Compiled and written by Bass Player and Music Educator George Urbaszek
www.creativebass.com and www.creativebasslessons.com

Today’s Joke (taken from reality)

A man gives his son an electric bass for his 15th birthday, along with a coupon for four bass lessons. When the son returns from his first lesson, the father asks, ‘So, what did you learn?’
’Well, I learned the first five notes on the E string.’

Next week, after the second lesson, the father again asks about the progress, and the son replies, ‘this time I learned the first five notes on the A string.’

One week later, the son comes home far later than expected, smelling of cigarettes and beer. So the father asks, ‘hey, what happened in today's lesson?’

’Dad, I'm sorry but I couldn't make it to my lesson. I had a gig

I trust the resources provided in the previous two lessons on Transcription Techniques serve you well. This lesson will dig deeper. We will look at the process of working out the bass line to an actual song.

I am telling you exactly how I transcribe and this lesson will be “me thinking out loud”. I encourage you to use the information in your own unique way – whatever works for you. I have chosen James Brown’s studio-and-mostly-played-on-the-radio-and-TV-ads version of “I Got You (I Feel Good)” because

• Most bass players know the song and are required to play it at some time during their career.
• It has some “traps” and challenges not readily recognizable
• It should help improve your technique and groove
• It contains funky syncopation
• It aids musical concentration
  
  
  Listening ONLY (no bass in hand)
  First Pass (entire track)
  
  The “I Feel Good” section (at the start) could be called the Chorus
  
  Each chorus is a 12-bar blues form
  
  After two choruses it goes to a Bridge with only sax and drums for four bars
  
  I am calling the “When I hold you in my arms” section the Verse
  
  The verse is eight bars long, begins on the IV-chord and completes another 12-bar cycle
  
  Then:
  Chorus
  Instrumental Bridge
  Verse
  Chorus
  Chorus
  Two additional “So Good” bits with extended ending (tag) slowing down
  
  Second Pass (still no bass in hand)
  
  Beginning: “Wow” drum hit “I Feel Good” – The “Good” is the first beat of the 12-bar form
  
  The horns match the bass from the second beat of the two-bar phrase to the first beat of the two-bar phrase
  
  The bass rhythm is one quarter note and six consecutive eighth notes in the first bar
  
  The rhythm in the second bar is quarter note, two eighths, eighth-note rest, eighth note, eighth-note rest, eighth note (making the second bar syncopated)
  
  All instruments play unison hits with “So Good” at the end of every chorus
  
  Guitar generally plays short stabs only on beat 4 of every second bar of the choruses
  
  Bass drum plays some unison hits with sax during bridge and quarter-note rhythm on ride cymbal
  
  Bass plays a type of descending walking bass line with two eighth-note hits per note during the verse
  
  Guitar plays quarter notes during the verses
  
  The end of each chorus (plus the tag) is an arpeggio with all instruments in unison
  
  The final tag descends before the “Hey” and last chord

I suggest you now get a copy of the recording (I can’t provide one because of copyright) and compare your listening notes to mine. You may hear more than I did on the first two passes. If so, that’s great!

Next time I will “think out loud” again, showing you how I find the bass notes.

Until then, Bass of Luck!

George Urbaszek
Bass Player and Music Educator
Serving Bass Players Worldwide since 1996