SITTING ON THE DOCK OF THE BAY - first-bass-and …first-bass-and-beyond.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/april20112.pdf · SITTING ON THE DOCK OF THE BAY ... great Otis Redding track

2 | Free How To Play Bass Monthly Ezine | April 2012 | how-to-play-bass.com

SITTING ON THE DOCK OF THE BAY

I woke up this morning to the sad news that Donald “The Duck” Dunn has passed away.

I’ve always loved Duck’s bass lines - he played on all those classic Stax soul lines (Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Wilson Pickett, and so on).

April’s free monthly ezine will resurrect an old tutorial I filmed that’s been gathering virtual dust on my hard drive. This is a tutorial to the great Otis Redding track Dock of The Bay - and of course the bass line was played by Duck.

The tutorial is a simplified version of the tune - and I teach the intro, the verse, the bridge and the outro.

The tune is in G - so let’s get started with the intro.

Now you’ll see on the video that there’s a little pre note before the ‘D’ notes on beats 3 and 4 of the intro. You can either play that with a ham-mer on, or with a slide. Refer to the video - I’ve explained and shown both ways of doing it.

OK, next up is the verse. This is 8 bars long - it’s pretty straightforward.The notation/tab looks like this:


OK after the verse comes the chorus. This has a similar rhythm to the verse - and a similar chromatic walk down (only this time from G to E). See the video for full explanation, the music/tab looks like this:

After Verse 2/Chorus 2 we’ve got the bridge. There’s nothing too com-plex here, but watch out for the ‘pushes.’ (A push is technically speak-ing called an ‘anticipated chord’ or a ‘syncopation.’ But musicians will often say this chord is pushed - it means that you play it before the beat. You’ve already been doing it in the verse and the chorus!)


OK the final part of the tune is the outro. This is pretty similar to the in-tro - but the 4th bar of the pattern is different. The music/tab looks like this:

So those are the component parts of Dock Of The Bay. If you listen to the original you’ll be able to work out the order of the parts (e.g. Intro, Verse 1, Chorus 1, Verse 2 etc etc) and put the sections together to get through the tune.

Please note that in the song the verse and the chorus are always played in the same order, so on the video I teach them together.


FIRST BASS AND BEYOND

As well as the free monthly ezine, I also publish a weekly magazine called FIRST BASS AND BEYOND.

First Bass And Beyond is published every Friday, usually weighs in at around 50 to 55 pages and follows this format:

1. Main Transcription: The main transcription each week is featured in notation, and then in notation and tab. Recent transcriptions have in-cluded basslines like Jewel Of The Summertime (Audioslave), 7 Rooms Of Gloom (James Jamerson), Graceland (Paul Simon) and more.

2. Beginners Corner: The beginners corner is a bass line/lesson that is suitable for beginners/intermediate players to play. The beginners cor-ner lesson is also turned into a video - a basic version goes on YouTube, and a High Def version is available for the members to download. (This version features extra content including playalongs to the original re-cording at normal speed and also slowed down). Currently the Begin-ners Corner is featuring a mini series of John Deacon lines. The next series will be Doors bass lines.

3. The Two Tone Bass Zone This is a guest column by a guy called Gor-don Clayton and is scheduled to run for around 15 columns. And it will draw heavily on Gordon’s recent experience where he had to cover a friend in a ska band at short notice - and had to learn a ton of Ska/2 Tone type songs (Specials, Madness, The Beat, and so on). Each column will feature at least one bass line along with Gordon’s commentary on when you can step away from the original line and build on it, and when you have to stay faithful to the original line.

4. Blues Bass For Beginners

This is a new column for beginners in the weekly magazine that will build on the 30 Module bass for beginners course that’s available to allannual subscribers. There will be a song tutorial in every column.


5. Bass Book/DVD Review There is a detailed bass book or bass DVD review in each ezine too - recently I’ve been reviewing books from other musical instruments and disciplines that we can use to create interest-ing new exercises for the bass.

6. Monthly Ezine Archive Annual Subscribers will also get access to the archive of all previous monthly ezines. (So far that’s 20 Video/PDF les-sons)

7. Bass For Beginners Course Annual Subscribers also get access to the 30 Module Bass For Beginners Course that’s been running over the last 7 onths in First Bass And Beyond. There’s a detailed overview below.

Here’s the First Bass And Beyond page- for more information if you’re interested in joining:

http://www.how-to-play-bass.com/first-bass-and-beyond.html

The Bass For Beginners Course

I used to teach an interactive series of lessons for beginners - but I got full up pretty quickly. So I started a waiting list. That got full up too. And I hated emailing people and telling them that I was full. So I de-cided to revamp my course and turn it into a series of lessons that a be-ginner could follow and go from just picking up the bass to being able to play though a bunch of songs, to have a simple yet robust left and right hand technique, and be aiming to ramp up to a low intermediate stan-dard by the end of the course.

That course is 30 lessons long. Here’s the syllabus:

Lesson 1 Lesson 1 is about plucking hand technique. The technique I teach is called the 2 Finger Rest Stroke and I go into how it works, anchor points for your thumb, and some simple exercises to get you to start working on this technique.



Lesson 2 Lesson 2 is a further development of Lesson 1 - we’re still work-ing on plucking hand technique. In Lesson 2 we’re looking at how the plucking hand deals with string crossing.

Lesson 3 So far we’ve been working on our right hand technique in an ascending fashion - now we’re adding the ‘rest’ to the rest stroke and working on descending as well.

Lesson 4 In Lesson 4 we introduce the fretting hand and look at basic fretting hand exercises. We talk about finger independence and digital exercises. And then we get to the heart of my method - applying this information to songs. In Lesson 4 we’re learning one of the easiest bass lines in history - With Or Without You by U2.

Lesson 5 In Lesson 5 we’re going to start systematically learning the notes on our bass guitar fretboard. We’re going to use an exercise called The Notefinder to learn every location where you can play the notes ‘E’ or ‘F’ on your fretboard. In the song tutorial part of the lesson we’re looking at the first part of a simplified version of Every Breath You Take by The Police.

Lesson 6 In Lesson 6 we’re continuing our explorations of the finger-board - we’re learning all the locations of the notes ‘F#’ and ‘G’. And in the song tutorial section of the lesson we’re learning the rest of Every Breath You Take.

Lesson 7 In Lesson 7 we’re adding two more notes to our ‘palette’ of learned notes - this week it’s ‘Ab’ and ‘A.’ And in the song tutorial we’re learning So Lonely by The Police.

Lesson 8 In Lesson 8 we’re moving further up the fretboard and learn-ing the location of ‘Bb’ and B. And we’re having an introductory look at rhythm.

Lesson 9 In Lesson 9 we’re learning the locations of ‘C’ and ‘Db.’ And we’re looking at a bassline that uses whole notes and eighth notes - that’s Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol.


Lesson 10 In this lesson we’re going to learn the last two notes we need to learn to complete our 12 note palette - ‘Eb’ and ‘E.’ And we’re spend-ing some time looking at quarter note bass lines - we’re looking at some bass line snippets like Moondance and My Baby Just Cares For Me and then we have a detailed song tutorial and we’re using Rock Around The Clock by Bill Haley as our ‘quarter note rhythm’ tune.

Lesson 11 In this lesson we’re doing two things with the note finder exercises we’ve been working on. Firstly we’re creating a composite ex-ercise with all 12 notes. And we’re using a pack of playing cards to ‘ran-domize’ what we play so that we can be sure we truly know it. We’re also looking at how you can use a Tascam Bass Trainer to slow a piece of mu-sic down to learn it, and why this is important. We’re doing this with an 8 bar section of Superstition.

Lesson 12 In this lesson we’re developing on our left hand technique with some digital permutation exercises, we’re learning a specific rhyth-mic pattern and how to count it, and then we’re learning a song based on that rhythmic pattern. That song is My Girl by The Temptations.

Lesson 13 In this lesson we’re got another set of left hand technique/digital permutation exercises, we’re learning a specific rhythmic pattern and how to count it, and then we’re learning a song based on that rhyth-mic pattern. That song is Tramp by Otis Redding.

Lesson 14 In this lesson we’re got another set of left hand technique/digital permutation exercises, we’re learning a specific rhythmic pattern and how to count it, and then we’re learning a song based on that rhyth-mic pattern. That song is Tramp by Otis Redding.

Lesson 15 In this lesson we’ve got a composite set of rhythmic exer-cises and we’re looking in more detail at straight 8th note rhythms - and the song we’re using to illustrate this is Dancing In The Dark by Bruce Springsteen.

Lesson 16 In this lesson we’ve got some more rhythmic exercises and the song we’re using to illustrate this is New Years Day by U2.


Lesson 17 In this lesson we start a mini-series on practice thoughts. Plus there’s a new set of rhythms and song that illustrates them. That song is Glory Days by Bruce Springsteen.

Lesson 18 In this lesson we’re continuing with our thoughts on practic-ing. Then we’re moving on with our rhythmic studies - and looking at the simple bass line to Stand By Me as our song tutorial.

Lesson 19 In Lesson 19 we’ve got more thoughts on practicing, and we’re continuing our rhythmic studies and our song tutorial is a song that blends two different rhythmic styles together - that song is Roxanne by The Police.

Lesson 20 In Lesson 20 we’ve got more thoughts on practicing and we’re looking at a rhythm that has a rest on the downbeat. The song tutorial that illustrates this unique rhythm is Addicted To Love by Robert Palmer.

Lesson 21 In Lesson 21we’re starting to move towards the ‘goal’ of the course - being able to play driving and dynamic 8th note based lines. The tutorial this week is Living On A Prayer by Bon Jovi.

Lesson 22 Lesson 22 focuses on practicing and a song tutorial called Keep On Running by Spencer Davis. This is a great bass line and willen-hance your left and right hand techniques.

Lesson 23 Lesson 23 has some more thoughts on practicing - and the song tutorial we’re looking at is that hoary old rock classic Smoke On The Water.

Lesson 24 Lesson 24 includes information on the Deliberate Practice concept of Comfort Zone/Learnign Zone and Panic Zone. And the song tutorial introduces the ‘slow learning’ method of mastering a song or bass line - and we’re using the Riff from Daytripper by the Beatles as our practical example.

Lesson 25 Lesson 25 looks at how to use the principles of Deliberate Practice to audit your practice sessions and make sure you are practicing efficiently. The song tutorial part of the lesson is a complete note by


note tutorial for Daytripper by The Beatles.

Lesson 26 Lesson 26 looks at a really powerful exercise that I learned from Jerry Jemmott - this exercise is called Say It Sing It Play it. The song tutorial is Jamerson’s driving 8th note line on This Old Heart Of Mine by The Isley Brothers.

Lesson 27 In Lesson 27 we’re looking at simple exercises that will in-crease your facility in playing in every key. The song tutorial for this lesson is another Jamerson 8th note line - it’s Get Ready by The Tempta-tions.

Lesson 28 In Lesson 28 we’re continuing to look at increasing your facil-ity in every key. And the song tutorial for this lesson is Nowhere To Run by Martha And The Vandellas

Lesson 29 In Lesson 29 we’re finishing up at our look at increasing your facility in every key. And the song tutorial for this lesson is I Saw Her Standing There by The Beatles/Paul McCartney. Great finger burner!

Lesson 30 In the final lesson of the course we’re looking at where to go from here, and the final song tutorial is Shake A Tailfeather by Duck Dunn/The Blues Brothers.

NOTE: all of these lessons are available to annual subscribers irre-spective of when they join. All the lessons feature notation and tab. All of the lessons feature the teaching in PDF and Video Format. There are downloadable backing tracks for most of the lessons at different tempos to help you practice and learn.

If you figure what the cost of 30 lessons with a private instructor would be then this resource on its own justifies the $127 Annual Subscription fee.

And don’t forget that you’d get another 50 Video Lessons on top of this course.

And the Blues for Bass Beginners column.


And a whole lot more too.

Here’s the link to the First Bass And Beyond page again.


Contact

If you’ve got any other questions don’t hesitate to email me via the con-tact form on the website - or leave a comment on my Facebook Wall.

Have a great month, and enjoy.

Paul


http://www.how-to-play-bass.com/songs-adventures-raindance-maggie.html

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SITTING ON THE DOCK OF THE BAY - first-bass-and …first-bass-and-beyond.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/april20112.pdf · SITTING ON THE DOCK OF THE BAY ... great Otis Redding track