Top of the week to you all! It's time for another Bass Groove of the week!

The groove of choice for this (very cold February) week is a "cool" blues groove, also called a shuffle.

A shuffle subdivides the beat into three equal parts rather than the common two equal parts. Notice the emphasis on "equal!"

The system here on AB had to be fooled into playing triplets, so please turn off the metronome when you play this groove in your computers (otherwise we'll be talking about odd-meters prematurely!).

To give this groove maximum versatility, I use only notes that appear in both Dominant and Minor tonalities...that's where the modes come in. The modes that match all the notes in this baby are Mixolydian (Dominant tonality) and Dorian (Minor tonality). When you're creating a groove from a mode, you don't have to use every single note of the mode, you just choose the notes of the mode that sound best to you (yes, it's an individual choice).

Well, let's keep it light on the theory, and just start using this groove with a swingin' drummer. As always, any questions and comments, fire away, I'll answer as best as I can. Right now, grab your bass and groove away!

Settings:

Tempo: 160

Sound: Elec Fing

Click: None

Loop: 4 times



Groove Skeleton: 1+ (two 8th notes, but swung!) Tonality: Dominant/Minor Style: Blues/Shuffle

You can try this groove in just one key, or, as you get more comfortable, move it around in a blues form. The chords for that pattern would be:

|G7|C7|G7|G7|C7|C7|G7|G7|D7|C7|G7|G7|

or you can do the minor version:

|Gm7|Cm7|Gm7|Gm7|Cm7|Cm7|Gm7|Gm7|D7|Cm7|Gm7|Gm7|

The D7 in the minor blues progression would still be D7 rather than Dm7, it acts as the dominant (function! It's the V) of G. Enjoy the groove and try it out on your band-mates, and if it falls flat, blame the singers!

Peace,

Patrick

If you play the "TAB" version, set the click to "Start" and ignore it! The system tracks better that way. The Groove is shown over three measures, but that's only to "fool" the system into triplets. It's a two-measure Groove. Play it by ear! It's much easier that way.