ActiveMusician.com Riff of the Day

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

Christopher Sung — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500

excerpted from Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring by Christopher Sung

Here's a nice tune for the holidays or any day. Learn it and play it for your family at Thanksgiving or Christmas. They'll thank you for it, and realize that maybe it was a good idea to buy you that guitar in the first place...

Set your loop value to "once" or greater. The last measure should flow right back into the beginning. This part is meant to played twice. I'll put in the rest of the tune soon...

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Soloing Using Triads

Kerry Galloway — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500

excerpted from Soloing Using Triads by Kerry Galloway

Triads are very powerful, because they're literally in the air around us. Almost all vibrating bodies produce harmonics, and because of the laws of physics, the harmonics we hear most strongly generate triads - check out the strong harmonics at the 12th, 7th, 5th and 4th frets on your bass. We hear them almost instinctively. We'll work with major triads today.
Check it out: because of the "strength" of their distinctive sound, triads help "make sense" of your lines.

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Jimmy Page Style Licks

Christopher Sung — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500

excerpted from Jimmy Page Style Licks by Christopher Sung

Ahhhhh. Jimmy Page. Guitarist for the Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, the Firm, and studio guitarist for just about every top 10 hit that came out of London in the mid-60's, Jimmy's style is a mixture of rock and blues. What I find so compelling about Jimmy's playing is his great use of different rhythmic patterns along with more traditional blues playing. In this lesson, we'll take a look at some of the devices he uses for soloing, and some ideas he uses for playing blues.

In the example below, the main melody line for the first 3 measures is the notes played on beats 1 and 3. For the beats in between, we use a little chromatic triplet figure to add interest, creating what might be called a compound melody. Note how these melody notes change to reflect the harmony - particular the F in measure 3. To really hammer it home when we return to the Am chord in measure 5, a nice blues figure is used in measure 4.

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Rocco Prestia 16th Notes

Chris Tarry — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500

excerpted from Rocco Prestia 16th Notes by Chris Tarry

After the classic Motown period, various players started to build on Jamerson's inspiration. One of these 16th note pioneers was Rocco Prestia from the band Tower of Power. Rocco bridged the gap between Jamerson and Jaco. Find Tower of Power recordings and transcribe the bass lines. You will find it a challenge and great for your time. Here is a Rocco type line below.

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Introduction to String Bending

Christopher Sung — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500

excerpted from Introduction to String Bending by Christopher Sung

In measure 9, we simply use the same bend from measure 1 (the A bent up to the B), but we are doing it an octave higher. Even though its the same bend, it sounds a little bit different - partly because it's higher in pitch, but also because the chord under it is a B7, instead of the E7 in measure 1 (shown in page 1).

Note in measure 11 in beat 2, how we use a quick bend of the same type (A to B) to launch the lick. Using quick bends can really create hip licks, so the more comfortable you can become with these two basic bends, the better your blues playing will sound. After a while, you'll find that you can use them pretty much everywhere all over the neck.

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Basic Bass Warm Up

Jason Bailey — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500

excerpted from Basic Bass Warm Up by Jason Bailey

just a fun little diddy to warm up with, that last part is a slide.

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Walking Bass Lines with Chords

Christopher Sung — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500

excerpted from Walking Bass Lines with Chords by Christopher Sung

In this lesson, we'll cover some different aspects of playing a walking bass line with some chords on top. We'll look at some of the details of how to play the bass line itself, and then cover a few comping ideas with the chords on top. To give you some idea of what it sounds like when you put it all together, take a look at the following example. In all the examples in this lesson, play the bass line with your thumb, and grab the chords with your fingers. Take it slow and try to get it to chug along with a real swing feel.

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