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Creating Groove ?


bass12345
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Im sure this has been up here time and time again. But im going to ask anyway! :D



How do greats such as Victor Wooten / Marcus Miller create such great grooves ? I mean they have their own tracklists and no 2 tracks are identical in terms of groove.

When you ask them, e.g. interviews its always 'You gotta listen to everything'. I know you can't listen to everything in a week but do you think it works, or even beneficial ?


I'd love some feedback on this and your opinions. Share what you want ! :P

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[quote name='bass12345' timestamp='1328872769' post='1533996']
...its always 'You gotta listen to everything'.
[/quote]

I think what they mean is, 'you gotta listen to every style', as there is groove in jazz, funk, soul, rock, classical, folk, you name it, it all has a contribution to make towards your personal groove thang. Dog.

Edited by discreet
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Try stuff out. Whats the worst that could happen?
Our guitarist tries stuff out all the time. Sometimes its great, sometimes its awful. He is a very competant guitarist, jazz player and all that. No one says anything in rehearsals. Thats what they are for.

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In my (very) humble opinion, good funk playing is about feeling all the different rhythmic choices that are there but only playing a fraction of them. So you need to be able to play the more syncopated beats in each bar at will....but for your actual basslines hit them sparingly. Of course, like everything in music, there are plenty of exceptions to this, but it's a good place to start.

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[quote name='bass12345' timestamp='1328873827' post='1534040']
Then what about solo'ing ?

How would you go about it - feel the notes or keep that 'Ive gotta use this scale' mindset ?
[/quote]

Let the space do the work. Like football they say let the ball do the work. Some of the funkiest things are in the silence between the notes.

Soloing! Damn, just get a groove going first. If you really must solo start simple - maybe with the chord tones or key notes from the melody and develop it.

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As important as listening is to create this magical word 'groove', there are things these guys are thinking about or started thinking about.

There's Technique choice & ability, theres no point in hearing the notes in your head and not having the technical ability to play them. (i'm not talking about double thumbing a million notes)

Theres feel or what VW likes to call emotion.
Dynamics, tone, rhythm, space, phrasing, note choice, articulation (note length, accents, attack etc), dissonance, displacement etc... You can see where i'm going.

To say that its all listening & feel is nonsense. Even if your not consciously thinking about the things above, its something that your minds doing to create the 'groove' your playing.

The way to learn all this is different for everyone & theres no set method.

I believe no one thing i've mentioned above is more important than the other, they are all interweaved to give listeners what the interoperate as groove.

Edited by JakeBrownBass
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i would say its simply; time feel, articulation, phrasing and confidence. All things that can be practised.

Time feel: Practice different rhythms to a metronome or clave.

Articulation: Whatever your playing, try playing the notes soft and hard

Phrasing: Listen to lots of music and attempt to replicate it, transcribing is often used for this.

Confidence: Ask people to tell you how good you are B)

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[quote name='BottomE' timestamp='1328885911' post='1534373']


Soloing! Damn, just get a groove going first. If you really must solo start simple - maybe with the chord tones or key notes from the melody and develop it.
[/quote]

Agreed. The best example I know of this in practise is on the Donny Hathaway 'Live' album. Willie Weeks (superb throughout) takes a bass solo on the last track. He starts really simply, playing a basic groove and builds it from there.

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[quote name='bass12345' timestamp='1328872769' post='1533996']
Im sure this has been up here time and time again. But im going to ask anyway! :D



How do greats such as Victor Wooten / Marcus Miller create such great grooves ? I mean they have their own tracklists and no 2 tracks are identical in terms of groove.

When you ask them, e.g. interviews its always 'You gotta listen to everything'. I know you can't listen to everything in a week but do you think it works, or even beneficial ?


I'd love some feedback on this and your opinions. Share what you want ! :P
[/quote]

What is your FAVOURITE piece of music at the moment?

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[quote name='Len_derby' timestamp='1328888738' post='1534423']
Agreed. The best example I know of this in practise is on the Donny Hathaway 'Live' album. Willie Weeks (superb throughout) takes a bass solo on the last track. He starts really simply, playing a basic groove and builds it from there.
[/quote]

What a great example. Its also really memorable, melodic with a slavish dedication to the groove. Its almost not a solo - just variations of a great bassline. The drummer plays his part too.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YWW8j6ICTU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YWW8j6ICTU[/url]

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