Bass Ruminations I

As I've been trying to improve at bass improvisation, I have found that I have two major challenges that get me when I try to follow a chord progression: identifying where the root notes are on the fretboard, and then assigning the chords to them that I want to play. The fretboard identification will get better with time, I feel, but I really should know the chord shapes better than I currently do, given how often I doodle.

Today, I'll go over my arpeggiation challenges.

At the moment, I'm most comfortable when a riff or line stays on three strings and four frets: all right under my fingers. Scalar lines built on thirds are home territory, and I know most of the common chords so long as the root doesn't change: I anchor on it and can improvise in that scale.

Although this is (very!) fun, this tendency to anchor in one scale does not prepare me at all for 'playing the changes': as a bass player, I need to change the root I'm referencing every chord of the song! Once I learn the chord progression, it's not quite enough to just move my existing scalar system around the fretboard: I very regularly find my root on the third or fourth string and since my system is three strings tall... I run out of space!

That means I need to learn multiple ways to play the same chords, which is hard because I only know them as a particular shape. But I found an insight that seems promising.

I am very comfortable with the Major Third and Minor Third intervals, and you can play them in two easy ways: "up and left a bit" and "down the string". Further, the chords I'm interested in arpeggiating can be constructed from thirds. The Major Seventh, for example, is a Major Third, and then from there a Minor Third, and then a Major Third from there. Here's a summary:

• Maj: major, minor
• Min: minor, major
• Aug: major, major
• Dim: minor, minor
• Maj7: major, minor, major
• Min7: minor, major, minor
• Dom7: major, minor, minor
• Dim7: minor, minor, major

These are pretty easy to memorize, and so as long as I get better at knowing where the root note is, I can know several ways to fit it onto the strings. For example, if I am on the D string on my root, and want to play a Maj7, I can either go up and over to my major third, and then I know I have to play a minor third, which (because I don't have another string) needs to be played down-the-string. I don't have to guess the fret though, because I know it's three frets down, since I know the minor third by heart. Then I know I want to get up another major third, which is gonna be a large but familiar jump up 5 frets, or 'a tetris L' down two strings if I want to jump down the octave.

I'm not sure how clear that is, but it's gonna be how I'm going to approach creating a 'roadmap' of the fretboard, and it's been a fun week practicing it!