Natalie: Hello and welcome to Gigajam, this is it, this is lesson ten of the essential bass skills course part one. I'm Natalie, this is our tutor Terry. Terry, we've reached it!
Terry: We're there
N: We're almost at the end
T: Mmm
N: Fantastic stuff
T: Or is it just the beginning?
N: Ah, I like what you did there. Tell me, what are we doing today in lesson ten?
T: We're gonna play, we're gonna play a piece for the first time and not surprisingly the piece is called, 'The First Time'. It's…
N: I like it
T: …it's a grade one piece and if you've been paying attention and you've picked up all the knowledge and you understand it all, and you've been practising, we keep using that, then you should have all the skills you need to play this piece
N: And to achieve our grade one in bass
T: Exciting
N: It is, let's get on
T: Yeah, so…
N: What do we have to do?
T: Well I've got the music in front of me here, so I'm gonna read that. I've got it on a music stand, I've got it quite close to me cos I wanna make sure I don't miss any of the detail
N: Mmm
T: There's a lot there, I've gotta think about the names of the notes
N: Mmmhmm
T: The pitch. I've gotta think about the rhythm
N: Yeah
T: I've gotta think about the shapes on the bass…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …and I've gotta make sure I'm playing the right notes and the right rhythms, in the right order. There…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …are different sections in the piece. Sometimes the, the first verse is the same as the next verse, sometimes it's slightly different. So I've got all those kind of difficulties to look out for. But I think everyone will be surprised by the amount of skill that they've picked up if they've been following through the essential bass skills lessons. So…
N: Okay
T: …probably what we'll do is start with the beginning
N: Let's have a look at that
T: And look what's involved. Yeah, let's start with pitch. I wanna play the right notes, so I need to be able to read the right notes
N: Yes
T: And I need to go back and review what the notes are. Now the notes in here, there aren't that many different notes. And of course we've learned quite a lot of notes, we don't need all of those notes, we only need some of them
N: Okay
T: The notes we need for this piece are C
N: Yeah
T: F, G
N: Mmmhmm
T: And A, so just four notes. Sounds like a lot more when you put it all together, but that's when you add the rhythm and that brings it all to life. So the notes we need are C, F, G and A, so I should check, everyone should check, that they know where to find those notes
N: Mmmhmm. Okay, so how do you know? Have you literally just done that by scanning this piece of music and looking at the notes that are there, and kind of working out, oh yeah that's a C, that's an F, oh yeah that's a G, ah yeah I see that's an A there?
T: Yeah
N: And, oh I don't need any others?
T: That's exactly it. Also I've been doing it for quite a while, a little longer than these ten lessons, and I'm reasonably comfortable and familiar with reading pitch, reading whether the note is on a line or in a space
N: Mmmhmm
T: And then if it's in a space which space and which note is represented on that space. So the first note on our example is a C. And then I try and remember that…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …so that when I see it again, I haven't got to take too long to think about it, it just comes back to me quickly
N: So…
T: That's the…
N: ..how do you?
T: …plan anyway
N: How do you do that, I mean let's do that here with this piece. We've got, that's our first bar
T: First bar is C
N: That note there, that one hasn't been coloured in
T: Right
N: But that's the only one there
T: Right, so what does that tell us? Well initially you think, hang on a second this is a bit confusing. Is that a quarter note? Clearly not
N: Not
T: Is that an eighth note? Clearly not
N: No
T: In the last lesson we learned another new note, which was a half note
N: Mmmhmm
T: It's not that either
N: A half note had the tail on it, didn't it?
T: That's right, and it wasn't coloured in, and that took up half the bar. How long does this note take up?
N: Th…
T: The whole bar
N: I was gonna say there are no other notes in that bar
T: So this note must take up the whole bar, so I guess musicians will call it a whole note, which is exactly what they do
N: Mmmhmm
T: And it last four beats. So if I'm gonna play that note, I need to find out where C is, and I remember that C is on the third fret of the A string
N: Mmmhmm
T: You gonna play along too?
N: I'm gonna just demonstrate for our right-handed players, cos obviously Terry you are one of the left-handed, one of the minority, but still
T: Very small, select group
N: Exactly
T: So C is found on the third fret of the A string
N: Yeah, oooh
T: That's the third string, you alright? You're coming apart there
N: I'm alright
T: And I'm gonna use my first finger, and if I count myself in that note, that C note, whole note is gonna last the whole bar
N: Mmmhmm
T: So it's gonna last four complete beats. So here we go one, two, three, four, C, two, three, four, and then there's the bar line and then I would deal with the next information
N: Alright, so that's that one, so..
T: Yeah…
N: …we've got
T: …that's a whole note
N: Pitch and value
T: Good
N: Let's move on to bar two
T: The next bar, what value are those notes d'you reckon? There are two of them in the bar so the bar has been divided into equal halves
N: Yeah, and they haven't been coloured in so I'm gonna, I'm gonna bet there are two half notes…
T: Two…
N: …there
T: …half notes. What we need to do is work out the pitch and that the pitch of those notes is F and G
N: Cos it's higher
T: Yeah
N: Obviously, so it's gonna be a higher…
T: So you know…
N: notation value
T: …you've gone up from C
N: Yeah
T: You've gotta count up how much, and actually you can use the lines. C was written in the space
N: Yeah
T: The next line would be D
N: If it was going through the line, yeah
T: That's right, and then the next space would be E
N: E
T: And we're on to the next line which is F. So it can be often as simple as that. Just count up through the lines and spaces, count up through that musical alphabet we've been concentrating on so much, and you're in business. Then you've gotta try and remember where to find it on the neck. So that's that note location thing, where does an F live. I'm pretty sure an F lives there
N: Mmmhmm
T: It's just up from the C, it's the third fret on the D string, on…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …the second string, so there's my F. So, one of the things I should point out, cos I'm looking at you, but I've carefully positioned my music stand and the music. So not only can I see and talk to you, I can see the music and, since I need to look at my hands when I'm playing, I need to look at my hands. So if I put the stand over there or over there, then I'm gonna need to do that with my eyes, which is obviously not gonna work. So I'm keeping everything in my field of vision
N: Mmmhmm
T: So I can glance at my hands just to double check where I am
N: Yeah
T: Plus I don't lose sight of the music, cos I don't wanna…
N: And me
T: …go wrong. And you
N: You don't lose sight of me Terry
T: The most important thing of all
N: Exactly, okay so we know, we can work out our notes, and obviously we know the, the sort of value of them. And we could work out the rhythm as well. I wanna hear how it sounds
T: Okay, well let's just try a few bars. Often, I remember in the beginning, you just wanna play the whole thing and see how it sounds
N: Yeah
T: And enjoy the music. So I understand people wanting to do that, but I would guard against that, or advise against that in the beginning. It's two much information, I know it's gonna go wrong, I'm just gonna get frustrated
N: (Laughs)
T: Let's just take a little bite size chunk of the thing. It looks to me like those first, maybe six bars
N: Yeah
T: I can cope. I've got C, and then F and G in the second bar
N: Mmmhmm
T: And there's that C again. And guess what happens in bar four? The F and G again. So there's quite a lot of repetition
N: Yeah
T: And it's important to be aware of that so you can spot it. Saves a lot of effort and a lot of energy, you see it coming up again you think "oh it's one of those, okay fine"
N: Absolutely
T: Bar five, there's a whole note which is quite high up, that's…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …an A. And then in bar six we've got that F and G again
N: So it's quite, I mean at times you can see patterns and repetition can't you?
T: Very good, yeah, yeah that's what it's all about, isn't it? We looked, we talked about patterns and repetition of notes on the fingerboard. There's a lot of patterns, and repetition of notes, pitch and/or rhythm in this piece. In fact the rhythms involved in this piece, there aren't that many. We've talked about the whole note
N: Mmmhmm
T: Half notes, the only other rhythms are our old quarter notes, which we know and love
N: Yeah
T: And then some eighth notes, and changing between those rhythms gives a different dynamic intensity to the music. If you just play one long note it just lets it sit, if you play eighth notes it's gonna drive and pump the music forward. So we use that on bass as a part of the rhythm section together with the drums, to lift the music up in terms of intensity, and put it back down again and all that stuff
N: And to guide people along
T: Mmm
N: Alright, well I notice…
T: First section
N: …between, yeah, between six and seven, we've sort of got these, what do you call those? Double, is it, tram lines, or?
T: That's called, yeah good, that's, it's a bar line, I mean in…
N: Bar line
T: …music we discuss this very on in, very early on in the course, the bar lines which divide and separate the music so we know where we are, kind of punctuate it. And that double tram line is a double bar line, and that's really just a convenience, it's just to let me know that the way the music works, that's the kind of end of a little section
N: Well let's hear that little section
T: Okay the first section goes one, two, three, four, C T&
N: Two, three, four
N: Half…
T: F…
N: …notes
T: …two, three, four. C…
N: Full note
T: …two, three, four, F…
N: And our two half…
T: …two…
N: …notes
T: …G, four
N: Full note
T: A, two, three, four, F
N: Half
T: G
N: Half
T: And then I'm up to that double bar line
N: Alright, so what happens in the second part, after that double bar line?
T: In the second part it looks completely different, so I'll try not to press the panic button
N: (Laughs)
T: But it looks, it looks like that. Actually now I've just been thinking about it while I was talking to you, it's not that bad. The rhythm is different. The rhythm is four quarter notes
N: Yeah
T: Ah that's okay I think I'll be alright with that
N: But in bar seven it's the same note, isn't it?
T: It's the same pitch, so there's good and bad news. Good news is the pitch hasn't changed, the bad news is okay I've gotta deal with quarter notes, but you know what, that's not too difficult
N: That's C, isn't it
T: That's C
N: So that's the same note that we had first of all in bar one, isn't it?
T: And if you look at bar eight
N: Mmmhmm
T: It's got, again, quarter notes…
N: Yeah
T: …so we've got a consistent rhythm here, repetition as you say you can recognise that quarter note pattern
N: F and G again
T: F and G there you go. And if…
N: That's those same notes, yeah
T: Yeah and in fact bars seven to twelve are exactly the same as bars one to six in terms of pitch, the way the notes are…
N: Ahhh
T: …organised is exactly the same. The only difference is the rhythm so all that is is when this song was written it was written with less rhythmic activity…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …from the bass in the first section, and then a little more to lift it up a gear in that second section bars seven to twelve
N: So getting all muso on you, is this a four bar and a two bar pattern?
T: Yeah
N: Repeated twice?
T: You've been, you've been reading the Gigajam notes, haven't you?
N: Got my script down here
T: Yeah it's a six bar pattern repeated twice. That's quite unusual, that length, but it feels quite natural when you do it. So if I play just from bar seven?
N: Yeah
T: Okay, here it goes one, two, three, four…
N: So that's…
T: …C…
N: …quarter notes
T: …and they're quarter notes T&
N: F, G
N: C, F, G, A
T: And what I'm gonna try and do now quickly is link those two together, the first six bars and the second six bars
N: Mmmhmm
T: Two, three, four, and you'll see that it's actually got exactly the same shape
N: Yeah. I can see that by just from looking at the music as well, and obviously by hearing it
T: That reinforces
N: Yeah
T: And then we're off
N: Going up higher to the F, G
T: Quarter notes
N: Back to the C, F, G, A, F, oooh, F, G
T: And there we go
N: Good stuff Terry, and that's our verse one, lovely. I can see by scrolling through that we've got, the song is just made up literally of verses and choruses. So we've broken down the verse, join us after the break where we break down the chorus
N: Welcome back to part two, this is lesson ten. I'm Natalie, this is Terry. This is our piece of music, it's called 'The First Time'
T: Mmmhmm
N: We're going through it for the first time, we've done the verse, let's do the chorus
T: For the first time, yeah
N: (Laughs)
T: You were talking earlier before the break about patterns and…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …shapes and pictures, and if you look at the chorus, if you look at bar thirteen, you can see that it's only one note and that…
N: Yes
T: …note is A, should be easy. First note we learned
N: Yeah
T: So we should be okay with that one, even I can play that. And there's only one note throughout that bar, and it's, the bar is divided up in terms of rhythm into eighth notes
N: Yes
T: So that's very easy, it's just A and it goes one and, two and, three and, four and. Before I play it, let's take a look at the second bar
N: Yeah, it looks pretty similar
T: And the third bar
N: Also looks very similar. That's…
T: Yeah
N: …all the same note isn't it?
T: So for those three bars I can just lock in and rock out, just playing A eighth notes
N: Yeah
T: Okay the fourth bar, I've got a bit of work to do. So put that to one side for a minute…
N: Mmm
T: …and go to the next bar which is bar seventeen
N: Yeah, oh…
T: Now
N: …it's the same rhythm, isn't it?
T: There you go, so good news and bad news. The good news is that all the time we spent learning eighth notes and practising them with fluency and control
N: Mmmhmm
T: Paid off, you know, if you do all that work you'll be ready. All these skills that we're, we've been working on throughout the essential bass skills course, they're the same skills that I use, the same skills that any bass player uses irrespective of where, you know, what he's doing, what gig he's doing. Whether he's rehearsing, whether he's practising, whether he's live at Wembley Stadium making…
N: (Laughs)
T: …you know a concert. It doesn't matter, it's the same stuff, you just spend as much time as you can perfecting those skills
N: And that's what we're doing
T: Yeah. So let's play a bit of the chorus. The first few bars, the first three bars, as we just became aware of, are A and they're eighth notes. So I'm gonna play that with my first finger
N: Okay
T: On the fifth fret of the E string T&
N: The fourth string
T: And remember its eighth notes so it's one T&
N: And, two
T: And, three and, four and N And our picking hand?
T: Picking hand needs to be alternating
N: Running along those strings
T: There you go, so let's try it
N: Okay
T: One, we'll just play the first three bars of the chorus. One T&
N: Two, three, four. A and, two and, three and, four and
T: A
N: One N&
T: and, two and, three and, four and, one and, two and, three and, four and
T: Okay
N: That's pretty easy
T: That's, no problem with that, so lets move on. The next bar, bar sixteen, slightly different, two different rhythms. Two quarter notes first
N: Mmmhmm
T: So a change of rhythm, but the good nose is, the good nose is?
N: The good nose
T: The good nose is…
N: The good news (laughs)
T: …that they're still only A's
N: Yeah
T: So, A quarter note followed by A quarter note, and then the eighth notes are G
N: Yeah that's an eighth note
T: And then an F right at the end
N: And G down to the F, so this is gonna be the trickier bit, isn't it?
T: That's definitely a tricky bar, and so having had a rush through the first three bars, feeling really proud of myself, I might just stop the clock and say let's just take a look at this bar
N: Yeah
T: And make sure that I don't waste all that good work in the earlier bars. That's gonna be a tricky bar, it needs a little more attention, so I'm gonna just work on that now, so…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …it's A, A, G, G, G, F. And I'm just gonna loop…
N: Mmm
T: …that bar around and round. A, A, G, G, G, F, and I'm making sure I open out my hand so I can cover that distance. A, I'm playing with my fourth finger
N: Yeah
T: The G I'm playing with my second finger…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …on the third fret, and then I'm saving my first finger right down there for the F
N: The good thing about that, even though it is maybe slightly tricky because you're having to move along, it's all on that same string so there's no string crossing
T: It's all along the same string and we used exercises in earlier lessons where we were using different fingers
N: Yes. So we're spreading the hands out, yeah
T: And the good news now is once I've had a good look at that bar, bar sixteen, I know that bar seventeen
N: Mmmhmm
T: I'm already on the right note, it's F, and I just have to play eighth notes…
N: Ahhh
T: …for how many bars? One, two, three bars
N: Three bars, and then that last bar of the chorus is again a little bit tricky like the first, the last bar of the first line
T: But it's exactly the same rhythm…
N: Yeah
T: …so again that point you made earlier about patterns, really important reading skill
N: Mmmhmm
T: To be able to recognise those sh…those patterns repeated on the music, just as it's important to be able to recognise shapes and patterns on the fingerboard
N: Okay let's have a listen to the chorus
T: Let's try the chorus
N: And then let's try it all
T: Yeah, great. Here we go then, the chorus starting on A playing eighth notes. One, two, three, four, one and, two and, three and, four and, A and, two and, three and, four and, A here comes the tricky part, A, A, G, G, G, F, F and, two and, three and…
N: So it's…
T: …four…
N: …flowing…
T: …and…
N: …isn't it?...
T: …one…
N: …I mean…
T: …and…
N: …like you said that…
T: …two…
N: …last note is…
T: …and…
N: …is continuing…
T: …three…
N: …on now…
T: …and…
N: …with the…
T: …four…
N: …eight notes
T: And now the tricky bit which I'll try and read goes F, F, G, G, G, C
N: (Laughs)
T: So I knew the rhythm there wasn't gonna bug me, I tried to remember
N: Yeah
T: The rhythm I played in the earlier bar, bar sixteen, and then copy that rhythm. So I was only kind of half reading
N: Mmm
T: I was just reading for the pitch, it's just like a shopping list, don't forget to pick these notes up
N: Let's just go through that last bar, cos I mean the rhythm, like you said, is that one, two, three and, four and
T: Perfect, so I just need to get the notes. I know the first two notes are still F
N: Yeah, cos…
T: And they're…
N: …you're coming off…
T: quarter…
N: …your eighth…
T: …notes
N: …notes there, yeah
T: F, F. Next to it is G, and I know that it's G because I've seen it before. Didn't I play that G in bar sixteen, oh yeah I did, okay fine. So the rhythm is F, F, G, G, G, C, back up to the C which is the very same C we played at the beginning in the verse in the first half
N: Mmmhmm
T: Because what's coming up next is a verse
N: Okay, so we've got…
T: It's a…
N: …the
T: …complete cycle as it were
N: Let's got through the fingers and frets and strings
T: For that last bar?
N: Yeah
T: Yeah, so it's first finger on the first fret of the E string
N: Yeah
T: Quarter note, quarter note…
N: That's F
T: …and then I'm probably gonna use my little finger
N: Up to the third fret, same string
T: Same string
N: That's on the E string that we've done that
T: And then little finger up, so I've kind of, having opened my hand out earlier I'm now closing it up a bit
N: Yeah
T: So I use the techniques to help me be comfortable. When I need to open my hand out I'm gonna do that, I'm not gonna spend the whole day practising with my hand like that…
N: (Laughs)
T: …it's never gonna last, so where I can close it down, I do
N: Do so, alright
T: Yeah
N: Well let's, we've got the, the tune, we've got, going back to the beginning there was verse one
T: Yeah
N: Which we studied in the first part of our lesson...
T: Yeah
N: …then we've got the chorus, and then verse two and then chorus two T&
N: And then verse three
N: So this is quite a simple song structure isn't it?
T: And there you go again recognising patterns and repetition. It's verse one, chorus one, verse two, chorus two, verse three. So there is a structure to this, there's lots of repetition. When I play through it now, in a second, it'll become immediately apparent that there are slight differences in those verses. Those differences aren't really fundamental or significant, they're, there's no different notes, it's what we were talking about earlier, how bass players and drummers especially as part of the rhythm section, vary or change the rhythm just a little bit. Otherwise the song will be the same throughout, and everyone would be kind of, you know…
N: Yeah
T: …getting bored with it. So to keep that interest and that intensity we change the rhythm. There's nothing to be worried about. None of the rhythms are any different, we've played all the rhythms necessary in verse one and chorus one. We've played all the notes necessary, so we took a long time getting verse one and chorus one down. But the benefit of that is that stuff's gonna come up again and again in verse two and chorus two and so on and so forth
N: Let's hear it
T: Let's do it
N: Alright, pushing play for you…
T: Thank you
N: …here we go (Xtractor starts playing)
N: This is Terry Gregory, it's quite quick isn't it?
T: It's quicker than we've been practising
N: Mmmhmm
T: Because I would advocate practising things a bit more slowly so you can see the detail. Quarter notes now
N: That's our chorus one
T: Not yet!
N: Oh
T: And now chorus one
N: Here comes chorus one
T: A
N: That is quick, yeah
T: Yeah, that's gonna be quite a challenge
N: And when we take our level one, our first grade in bass, what speed do we have to be playing this at? Can we play this slower at eighty, or at sixty?
T: Finding it difficult to talk at the moment…
N: It's alright I'll…
T: …I'm concentrating…
N: …let you play on…
T: …on playing. Okay, now here's some octaves shapes. C octave
N: Yeah
T: F octave, G octave, A octave, F octave and then back to
N: Our eighth notes
T: So this is repetition, G, G. This also is repetition, the low F. Big finish
N: If I was on the drums I'd be doing a big drumming finish with you as well (Xtractor stops playing)
N: Good show…
T: Did I pass…
N: …Terry
T: …do you think?
N: If I was, if I was offering the grade I'd give it to you, yes
T: What we would do I guess is record that
N: Yeah
T: And play it again, record it and then analyse it, and then see what the percentage mark is, and then we'll know how well I've done
N: Mmmhmm so the question I asked when you were mid flow, which I apologise, never distract a musician when he's mid flow, but was when we do our exam, when we want to take our sort of grade one, would we have to perform it at that speed?
T: No we can slow the tempo down a bit so that we're comfortable. And in any case I would slow it down a bit because as we found when we got into the track, it was racing along at quite a pace. So it's unrealistic to attempt to do that first, second, third time through. Take your time, slow it down, practise it section by section. Play it without the click like we did before, without the equaliser
N: Mmmhmm
T: And only when you feel comfortable put it in, and even then, as you say, just slow the tempo down
N: Yeah it's something that we build up to, and I mean that's core to the whole Gigajam course that we've been studying in these last ten lessons
T: Yeah and I wouldn't be, I wouldn't be thinking about playing it the first time unless I'd done the first lesson and the second lesson and the third…
N: Third lesson…
T: …lesson and…
N: …the fourth lesson
T: …picked up all those skills, all the way through. Got a lot more skill than you think probably if you go through that carefully
N: No, I mean this is called the essential bass skills course part one, there are many parts to follow but, this is really, I mean this is the first course that you study, we're not beginners now though are we?
T: Absolutely not, no I mean that's a really good foundation, a solid grounding. And as I said earlier, all the skills are skills that us professional bass players use all the time, every day, every gig, every session, every recording, and every practise sesson
N: Terry, thank you very much it's been a…
T: Pleasure
N: …real pleasure
T: I've enjoyed it
N: And thank you guys so much. If you've been with us all the way you can take your grade one now, good luck. And if you've missed any episodes or you wanna get hold of your own Gigajam course notes, keep listening because details will be coming up after this show. Bye bye