Modal Bass Line Modules

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Leslie Shields
5 years ago
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1 Moda Bass Line Modues We wi now take a ook at a stye of jazz known as moda tunes. Moda tunes are songs buit on one or two chord changes that ast at east eight bars each. The exampe we use in our study is the 1959 Mies Davis composition entited So What. So What is a 32 bar tune with an AABA form. i is payed over the eight bar A sections and Ebmi is payed over the B section. Lets take a ook at the chaenges we re faced with when paying waking bass ines on moda tunes such as So What. The first chaenge is how to wak over one chord for eight measures and pay a bass ine that has some meodic interest and doesn t just bindy pay random notes from the dorian scae. Before we earn how to do this ets take a ook at some common mistakes many beginners make. See if this doesn t sound famiiar. Most beginners tend to obscure: 1. The feeing of the downbeat. 2. The 2 or 4 bar (symmetrica) phrase. 3. Landing on the root of the chord on beat one. 4. The form of the song. Now that we know what the common probems are et s see if we can create some genera rues or guideines that wi hep us avoid some of these common probems. Since most beginners tend to obscure the feeing of the downbeat, one commony used technique is to pay the root on beat one of every other bar. This creates the confirmation of the root of the chord on one and the feeing of a two bar phrase. It s aso easier to keep your pace paying four 2-bar phrases rather than eight 1-bar phrases. Now et s pay through our first exampe. You shoud get the feeing of the two-bar phrase, and the feeing of importance the root has on beat one of every other bar. Copyright 2002 Grace Base Productions

2 ? 4 œ œ { b #? œ #œ_ œ œ_ # œ Now that we're comfortabe with the root on one of every other bar, we can now pace the fifth (A) on beat one of the aternating bars. This soidifies the feeing of the two-bar phrase and impies a V- I reationship. This technique is aso very effective when used on non-moda tunes when the chords ast onger than one bar. I' use an exampe from "Take the A Train" to iustrate my point. A œ #œ_ A œ_ { # A? œ b b n # A œ œ A b œ œ œ A ˆ_«œ #

3 "Take the A Train" exampe? D 9( # 11) œ #œ G? œ A # b # G? D œ 9( # 11) #œ #œ There are two more techniques commony used in moda tunes. One is to impy a i to G sound by paying one bar of i, then one bar of G, then aternating them. The other is to impy two beats of Emib5, then two beats of Ab9 after i. This give us a itte more movement harmonicay by impying a minor ii-v and heps reinforce the importance of the root on beat one and the feeing of the two bar phrase. The foowing exampes iustrate these techniques. G #œ œ #œ_ G œ_ œ { G # G œ œ G G œ œ œ b #

4 Em? œ ( b 5) A ˆ_«( b 9) # œ œ Em ( b 5) œ A( b 9) { # Em ( b 5)b A ( b 9)? œ #œ_ œ œ_ Em(b5) œ # A(b9) Em ( b 5) Em œ œ ( b 5) A œ ( b 9) # # A( b 9) œ œ œ œ Another chaenge created by "So What" is that peope get ost in the form. Usuay by the third or fourth chorus peope start arriving at the bridge (Ebmi) at different times. If this is a probem then paying an ostinato (repetitive bass ine figure) over the ast eight bars of the form is a great way to musicay te the other band members that "this is the ast eight and we're going back to the top". In addition to the ostinato, paying a peda "A" in the ast two measures is another effective way to mark the form. œ_? œ _ œ œ J œ J œ _ œ A œ J œ J #œ_ œ_? œ œ œ J œ J _ /A J J J J j q j q œ J

5 The foowing exampe is a combination of the techniques we've studied so far. Continue to practice these techniques unti they become automatic to you and they wi hep you avoid the common probems found in moda tunes. Good uck!? 4 #œ_ œ œ J œ_ J œ? œ b b n # œ? œ œ œ b # œ œ œ #? œ ˆ_«b œ œ b E b? m E œ b m œ œ b Eb? m Eb m b b b b nœ œ _ œ œ J œ œ_ J _ œ œ A œ J œ #œ_ J _ œ œ J œ J j /A J J J J q j q œ J

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