What Are You Listening For When Chorus Changes e.g.
Wed, 06/12/2013 - 18:26
He David, the website is changing as we speak. It is great.
I am using Itunes to have my songs lined up to play in succession and it has the .pdf tabs right there so it is all ready to be played. This is different from digging in with the slow downer. It all has its purposes.
My question is, for e.g. I am working on Gary's Blues at full tempo with the Jam track. When you are jamming against it, are you listening to where the bass is going, or is it the drums or is it both?
I know you are learning the standup bass. Is there a reason why listening to where the bas is going with its' progression better than the drummer.
Thank you so much for constantly improving on perfection.
Will
The general answer is we listen to everything, but we first need to listen to each one individually first. The drums are good to tell us when chord change happens... it's common for them (but not always) to play a fill leading into bars 5, 9 and 1. The bass is even better because they're commonly playing a pattern that can do the counting for you (the "Blue Midnight" bass line is a good example) AND commonly transitioning to chord change. Guitar and piano can also help. I recommend you listen to each instrument... all the way through the song... one at a time... this will give you a good sense of what they're laying down for THAT song. THEN listen to me play on the original track and listen to how the band and the harmonica interweave. This way, when you go to play, you have a higher probability of staying in time with the rest of the musicians. It gets down to being mindful of all that's around you musically. It's a process, but a real fun one!