  You've got the melody exactly like the recording,  then the same melody pulling back and pushing
  forward.
  You could make your whole solo using one of  these ideas or you can mix them all together
  so there's a bit more variety.
  Right now though, I want to give you even  more options that are a bit more advanced
  but are still melody based.
  Next, we're going to take the rhythm of  the melody, but play the notes in a different
  order, yeah?
  So the notes we've been using in the melody  are G#, A, G# again, F#, E, and then C# and
  B, and we also use this B up here when we  get to the 2nd part.
  So those are the notes we're going to use,  but rather than play them exactly as they
  happen in the melody, we're going to make  up our own order for the notes.
  It's almost like we're rewriting or remixing  the melody.
  The exact same ingredients, but just treated  slightly differently.
  It's like taking the same eggs and making  an omelette vs. making eggs sunny side up.
  Same stuff, just put together differently.
  Still super delicious, just slightly different.
  So what would this sound like?
  The rhythm of the melody but with the notes  in a different order?
  Remember the rhythm of the original melody  was da-da-da-daaaah-daaah.
  Ba-Ba-ba-baaaah-baaah ba-bum.
  So if we take that rhythm and mix up the note  order, you might get something like this.
  [plays bass solo] Messed that one up a little  bit.
  Did you notice how the rhythm of the melody  was still there and we still used the same
  notes.
  The only thing that changed was the order  the notes were played in.
  Now when you get to this level, it does get  a bit trickier.
  Some of the notes will clash with the chords.
  You even saw it, or rather heard it in what  I just played before.
  There was one note - I think it was an A - that  really should have been a different note.
  Yeah?
  You have a few options when this happens.
  First, you could analyze the chords, figure  out the avoid tones - which notes will clash
  in theory - and then be sure to stay away  from them.
  If this appeals to you and you've got a  very analytical mind and you have the knowledge
  to do it, then go for it!
  However, if you don't know how to do that  just yet, then you can use a much more intuitive
  method of trial and error.
  For example, you might play something like  this.
  [plays bass solo]
  [plays clashing note] Right there!
  Ok.
  That note right there - that A did not work  over that particular chord, yeah?
  That A just doesn't sound that great - it's  clashing with the chord so it should really
  be a G# or a B. Yeah?
  But NOT an A. So what you do - you make a  mental note of that.
  Over that part of the song, a G# or B will  sound much better than that A. After some
  trial and error, you'll have a kind of mental  map of the song - what's going to sound
  best where, and pitfalls of the song where  you know not to play certain notes.
   
  A good way to find these clashy notes is to  record yourself - just on your phone is fine
  - but record yourself playing over a track  kind of like this one, listen back and find
  where the notes just don't work!
  Usually when you find a note like this, the  notes either side of it will usually work
  pretty well.
  Not all the time, but that's a great kind  of starting place for you.
  Notice how every level, we've moved further  and further away from the melody.
  First we moved away rhythmically by pushing  and pulling on that melody, then we kept the
  rhythm but changed the order of the notes.
  Now, let's combine those two ideas.
  Change the order of the notes as well as pushing  or pulling on the rhythm of the melody.
  Now we're really starting to truly improvise  and create new melodies rather than recite
  the existing one.
  So let's try this - we might end up with  something like this.
  [plays bass solo]
  That lick at the end!
  Oof…Now that doesn't really sound like  the original melody, but it still has its
  roots in that melody.
  That solo was still born OF that original  melody, and that matters.
  Remember how I said the melody can hook your  audience and make them pay attention.
  There's still enough of that melody in there  that people listening to you will recognize
  the melody - even if it's just subconsciously.
  This stuff works - I can tell you from experience.
  When I was much younger, I remember I was  playing a jazz set at a wedding gig.
  It was just dinner music.
  Nobody was really paying attention to anything  the band was doing, nobody was clapping or
  even reacting to the band, but holy damn - I  was trying so hard to get a reaction from
  anyone in the room.
  When it came to the bass solos, I was pulling  out all the fancy licks I knew, trying to
  play as fast as I could, doing anything I  could think of to pull their attention away
  from their fancy fish or whatever they were  eating.
  Nothing worked - at all.
  So I tried a different approach - I did exactly  what we talked about in this lesson.
  I played the melody, and played around the  melody.
  Super simple, no fancy scales, no double-time  licks, no wanky B.S.
  And do you know what happened?
  I remember it like it was yesterday.
  After I finished this super simple, melody-based  solo, I hear exactly 1 person clapping, and
  no one had been clapping for anything so far.
  I still remember him too - it was an older  guy, greying hair, big glasses and a patterned
  shirt.
  He had this big grin on his face looking right  at me.
  In my mind, I was like "YES!
  I got him!"
  [laughs] Sure, it was just one guy, but if  I can make just one person happy with my playing,
  that's a win in my book, and because I'd  made him happy, so I was happy as well.
  It was a HUGE confidence booster at the same  time and it was all because I took a melodic
  approach to my bass solos.
  Once you get to the point where your melody  based solos are going well and you want to
  take things further, you can start looking  into the more scalar approaches to soloing
  - using different scales and modes to create  more complex and more interesting melodies,
  yeah?
  When you combine knowledge of all your scales  with this melodic approach, you'll be unstoppable
  because you'll have all the sounds you'd  ever want, but they'll make sense because
  you've developed your solos in a super melodic  way.
  If you want to start getting into these different  scales and sounds, I've put together a killer
  guide for you all about the different scales  and modes you can use when in your bass solos.
  All the scales can be intimidating, but everything  in the guide I've made sure to be super
  clear, super simple, without any of the confusing  jargon that just muddies the waters when you're
  learning.
  It also comes with 24 practice tracks you  can use today to start your journey towards
  mastery over the modes and after you've  gone through it, you'll know exactly what
  you can play in nearly any situation.
  You'll never have to struggle with the modes  again.
  To get started, just click the link below,  sign up on that page and I'll send it straight
  to your inbox.
  You're going to love it.
  To recap really quickly, you learned the steps  to follow to getting started with improvising
  on bass if you don't know where to start.
  You learned that the simplest, most effective  way of starting to improvise was simply taking
  the melody.
  Then we started playing with the phrasing  - pulling back and pushing forward on the
  melody.
  Then we took the original rhythm of the melody  and changed the order of the notes, and finally,
  we combined those ideas to start truly improvising  - creating new melodies that are still grounded
  in the original melody.
  I hope this has been super helpful to you.
  If it has, definitely be sure to sign up for  that guide to the modes on the website, and
  give this video a like and subscribe to the  YouTube channel as well.
  Thanks so much for watching - I'm Luke McIntosh,  creator of becomeabassist.com and I'll see
  you super soon.
     
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét