Awesome substitutions

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Scott Devine

Running out of solo ideas?

Check out these Awesome Subsitutions! (L#93)

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Start point 02:15

starting on 1st finger

D Minor 7 Arpeggio (chord tones)

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starting on 4th finger

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"Learn the arpeggios ..... it is one of the most important things you will ever practice"."Learn the arpeggios ..... it is one of the most important things you will ever practice".

7th R

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A Minor 7

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Subsitute Minor Arpeggios (Intervals Related To The Key Of D Minor)

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E Minor 7

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G Minor 7

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Ex.1

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05:35 Riff in D Minor

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Riff in A Minor

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Riff in G Minor

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Copyright © 2013 Scott’s Bass Lessons

Running out of soloing ideas? Check out the Awesome substitutions (L#93)

Your Action Plan

In this lesson you are going to learn several minor chord substitutions that can be used when soloing over a static minor chord. To start with we'll be soloing over a static D minor 7th chord.

1. Before you work through this lesson I want you tofamiliarize yourself with two bass players that usethis chord on chord technique extensively, Jeff Berlinand Gary Willis. Although their playing styles andnote choices are very different, they both approachbass soloing from a 'chord tone first' view point,rather than using scales first. This gives their sololines a particular sound and flavour.

Listening to different bass players and studying their music in an in-depth manner is a huge piece of the puzzle when it comes to your own development as a bass player and musician. How did you learn to speak? You listened to your parents speaking and simply copied them, right? If you were asked to make a speech at a conference or in front of your classmates and had never spoke publicly before what would you do to create a 'great speech'? Most likely

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you would get onto YouTube and listen to some great speeches, take notes, and then apply what you'd learned to your speech. Learning a musical instrument is exactly the same. When I'm studying a certain player I will listen to nothing much else for around four to eight weeks. I'll listen to their playing, study their technique, transcribe their bass lines and solos, everything I can do to absorb their approach to the instrument. Here's a small list of albums you should check out from Gary Willis and Jeff Berlin:

Gary Willis • Bent• No Sweat• Actual Fiction

Jeff Berlin • In Harmony's Way• Lumpy Jazz

2. Now it's time to work through the lesson. You shouldfirst familiarize yourself with the D minor 7th (Dm7)sound and the different fingerings for thatarpeggio/chord-tones upon the fingerboard. For thislesson Dm7 is our 'home' tonality, meaning whateversubstitutions we use, they are all being used over andare in reference to the Dm7.

After you have become familiar with the Dm7 arpeggio and it's different fingerings over the fretboard it's time to start using the substitutions over the static Dm7 tonality. You should pick only one substitution to start with as using them all won't give your ear time to fully absorb the sound of each particular substitution. Follow these steps:

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A. Become comfortable with Dm7 arpeggio/chord-tones over the entire fingerboard.

B. Choose one of the substitutions from the tutorial. Become comfortable with whichever substitution you have chosen over the entire fingerboard.

C. Improvise moving between the Dm7 and whichever substitution you have chosen. A good idea is to set rules for yourself. E.g. 4 bars of Dm7 followed by 4 bars of the substitution, then repeat that sequence. It doesn't have to be 4 bars of each approach. It could be two bars, or even just one. The point is to force yourself to stick to whichever rule you have set as this is what will eventually give you full control over your improvising/soloing.

D. Now try and improvise freely switching between Dm7 and substitution you have chosen. You should always be trying to hear the flavour of the substitution, as each one has it's own personality and therefore you should aim to be able to hear the differences between each of them on the fly.

You should repeat steps A-D with each of the substitutions I cover within the tutorial. Only then should you start to mix all these substations together. Remember, you should set rules to start with making sure you're comfortable with each of the substitutions. For instance you could improvise using 4 bars of each substitution. Then mix things up and try different combinations. These rules are in place as an academic exercise to make sure you have full control of your improvising and the substitutions you're using.

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3. You may think, "How can I possibly think like this when improvising?" Well, the 'end goal' is to not think while you're improvising, the end goal is to be able tofollow your ear and simply play what you feel. But,your ear will never be developed enough if you don'tstudy the substitutions in this way, as you won’t beable to naturally hear each of the substitutions.Hearing them naturally is what you should be aimingfor.

4. After you've worked through this tutorial and gonethrough each of the steps you should start to look forother substitutions you can use over different chordtypes. I have shown you a selection of substitutionsthat can be used over a static minor chord. But whatabout major 7th chords, dominant chords ordiminished chords. Each has it’s own set ofsubstitutions. It's over to you to do someinvestigation and find out what they are. ;)

Scott Devine

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