The 3-Note 'Hack' To Better Bass Lines (and Solos)

[@pdbass]

Let me address some of the questions I've already gotten re: Triad Pairs. Stop trying to relate scales to chords. It's only one approach. A good soloist plays SOUNDS and not NOTES. You have to break the mindset (of many of us bass players) that requires you find the "correct" note (or scale) for the chord when soloing. Chord/scale thinking is a very HORIZONTAL way of looking at playing. The Triad Pairs concept is a more VERTICAL way of approaching improvisation. Go listen to John Coltrane.

[@roblegg3983]

**This is MONEY - A good soloist plays SOUNDS and not NOTES. *PC is a great example...some of his note choices do not always make sense, but the "sound" works.

[@MrDaneBrammage]

Who does that, but enough slower than John Coltrane that we can actually hear what they're doing?

[@iainctduncan]

@@MrDaneBrammage I want to say Pat Metheny? I've never actually transcribed him, but that's what springs to mind for me for a vertical/intervallic player who uses that style at both slow and fast tempos. Maybe especially when he's a sideman like on his killer work with Hancock and Brecker. @pdbass am I correct there?

[@lowstringc]

Yes! So many trying to memorize and codify so many different scales and modes and then memorize application rules forget the basic concept of tension and release. Passing tones, chromaticism, etc. are all just functionally tension and release; know the stable tones and the rest are just a palette of sounds that surround and interact with them. The scales approach gets you accustomed to particular soundscapes, but the goal should be to internalize that sound as it relates to the stable tones, not memorize, cut, and paste.

[@XE1GXG]

Actually a horizontal approach, a contrapuntal approach, will help jazzers to escape the confines what tends to be a pretty vertical, diatonic world. Harmony is the result of the combination of moving voices. More Ornette Coleman and Bill Evans, less Berklee School!!!

[@SmoothGrooveWA]

Terrific info! Carol Kaye really touches upon this concept also in her bass jazz improv books. She said that fine jazz players of the day back in the 1950's built their solos upon chord tones. It was when rock musicians in 1970's wanted to learn to play jazz that an emphasis upon scales and modal playing was taught. Jazz rock fusion music wasn't about playing ii-V's and shifting key centers like standards. It then became about applying modes to the changes, which Kaye lamented. She said that the not so good soloists would be running up and down scales whereas the finer jazz soloists knew how to build their solos on chord tones such as stacked triads. I wish I had come across her material earlier in my life. Her teaching material really is foundational for jazz vocabulary and harmony. I tell young students who are aspiring to play jazz to check her material out. Great video! Thanks for it.

[@guitarslim56]

Exactly! Schools taught modes because they were easy to teach, not because they were musically useful.

[@ijskolibrietje]

Love how your video's are so hands on and don't teach a trick, but teach a tool you can develop and use yourself in learning.

[@ThomBoecker]

I'm no bassist, but I come here just for the pleasure of the listening experience and how you teach me to hear things differently, with more focus on details. Amd you never disappoint me. Thank you very much for the adventure!!!

[@pdbass]

🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

[@BassPlayerNcl]

Excellent concept! I‘ve taught my students to sing arpeggios and their subsequent inversions with a piano for years for this same reason. I still do it before I play too! Love it, Bassman 😊🙌

[@brendonmurley8276]

Paul, this is something I intellectually understood, but not in a way I could use. Your suggestion simply of singing each of the inversions of a triad is a gamechanger for me. So beautifully explained - thank you!

[@marcelwright5065]

Th thank you Paul for opening up my mind with singing the root first inversion second version and 3rd and version and how to apply that to the bottom part of our baseline thank you

[@vincentwright9143]

Yes, 3 notes. For me, the bigger takeaway is SINGING the notes as you play. I wish my music instructors all the way back to 4th grade had used this method. I mean, “I could’ve had a V8, man!” It’s music, meaning we hear it, first and foremost. You actually don’t even have to be able to “read” music if you emphasize LISTENING to the notes and breaking down the triads. Essentially, TRANSCRIBING BY EAR. Which you can also do to HELP LEARN HOW TO READ, as well. LISTENING, INCLUDING WHILE SINGING NOTES OUT LOUD, IS ONE OF THE BEST WAYS TO ENGAGE WITH LEARNING ANY INSTRUMENT. Thank goodness, I’m still very healthy and curious about music in my middle 60’s. So, I’m making up for the years between 4th grade and now!😂😅 Thank you, as always, Professor!

[@Below-Average_Joe]

Nice lesson, Professor Paul!

[@landman5294]

Mad Respect! Working 9 to 5, limited time in life has relegated bass playing to a glorified hobby for many of us, but your channel motivates me to keep playing. Your channel is one of the more intelligent and practical for bass. Please build on this and keep up the teaching. Props!

[@michaelanthony9068]

You brought tears to my eyes, PD. You make me want to sit at your feet like a supplicant before a zen master ! God bless you, you are a genius !!!

[@bassocanario]

Years of high intellect grease and musical juju on this channel; conjure on, sir! 🙌🏽🏋🏾‍♀️🤗

[@PeteCarlton]

Three notes: creative, simple, inspiring! Thanks, Paul - it's a wonderful jawn 😊😊😊

[@RealDrummerMotivatesYou]

Yep, great content! Clear and to the point!

[@BARTFUNKBASS]

Awesome! Merry Christmas🎄🎄🎄

[@andredusomme1666]

Hi Paul, This lesson has to be the best simple explanation of triad usages I've seen. Thank you. Tremendous help.

[@Riccardo_Silva]

Thank you PDBass! A true mind opener! ❤

[@felipesolari5343]

Thank you soooooo much!

[@tubatim333]

Really enjoyed this brief talk with tips on great bass exercises. Thank you.

[@Threlgar]

As usual, more fun for the week from another fun vid!!🎉

[@MBSLC]

Killer video Paul! Thanks!

[@bassmorpheus]

Great teaching! This approach has me thinking in a different way and it is all good! Thanks!!

[@ShebenMuzik]

Great lesson ! Thanks !!

[@twobarsfourstars]

Awesome lesson, thank you!!!!

[@jodi183]

Going back to basics with a nice little twist. I love it! Just what I needed. Thank you!!!!

[@raylo1017]

I actually understood this once you applied it to Killer Joe. It just made so much sense to me at this point. Great job at explaining this to a non-Jazz bass player. Thank you pdbass!!!

[@gorkinikolic5102]

Thank you very much for opening new door, for me! God bless you!

[@Twobarpsi]

This was excellent! I watch as a guitar player, and always learn so much!

[@leviyitzhaqgarbose3523]

Great delivery! Thanks!

[@anthonywhite3827]

Like you I started playing the trumpet. I played from the 4th grade all through college. After college I stopped and didn't start playing the bass until about 15 years ago and all this time I've always thought of bass playing in terms of scales, which is what I did when I played the trumpet, and kept wondering why I wasn't able to play any decent walking bass lines. Now I see the bass in a whole different way. Thank you for this, and I must say that you're an outstanding bass player. I hope that one day I'll be half as good as you are.

[@cliffcastle9808]

Excellent approach. It opens up a myriad of possibilities for the creative mind. Just because it's simple , doesn't mean it's easy .

[@haeuptlingaberja4927]

Awesome insight, as always. I have had a very strange relationship with music for more than 50 years. I had very good pitch when I was little. I could parrot any song I heard with my voice. And when I took lessons on the classic Wurlitzer church organ, I could hear the notes that I read. And then puberty and 3 consecutive, massive concussions happened at the same time. I lost my gift. But because I remembered that sweet spot so well, I kept playing, on piano, guitar and, especially, the bass. Despite playing in ridiculously loud bands from the 70s onward, my hearing is much better than it has any right to be...but I am not that "musical prodigy" that I used to be. I can hear when my mates shift from D to G, for example, but distinguishing between diminished and augmented, for an even more example, is very hard for me in a live setting, with the typical crappy acoustics and sound engineering. I have many times considered bashing my poor old noggin with a mallet to set things back to what they were, but I am not quite as crazy as this must sound to you. Thanks, man. I really love your channel.😮

[@brianstones6234]

No doubt! Right on!

[@pangeaproxima3681]

Excellent lesson!

[@zyupan7050]

This is crazy! Thank you!

[@bustabass9025]

I struggled with triads in my study of music theory. In retrospect, it's surprisingly simple when approached like you're presenting it here. I guess it was too much information to absorb when studied from a textbook, as opposed to more practical hands-on learning like with this tutorial. Good stuff! 👍🏿

[@bustabass9025]

@urproblem Everything starts somewhere at some time from a singularly conceptualized point, generally speaking. That much is, or at least, should be clear. However, peripheral factors are always added to the equation along the way. It's the way the process works. Those factors are usually expressed exhaustively in text, though, when the fact of the matter is, they may or may not ever make their way into the individual learning or practical experience. Add to that a truncated span of time to internalize it all and then regurgitate it for assessment and evaluation, and the struggle ensues. Whereas, the basic focus, when boiled down to its essential elements as in this tutorial, and the differences are as much striking as they are revelatory. Like I said... Good stuff! 👍🏿

[@hahabass]

Damn! This is spot on!!!! Thank you!!! 🙏🏽

[@bassplayer1966]

VERY ELEMENTARY AND SIMPLE...THANK YOU!!

[@anthonyglaser929]

good lesson. something fun to play with.

[@lesliestevenson5261]

Typical, I have tendinitis at the moment. Will definitely save and try once my wrist is better. What a great way to frame it. I'm not great with theory but I understand this and will be all the better for it. Sometimes theres a clear explanation that makes you get something. Good job.

[@edhorne2663]

Excellent. Chord tones are where it's at. This is what Jeff Berlin teaches.

[@luiszuluaga6575]

I’m a drummer but I want to understand bassists better, so here I am!

[@clivesweet]

mmmkay well this is sick! much appreciated!

[@markspielman2929]

Beautiful!!

[@exdrummer198]

OG PT 💪 🎸 🎼

[@josephromano7867]

This as usual is great Merry Christmas Paul!!!!

[@charlieburns1385]

That's awesome 👍🎶 Thanks

[@cavery1261]

Thanks!

[@aaronm71]

You're the best!

[@guilhermefreitas5970]

Thank you Man, worth click on your videos ❤❤❤

[@richtraube2241]

I tried singing some inversions and realized I have trouble hearing augmented triads. From now on I'm working this into my day. Easy to do, no set up required.

[@offbeatbassgear]

Triads are supremely useful and versatile and are invaluable on both the bass and guitar, it allows you as a player the chance to find and familiarize yourself with inversions and arranging chords and chord progressions in new and challenging ways.

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

Basic stuff, so important. Merci.

[@benjamiaule3984]

Excellent 👌🏻😙

[@GriotSpeak]

Thanks! Excellent lesson as always!

[@pdbass]

THANK YOU!! 🙏🏽

[@DannyWilliams-ch6xq]

I believe you. 100%.

[@DannyWilliams-ch6xq]

And I LOVE BENNY G. HE opened my eyes to the geometry behind the game of pool, at age 11, informally. This helped me to be an above average pool player, even as a kid. But Triads are EVERYTHING. I note many world class musicians I regard, use them intuitively, practically, etc. and don't get to inverting some ish....

[@DaddyBooneDon]

Thank you.

[@iainctduncan]

As usual, great video Paul! My principal instrument is sax and your channel is the perfect tour of the bass as study bass and grooves to broaden my skills and vocabulary. Something that really opened up improv for me on horn was combining triads and triad pairs with lower and upper neighbours, it really made them click and turn into language. In case that is a good suggestion for another video... :-)

[@chrisclermont456]

Awesome bro!! Since I went back to teaching a year ago, my more advanced students are probably sick of me harping on triads!! 😅

[@insidejazzguitar8112]

Excellent!

[@jazzhook3310]

I love all your videos man! This is just a shout out thanks.

[@pdbass]

🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

[@TehAwesomer]

This was very interesting to me as an electronic musician hoping to write better basslines... 👍

[@nadim4343]

Subed. Excellent!!!

[@truthpopup]

Extended chords can be thought of as one triad superimposed above another triad. For example, a Bm triad above a C triad makes a C+11 chord, which includes a major 7th, 9th, and augmented 11th. Or a Bb triad superimposed above a Cm triad makes a Cm11 chord, which includes a flatted 7th, 9th, and 11th.

[@davidheylen2452]

Wow! What a great lesson! To (very roughly) paraphrase Nietzsche, the deepest wisdom is the simplest and most clear. Excellent video. (as usual)

[@sweetegg]

Awesome

[@hazeljane3034]

great vid thx :)

[@DrumTipTuesday]

"Triad" - and see what you can come up with lol Great video

[@rossthrockmorton2116]

Great stuff as usual man! I never subscribed the the “chord/scale relationship” way of thinking. I definitely gotta start working on triad arpeggios more!

[@py_a_thon]

I've played guitar for too long. Modes and keychanges are just hardwired somehow and I do not always understand how. The basics, explained well, definitely seem to demystify music a bit. I try to strike a balance between the magic act of not really knowing what I am doing with music, and the muscle memory and knowledge of formal music theory.

[@py_a_thon]

And yeah, practicing triads, arpeggios and scales is just great. Even the lazy form is useful.

[@jandenijs7337]

triad, try it, nice word play

[@GreenCheesePizza]

Just 3 that must be a magic #

[@busterrabbit]

Neil Stubenhaus's bassline to Killer Joe, on Quincy Jones' Jook Joint album, really funks it up!

[@MaliV.Williams]

Been doing this for Years, by EAR!! (I'm Right-Brained..!!)

[@GazAce]

Do you create any vids like that but with electric fret bass also showing Tabs? That would've been good for bass newbs, trying to expand. Good video though, cheers.

[@aridagan8205]

Speaking of Killer Joe, Ray Brown played it great on the Quincy Jones album Walking in Space. Ray played some electric bass on that album too. I think he played a fretless. It was recorded in 69' so it would have had to have been a first year production fretless Fender Precision I believe. Thanks for the lesson Paul.

[@joshmcdzz6925]

there was no fretless until jaco came up it one.. so he couldn't have played a fretless..

[@aridagan8205]

They didn't make fretless jazz basses then but they started making fretless Precisions in 69'. Ampeg made fretless basses even before that. Check out the tracks Ray played electric on and I think you'll agree that it sounds like a fretless. @@joshmcdzz6925

[@tiltil9442]

@@joshmcdzz6925 bs

[@ericplummer4089]

.moocho moocho thanks!

[@mikerivera7509]

PD bass drops knowledge

[@smokingred5813]

Triad. Try it! 😊

[@aaronjackarts]

Cool :)

[@planetpjr]

that's the smoke

[@pgrvloik]

Great. As a bass player I'm mainly using chord tones to build bass lines. However I struggle to understand what you mean by horizontal and vertical on this context.

[@pdbass]

Horizontal: moving up and down like a scale in Maj & min 2nds Vertical: moving up and down like a chord in 3rds (or wider intervals)

[@indigosnow_]

Badass

[@313mph]

you're a bad cat! I hope youre coming to NAMM.

[@claudiakramer4516]

I usually call these lines, "counter chordal", because Im alternating between two triads back and forth

[@funkemofo]

Truths! There’s this Marcous Miller clinic and he asks bass players, something like…Do you play piano or know enough harmony to pick out chords??? It was met with a non response 🙃

[@wolfgangsaller5843]

A revelation!!!

[@WillyFranklinOnBass]

Dude.... I need lessons... :)

[@mariodmoses32]

👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

[@Pnanasnoic]

"yikes" lol. Me too, bro, me too.

[@richardabanono4511]

Duran Duran rio bass line ✌👍🎼🎶🎸

[@1234drums]

Cooooool

[@KaltOhm]

Nice hack! What's the rationale behind taking Bb and C triads for a Gmin chord?

[@gidikalchhauser]

4:29 "which (..) contain all notes of the scale except for one" The rationale is threefold (all examples in parentheses pertaining to Gmin Aeolian) - scalar triads don't clash with the scale, but reinforce it (Gm, Adim, Bb, Cm, Dm, Eb, F) - neighboring scalar triads sound plausible next to each other (smooth voice leading) - avoid the tonic (Gm) to not sound bland, avoid the scalar dim triad (Adim) to not sound too wonky (unless that's what you're going for)

[@KaltOhm]

@@gidikalchhauserah so it’s Cmin. From the video I heard C and thought C major which wasn’t making sense for me. Thanks for the explanation!

[@thearto]

@@KaltOhm I think he did mean C major though, which would give you a Dorian sound (same scale as he used in the scale-based example) I'm really curious what kind of system he uses to organize these in his mind... I came up with this, based off of the underlying chord: Gm7 -> Bb major, C minor (natural minor) OR Bb major, C major (dorian) Gmaj7 -> B minor, C major OR B minor, C# diminished (lydian) G7 -> B diminished, C major Using a different chord quality for the C and/or moving it up to a C# should give some spicy altered dominant sounds Gminor-maj7 -> Bb augmented, C major

[@nicktomato7]

@@theartohe mentioned defaulting to playing dorian - so if we hear Gm7 like a ii chord, we’ve got all the notes & chords of G dorian (or F major) to play around with then triads like Bb and C are appropriate

[@pdbass]

You’re thinking very ‘bass player’ here! Fitting the ‘correct’ notes to match the chord. Triad pairs are about creating a kind of vertical sound that can be inside or outside depending on what triads you choose. If I picked C & D Major, that would have worked, or Eb & F. Chord/scale relationships are based on very horizontal concepts. We play up-and-down scales. The triadic thing is much more vertical and horn-like. Think playing a sound more than fitting the right notes in.

[@ErixSamson]

I'm lost on triad pairs (around 3'58''). How do you know (or guess) you can play CMaj (C E G) and BbMaj (Bb D F) over Gmin7 (G Bb D F)? Do you assume that Gmin7 necessarily is the Dorian mode of FMaj?

[@pdbass]

I’m just picking that sound! It’s more vertical than thinking about chord/scale relationships (which are more horizontal). I could have done C Major & D Major for a totally different sound on Gmin. Don’t try to justify right notes. Play the sound first and see what happens.

[@n1chr0me6]

Not sure I followed here: "we want to improvise on a Gm7... can play pentatonic... but if we take the same two triads of Bb and C." How do you come up with these triads for the Gm7 chord?

[@pdbass]

Gmin7: G - Bb - D - F That’s a Bb triad minus the G (upper structure)! I picked a neighboring triad that matched diatonically (C - E - G), but I could have chosen something crazy like Ab to get an inside/outside sound. Stop thinking about chord/scale relationships. There are no ‘right’ notes-only SOUNDS. Think vertically, not horizontally.

[@n1chr0me6]

Thanks for the explanation! So in the scale terms (I'm still super new to music theory), in this case you happened to pick a triad "on the 3rd and 4th note of the original scale", and have the 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 4th, 6th, 8th notes to play with, as opposed to pentatonic 1/3/4/5/7, but also this makes you play in a quite different way than just the plain old running up&down the pentatonic.

[@SubjectiveMap]

👍👍👍

[@paulpaul00]

!👍

[@JamesSpeiser]

boom

[@andylee6228]

I'd have enjoyed the show more if you'd emphasised the triad/try it pun. I'm not convinced yu meant it.

[@pdbass]

Somebody’s getting fired over this…

[@PharaohLawLess1]

This is way too advance for me. I really need to buy an upright bass

[@unduloid]

I don't know, man. I'd rather not have the Triad after me.

[@crapmalls]

Thats four notes 😂