DON'T FRET...
LEARN THE NOTES ON THE NECK
The great Steve Lawson brings us a new approach to studying bass at beginner level. The journey begins...
Welcome to another lesson, everyone! Consider this... When it comes to playing any piece of music, there are three ways we can understand what’s going on—and these ways form a triangle. At the most basic, the three ways are what the music sounds like (ear training), what the notes are called (theory), and how the music maps out on the bass (technique). Each of these can be developed in a number of ways.
Ear training can develop beyond just being able to recognize musical notes by ear, to us hearing intricate harmonies and imagining all kinds of possible sounds in our heads for altering and developing the music. Our theory knowledge obviously extends way beyond note names to understanding of keys, chords, unusual scales, and the ways that chords build tension and resolve. And our technique isn’t just about playing the notes, it’s about developing a set of tonal and articulation choices that inform the style and groove of the music we’re playing.
But at a more fundamental level, this relationship between ear training, theory, and technique gives us our three entry points to playing anything. We need skills in all three areas, but often players will have a speciality that helps them execute their given musical style. Classical players and those who play predominantly from sheet music will probably have a highly developed sense of theory to which they apply their technique, using their ears to make judgements about how accurately their theory knowledge is being executed.
Jazz musicians often have incredible ears, responding to changes in improvised music settings with or without mentally naming those changes via their theory knowledge, and then making technical choices based on what they hear and how best they can contribute to the music. Meanwhile, people whose development has been in one band with a group of friends often get really good at playing the set of songs that this band plays, whether originals or covers.