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The Melody…. God Save the Queen! by Igor Saavedra
This month’s article won’t be a long one, and it will be dedicated to emphasizing which, in my opinion, is the most important aspect within the context of a song or a “normal” musical piece: The Melody; The jewel of the crown, the queen, the point of reference, the context itself, etc. (and I would be able to add many more adjectives to try to define how I see melody within the musical context). Perhaps the last comparison I can make is just to say that if a musical piece or a song is something like a kingdom or much better, “An Empire,” the melody would be the equivalent to “Rome”… that means every road leads to it, everything has to be reported to it and has to be dedicated to it. I think you already know what I mean 😉
Being a bass player myself, I’m conscious that my instrument is mainly a rhythmic based instrument in the first place; I’ve written many articles in here about that specific topic. The rhythm is taking most of our attention while playing, but there’s something even more important than Bass… ohhh how sacrilegious I’m being hahaha! But trust me on this, because “Music” is obviously more important than Bass, and in my opinion Bass has to serve Music and not the opposite.
How I see it, everything we play as bassists has to be related to the melody; let’s see some good examples…
When the melody is actually being played…
– When it comes to dynamics we must lower our volume when the singer or any of the lead instruments is exposing the melody.
– When it comes to esthetics, we have to care about not playing busy while the melody is being exposed, just a few notes, perhaps longer notes… play simple my friends, let the melody shine!
– Also in the esthetics field, play with the proper textures that you may think will help the melody to glow, e.g. palm muting, playing closer to the neck, choosing the proper pickup configuration, etc.
But what happens when the melody was already played and now is time for the solos? Can I just forget about it?
In my opinion the answer must be a gigantic and enormous NOOOOOOOO!
Melody is an entity that should be all the time and every millisecond of the musical piece, acting as the centripetal axis of the song, and the most glorious moment to reflect that concept is on the soloing. But beware, that’ll happen only when it’s time for a really good, musical, and fully mature soloing concept!
Remember the article I wrote some months ago “Think When you Study… Feel When you Play?” well this article is somehow closely related to what I’m saying here.
When we improvise or solo on a song we should be literally “playing” and I want to stress the fact that I’m being absolutely literal here, I mean PLAYING like the kids! We should be singing new melodies and having a great time like kids do as this is not the moment for thinking about the chords that support the song.
Did you see that I said “Chords that are supporting the song?” This is very important, because it’s the main role of the chords. They are not and end in themselves, they are “helping the song,” and more specifically they are helping the melody and any melodic line. So how could anybody relate or base their improvisations on the chords or the harmony? You can immediately notice when a musician starts to do that, because you will start to hear a very identifiable type of solo, which will sound like blocks, pieces, parts of something that are clearly separated from each other, abuse of arpeggios, structured scales, sequences, patterns, etc.; you won’t be able to listen to an idea that’s a whole in itself.
I can literally tell you how I see this…
“When I improvise, I just focus on the original melody of the song, I never think about chords at all. I see the melody as ‘The Real Queen of the Song’ and the point of reference for every note I’ll be playing in my solos.”
When you improvise, you are recreating something, you are relating to a context, and that context is The Melody. While soloing over the melody’s chordal structure, if you are able to abstractly sing the melody in your mind with absolute clearness, thinking about the chordal structure becomes completely unnecessary, and believe me, this is the exact moment for takeoff in your soloing. Try doing it with your voice and you’ll see that in most of the cases it is quite easy, and your consciousness won’t be asking for the chordal structure at all.
And if the song has a special vamp for the solos that has nothing to do with the melody’s chordal structure, well then I suggest you please INVENT A MELODY IN REAL TIME AND RELATE EVERY NOTE OF YOUR SOLO TO IT!
Obviously, translating this concept to an instrument is something harder to achieve, but completely doable. You need to study a lot, play a lot of scales, arpeggios, phrases & chords, organize them, structure them, practice and practice even more. At the end of that cycle, which in average can take from 5 to 20 years, when you are playing and mostly when you are soloing you must be able to purposely “forget” or “take away from your conscious thinking” all you’ve learned.
Remember that I’m not the owner of any truth; I’m just sharing what I’ve learned from my experience. You may agree with it or not, no problem, I love you guys anyway J
Long life to the melody… respect it, serve it, glorify it, help it, love it!
See you on the next!!
Bass Videos
Interview With Bassist Erick “Jesus” Coomes
Bassist Erick “Jesus” Coomes…
It is always great to meet a super busy bassist who simply exudes a love for music and his instrument. Erick “Jesus” Coomes fits this description exactly. Hailing from Southern California, “Jesus” co-founded and plays bass for Lettuce and has found his groove playing with numerous other musicians.
Join us as we hear of his musical journey, how he gets his sound, his ongoing projects, and his plans for the future.
Photo, Bob Forte
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Visit Online
www.lettucefunk.com
IG @jesuscsuperstar
FB@jesuscoomes
FB @lettucefunk
Bass Videos
Working-Class Zeros: Episode #2 – Financial Elements of Working Musicians
Working-Class Zeros: Episode #2 – Financial Elements of Working Musicians
“These stories from the front are with real-life, day-to-day musicians who deal with work life and gigging and how they make it work out. Each month, topics may include… the kind of gigs you get, the money, dealing with less-than-ideal rooms, as well as the gear you need to get the job done… and the list goes on from there.” – Steve the Bass Guy and Shawn Cav
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This Week’s Top 10 Basses on Instagram
Check out our top 10 favorite basses on Instagram this week…
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Bass CDs
New Album: Jake Leckie, Planter of Seeds
Bassist Jake Leckie and The Guide Trio Unveil New Album Planter of Seeds,
to be released on June 7, 2024
Planter of Seeds is bassist/composer Jake Leckie’s third release as a bandleader and explores what beauty can come tomorrow from the seeds we plant today.
What are we putting in the ground? What are we building? What is the village we want to bring our children up in? At the core of the ensemble is The Guide Trio, his working band with guitarist Nadav Peled and drummer Beth Goodfellow, who played on Leckie’s second album, The Guide, a rootsy funky acoustic analog folk-jazz recording released on Ropeadope records in 2022. For Planter of Seeds, the ensemble is augmented by Cathlene Pineda (piano), Randal Fisher (tenor saxophone), and Darius Christian (trombone), who infuse freedom and soul into the already tightly established ensemble.
Eight original compositions were pristinely recorded live off the floor of Studio 3 at East West Studios in Hollywood CA, and mastered by A.T. Michael MacDonald. The cover art is by internationally acclaimed visual artist Wayne White. Whereas his previous work has been compared to Charles Mingus, and Keith Jarrett’s American Quartet with Charlie Haden, Leckie’s new collection sits comfortably between the funky odd time signatures of the Dave Holland Quintet and the modern folk-jazz of the Brian Blade Fellowship Band with a respectful nod towards the late 1950s classic recordings of Ahmad Jamal and Miles Davis.
The title track, “Planter of Seeds,” is dedicated to a close family friend, who was originally from Trinidad, and whenever she visited family or friends at their homes, without anyone knowing, she would plant seeds she kept in her pocket in their gardens, so the next season beautiful flowers would pop up. It was a small altruistic anonymous act of kindness that brought just a little more beauty into the world. The rhythm is a tribute to Ahmad Jamal, who we also lost around the same time, and whose theme song Poinciana is about a tree from the Caribbean.
“Big Sur Jade” was written on a trip Leckie took with his wife to Big Sur, CA, and is a celebration of his family and community. This swinging 5/4 blues opens with an unaccompanied bass solo, and gives an opportunity for each of the musicians to share their improvisational voices. “Clear Skies” is a cathartic up-tempo release of collective creative energies in fiery improvisational freedom. “The Aquatic Uncle” features Randal Fisher’s saxophone and is named after an Italo Calvino short story which contemplates if one can embrace the new ways while being in tune with tradition. In ancient times, before a rudder, the Starboard side of the ship was where it was steered from with a steering oar. In this meditative quartet performance, the bass is like the steering oar of the ensemble: it can control the direction of the music, and when things begin to unravel or become unhinged, a simple pedal note keeps everything grounded.
The two trio tunes on the album are proof that the establishment of his consistent working band The Guide Trio has been a fruitful collaboration. “Santa Teresa”, a bouncy samba-blues in ? time, embodies the winding streets and stairways of the bohemian neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro it is named for. The swampy drum feel on “String Song” pays homage to Levon Helm of The Band, a group where you can’t always tell who wrote the song or who the bandleader is, proving that the sum is greater than the individual parts. Early jazz reflected egalitarianism in collective improvisation, and this group dynamic is an expression of that kind of inclusivity and democracy.
“The Daughters of the Moon” rounds out the album, putting book ends on the naturalist themes. This composition is named after magical surrealist Italo Calvino’s short story about consumerism, in which a mythical modern society that values only buying shiny new things throws away the moon like it is a piece of garbage and the daughters of the moon save it and resurrect it. It’s an eco-feminist take on how women are going to save the world. Pineda’s piano outro is a hauntingly beautiful lunar voyage, blinding us with love. Leckie dedicates this song to his daughter: “My hope is that my daughter becomes a daughter of the moon, helping to make the world a more beautiful and verdant place to live.”
Bass CDs
Debut Album: Nate Sabat, Bass Fiddler
In a thrilling solo debut, bassist Nate Sabat combines instrumental virtuosity with a songwriter’s heart on Bass Fiddler…
The upright bass and the human voice. Two essential musical instruments, one with roots in 15th century Europe, the other as old as humanity itself.
On Bass Fiddler (Adhyâropa Records ÂR00057), the debut album from Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and bass virtuoso Nate Sabat, the scope is narrowed down a bit. Drawing from the rich and thriving tradition of American folk music, Sabat delivers expertly crafted original songs and choice covers with the upright bass as his lone tool for accompaniment.
The concept was born a decade ago when Sabat began studying with the legendary old-time fiddler Bruce Molsky at Berklee College of Music. “One of Bruce’s specialties is singing and playing fiddle at the same time. The second I heard it I was hooked,” recalls Sabat. “I thought, how can I do this on the bass?” From there, he was off to the races, arranging original and traditional material with Molsky as his guide. “Fast forward to 2020, and I — like so many other musicians — was thinking of how to best spend my time. I sat down with the goal of writing some new songs and arranging some new covers, and an entire record came out.” When the time came to make the album, it was evident that Molsky would be the ideal producer. Sabat asked him if he’d be interested, and luckily he was. “What an inspiration to work with an artist like Nate,” says Molsky. “Right at the beginning, he came to this project with a strong, personal and unique vision. Plus he had the guts to try for a complete and compelling cycle of music with nothing but a bass and a voice. You’ll hear right away that it’s engaging, sometimes serious, sometimes fun, and beautifully thought out from top to bottom.”
While this record is, at its core, a folk music album, Sabat uses the term broadly. Some tracks lean more rock (‘In the Shade’), some more pop (‘White Marble’, ‘Rabid Thoughts’), some more jazz (‘Fade Away’), but the setting ties them all together. “There’s something inherently folksy about a musician singing songs with their instrument, no matter the influences behind the compositions themselves,” Sabat notes. To be sure, there are plenty of folk songs (‘Louise’ ‘Sometimes’, ‘Eli’) and fiddling (‘Year of the Ox’) to be had here — the folk music fan won’t go hungry. There’s a healthy dose of bluegrass too (‘Orphan Annie’, ‘Lonesome Night’), clean and simple, the way Mr. Bill Monroe intended.
All in all, this album shines a light on an instrument that often goes overlooked in the folk music world, enveloping the listener in its myriad sounds, textures, and colors. “There’s nothing I love more than playing the upright bass,” exclaims Sabat. “My hope is that listeners take the time to sit with this album front to back — I want them to take in the full scope of the work. I have a feeling they’ll hear something they haven’t heard before.”
Available online at natesabat.bandcamp.com/album/walking-away
Interview With Bassist Erick “Jesus” Coomes
Working-Class Zeros: Episode #2 – Financial Elements of Working Musicians
Tour Touch Base (Bass) with Ian Allison
New Gear: Spector Woodstock Custom Collection Volume II
