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Bass Emporium Newsletter - December 2009

Ed Friedland

Ed Friedland's
Lesson #10: Groove Me!

This month, we take a break from gear reviews and return to the hallowed halls of music education.

Everyone knows that to be a good bass player, you have to groove. There are those few, rare individuals that seemingly sprung from the womb groovin' hard (I pity their mothers), but like many of you-I wasn't one of them. My first band experience as a bass player was a big lesson in priorities. I had studied classical music on upright bass for 5 years and had achieved a moderate level of skill; I also had about 10 years of playing guitar under my belt. I went to Berklee College Of Music and got involved in a jazz group, and suddenly people were telling me to watch the time. I checked my watch every 10 minutes or so, but that didn't help. After it was made clear that my tempo was dragging, I decided to follow the lead of another bassist at school, Wayne Pedzwatr and get a metronome. Wayne went on to be a top session player in New York, but during our school days he was THE groovinest player around. He was said to spend his entire day practicing to a metronome on beats 2&4, so I figured this was what I needed to do. Guess what? It worked.

There are a few vocal opponents to practicing with a metronome, and over the years, I have spent a lot of effort trying to "convince" these folks that there is value in it. Rather than rehash that mess, let's just get down to some business. If you don't think you need to use a metronome, then first take this simple test: If you can immediately play these examples with a great feel with the metronome, then maybe you don't. But if you are like the majority of players that can't do it right away, perhaps there is some work to be done.

Practicing with the metronome on beats 2 & 4 is a powerful tool for developing your sense of time and rhythm. It is fair to say that the majority of the music you play or listen to involves a backbeat (beats 2 & 4) on the snare drum, or in the case of jazz-the hihat. Latin music, and other styles of World music do not primarily emphasize the backbeat, except in their more westernized pop music forms. So playing with the click on 2 & 4 is like having a drummer with only a snare drum accompanying you. The point of this exercise is YOU are responsible for placing the downbeat (beat 1) in the proper place, and that my friends, is Job #1 for any bass player. The metronome simply gauges your accuracy.

Step one is to learn how to place the click on beats 2 & 4. Turn your metronome to 60 bpm, and tap your knee in time with the click (this by itself is a challenge for many people). When your hand is up in the air, start counting: "1", when your hand hits your knee; "2", in the air say "3", on the knee "4", etc. Spend a little time getting used to this.

Now. Let's play Example 1 with the 2 & 4 click, it's a simple quarter-note line that is common in many styles of music. Remember, you need to feel the tempo and the count with the click before you start to play.

It's important to do this at a variety of tempos, 60 bpm is a good starting place-not too fast, not too slow (it's actually 120 bpm because the click is half-time).

Listen to: Example 1

Drop the metronome to 40 bpm and see how it changes the example. You may find yourself rushing ahead-just listen to the click and feel the tempo, relax, and get on the groove train.

Listen to: Example 2

Faster tempos present a different challenge, part of it may be technical, but largely it's mental. With the click at 120 bpm, finding your way to the downbeat can be a little challenging at first. Try this: say "cha, cha, cha, cha" with the click. Now, in between each "cha" say "un" and you wind up with "un-cha, un-cha" with "un" on the downbeat, and "cha" on the backbeat. Start slowly, and build your way up to the faster tempos, always making sure you can feel it before you start to play.

Listen to: Example 3

Now, let's change the line to an eighth note rhythm and drop the click down to 40 bpm.

Example 2

Listen to: Example 4

Here is the same example at 80 bpm.

Listen to: Example 5

Now let's crank the click to 120 bpm. Remember, the click is half-time, so you are playing eighth notes at 240 bpm, making each note's actual tempo 480 bpm-pretty fast. If you are not up to this on a technical level, work your way up from the fastest tempo you are comfortable with, eventually your technique will improve to where you can do this-but never sacrifice tone or accuracy just to play it faster.

Listen to: Example 6

These examples should give you something to work on for a while-but there are many other ways to incorporate the metronome into your practice time. If you'll pardon the shamelessly commercial nature of my suggestion, check out my book Bass Grooves [Hal Leonard] available at the Bass Emporium for an in-depth look at this subject. To those that doubt the need for this type of work I say, try it. If you can already do it, focus your efforts elsewhere. But if you can't do these examples, get to the point where you CAN before you write it off as worthless.

Ed Friedland is a renowned Bassist, Educator and Author. He has authored over 15 books and DVDs and has played with the likes of Joe Beck, Larry Coryell, Robben Ford, Paul Horn, Clay Jenkins, Mike Metheny, Bud Shank, Lew Tabackin & Michal Urbaniak to name just a few. Ed is also currently teaching at Bass Emporium in Austin, Texas. Check out the Ed Friedland website for full information about him at http://www.edfriedland.com/.

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