JK - Evaluation: Lesson 7

Complementary Studies: Liam Marley


Pupil: Joe Kosminsky
Date: 28/01/08
Evaluating Time: 2hrs


This lesson was a very practical and active session for the pupil, as Joseph managed to play along to three songs, one being of a reggae genre and the remaining two being of a rock based genre. This activity enabled the pupil to have an insight into the formation, rhythm and bass content of songs. These songs gave Joseph a chance interact with music using the bass guitar, it gave him a glimpse of what it would be like to interact with real musicians instead of a CD.

Although the lesson was musically driven, in terms of the songs being played, there were practical objectives to be learnt, as in the case of learning open notes. The songs were put in place as stimulation, so the pupil would not just be playing a monotonous pattern for ten minutes and to demonstrate why taking part in the exercise was important.


Lesson Objectives:

1.) To recap on the blues bass lines that we have been working on, these include the basic root to fifth pattern and the bay-on-bass pattern. The newly introduced ‘walking’ bass line, from last lesson, will also be played utilising quarter (crochet) notes and eighth (quaver) notes.

Outcome: With Joseph now being familiar with the basic blues bass line, it allows his fingering techniques to be observed so that any flaws can be spotted and corrected before bad habits begin to settle. Although Joseph’s left hand fingering technique has come a long way since the beginning, he still from time to time strays from the use of the chromatic, one finger per fret, technique and reverts back to using just his first three fingers. This is pointed out to the pupil so that the use of the fourth finger and his weakest finger is not neglected in any fashion, otherwise progression in later years will be hampered.

During this objective the ‘walking’ blues bass pattern was practiced using quarter and eighth note lengths. The quarter note lengths were not a problem for Joseph as these were the note lengths that have been used in previous exercises. However the eighth notes were new to be playing with so Joseph was unfamiliar with the timing involved. It was explained that the eighth notes are half the length of quarter notes; so two eighth notes can be played in the place of one quarter note. With this understood Joseph attempted to play the ‘walking’ blues bass line, as shown in Figure 1 below.


G -|---------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|
D -|---------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|
A -|--------------2-2------5-5------2-2------|-------------2-2------5-5------2-2-----|
E -|-----3-3------------------------------------|----3-3-----------------------------------| X2

G -|---------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|
D -|--------------2-2------5-5------2-2------|-------------2-2-------5-5------2-2----|
A -|-----3-3------------------------------------|----3-3-----------------------------------|
E -|---------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|

G -|---------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|
D -|---------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|
A -|--------------2-2------5-5------2-2------|-------------2-2------5-5------2-2-----|
E -|-----3-3------------------------------------|----3-3-----------------------------------|

G -|---------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|
D -|--------------4-4------7-7------4-4------|-------------2-2-------5-5------2-2----|
A -|-----5-5------------------------------------|----3-3-----------------------------------|
E -|---------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|

G -|---------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|
D -|---------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|
A -|--------------2-2------5-5------2-2------|-------------2-2------5-5------2-2-----|
E -|-----3-3------------------------------------|----3-3-----------------------------------|

(Figure 1)

The current tempo, which was around eighty beats per minute, that was being used for this exercise was far to fast for Joseph to play to using the eighth notes, so it had to be dropped considerably. Once the tempo was decreased to a comfortable speed Joseph was able to play the ‘walking’ bass pattern and in time was able to increase the tempo.


2.) To have the pupil playing along to part of a song or the entire song, whether it would be the actual bass line or a simplified version.

Outcome: Beginning with the Bob Marley and The Wailers song – ‘Waiting In Vain’, Joseph managed to grasp the arrangement of the song quite quickly due its bluesy pattern of G# to C# in the verse. However the actually bass pattern, which consisted of quick strikes from the root note to its relative second interval note and a fast fill in during the chorus, became a problem, as it was too fast to play.


G|----------------------------------------5-----------------|
D|-------------------------------------------8-6-----------|
A|-----------------------3-4--4-6-4------------8-6------|
E|--4--4-6-4--4-4-4-------------------------------------|

(Figure 2 – shows the quick strikes from G# (root note) on the 4th fret of the E string to Bb (second interval) on the 6th fret on the E string.


To solve this problem of speed Joseph instead just played the root notes and once confident added some opens notes where possible (refer to Figure 3), which then lead in smoothly to the next objective.


G|----------------------------------------------------------|
D|----------------------------------------------------------|
A|-----------------------0-4--4-0-4--4-4-4-------------|
E|--4--4-0-4--4-4-4-------------------------------------|

(Figure 3)



3.) To introduce the use of open notes being utilised in conjunction with fretted notes.

Outcome: Fortunately the pupil did not find this objective all that taxing and managed to coordinate his two hands relatively quickly. It was only when the song ‘Molly’s Chambers’ by Kings Of Leon was introduced that the pupil found difficulties. Joseph started off well but began to lose his coordination in his hands and therefore lose his place in the song. However this was to be expected as the bass pattern is a constant open and fretted note oriented bass line, which for a beginning can be fairly fast.

The other difficulty occurred when an open note was plucked on a separate string, as shown in Figure 4, causing difficulty with string cross over and hand coordination. This however will not be mastered in one lesson and will be left for Joseph to practice, to make it perfect.


G -|---------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|
D -|---------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|
A -|--2--0--2--0--2--0--2-----2-----2------|--2--0--2--0--2--0--2----2-----2-----|
E -|---------------------------0-----0----------|---------------------------0----0--------|

(Figure 4)