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Ben Wright plays bass for the New York City rock band Wu Li, and has toured and recorded with Jupiter One.

Smooth Like Butta'.
By Ben Wright
Posted: February 20, 2008
Skill level: Novice / intermediate

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "All those 'chord tone
only' bass lines, although melodic and beautiful, don't sound like the
lines I hear on my favorite records." Well, you're right. Chord tones
are a piece of the puzzle, but we're still not seeing the whole
picture. In this lesson, let's focus on smoothing out the contour of
our lines by using approach notes.

Here is a C major arpeggio. (C-E-G)

Fig. 1 (Cmajor)

We can create a pattern of approach notes by preceding each note in
the arpeggio by a half step below.

Fig. 2 (C maj , ½ step below)

Or a scale tone above…

Fig. 3 (C maj 7, scale tone above)

Or both…

Fig. 4 (C maj, scale above, ½ step below)

Approaching each chord tone from different directions and intervals
really opens up the sound of the chord. Try to use the same concept
with some different arpeggios. This kind of approach to playing
arpeggios is great for improvisation. I plan to delve more deeply
into this in a future lesson, but for now, let's get back to our blues
lines.

Here is a typical shuffle blues line.

Fig. 5 (shuffle)

Now let's add some approach notes. Notice how the lines we create,
using half steps and whole steps above or below the "target" chord
tones, are much less angular than some of the "chord tone only" lines
we've built in the past.

Fig. 6 (shuffle with approach notes)

Adding a few dominant 7 chords here and there and an alternate
turn-around gives this line a jazzier feel. Follow the contour of
this line and build some of your own! Smooth like butta'!

Fig. 7 (blues with approach notes)

Copyright © 2008 Ben Wright