When I was a kid, one of the first things I learned how to do was play bass lines.

Blues bass lines, in fact.

You know those ones you’d hear Ray Charles rumbling on his left hand?

Heck, those bass lines were what gave me the confidence to keep going because I could actually play something that sounded like something… hehe.

And I was the type to show off when family came over so it got addicting. :)

My grandma and her brothers (I never had immediate uncles but I had tons of great uncles) would say “that boy is bad” because those bluesy bass lines were right up their alley. Play something from Disney and you immediately lost their attention. Oh yeah… “bad” is good as in “he can play!”

And now I’m going to share with you some of the concepts I used over 18 years ago to play some of my favorite blues bass lines.

(My experienced players will most likely already know this. My up-and-comers… pay a lot of attention):

Using major triads to learn bass lines

My first bass lines came from regular major chords.

For example, the “C major” chord is: C+E+G

But if you arpeggiate the chord (that means to break it up so that you’re only playing one note at a time), you can turn it into a bass line.

C > E > G > E > C > E >G > E > C

Add some flavor and play the C twice (really quickly)…

C > C > E > G > E > C > C > E >G > E > C

Just take any major chord, break up the notes, and play them going up and back down the chord. Now, play it in rhythm! Don’t be stiff!

Using dominant seventh chords to play bass lines

The C dominant 7 chord (aka “C7″) is: C+E+G+Bb

(Note the flatted 7th tone up top… the Bb).

So, apply the same strategy but what we’ll do is add a note to make it sound better.

We’ll add “A,” which happens to be the sixth tone of the scale.

So it looks like this

C > E > G > A > Bb
1 > 3 > 5 > 6 > b7

(I’ve put the numbers below the notes so that you can apply this to any major key, as long as you know your scales and what numbers correspond to which tones of the scale).

So play that bass run up the chord and then back down…

C > E > G > A > Bb > A > G > E > C

You can even play C twice to add some more flavor (but you’ll need to do it much quicker than the rest of the notes and slightly off beat)

C > C > E > G > A > Bb > A > G > E > C

Adding flavor

Now it’s time to apply some “Ray Charles” to your bass line.

(The bass line I’m talking about starts at about 1:45 so fast forward until you see Ray Charles showing Jamie Foxx how to play it. Jamie picks it up right away).

It’s the same bass line created from the dominant seventh chord I just showed you… it’s just in the key of Ab major instead of C.

Ray does this little thing in the beginning (it’s just Eb coming down to Bb using the notes of the Ab major scale… Eb > Db > C > Bb… then leading back up to Ab using Gb > G > Ab).

Then it’s the main bass line

Ab > C > Eb > F > Gb > F > Eb > C > Ab

But you’ll have to double up on your bass line by playing a lower Ab with your pinky and a higher Ab with your thumb, then the same pattern for each of the notes.

Low Ab, then high Ab — Low C, then high C — Low Eb, then high Eb… so on and so forth

Once you master the speed, you’ll sound just like Ray Charles and Jamie Foxx!

How long did it take you to figure out?

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In this post, I’m going to break down the main movements in James Wrubel’s clip below (from our Hear & Play Jazz 101 course). This should be an interesting post and you’ll get a lot out of it…

It’s important to note that he has a recorded bass line, which gives him the opportunity to play chords in his left hand.

Here’s the basic pattern that he’s playing.

C7 —- F7 —- C7 —- C7 —- F7 —- F7 —- C7 —- C7 —- G7 —- F7 —- C7

Replay the video above and see if you can following along from the beginning. Every time he switches his chord go to the next chord. Every chord, for the most part is switching either every 4 beats or every 8 beats (sometimes you get two C or F chords in a row).

Normally you’d play a C7, F7, and G7 like this:

C E G Bb (C7 pronounced “C Seventh”)

F A C Eb (F7)

G B D F (G7)

(Note: You can play these chords on your right and play the root bass notes (”C,” “F,” or “G”) on your left if you don’t have a bass player).

But since James has a bass player, he’s playing tritones in the left hand.

Tritones are interesting little fellas.

They are diminished fifth intervals. I don’t have enough time to really delve into that part of it but just think of them as 6 half steps apart.

So if you wanted to form a tritone based on C, you would start on C and count 6 half steps up.

C to Db is 1 half step
Db to D is another half step
D to Eb is another half step
Eb to E is another half step
E to F is another half step
F to Gb is the last half step.

That makes 6 (for my folks new to counting in “half steps”).

Here are all the tritones written all in flats for simplicity’s sake:

C + Gb
Db + G
D + Ab
Eb + A
E + Bb
F + B

Now watch what’s going to happen…

Here are the remaining 6 tritones

Gb + C
G + Db
Ab + D
A + Eb
Bb + E
B + F

Basically the second half of the tritone list is just like the first but they’re inverted. Which means instead of C+Gb, now it’s Gb+C.

This makes tritones very versatile. You only need to know 6 and you can flip them to get the other 6.

So let’s recall our 3 magic chords for this 12-bar blues progression:

C E G Bb (C7)

F A C Eb (F7)

G B D F (G7)

Because they are seventh chords, they inherently carry a TRITONE. Yup, that’s true. So if you can figure out what tritones are used in these three chords, then you don’t have to play the full chord. You can abbreviate these chords with their tritone “shortcuts.”

How’s 4 notes down to 2 for ya? Easier to play right? Definitely! But it gets better… I’ll talk about the “better” part later.

So did you find the tritone in each of those chords???

You should have gotten:

E+Bb for the C7

A+Eb for the F7

B+F for the G7

SHORTCUT: Basically the 3rd and lowered 7th tone of the chord (E is the third in C major and Bb is the lowered seventh in C major) will create your tritone.

Now for the “better” part…

What’s cool about tritones is that when you’re moving in fourths (as in the case of a C7 going to an F7), they are extremely easy to play.

Notice this:

Tritone for C7 = E+Bb
Tritone for F7 = A+Eb

Can one of these tritones be “flipped” to their other pair to make this easier to play?

Abzzzzoooooooolutelyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!

You could do this two ways.

1) Change the C7 tritone
2) Or change the F7 tritone

So you could either go from E+Bb (which substitutes for C7 chord) to Eb+A (which substitutes for F7 chord)… which means all you have to do is lower each finger ONE note… that’s it! ONE NOTE!

Or you can change the first chord:

Bb+E to A+Eb

Your call! Switch em’ up here and there.

Now, what would you use for the G7 tritone if you were currently on the “E+Bb” tritone?

Which G7 tritone is closer?

F+B or B+F

“Give me the F+B tritone for $100 Alex!”

So I hope through this post that I not only introduced you to the 12-bar blues pattern but I’ve also shown you the power and convenience of tritones and how you can “flip” them to make it easier for your left hand to flow from chord to chord.

If you’re playing tritones correctly and using the right chord for the right moment, you should never have to slide more than a few notes. Tritones should be right next to each other. After all, there’s only 6 of them and the other flipped 6 use the same notes as the first.

Hear and Play Jazz 101: Jazz Basics and Fundamentals

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• The 7 secrets to playing signature solos like a pro… from a pro!
• How to accelerate your jazz learning curve by combining 3 secret elements that the pros don't want you to know!
• How to ensure that no matter what voicings and blues licks you play, they'll turn heads each and every time! Click here to learn more | Buy now

See ya next time!

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You now know how to build:

-minor thirds
-major thirds
-perfect fifths
-major chords
-minor chords
-seventh chords

I bet you never thought you’d be able to learn this much in a few days, huh?

We will put some of these chords to work in this lesson! You will need:

-The 300-pg workbook or…
-To visit our website and view the free “Chord Series” lessons

http://www.hearandplay.com/members/

Log-in with the username “piano” and the password “piano”

Note: Without the ( ” “) quotation marks

Chords used in this progression: (you will need to know these chords)

-C7
-F7
-G7

You already know how to build a C7 chord

Use the same method to learn an F7 and G7 chord.

——————————————————
REMEMBER: Major third + perfect fifth + minor third
——————————————————

Here’s another way to figure out seventh chords

1) Start from the root note of the chord you want to play. That is (F) or (G) …

2) Add a major third (4 half steps)

3) Then add a minor third (which is the same as a perfect fifth from the root)

4) Then add another minor third

Seventh Chord = major third + minor third + minor third

Or…

Major third (combined with perfect fifth) + minor third

REFERENCE:

I might as well just tell you what the F7 and G7 chords are (but do yourself a favor and learn the rest of them either by purchasing our course or by visiting our site).

C7 = C + E + G + Bb

F7 = F + A + C + Eb

G7 = G + B + D + F

—————————-
BLUES CHORD PROGRESSION
—————————-

A “chord progression” is a series of chords played one after the other.

A “Blues chord progression” is usually 12 bars long.

In this progression, a bar equals 4 beats. Clapping your hands 4 times (in a rhythmical beat) equals 1 bar. Thus, 12 bars equal 48 beats.

Note: Each bar begins at 1 again. That is, “1-2-3-4″ — “1-2-3-4″ as opposed to “1-2-3-4 —- 5-6-7-8″

How to read the e-mail blues chart below:

1) The chord is listed first; the beat numbers are listed below the chord names.

2) Play the chord for the given amount of beats listed (the bar # is also listed)

For example,

C7
(1-2-3-4)
Bar 1

This means that you will play a C7 chord for (4 beats).

So… you will play a C7 Chord while counting to 4

-The 300-pg course explains the blues chord progression in depth. It also covers several other blues, gospel, and jazz chord progressions.

Visit:

http://www.hearandplay.com/course

… for more information on the 300-pg course.

—————————-
CHORD PROGRESSION
—————————-

C7
(1-2-3-4)
bar 1

C7)
(1-2-3-4)
bar 2

C7
(1-2-3-4)
bar 3

C7)
(1-2-3-4)
bar 4

F7
(1-2-3-4)
bar 5

F7
(1-2-3-4)
bar 6

C7
(1-2-3-4)
bar 7

C7)
(1-2-3-4)
bar 8

G7
(1-2-3-4)
bar 9

F7
(1-2-3-4)
bar 10

C7
(1-2-3-4)
bar 11

C7
(1-2-3-4)
bar 12

Congratulations, you now know how to play the blues!!!!!!!

Make sure you check out our 300-pg workbook! It will guide you into playing several other songs and chord progressions!

Until tomorrow!

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