Advanced Level Exercise Area S e ctio n 3
Advanced Level Exercise Area This is where everything that we have looked at in the Advanced section of the book comes together. You'll find some longer exercises here than have been featured in the previous end-of-section Exercise Areas, and you will probably find them rather challenging. If you have covered everything in the book up to this point however, there's nothing to stop you conquering these exercises. All of the topics covered in the advanced section are put to use here, from double thumbing and popping, to combining techniques and playing over the shuffle feel. If you find a certain exercise difficult, I strongly advise going back to the relevant chapter and working through the exercises necessary for you to improve.
Wooten, Adam Nitti, Alain Caron, Les Claypool, Ray Riendeau, Stuart Hamm and Marcus Miller. Many of the lines presented here are similar in style to classic lines played by these great bassists. Not only will studying these players help you to further understand the concepts we have looked at in the advanced section, but it should also provide you with further inspiration. In some cases I have made specific recommendations as to which tracks in particular you should listen to. I strongly recommend transcribing the work of some of these players as well - transcribing is an excellent workout for your ears, and can really help you develop as a player.
As you work through these exercises, I recommend checking out the work of great bassists such as Victor
Good luck with these exercises, there's some tough stuff here, and a lot to be learnt.
Exercise 219 This exercise is a reasonably straightforward double thumbing line in E. Note that the same upper register fill used in bar 2 for the Em7 chord is used in bar 3 for the Cmaj7 chord - we can do this because the two chords share several notes in common - E, G, and B. In the fourth bar a Marcus Miller-style descending line starting on the major seventh, a B, takes us back to E for the repeat.
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Advanced Level Exercise Area Exercise 220 This exercise is a reggae line in A minor that is played in the same style as the Victor Wooten classic 'More Love'. This is a difficult exercise since it combines several techniques at once - double thumbing, strumming and playing harmonics! In the first bar I recommend fretting the A with your second finger, the G harmonic (fifth fret G string) with your fourth, and the D harmonic (fifth fret D string) with your third finger. The hammer-on should be played with the first and third fingers, meaning that the fourth lands on the F. The first and third fingers should be used to play the harmonics in the second half of the bar. The fourth finger can be used as a barre for all harmonics in the second bar. Bars 3 and 4 are a development of the first two, although only rhythmically - harmonically they are the same. The only difference is the added popped ghost note. This has been done for rhythmic variety and to challenge your ability to combine several techniques into one cohesive line.
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Advanced Level Exercise Area Exercise 221 This is an exercise written in the style of ‘Power’ by Marcus Miller. The main bass figure is based around a Cm7 chord which is plucked with the thumb, first and second fingers, as discussed back in Chapter 11. Each bar features minor pentatonic fills that are played using the double thumbing technique. Take your time with these - although the tempo is relatively slow at 84bpm, they need to be articulated cleanly. The line also needs to groove - think Marcus!
Marcus Miller
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Photo courtesy of Mike Flynn
Advanced Level Exercise Area Exercise 222 This exercise is a favourite fingerstyle line of mine that I have adapted to be played with the double thumbing technique. It is a sixteenth note groove in the style of great funk players such as James Jamerson, Rocco Prestia and Jaco Pastorius, and works well over dominant seventh chords. You should work your way through all twelve dominant seventh chords - for the sake of space, I have only written out the line over the chords of C7 and F7 here. This line has a pattern to it. In the first and third bars you play root notes and octaves with an ascending line starting on the third and ascending chromatically to the fifth. In the second bar we play roots and octaves again, but this time the fill begins on the sixth of the chord and moves chromatically upwards, back to the root. In the fourth bar the fill begins on the sixth degree of the next chord - in bar 4 you can see the fill beginning on D, the sixth of the key of F. This harmonic idea helps you to modulate. You should keep this exercise going, and move through every key in fourths. The sequence will be C7, F7, B7, E7, A7, D7, F 7, B7, E7, A7, D7, and G7, the same as playing around the circle of fifths backwards. Remember that it is always a good idea to learn all your favourite licks in every key so that you can use them in any appropriate musical situation.
Continue to B etc...
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Advanced Level Exercise Area Exercise 223 Many players who have mastered the double thumbing technique have used it to play the melody lines from popular jazz standards. Charlie Parker's bebop tunes are ideal for this, with 'Donna Lee' having been tackled by Victor Wooten and 'Ornithology' by Ray Riendeau. Rather than present a thumbing pattern for a well-known Parker tune here, I have instead composed a melody line over a 12 bar jazz blues for you to study. This is an medium tempo bebop line that requires thorough mastery of the double thumbing and popping techniques. In bar 2 you'll notice that you have to play four consecutive notes on one string using a down and upstroke with the thumb, followed by two pops. This is difficult, and if you have trouble with it you should go back and study the section 'Adding The Double Pop' in Chapter 16. As discussed earlier in the book, there is always more than one way of playing the same line, but I recommend that you carefully follow the slap guides that I have written for this one - I believe they illustrate the easiest way of playing the line. There's a lot to digest here, so take this one slowly.
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Advanced Level Exercise Area Exercise 224 This exercise is a combination of (and variation on) Exercises 215 and 217 from Chapter 17. The Intro bar consists completely of chord tones from the G7 chord, but notice that I have focused strongly on the B and F - the third and seventh of the chord. These are the most colourful chord tones and make a strong statement here. The first section of this exercise is a G7 groove that has a tapped doublestop on the first beat of the first bar. This is reminiscent of the Victor Wooten classic 'You Can't Hold No Groove', but is also a classic use of the 'funk doublestop'. This imitates what a guitar player might add to this groove. The second bar of this section features an ascending double popping lick that shouldn't prove problematic if you have worked through Chapter 10. The final bars of this section feature tapped chords - notice that the root and fifth are in the left hand, the third and seventh in the right this is a common way to tap out chords. The second section of this line is based on Exercise 219 and makes extensive use of harmonics. You may need to boost the treble and upper mid frequencies on your bass or amp in order to let these really ring out. The final bar is a string of harmonics played fingerstyle that takes us back to the first section of the tune. Notice how the drums drop out at this point in order to emphasize the line. Good luck with this one!
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Advanced Level Exercise Area Exercise 225 The line is an open hammer pop groove that very clearly outlines the chord progression beneath it. Note the use of legato phrasing in the long run in the second bar - much of this is played with open string hammer-ons making it sound very smooth. The open hammer pop technique is ideal for implying harmonic movement and after learning this line I would encourage you to experiment with using it over other chord progressions.
Mark King
Photo courtesy of Harry Durrant
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Advanced Level Exercise Area Exercise 226 This is a fingerstyle line that I enjoy playing and have adapted into a complex double thumbing riff. Because of the E79 chord the line uses notes from the E auxiliary diminished scale - E, F, G, G, A, B, C, and D. This explains the use of G 's and G 's in close proximity - the G is obviously the third of the chord, whereas the G natural is the sharpened ninth (it's really an F. ). The figure on beat 3 of the first three bars is difficult to execute cleanly because of the double popping so practise it slowly. Note the use of a popped note on the last sixteenth note of each bar this is the easiest fingering choice and ensures that you can start the next bar with a thumb downstroke.
Larry Graham
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Photo courtesy of Greg Jamate
Advanced Level Exercise Area Exercise 227 This exercise is a sparse, syncopated groove that has been filled with ghost notes to add an exciting rhythmic aspect to the line. The double thumbing technique has been put to excellent use here. Although the lines in bars 1 and 3 are heavily syncopated, thanks to ghost notes, the thumbing pattern is a strict up-down movement throughout. The fill in the second bar is a decoration taking notes from the A blues scale and ends with an upper register motif using the fifth (E) and the flattened seventh (G). This fill is built upon in the fourth bar to include a double thumbed minor pentatonic lick.
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