Motown Bass Survival Guide

In this first section of the course, we're going to talk about essential concepts that you need to know to get that classic Motown bass sound. We're going to talk about reharmonization, passing tones, ghost tones, and a whole lot more. Let's get started.

Many times, a songwriter has some basic generic chords to accompany their lyric and melody. For many of them, the focus understandably is on the lyric and melody, after all that is technically what makes up a song. Many of them, as well as producers, depend on those gifted studio musicians such as Jamerson to take their song to the next level with their performance enhancements. A technique used by Jamerson was reharmonization, changing the bass notes of very simple progressions to make them sound much more sophisticated.

Let's look at this simple 2 bar progression using Gb for 1 bar and Db for 1 bar. In this first example, I'll play a more standard bass line that outlines the harmony as might be written by a songwriter. The bassline does have some rhythmic syncopation and note movement. I start on the root Gb in the first bar going down to the major 7 (F) briefly as a pivot before getting back to the root. Finally, I go to Ab as a transition to the next chord, Db. I use a similar motif as I did in bar 1 in this next bar, just changing the intervals. I start on the root Db then go down to the 5, Ab, before going back to the root, and finally and F which is the major 3rd that also leads me nicely back to Gb. This is a decent interpretation of this chord progression, but let's look at one way to harmonize this in the style of Jamerson in the next exercise.

For the second exercise, I'll keep the first bar basically the same with a slight change by inserting the major 3rd, Bb, into the motif. In the second bar, or actually the syncopation into the second bar, is when we start the reharmonization. Instead of playing a normal Db centered line in this bar, I begin with an Ab, which is the 5 of Db. I then go down to the major 3rd, F, before moving to Gb, which is the 4 and ending with and Ab that leads me back to the Gb. I actually never play the intended root Db at all. Now one thing to be aware of when doing this type of reharmonization are the voicings of the chordal instruments. If they voice too low with the written root on the bottom, it can destroy your handy work and take away any impact of these new notes. Also, be aware of what the singer or melody instrument is doing, any fancy stuff you do on bass is a waste of time if it does not make the song "better".

Jamerson often demonstrated how to use passing tones even if there were none as part of the original chord progression. In these examples, I use two bar phrases, first over one bar of D and one bar of Bm. Then, I use a two bar phrase over a bar of Dm and a bar of Bb. I'll first show you a sample bass line with no passing tones, then I introduce a passing tone, and lastly, I "embellish" that passing tone. These embellishment notes are not supposed to be heard as much as felt. They are meant to be more rhythmic than melodic, more about the rhythmic placement than the melodic content although they can be quite melodic. I use a C# passing tone in the D to Bm progression since the C# is still part of the D major scale. Over the Dm to Bb progression you notice I use a C because it works better with the D minor tonality.

Another characteristic sound of Motown bass was the use of root, fifth, octave patterns. Using those 3 notes in different combinations and different syncopations creates that unique sound you attribute to James Jamerson right away. These examples will be played over a two bar phrase that goes from Ab to F minor, one bar of each. I start with just playing roots with various rhythms and then move into the different ways you can incorporate the 5th and octave, sometimes going down to the fifth and sometimes up to the 5th. Jamerson used them in various combinations and rhythms.

These root-5th-octave patterns can change directions vertically quickly and with syncopation which gives them their character. These will give you just a few ideas of what is possible with just the root and fifth.

The triad seems like such a basic and elementary concept, but in the hands of a master it can be brilliant. So many of Jamerson's baselines include the outlining of triads. Obviously, the triad gets you away from the root, foundational dominated bass concept, but he was able to use them as a harmonic tool that never vacated the role of foundation provider.

These examples are over an Ab major 7 chord so they only use those triad notes Ab, the root, C, the major 3rd, and Eb, the 5th. We mix different syncopations and octaves to create bass lines that provide harmonic foundation as well as forward motion and dynamics. Only three notes, but very powerful potential.

The question and answer approach is very effective in creating dynamic bass lines in general and was used often on Motown hits. Sometimes splitting a bar or a two or four bar phrase into two parts that were married together using space and motion. One approach Jamerson used was starting with some type of dotted quarter/8th phrase and answering that with a more syncopated but relative phrase. This will be our approach in these examples.

This is a Curtis Mayfield style 2 bar groove in Dm where we have a sparser beginning of the phrase playing the root, 5, and b7 with this dotted quarter 8th pattern and then answer the question with syncopated lines that follow. Each question has a slightly different answer, but all relating to the question and musical situation.