Bass Line Class: Week 4

Listened to multibass song from last week...and two Luther Allison blues tunes...a couple of Miles Davis songs (including, ironically, Footprints, which was the subject of this week's drum lesson), a Herbie Handcock song, and Everyday I Write the Book by Elvis Costello.

Reviewed and expanded on the concepts of the blues structure, exploring some of the variations that the above songs present.

Things got a little deep in the theory pool and I was hanging on by a thread. Only myself and one other student showed up, and she obviously knew more about theory than I did. I wasn't totally lost, but I wasn't comfortable either.

Lots of talk about dominant 7th chords versus naturally occuring 7th chords...stuff like that.

I played like two notes on my bass. I'm not bringing it next week, too much of a pain in my butt for how much we use it.

It's hard for me to say how much value I'm getting out of this class. I think I'm going to mostly let it wash over me. I think it is a case of having to hear something seven times before it sinks in. This is maybe my fourth or fifth time hearing this stuff. Which is my whole problem with the bass...that I don't have this stuff down well enough to think on my feet and make choices.

I'm not really sure how the class could be approached differently to help me. I'm not sure what I need.

I was pretty depressed when I left class last night actually.