Natalie: Hello there Gigajamer's, welcome to the show. This is lesson eight of our essential bass skills course part one. I'm Natalie, this is Terry. Terry, how be you?
Terry: I be fine, and you?
N: Ahh, very good today, very good today. I'm ready, I've got the bass guitar in hand
T: I can see it there, ready for action
N: I'm raring (laughs) to go and…
T: Good
N: …lesson objectives, what are they?
T: Yeah, three very clear objectives today. First one is root and fifth, introducing the concept of root and fifth
N: Root and fifth
T: Root and fifth, very important part of the bass players armoury
N: Okay, so that's number one, what's number two?
T: Number two, introducing the concept of note naming. So that we can work out what both the names of the notes are in our root and fifth
N: Mmmhmm
T: As a consequence of playing root and fifth, for example on A, we're gonna need to learn to play a new note. We've heard about the E string, we're gonna now gonna learn about the E note
N: Oooh
T: So a new note
N: A new note, and what else? Our third objective
T: Our third objective is not are we gonna only be content with playing the root and fifth with the fifth above the root, but in the second half of the lesson we'll be able to play the fifth below the root…
N: Ooooh
T: …so root and fifth above and below
N: Lots of stuff to be getting on with. Let's start on
T: Let's do it, introducing root and fifth, yeah
N: Introduce them to me
T: Introduce them, here they are. So we'll start with A
N: Yeah
T: And if you remember back a while, to earlier lessons, we were playing an A octave shape
N: Ah now the octave, the octave shape was kind of two along and then two strings away
T: That's it. You're demonstrating that admirably there, I'm doing the same
N: Yeah
T: The low note, the first….
N: Two along
T: …finger on that, and the high note, fourth finger on that. They're both A notes
N: They're both A notes, O notes, O notes….I can't speak!
T: Both A notes
N: Both A notes
T: And because of the symmetrical nature of the finger board, it means that we can move that shape around
N: Mmmhmm
T: And we did that with a whole load of exercises in the last lesson
N: Yeah we did, I mean, cos that really follows on, doesn't it? We need to have learnt that, in order to be up to scratch on this
T: Yeah because this root and fifth shape, is a kind of mini version of the octave shape…
N: Ahhh
T: …you described very admirably earlier, this octave shape, as two up and two across. And the root and fifth shape is almost, but not quite, the same. It's still two across
N: Yeah
T: Two up I should say shouldn't I? Two up…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …two frets up, but only one string across rather than two strings across
N: Okay, so I've gone two along, and I've just moved up the string from four to three in this example
T: That's right. So we're still using the first finger and the fourth finger of our fretting hand
N: Mmmhmm
T: But we're only playing two adjacent strings rather than crossing a string…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …as we were doing before
N: Alright
T: So that's, that's the, that's a root and fifth on A
N: Yeah, so our octave shape was this one
T: Yeah
N: That was our octave shape, and then this is our, what shall we call this?
T: Fifth…
N: Root and fifth?
T: Yeah
N: Root and fifth shape, lovely
T: Perfect, good. One other thing I wanted to point out then, and I was just thinking about that while you were talking, is that when we did the octave shape
N: Mmmhmm
T: They're both A
N: Yes
T: So that's very convenient. However, when we play the root and fifth shape
N: It's not gonna be
T: They're not both called A, obviously they can't be because that note's A so this one can't be
N: So what note is this then?
T: So that's why that lesson objective reminded us to introduce this concept of note naming, so that we could count up through the alphabet from our root note, from the first note
N: Mmmhmm
T: So if we do that, the first note was A
N: A
T: So then the next one would be B
N: B
T: C, D, and the fifth. So what's the name of the fifth note? E
N: E
T: So…
N: Alright, so literally just counting up…
T: Just count up…
N: …those five notes
T: …through the alphabet, yeah. So there it is again, there's our A. We count up to the E, I'm not gonna play through the other notes. That was just the concept of naming them, so I know that this note, I already know that this note is called A, I wanted to know what this note is called since we haven't played an E before
N: Okay
T: We did learn about an E earlier, because we learned about the open…
N: On the open…
T: …E string…
N: …string
T: …yeah
N: Well lets hear, lets hear the difference then between, let's, we know the A sound, but let's just recap on that. There's our A…
T: There's the A
N: And then the fifth which….
T: And there's the E
N: …is the E
T: So I'm just alternating between the two
N: Okay
T: I'm not worried about any rhythm, not worried about any media files. Just locating the notes for myself, as you say getting used to the sound of it
N: Yeah. Can I hear, just to recap the octave, the low and the high A?
T: Yeah, there's the A
N: Yeah
T: Low A. And there's the high
N: Alright
T: So later on, in a later lesson, we'll have some exercises which will do exactly that Natalie, which will have octave and root and fifth all in the same exercise
N: Fantastic, I'm jumping the gun aren't I?
T: A little bit, but that's fine, you know, these are nat…very natural questions. And today we're just gonna try and focus on this root and fifth thing
N: Mmmhmm
T: So that's A and E
N: A and E
T: You okay?
N: Have we got an exercise that can help us with that?
T: There we are we've got a diagram of the shape, so that you can compare it. Everyone will be able to check their notes. And if you open the video clip, as I see you're doing, you'll be able to see it demonstrated clearly for us
N: Mmmhmm (Video starts playing)
T: This is A root and fifth, this is exercise one. Just quarter notes
N: Yeah
T: And just that one bar looped round and round
N: So between the two
T: No movement in the fretting hand… (Video stops playing)
T: …just…
N: Alright
T: …rocking back and to between the fingers. So I'm just remembering what I saw on the video clip
N: Mmmhmm
T: And jumping on behind it. Are you opening the Xtractor?
N: The Xtractor is there, I'm pushing play
T: Go (Xtractor starts playing)
N: So that's our shape. That's our root and fifth shape
T: Absolutely. I'm try'na stay in time
N: Yeah. And the Xtractor's helping us do that, isn't it?
T: So the good thing about the bass is you can carry these shapes and patterns or pictures around with you
N: Mmmhmm
T: Because they're transferable, as we'll see in a minute
N: I was…
T: You can move them to any other note
N: I was gonna say as that octave shape, we could move that around, I'm guessing that the root and fifth shape
T: Absolutely yeah
N: Is equally as pliable, or appliable (Xtractor stops playing)
T: Thank you. Very good, so that was exercise one, root and fifth on A. The notes involved are A and E, and the important thing to take away from that, apart from the ability to practise it, is to name the notes and to appreciate and understand the shape
N: Mmmhmm
T: Yeah
N: Alright, well let's have a look, we've got another exercise here, exercise two
T: Yeah, that's a good one, developing root and fifth, moving it around. Again this is the concept that we always try and utilise in, in the Gigajam essential bass skills, as I'm sure everyone remembers is, the notes we've learned so far were A… T&
N: G, C, and D
T: And we've learned those in various different orders. So there's an exercise here which allows us to use those notes and build a fifth on each one of those notes…
N: Right
T: …and then connect them all up as an exercise. We…
N: Okay, well
T: We should check each one first I think so, we've done A and E
N: Mmmhmm
T: So if we just move that across a string there's D
N: Yeah
T: The starting note, the fifth, I'm just gonna copy the same shape. So I put first finger on the fifth fret of the A string
N: Mmmhmm
T: And then little finger, fourth finger, on the seventh fret of the D string. There you go, perfect, there's that little mini L shape, the small L…
N: Okay
T: …little L. Halfway to an octave shape
N: That's it we can see it on mine
T: Yeah
N: There we go, there's our root, and there's our fifth…
T: Very good
N: …I've gone two along, and then just one up
T: One up, as opposed…
N: To the second string
T: …to the octave shape which you could again demonstrate…
N: Which was…
T: …there you go
N: …that, that was the octave shape, yeah
T: Yeah, so you can see…
N: Okay
T: …how they relate to one another. Good, so that's…
N: Liking it
T: …that's root and fifth on D, and if we wanted to work out what this fifth note was called
N: Mmmhmm
T: We'd just go through that naming concept again. So if we're starting on D, T&
N: D
N: D…
T: E
N: …E, F T&
N: G
N: A
T: That's gotta be an A, and we kinda we know that's an A already because in an earlier lesson we played octave shapes
N: Ahh of course, and that was our high of the A
T: Yep, so there's the D octave shape, and the other notes we've learned so far are C and G…
N: C and D
T: …so let's go to C. There's a C, third fret of the A string, third fret of the second string
N: Mmmhmm
T: First finger on that, and then up two frets and across one string. There you go, perfect you're already there, and there's our root and fifth on C
N: Yeah, so there's the C
T: And we should name that note as well so we know what the fifth is
N: C, D, E, F, G
T: Absolutely, brilliant, well done thank you
N: Alright
T: And then finally down to…
N: That's my…
T: …the last
N: …C
T: Yeah
N: That's my G. Lovely
T: Finally down to the last note we've learned, the G
N: Mmmhmm
T: And then the fifth shape
N: Two along, one up, there we are
T: Yeah, it's a good shape, isn't it?
N: It is, I mean it's so movable
T: Yeah. Just move it around anywhere, transfer it around. And we should just figure out what the name of that note is. You're on your own. G is the first note
N: G, A, B, C, D
T: Perfect, well done
N: We're there
T: So that's it. So we've done all our prep, I might just check that again. Look at the order in which the notes come up so I play the right thing. And that's A
N: Mmmhmm
T: And then the fifth, just quarter notes. And then G to D, that's quarter notes. C to G and D to E. So I can see each bar I have to play root and fifth starting on the root note. A, G, C, D
N: Mmmhmm
T: And a root and fifth on each of those
N: Do you want me to hit play?
T: I'm ready to rock, let's go!
N: Do you want that Gigajam backing band with you?
T: I'm ready (Xtractor starts playing)
N: Here they come. So talk us through the notes
T: Okay, I'll start at the beginning of the exercise
N: Alright
T: One two, here it comes, A first
N: A
T: Root, fifth, root T&
N: Fifth
T: G, fifth T&
N: G, fifth
T: C, fifth T&
N: C, fifth
N: And then D…
T: D, fifth
N: …to the fifth
T: And I just keep going, if that's…
N: Yeah
T: …alright with you? First finger, fourth finger…
N: Yeah
T: …first finger, fourth finger, first finger…
N: I mean…
T: …fourth finger
N: …all we've got here is these root notes that we've known for quite some time now…
T: That's right
N: …through these lessons
T: That's right
N: And just that pattern
T: Yeah
N: And we're there
T: Yeah, so conceptually it's okay. We can see the shape. We're only playing quarter notes
N: Yeah
T: There's no new notes names…
N: No
T: …as you say. It's whether or not we can tie it all together (Xtractor stops playing)
T: So that's…
N: I think you tied it together beautifully
T: Not too bad, not too bad, the…
N: Sadly the…
T: …band got tired…
N: …music ran out
T: …tired before I did
N: (Laughs) You'd think these electronic bands would be able to keep going. Terry, I mean obviously we've just gone through that four or five times…
T: Yeah
N: …repeated that. How long do you think we're gonna have to be practising this, realistically at home?
T: Well I'd wanna do it a lot longer than that, and I wouldn't wanna put too much a time frame on it. You know, I might do it night after night until I feel comfortable. You…
N: But…
T: …know, at the moment we've got a very gentle tempo so maybe I'll put the tempo up and play it even faster, who knows
N: The important thing is being comfortable isn't it?
T: Yes
N: Alright guys, practise….
N: Hey again, welcome back to part two of episode eight now. The first half, we've gotta be honest, it was quite heavy wasn't it, theory wise?
T: It was lots of new information, lots of note names flying around so…
N: Yeah
T: …easy to get confused or overloaded with information
N: Well you know we were chatting through the break…
T: Mmm
N: …and to me that was a lot of information and I was, I was happy with the shape but I was more worried about "Ah, I don't know the name of the fifth" for example, and, should I be worried about that?
T: No I don't think anyone should be worried about that, I mean I think that's the root that's, you've got things the right way around. The shape is what's important because we've been talking about shapes a lot, they give us access to the neck. We can, we don't want that technical information to hold us up from playing, performing and you know enjoying music and having fun. We can work all that stuff out, you know, in our everyday lives we do things we don't even, don't know what all the bits are called necessarily sometimes but it doesn't stop us getting on with things
N: Okay, and that's the important thing, isn't it?
T: Yeah
N: We wanna hear a tune, we wanna get playing
T: Yeah, yeah, so you've got it the right way round, exactly. The shape is the, is the key thing, that root and fifth shape, we definitely want that happening, and the fact that we can relate that to the octave shape. We can carry these things around in our pocket
N: Yeah
T: In our bass players gig bag
N: Also another thing to note is if you've got the Gigajam software at home, when you're playing along with the exercise, obviously one as tricky as that where you're doing a lot of movement and there's a lot of thought going into it, slow it down. We were doing it at 80bpm which is pretty quick
T: Mmm quite a lick isn't it
N: Take it down to fifty, sixty
T: Yeah I think that's a good point to raise. I mean earlier on I felt the need to, to have no tempo at all…
N: Yeah
T: …to not even switch on the Xtractor…
N: (Laughs)
T: …to just get my moves down. Check where the notes were and make sure I could facilitate the change, you know, comfortably from one to another. So you can do that first and then, as you say, when you do switch the Xtractor on you don't just have to accept its default tempo, you can set it to whatever tempo you like. The speed doesn't matter does it? You know, as long as you're practising it it's gonna improve and I usually find if I'm working on a new piece of music or a new exercise, if I play it at a slow tempo and really nail it, it's very easy to increase the tempo later on
N: Really?
T: Yeah
N: Well talking of increasing the tempo let's push it on
T: Yeah
N: What are we gonna be doing this half?
T: The only remaining objective we've got, as I recall, is developing root and fifth. So in the first half we did root and fifth above. So we played the root note
N: Yeah
T: Like the A. And then the fifth, we counted up through the alphabet, and played the fifth above it, kind of in ascending order
N: Okay
T: And we talked about the relationship between the fifth shape and the octave shape which we learned in a previous lesson. So when we did that on A, which was the fifth fret of the E string…
N: Okay
T: …the fifth fret of the fourth string
N: Give us that note
T: There it is
N: There's the A
T: There's our A, first finger as ever on the fifth fret. When we played the fifth shape, you remember the little, sort of, little, sort of, mini L, the half an L shape
N: Yeah, two along
T: Yeah
N: And then one up to the third string
T: That's right, halfway to the octave shape
N: Yeah
T: And we found that we counted up from A through the alphabet and we got A, B, C, D, and E. So that's the fifth note above A…
N: Yeah
T: …above the root note A is E. So we've got A and E
N: And that's going above, that's a higher note
T: That's right. That E is higher. So, and it kind of reminded me, that I know about a lower E. Of course there it is there's a low E, the open…
N: Our fourth string…
T: …E string…
N: …yeah
T: … the fourth string is an E. So why not let's, as we always do, get as much mileage as we can out of these exercises. So instead of just restricting myself to playing root and fifth above it
N: Mmmhmm
T: I can also, as a reasonably experienced bass player, remind myself of the fact that I can play root, which is the A
N: Yeah
T: And instead of going up to the E, go down to the E
N: Ahhh
T: Which is the open string. A, E, so I'm playing only one string at the moment…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …I'm playing the E string, the fourth string
N: Yeah
T: The thickest string. I'm fretting the E
N: Yeah
T: With the first finger of my fretting hand
N: That was the A
T: I beg your pardon that's the A, thank you Natalie
N: That's alright
T: And then I'm playing an open E, with no fretting hand involved
N: So the above and the below is always the same note
T: It's the same note…
N: Or the note letter
T: Yeah, that's right. That's why were kinda going through that in the first half, because it is important, in the long term, to have some facility with note naming so you know where you are. Otherwise you might not recognise, for example, we do now because we learned about the octave shape. But if we hadn't gone through that carefully, you might not have bothered to find out that those two notes at the bottom and top of the octave have got the same note name. So it increases our knowledge of the finger board. It just reminds us about the symmetry and the transferability of everything. So we can transfer that E from there
N: Mmmhmm
T: Down to there
N: So what if we use this with one of our other root notes, say G for example?
T: Yeah, with G, and that's a good, a good question, with a low G like that
N: Yeah
T: We can, as we did before the break, easily play the fifth above G
N: Mmmhmm
T: No problem. But we're not going to be able to play a fifth below G, because that would be off the range of the bass
N: Ahhh, do you mean, sort of, literally coming, dropping of the fret board, or?
T: Yeah, it's just there's no, the lowest note available…
N: That is the…
T: …to us…
N: …lowest note
T: …is an E. And we know that if we count up through the, through the alphabet from G
N: Yes
T: When we got to the fifth it was G, A, B, C, D, so we're looking for D. We've got a D above the G fifth, but of course we haven't got a D below because we've only got an E
N: Ahhh, I see, okay
T: So…
N: Are we gonna find that with our other notes? Are we gonna look for the above's and below's? Or look for the below's cos we've found the above's
T: I think you should always look for the above's and the below's. And you'll find quite a lot of examples of people playing bass lines that utilise the fifth above and the fifth below. So that it gives you a little bit of a variety in your, in your bass rock groove, you know
N: What is it? Is it the sound they sort of, gel well together? Is that why they're used?
T: Yeah that's true, and also I think, you know, when you're playing a song you don't wanna be playing the same note throughout the whole song, or the same couple of notes throughout the whole song. So actually playing an A, for example, and then an A above it, sorry, an E above it which is the fifth, if you did that the whole time it would start to sound quite samey quite quickly. Whereas if you vary, sometimes you go up and sometimes you go down, or ideally you build a bass line which incorporates all of that, it's gonna just give a bit more variety and it means that there'll be less, you know, less repeated…
N: Mmm
T: …activity. Does that make sense?
N: It does make sense, yeah. Okay, we can't play our fifth below G
T: No
N: But we can do C and D
T: We can do C and D, absolutely right, yeah. There's the C, as you remember
N: Yeah, that's the third fret
T: Of the A string
N: Yeah
T: The second string
N: The second string
T: No that's not the second string, that's the third string
N: Third string
T: It's the…
N: With our first finger
T: There you go, we're getting confused with numbers again, and it's just a lot…
N: So, well I mean there are so many number in this, aren't there?
T: Yeah, so it's very easy and everyone should take their time, make notes, go through the material again, you know. You can also do a bit of homework with just the material and put your bass down for a second and just make sure you can think the note names and the numbers through so you don't get, you know…
N: Yeah
T: …confused
N: I mean we've got the diagrams and the notes as well, and the videos, so…
T: Yeah
N: It's all there
T: So you asked about C
N: Yeah
T: There's our C, and a fifth above that again, we're very comfortable, I can see you are as well
N: I'm there
T: Hopefully everyone who's playing along at this point will easily be able to transfer across that, that octave, sorry that fifth shape
N: Yeah
T: Halfway to an octave. So that note, I need to work out what the name of that note is
N: Mmmhmm
T: C
N: D, E, F, G
T: So I know that that note is a G, so when I go below the root, to find the fifth below it, it's gotta be a G again
N: Yes
T: If I end up on a note that's not a G, something's gone wrong in the process
N: Okay, I think I remember where the G is
T: Yeah, I'm sure you do, go ahead
N: Third fret?
T: Yeah very good
N: Bottom string?
T: Yeah, and you could also, kind of do the octave shape backwards if you like. If you remember when we, in an earlier lesson, we played the G there…
N: Yeah
T: ..and then we came two up and two across to find the G
N: Yeah
T: So we used it in a sort of low to high. In some of the exercises we played high to low. So if you do that, as you just asked me then, and…
N: Mmm
T: …found a C, and we found, as the root, and we found a G as the fifth above it, you quickly realise, oh okay well if I drop that down two and back two, I'm gonna find a G back there
N: Ahhh
T: So there's C
N: Okay
T: There's the G which is the fifth above it. There's C, and there's G which is the fifth below it
N: Yeah, it really, once you break it down like this and think about it, and, you know, watch the examples it really opens up the finger board. I'm really understanding more so now than I think I ever have
T: Yeah you've been sitting, sitting watching me, you know, work through these lessons, and playing through a lot of them with me…
N: Mmm
T: …so your visualisation of the finger board is changing every time we do an exercise, you know
N: Yeah, and it's gonna be the same for these guys as well
T: That's why we're here, isn't it? Helping people out
N: Okay, let's run through again the, the fifth below the C
T: Yes. There's the C
N: Yeah
T: First finger, third fret, third string
N: Yeah
T: And then G above it…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …or, G below it. Going, going the other way down onto the E string
N: Ah yeah
T: So what I probably would do, it's one of those bass players' tips and tricks again, I'd probably…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …would just pivot
N: We've done that before haven't we in the…
T: We've used that…
N: …lessons?
T: …before, yeah, just to pivot that so…
N: That…
T: …I…
N: …technique of rolling up and down
T: Yeah, so it's quite economical, I'm not wasting any energy, not moving any hands…
N: No
T: …or fingers. Just keeping it all there and just rocking back and forth and pivoting
N: Okay, so if it's C to G there
T: Yeah
N: Is it D to A at the fifth?
T: D to A would be there…
N: Right
T: …there you are. D is on the fifth fret…
N: D's on the fifth
T: …first finger. A, there's that shape, there's that oc…I keep saying that, there's that fifth shape on the way to the octave shape…
N: Yeah
T: …that's what I mean to say. And because that's an A
N: Mmmhmm
T: I know that I can drop that A an octave, and that will be A, which is gonna be the fifth below the root
N: It's all opening up now. I'm seeing it, yeah
T: So we've kind of got this central point, which is our root note
N: Mmmhmm
T: And we're going fifth above and fifth below, I'm just trying to give you a visualisation technique there as well
N: Yeah
T: And transfer that on to here
N: Terry have we got an exercise for this?
T: Have we got an exercise for this!
N: (Laughs) I bet we have!
T: We've got an exercise for everything!
N: Tah dah. Alright let's put the Xtractor up there
T: I'll just describe it, cos there's a tricky bar in this. The first bar's pretty straight ahead
N: Yeah
T: It's the root and then fifth below, as you can see the notation clearly illustrates that
N: Mmmhmm
T: The second bar is root A and fifth above
N: Okay, onto the above, yeah
T: No problem there. Third bar same as the first, it's the last bar that's tricky
N: Oooh
T: We've get root, fifth above, and then fifth below, thank you for pointing it out, before we finally get home to the root
N: It's up to you to play it
T: I'm ready
N: Here it goes (Xtractor starts playing)
T: Root and fifth T&
N: Root
N: Below
T: Down to fifth T&
N: Root
N: Below, root, above, root, above, root, below, root, below…
T: Look out
N: …tricky. Root, above, below, root
T: Well done
N: I could be a rapper (laughs)
T: I'm just gonna practise
N: Keep practising Terry
T: Okay
N: I'll keep practising, and you keep practising, cos that's what Gigajam is all about. Taking those little steps, practising them, building it up. That's the end of our show for today, join us for the next one, and keep listening to find out how you can get hold of your very own Gigajam course notes. See ya next time