I wanted to just quickly run down the 12 bar blues chord pattern (not any particular bass lines, just how the chord structure is set up). Bear in mind this is just one way to explain it, particularly the turnaround. In my experience, this is the most accurate way I can explain it. There are lots of variations and alternate ways to play a blues, but this is the most common 12 bar form.

Personally, I interpret the last two measures of the tunaround as having two chords per bar. This may be my personal interpretation, but in my experience is the best way to cover the turnaround for a variety of situations, tempos, and rhythic feels. It’s like my generic or template version, and I alter it to accomadate whatever the jam/tune is.

The original Blues greats from Robert Johnson to Muddy Waters to John Lee Hooker manipulated and altered the regular 12 bar form in all sorts of ways to create fantastic Blues classics. Each of the songs are unique and may be recognizable just by how the chords go.

A lot of early Rock n Roll songs from the ’50s are basically blues forms, and unfortunately, many of the tunes were lifted directly (lyrics and all) from black blues artists and marketed as “Rock n Roll” to the white teenage audience. There was no such thing as royalties or any type of protection/compensation for the original songwriters, many of whom probably didn’t know about copyright laws. It was a total atrocity and a sad fact of American history. Ok, total tangent.

Many classic rock songs are also blues based. A lot of those guys like The Stones and Eric Clapton very much gave credit where credit was due and were genuine class acts.

It’s always good to learn particular songs, as they each have unique inividual features like stops and kicks or alternate chord structure/turnarounds. Not to mention unique “B” sections, bridges, and choruses.

So, like I was saying, this is my basic explanation of how the chords go in a 12 bar blues that works best for me based on many. many years of experience

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I don’t know if this qualifies as an exercise, but it’s something I heard Lincoln Goines saying at BassImmersionDay2 in October. He was talking about how Gary Willis had shown him a way to practice single string finger picking exercises and scales. The idea is to focus on the picking fingers. Using your normal alternating fingerpicking style, pluck the first note. Then alternate to the next finger as usual, but mute the string before you pluck the next note. You can put in long paces btween notes, like staccato, or see how short you can make the spaces.

It’s basically an exercise on being aware of your picking fingers and creating separations and little spaces between each note. It’s something to keep in mind for that extra bit of note articulation and picking hand control.

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This video starts with a quick explanation of the blues shuffle beat. Typically, the pulse is felt swing eighths. Or you can feel it as four triplets (that could also be interpreted as 12/8).

You don’t always have to play swing eighths, though. Sometimes it’s better to just play quarter notes on the beat and not play the weaker eight after each note. It’s good to have some different ways of playing over a standard blues pattern.

In the video I’m talking about different notes and scales you can use to form blues basslines and solos. I said “minor pentatonic” about 50 times when I meant to say “blues scale” – just so you know, I mean to say “blues scale”. Whatever.

The important thing is that if you’re playing a Major or Dom based blues tune, you can solo in the relative minor (minor scale three frets down from the root) as a blues scale. Also, you can add the notes of a blues scale right into the Major or Dom7 root scale and use them as ‘blue’ notes.

If you wanna play blues bass, it’s a good idea to listen to some. Check out some recordings by Muddy Waters, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Albert Collins, Albert King, Freddie King, BB King,John Lee Hooker, James Cotton, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Charlie Musslewhite, Johnny Copeland, and the list goes on and on.

Different regions of the country developed different blues styles. Stevie Ray Vaughn’s Texas style blues sounds a bit different from Muddy Waters’ Chicago style. The history of The Blues is pretty fascinating stuff and worth checking out. Not to mention it makes you a better player. Nothing can replace busting out some tasty blues licks and in the pocket blues bass lines.

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This video features random info on playing blues bass. A lot of the topics could be entire videos themselves, but I wanted to try and cover as many aspects of blues bass as I could. The topics I’m talking about here are what I consider to be some of the most important parts of playing blues bass in a band.

Firstly, the bass is where the band gets all its forward momentum, especially in blues. The drums are helping to form the rhythm section, but it’s the bass part in particular
that provides the propulsion that the rest of the band can ride on.

When you play blues tunes, it’s best not to play too busy during the main groove and verse parts. You can loosen it up for the solos, but mostly there’s are certain walking bass lines over a shuffle beat that gives blues music it’s sound and drive. Note wise, a simple Major triad (1st, 3rd, 5th) works very well over Major or Dom7 based blues tunes. From there you can add in the 6th and/or b7th step of the Major scale.

Those are the notes, now what about the feel? The beat is called a blues shuffle and it workd best with a very steady, pumping walking bass. Don’t get me wrong – there’s all kinds of ways to play some blues. I play funkified blues all the time, but for straight ahead Mississippi Delta/St Louis/Texas/Memphis/Chicago Blues songs it’s all about that walking shuffle.

A super important thing is shifting from the basic Major scale finger setup (middle finger on the root note) to get at the lower notes and shifting back. It makes playing walking bass lines really easy. Just shift your pinky onto that root note where your middle finger was. You can put your index finger three frets down. That’s the root of the relative minor.

Bass walk-ups are huge in blues and some other genres (like country). Usually there’s a walkup into th four chord. Walkups are a way to guide the listener into the chord change. It’s very common and effective. In fact, people get so used to hearing the bass walkup in popular tunes that one time, I had the riot act read to me by an overzealous band leader when I left it out. It’s like they need to hear it.

A good way to play the walkup is (on the last measure of the I chord – before it changes to the IV) start with the root on the downbeat, then go up to the second note of the scale (a whole step, or two frets) on the next beat, and then the next two frets in a row on the other two beats. Then right up into the root of the IV chord on the downbeat.

Be sure to check out Part 2 of this video for a whole bunch more Blues Bass Tips

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Okay. This is the part where we really get down to business – the business ofbuilding some serious bass chops!

Yes indeed kiddies, you wanna really be able to take it for a ride? Many, if not

all the major bass greats have practiced these 

patterns, and I can speak from my own experience that these specific exercises

will increase you dexterity and mental

focus in leaps and bounds! For real. These are just note sequences – nothing

fancy, but when you learn to play them fast

and accurately, they can be easily added into your solos and bass line

concept. You’ll probably do it automatically.

The painful part is that there’s only one way to get good at these. You

guessed it, playing them over and over and over. 

Then playing them over and over some more. The key to it is to just try and

play each note clean and even AS IT COMES

ALONG. When you start on one note and play that sequence (of notes), you know

what note the next sequence is going 

to start on. Don’t let your thoughts get too far ahead of the note you’re on

right now.

It’s very important that you play these with a drum machine (drumbeat of some

sort) or  a metronome click. Playing these

in time is a huge part of it. The payoff is phenominal within a short period

of time. Don’t believe me? Try for yourself. It 

doesn’t take that long, just enough repetition for you to develop the muscle

memory for these patterns. Then you’ll be

doing them in your sleep.

Leave some comments. Lemme know whats up.

Jonny

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Wanna be able to shred over 90% of the most commonly played bass lines ever?

It all starts with the Major scale. The best part is – its easy! It may take a little practice to get used to which finger goes where – but it’s a such a familiar sounding pattern of notes that your fingers should take right to it.

Just get set up so that your fretting fingers cover one fret each for four frets (in a row). If its hard to make the span at first, move up to a higher fret until your hand gets used to the motions. Soon you’ll be able to cover the first four frets. I play through this as a little warm up in the video – and its something I regularly do when I first pick up my bass to practice – just to wake the fingers up.

The most common way of playing a Major scale in one “position” (four fret span) is to start with your middle finger playing the root note. Then your pinky goes down two frets up from the root note on the same string. Then move to the next string up and fret the notes under your index, middle and pinky. Then up to the next string to finish with index, ring finger and pinky.

Its a completely movable pattern so you can start the scale on any note. Its the arrangement of whole and half steps that gives the scale it’s sound, and the fingering pattern gives it a visual shape on the fretboard that you can remember and refer to. It’s a good idea to play through the scale in time with a drum machine at both slow and faster speeds. Just practicing through a bit will develop muscle memory astonishingly fast.

Playing effective bass is mostly about organizing note choices. Learning the Major scale pattern is a huge help in that department, since its used so commonly.

Be sure to check out Part 2 of this video next time where I go over some really awesome, simple exercise you can do to completely own the Major scale and build up some soloing chops too.

Have fun!

Jonny

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Don’t Be The Guy Who Makes These Simple Mistakes!!!

In this vid I just wanted to be clear on a couple things. They are simple and kind of subtle – but they make a HUGE
difference in your bass playing!!!

The first point I’m attempting to make is that when you cradle the neck of the bass in your hand so that the palm of
your hand touches the back of the neck, you are robbing yourself of all your mobility. On the other hand, if you only
need to pedal one note for a while, then it doesn’t really matter. If you have to play a fast scale type lick or riff,
its way easier to play if you simply drop yur thumb down to around the middle of the back of the neck.

The other thing I wanted to mention involves keeping the fingers of your fretting hand planted after you fret them. If
you’re fretting a note with your pinky, then the other three fingers should (normally) be planted down on the strings.
There are plenty of exceptions, but this is typically the rule of thumb.

These are simple but they make a big difference in your overall technique – especially the thumb thing -

Well, until the next lesson, hold down that low end and make me proud…

Jonny

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Hey there boss,

If we’re gonna play this beast, it helps to know what its made of and a little about how it works. So I wanted to do a
quick video to explain the different parts of the electric bass.

It helps to be familiar with the terminology and design to make communicating about the parts of your bass easier

At the top of the bass is the headstock. The headstock contains the tuning pegs(the things you wrap the strings around),
machine heads, and tuning keys/paddles. The point where the headstock turns into the neck is called “the heel”.

The neck contains the fretboard and all the frets. The neck and headstock are made from one piece of wood, and sometimes
the headstock, neck and middle section of the body are made from one piece of wood. That’s called a “neck through body”
design. On most basses, however, the neck is bolted or glued to the body in a fitted joint.

The fretboard is a thin piece of wood that is glued on top of the neck piece. The frets are then inlaid on top of that.
The body is the biggest part of the bass and contains the pickups/electronics, knobs, pickguard, output, and bridge.

The elctronics are encased in a cavity routered into the body. The bridge holds the “ball” end of the strings and props
them up just enough to clear the frets without buzzing.

Congrats…you can now talk about the various pieces of your bass and know what you’re talking about!

Hopefully this video does some good. Let me know if I forgot anything -

See ya on the bandstand!

Jonny

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