BASS
SUBDIVIDE ! | Adam Nitti
As bass players , we are required to be both the harmonic and rhythmic foundation of the music . Harmonic knowledge can be acquired in different ways and is usually considered to be more academic in nature . Rhythmic skills , however , usually require more innate skill or experience because of the way they combine emotivity and interpretation of the groove in interactive settings . Having the ability to keep great time and provide predictable pulse for the band is vital for a bass player . In my humble opinion , you would be better off as a bassist that could groove hard but didn ’ t know theory , as opposed to being a player filled with musical knowledge who doesn ’ t have confidenceinspiring timing . A bassist with great feel can always learn more about harmony and theory , but a knowledge-filled player might not necessarily have a natural sense of time and pulse that would earn trust from his / her musical peers in a groovy performance situation .
So , if we have shortcomings related to groove and timekeeping , this leads us to the obvious conclusion that it is in our best interest to sort that out . There is no shortage of exercises out there that we can practice to further develop our sense of time . Many of you out there are already working with loops , metronomes , or drum machines to improve the accuracy of your timekeeping and execution of lines . That is of course a fantastic thing to do but remember that if you want to truly have great timing , you must develop your internal clock so that you are able to naturally play in time without continuous external guidance or assistance . For more on that check out my earlier “ 16 th Note Groove Displacement Exercise ” column , but just keep that in the back of your mind as you work on these exercises .
SUBDIVISIONS One of the ways that great players maintain great timing is by subdividing the time in some way to make it easier to follow the natural cyclical pulse of the music .
Subdividing means that you take musical rhythms or individual notes and break them up into smaller resolutions to lean on for reference . For example , if you were playing a bass line in 4 / 4 time that was made up of half notes , you might subdivide the measures into quarter notes or eighth notes in your head . By “ hearing ” the pulse of the finer subdivisions in your head , you then have a higher frequency of timing reference points that you can play to , and the more reference points you have , the easier it is to keep time . Try this out on your own and observe how much easier it is to play in time when you are playing to more subdivisions . Even though these subdivisions are somewhat imaginary , they still exist within the timing of the music because they are just slices of time in between the notes you are playing ! Another example might be subdividing 16 th notes in your head while playing a bass line made up of quarter notes . Again , it is the finer resolution of the 16 th note subdivisions that help maintain a much more accurate timing of the initial attack of each quarter note . Experiment with this in several ways and see how it positively impacts your accuracy .
EXERCISES Now let ’ s get into a different type of subdivision strategy . The following exercises will challenge you to take a slow quarter note pulse and subdivide it into a series of fractions . As you will see , we are simply going to split the quarter note into smaller and smaller segments as we go through each iteration . To start , we are going to use a metronome set to quarter note = 40 bpm . Make sure you are not using a setting that adds subdivisions already ! For these exercises I prefer to use a metronome or click track instead of a drum loop because we don ’ t want the assistance from the other subdivided drum instruments like hi-hat , kick drum , etc .
We will start with rhythmically applying 1 OVER 1 ( playing a single note that fills the entire duration of each click / pulse ), and then go to 2 OVER 1 ( playing 2 equal length notes in the space of each click duration ), then 3 OVER 1 , 4 OVER 1 , etc ... You can watch a video of me demonstrating these exercises
here .
I have given exercises that take you all the way through 8 OVER 1 , but I strongly recommend you focus on only one at a time until you are able to predictively feel these subdivisions naturally . Some other tips for success :
• Before you begin to play the first note of each exercise , hear the subdivisions in your head consistently as if you were listening to yourself play . The goal is to play the very first iteration perfectly without having to correct your timing by speeding up or slowing down .
• Count the subdivisions out loud as you practice until you get super comfortable . Speaking the subdivisions speeds up the process of predictive internalization of the timing and helps to eliminate distractions .
• After you have mastered playing these subdivisions using a single note , try changing the notes so that each note in the subdivision becomes part of a bass line .
• Be patient ! This will not be perfect after