Weekly Basslines #116: Get Lucky (Daft Punk)

This request came along with a donation from Mareen and is a perfect addition to the basslesson about the dorian mode of the previous post, since this tune is written in the dorian mode too.

Besides the scale itself the main thing one should learn about modes is the chord progressions it forms. In the last post I was talking about the i-IV-Progression as a very common progression in the dorian mode.

Here's a very famous example for this progression in the key of A-dorian:

Another popular dorian chord progression is the i-ii-iii-ii-Progression.

The famous example that I want to show you for this progression is in the key of F# dorian:

Get Lucky features another common progression in the dorian mode the i-iii-v-IV-Progression. It's in the key of B dorian:

The bass on this track was played by the great Nathan East on a 5-string bass and I have to admit that it really took me a while to figure out his really outstanding bassline with all the subtle rhythmic details correctly.

Clip Daft Punk - Get Lucky (Official Video) von daftworld

The video has a prolonged intro which i didn't transcribe.

So thanks again to Mareen for the donation and I hope you "get lucky" with my transcription!

Basslesson: The Dorian mode (Part 1)

Basilio from Italy asked me if I could translate a prior post regarding the dorian mode into english and finally I got that managed. So here's my little workshop about the dorian mode in english:

The dorian scale is derived from the major scale:

When you rearrange the notes of a C-major scale starting from the second dregree (“D”) and proceed through it until that same note is reached one octave higher, you’ll be constructing the D-dorian scale.
The d dorian scale contains the same notes as the c-major scale, just in different order.

When you built the diatonic chords on the dorian scale, you’ll find that dorian belongs to the group of minor scales. The first chord (tonic) in D-dorian is D-minor.

In contrast to the aolian(or natural) minor scale the dorian scale has a major chord on the fourth degree  (IV; sudominant) and the sixth degree happens to be a whole step above the dominant.

A trademark progression for the dorian scale is alternating between the minor tonic and the major subdominant chord. There are several songs which make use of that progression (i - IV).

We now want to construct the E-dorian scale. As the dorian scale is built on the second degree of a major scale, we go down a whole step from the E and take the D-major scale as a starting point.

Here are the diatonic chords of the E-dorian scale:

 The i-Iv-progression in E-dorian consists of the chords E-minor (i, tonic) and A-major (IV, subdominant).
Often this progression is spiced up by adding a few “tension tones” to the plain triads. In our example the tonic will be played as a seventh-chord (Em7) and the subdominant gets the seventh and the “13”(A7/13), which is a sixth played an octave higher.

In the video I show you four different basslines over the i-IV-progression. The notes of the bassline are all derived from the chord-tones of the accompanying chords.

In the transcriptions of the basslines I denoted the function of every note related to the respective chords by using these short cuts:

R = root of the chord
3 = major third
b3 = minor third
5 = fifth
b7 = minor seventh
13 = octave of the sixth (6)

 

The i-IV-progression in the dorian mode is really a very common progression. 

Here are a few examples of songs which use this progression:

Chic - Good Times (Em7 - A13)

Santana - Oye como va  (Am - D)

Allman Brothers - In Memory of Elizabeth Reed (Am9 - D)

Billy Cobham - Red Baron (Gm7 - C9)

 

 

Weekly Basslines #115: Call Me The Breeze (J.J. Cale; Lynyrd Skynyrd)

In order to catch up with the various requests I received during my absence here's another one I did on this weekend.

This request came from one of my former students, who would like to add this J J Cale classic to the setlist of her band  to honour the "King of  Cool" who sadly passed away this july.
Because she wasn't sure if they like to do the original or the Lynyrd Skynyrd version I transcribed both.

The original version can be found on J.J. Cale's debut album "Naturally" from 1972.

It is in fact a 24-bar blues, which is derived from a very simple 12-bar blues by doubling the lenghth of each chord:

8 bars tonic (I), 

4 bars subdominant (IV), 4 bars tonic (I), 

2 bars dominant (V), 2 bars subdominant (IV) and 4 bars tonic (I).

The Lynyrd Skynyrd version can be found on their second studio album "Second Helping" from 1974:

 

 

 

During my research for YouTube-Videos for this song I stumbled across a very unique version of "Call Me The Breeze" from a band called "Spiritualized". Take a look:

 

 

 

 

Weekly Basslines #114: My Generation (Live at Leeds-Version) (The Who)

Quiet recently returned from my summer vacation I found my mailbox overflowing with requests from bass players all over the world. I'm amazed, a big thank you for the donations and I will immediately put the headphones on to transcribe all your requests.

The biggest request (and biggest donation) came from a regular reader of my blog. He asked me if I could transcribe the 15 minute long version of "My Generation" from The Who's famous "Live at Leeds" album. Well I started a few days ago, but it's quiet understandable that it'll take a while and so I decided to do it as a kind of Work-In-Progress post here. As the live version of that song is a medley of different songs I will start with the main song today and consecutively add the remaining parts. An Canadian LP pressing denotes the sections as follows:

a. My Generation

b. See Me, Feel Me (We're Not Gonna Take It)

c. Higher

d. Overbridge

e. Coming Out To Get You

f. Underture

g. Driving Four

So here's the first part, the song "My Generation" itself:

Saturday 14th
Here comes the first addition to the transcription started last week: "See Me, Feel Me" & "Higher":

Sunday 09-29-2013
The second addition:

to be continued.....

If you like The Who or John Entwistles very special way of playing the bass guitar, here's another transcription I've done:

The Who - Baba O'Riley (live)

Weekly Basslines #113: Skin Tight (Ohio Players)

It's really rare that I write two posts in one day, but scrolling through the talkbass forum I found this real old post from 2010 where this song had been requested and nearly 3 years later there still is no satisfying transcription available. I had already started transcribing this song a while ago, when I was looking for cool funky basslines for a funk bass workshop I was doing, but never finished it. And so I spontaneously decided to sit down and complete that transcription right now.

Damn that's funky!!! And a real tricky rhythm too. It took me a while to realise that the recording begins on count 2. The trick is to focus on the backbeat, that's the two and four of the drum groove played by the snare drum. The main groove bassline is built around a A minor pentatonic scale (A-C-D-E-G).

Have fun!!

Weekly Basslines #112: Peter Gunn (Henry Mancini, Ted Nash, Duane Eddy, ELP, Blues Brothers)

Neil from New Jersey requested that, because he found some transcriptions of that tune on the internet and wasn't sure if they were right. First I thought that this would be a really easy task, but then I realised that the different versions of that song all have subtle different arrangements and basslines and so I decided to take a closer look at a few of the famous renditions of "Peter Gunn".

"Peter Gunn" was a TV-Series about a private eye on NBC and later on ABC. Between 1958 and 1961 114! 30-minute long episodes were aired. Hardly anyone can remember the TV series itself but the title theme is still unforgotten. It was composed by Henry Mancini, who also did the famous "Pink Panther Theme" (wich I transcribed two years ago). Mancini won two Grammy-Awards for "Album of the year" (1958 - Music from Peter Gunn) and "Best Arrangement" for the same album.
Here's the original Mancini version:

I found a little comment of Henry Mancini on his composition Peter Gunn on the internet. He said: "the whole thing had basically one chord throughout the whole tune, and a repeating figure on the piano,
played marvelously by John Williams (yes the one who later did the STAR WARS music). That was the beginning of becoming known, and all of my fame and what I've built up started with that."

In 1959 saxophonist Ted Nash, who was playing in Henry Mancinis Big Band, re-recorded the song and although it stuck pretty much to the original (on which he also played) there are a few subtle changes: the guitar theme gets a little 16th-note embellishment.

Unfortunately I couldn't find a video-link to this version.

One of the really famous renditions of "Peter Gunn" during the sixties was Duane Eddy's adaption.

He changed the guitar theme again and omitted the major third (Ab) of the riff. Also did he play with open strings. To achieve that he tuned his guitar up a semi-tone to F, Bb, Eb, Ab, C, F and also did the bassist (F, Bb, Eb, Ab), which made it easier to play the whole eighth-note pattern even on bass:

In 1979 Emerson, Lake & Palmer did a version of "Peter Gunn" on their live album "In Concert":

They changed the key to E and also did the main riff without the major third (in E that would be G#):

1980 the Peter Gunn Theme was played by the Blues Brothers in their first movie.

Like ELP the key to this version is "E" but the Blues Brothers likewise the Henry Mancini original again incorporated the major third (G#) into the main riff:

I found several more versions of Peter Gunn, but I think it's enough now ;-)

I only want to show you one more rare version of Peter Gunn with lyrics done by Jazzsinger Sarah Vaughan: