Beginner Bass Base: Building Blocks Of A Groove - The Groove Skeleton (Part 1 Of 4)

MASTER BASS EDUCATOR PATRICK PFEIFFER HELPS BUILD EVERY ELEMENT OF YOUR PLAYING WITH HIS BEGINNER BASS BASE COLUMN

By Patrick Pfeiffer

ORIGINALLY POSTED IN BASS MAGAZINE, March 2020

A lot of musical information is packed into a bass groove. What is the tempo of the music? The feel? What’s the tonal center? The electric bass guitar is unique in that it is as much an instrument of harmony as it is of rhythm, which brings a lot of responsibility to the job of being a bass player.

The quest to create a perfect groove can be a bit overwhelming when you first start out, but if you dissect any well-constructed groove and familiarize yourself with all the different components, the process becomes more manageable. Over the next several Bass Magazine issues, I’ll be covering the four essential building blocks of a great bass groove and how to practice each one so you can be the groovemaster you were meant to be. The four elements are:

• Groove skeleton

• Groove apex

• Groove tail

• Harmonic contour

No matter what your preferred musical style is, knowing and applying these groove elements makes you a better bass player.

For this issue it’s the groove skeleton, which is probably the most essential part of any groove. After all, if you don’t have a skeleton, where do you hang the meat? The groove skeleton consists of the first two notes of the groove. These two notes set the tone (pun!) for the entire groove. The groove skeleton usually gives you the tonal center (most of the time it’s the root of the chord), the tempo, and also the style (through the use of rhythmic subdivisions — for instance, 16th- notes are usually funkier than eighth-notes).

Example 1 shows a simple groove frame to use for practicing. The notes in this groove remain the same throughout the other examples; the only change is a note added after the first one to create a different groove skeleton. This gives you a good idea about how altering rhythms affects the feel of your groove.

First up, the one-e groove skeleton (Ex. 2a), which tends to be used in funk styles (I’m counting the four 16th-notes of a beat as “one-e-and-a”). As you may have guessed, the notes for this groove skeleton are on the one and the e — the first two 16th-notes of the measure. Set your metronome somewhere around 80 beats per minute and hang with this groove for a while until you feel the funk.

Some famous grooves using the one-e groove skeleton include The O’Jays’ “For the Love of Money” (Anthony Jackson on bass, Ex. 2b), Wilson Pickett’s “Funky Broadway” (Tommy Cogbill on bass, Ex. 2c), and Tower Of Power’s “You’ve Got to Funkifize” (Francis “Rocco” Prestia on bass, Ex. 2d).

Next, the one-and groove skeleton. Keep the groove structure of Ex. 2 and the same tempo with your metronome, but now place the second note of the groove skeleton on the and of the first beat, making the first two notes two eighth-notes (Ex. 3a). Notice how all of a sudden the groove seems to settle into a rock feel.

Famous bass grooves using the one-and groove skeleton include Bill Withers’ “Use Me” (Melvin Dunlop on bass, Ex. 3b), The Beatles’ “Come Together” (Paul McCartney on bass, Ex. 3c), and Sam & Dave’s “Soul Man” (Donald “Duck” Dunn on bass, Ex. 3d). Moving on, the one-a groove skeleton moves the second note of the groove by yet another 16th-note and places the first two notes of the groove on the one and the a (the last 16th) of the first beat, which creates a distinct R&B flavor. Check out Ex. 4a for the exercise groove.

Some classic bass grooves using the one-a groove skeleton are Jaco Pastorius’ bass line on “The Chicken” (Ex. 4b), The Temptations’ “Cloud Nine” (James Jamerson on bass, Ex. 4c), and King Curtis’ “Memphis Soul Stew” (Tommy Cogbill’s bass groove, Ex. 4d).

There comes a time when a bass groove just needs to settle things down into a down-beat pattern. Such is the function of the one- two groove skeleton. The first two notes of the groove are on beat one and on beat two.

Grab the exercise groove in Ex. 5a and work with this a bit.

Great groove specimens of the one-two groove skeleton are Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” (Tommy Cogbill on bass, Ex. 5b), Curtis Mayfield’s “Pusherman” (Joseph “Lucky” Scott on bass, Ex. 5c), and Bob Marley’s “Stir It Up” (Aston “Familyman” Barrett on bass, Ex. 5d).

The one-two-and groove skeleton is the groove of choice for some especially deep pocket grooves. A full beat-and-a-half between the first and the second note of the groove gives a whole new meaning to the term “playing space” (Ex. 6a).

Notable grooves with a one-two-and groove skeleton include Aretha Franklin’s “Chain of Fools” (Tommy Cogbill on bass, Ex. 6b), Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy Mercy Me” (Bob Babbitt on bass, Ex. 6c), and The Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” (Bill Wyman on bass, Ex. 6d — not to be confused with Keith Richards’ guitar line).

Your mission as super-agent bass players, should you choose to accept it, is to search out your favorite bass grooves and determine the groove skeleton for each.

Try to discover the correlation between each groove’s intensity (funky, laid back, rocking, deep pocket) and its groove skeleton. Keep track of your favorite grooves — perhaps start a “groove journal” so you are able to draw from an array of different grooves when it becomes time to compose your own.