Big Band Bass - John Clayton

TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER

PagP I.

CHAPTER

II.

CHAPTER

III.

CHORDS

4

OUIZ...

CHABT READING: ASTABTING GUTDE STYLES ENCOUNTERED

.......... t0 .. ........ tl ........ 14

.

swtNc.

Leamingto Play ín theSwingstyle..

Blues...

... THEJAZZWALTZ..... ROCK .. LATIN.. Bocsa Nova Samba . Beggre.. SOLOS . BASS LTNES GETTINGA"NATURAL''SOUND. MORE ON CHORDS 9ü, llth and t3th Chords . TheTuo Beat

CHAPTER IV. CHAPTER V. CHAPTER VI.

Divising Formulas for Determining Chord

Non€hordal

Tones

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTEB IX. CHAPTER X.

..

. Diminished Scales MTSCELLANEOUS ..... SamplingoÍa chan... CleÍs. '. Give the Chart a Chance A Word on Major/Minor ln Addition DTSCoGRAPHY RAY BRoWN REFERENCE Scales and Chords

CHAPTER VII.

'

BASS CHARTS

.... ...

....

14

....... t6 ..,... 1l ....... 21 .....24 .......... 25 ...........27 .,.. 2t ....... 29 ...... 29 ...... 3() ....... 32 ........33 ..... u ........... 34

Memberc..........

3g

...... . 39 ..........,10 .

........... 42 ......... 43 ...'...43 ........... 44 ...... 45 ...... .[6 ........46 ........ 48 '.. '.. 5í ...,., , ,, , 52 (From the album "Hate To See You Go") ........ 53

ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

..

.

JOHN CLAYTON, born August 20,1952, has made great musical strides in the past years.

A list of the professionals with whom He has studied

he has worked would be too extensive to list here.

with Ray Siegel, Ray Brown, Carol Kaye, Abe Luboff, Murray Grodner

and Eugene Levinson. ln 1975, he received his Bachelorof Music in Double Bass from

lndiana University. At age 19, he was the bassist for Henry Mancini on the television series,

"The Mancini Generation." He worked for two years with the Monty Alexander Trio. John has played in many professional big bands and now tours with the Count Basie Orchestra.

3

PROSPECTUS The things that one learns and retains come, mainly, from experience. The purpose of

this book is to present some of the more common situations with which a bassist will -have to cope when reading Big Band music (of course, much

will apply to other musical

styles and situations encountered). The purpose is to also persuade the bassist to do his

own research, especially in regards to stylistic influences and aural development (too many bassists know only how to read and have underdeveloped ears). t wllt talk about certain approaches to solving problems most often

of the solutions at your disposal. as are available to

I

encounterd.

These

will be SOME

strongly advise you to learn from as many souroes

you.

DEDICATION This book is dedicated, first and foremost, to my firct musical inspiration. This person was feeding music into my soul while

I

was nestling in the womb.

.

Thanks, Mom. secondly, this book is dedicated to those who have given me inspiration in my post-womb days. To name a few: Jeffery, Janine, Joseph, Jerome, Jennifer, Joy,

John Sr., Ray & cil and

rineke. And to

those not mentioned (you know who you

are).

Many thanks to all of those who contributed the bits and pieces that make up thas

book. Your aid was immeasurable.

pnvrisht @.ts78 by STUDlo 224,- clo CPP/BELWlN, tNC., Miamí, Florida 33014 lnternational Copyright Secured ú.a!-r" Ü.c.Á. All Rights Rererved

4

CHAPTER

I

CHORDS This is probably the most important section of the book. Many (and I mean MANY) bassists don't have the understanding of the basic chords that they must know.

Learn this section. Listen to what each chord sounds like while playing

it. The

purpose of learning this is to condition your Íef|exes to play the notes of a chord when

you see and/or hear the chord. For the sake oÍ creativity in bass Iine construction, later you won't need to play ONLY the notes (chordal tones) of a given chord. However, by that time, when you see a QJ, you'll "hear" what it should sound like.

l have vertically categorized the chord types' Please make special notice of the diÍferent ways that these chords will appear (example:

Q

is also written as

left it up to you to complete the section on diminished chords.

us hear the chordal tones

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). Also,

I have

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CHORDS

outz 1. Fill in

the notes belonging to each chord. The root should always be on the down beat.

flt+á 2. Construct

a bass line using only chordal

bbPl

bb

tones. Use roots on the down beat only when it

helps in constructinq smooth bass lines.

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c

bbol

(ol

fuű

20

MEMOBIZE THE BLUES PROGRESSION. IT IS A MUST FOR THE BASSIST. Using the knowledge that we now have about blues progressions, we are able to put together

the pieces of our puzzle.

1. our key signature is 1 flat. We are in the key oÍ F majqr.(if of D minoi, "D minor" would be written above the staff).

2.

We were in the key

Our time signature indicates that the piece is tn 414.

3. "Walk"

tells us that the style is Swing.

4. "Blues"

tells us what the chord changes will be Íor 1 chorus.

5. "2 choruses" indicates that

we should play the blues progrcssion twice

(i.e., there are24 measures between Letter

A and Letter B).

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wb1)

Í.1!b1)

Many, many variations exist. These, in Íact, are variations on earlier blues progressions. There may be times when the blues progressions you play may be extended (16 measures instead of

l2

measures, for example); or, it may contain only 3 chords----the 17, lV7 and

V7, as illustrated in the following example. 1 chorus

of 12 bar blues in the k34j.1p..1pgig

t8

Perhaps illustrating the above this way helps you in memorizing it:

T1

tr7

T,I

E1

You may also be required to play 1

a

M!g!

blues:

chq!'$ of 12 bar blues in the key of C minor:

oln

T1

17

BLUES There will be occasions when you get a chart that reads something like:

E

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