Alternating Swing Bass Piano Style – With Some Variations

 

Good morning, this is Duane and we’ve been talking about the swing bass, the left hand swing bass and we started with just a root and chord. We said that if you hit a low note like a low C and then a C chord that’s constitutes a swing bass because you’re swinging from a low root to a chord. If it was the F chord, we hit the low F and then the F chord. If it was G, we’d hit a low G and so on like that.

Then last time we talked about the alternating bass. Instead of always hitting the low root sometimes we hit the fifth. We played like the C chord, G but C chord, C, G. Your low note is alternating between the root and the fifth just to give it more variety. We talked about that.

Now this time I’d like to talk about the alternating swing bass piano style - a fourth beat kicker where on the fourth beat of some measures when we’re leading into another chord we don’t play a chord but we play a different note. A note that leads into where we’re going. For example, if I’m going from let’s see the C chord to the G chord, I could go like this, C, whoops sorry, C. See that’s a lead in on the fourth beat. Three, four, one. Three, four, one. Like so. You get the idea. On the fourth beat of some measures on the measure before you change chords, you’ll want to play a note that’s close to the target note you’re hitting.

Let me just give you an illustration. I’m playing and now I want to go to the G chord so instead of hitting the alternate note I hit the fourth beat kicker on the way to G. Again I’ll take it very slow. Now in addition to the fourth beat kicker, we could do some walkdowns like if I’m going from C to F, I could go and then continue the chording there. Let me take it slow. See that.

As I was going to the F chord I walked down from C to F, now you’re probably wondering why I’m hitting that B flat. It’s because that is in the F scale, that’s not in the C scale but it’s in the F scale. The F scale goes like that. You use the scale of the chord you’re going to. That time I uses a walkup, I was going from G to C so instead of continuing the G chording I went. I had to use a chromatic passage simply because that’s not in the scale but I had to use a chromatic passage because I needed four beats. One, two, three, four, one. If I only went like that, I’d only have three beats so I had to add a beat in it so I added that. I could’ve added, that probably would’ve been a better choice.

Just to review. The swing bass means to swing back and forth between a root and the chord. The alternating swing bass is to hit a fifth on every other time. Then the fourth beat kicker is as you’re going to a new chord you hit a note that’s close. Let me illustrate, say I’m going from the C chord to the D minor chord, I might go. See that. I was going to D root so I went because I slid down from E flat to D.

Sometimes in addition to the fourth beat kicker we can do a walkup or walkdown. Walkdown like that. If we were going to F, we could walkup. One, two, three, four. Again we need four beats so I need to put in a black key on the way to use up the time. Somebody asked, “What if the songs in 3/4 because those are all 4/4 cut time any way, right?” In 3/4, obviously, you have to hit one low note in two chords. One, two, three, one, two, three. The alternating bass would be one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two and so on. You can use the third beat kicker in that case if you wanted to, same way.

Okay well that’s it for today, hope that gives you a little insight into some variations of the swing bass. Tomorrow I think we’ll take up left hand arpeggio styles. Left hand arpeggio styles where we break up the chords, we don’t play a block chord but we break them up in various ways. We’ll start that series tomorrow.

Thanks for being with me and again if you hadn’t signed up for our free newsletter be sure and do that because they have all kinds of piano tips in it. We’ll see you then. Bye-bye for now

If  you like the idea of a swing bass, you might be interested in my course in Ragtime For Beginners at www.PlayPiano.com/Ragtime

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Here is the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddp6YIvg-ms&feature=youtu.be

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