Bass Line Walk
The foundation for any gospel
type fast movement is the bass line walk. We show you three
different bass line walks.
- One walk is the standard walk that works
for almost 80% of all devotional songs
- The second is a bass line walk that happens
when people are shouting. We call that the ‘bump.’ This bass
line walk is totally different from the standard devotional
walk.
- Then we show you the classic ‘boogy-woogy’
bass line walk to add that old school and quartet feel to your
playing.
- Finally, there is the variation bass-line
walk that corresponds to your blues scale or as some say the
pentatonic scale with a blue note.
This is where I go really slow
as this is the foundation to your up-tempo devotional service
songs. More importantly, I show you the left hand crossover tricks
with your left hand to help increase your speed and preciseness.
VERY IMPORTANT: I also teach you
the bass line walk in terms of the number system, so you can apply
it in any key. I give you some good visual marker secrets that
have helped me out when trying to figure out the bass walk in the
keys of B, D, and E. This can be very difficult, but with the
right tricks, you’ll be doing your bass line walk in every key.
Right
Hand Chords with Bass
Now let’s focus on your right
hand. So now I focus on just the right hand movements. You see if
I give you right-hand and left-hand all at the same time, then
you’ll get frustrated and lost. So I took my time to handle them
both separately. This whole bass line walk with right-hand thing
is very tricky. So let’s handle the right hand chords next.
Bass Walk and Right Hand
Coordination
Now, let’s put it all together. This is where I take a lot of time
dealing with timing and coordination with tons of drills and
exercises. With putting both hands together, it is very, very
important to teach you the down beat and how to play in front or
behind the beat. It’s called a swing beat. So I teach you the
basic way, then I have to teach you how to make it swing, so that
you sound professional. This is probably the longest chapter in
the DVD, because it’s the most important for church choir songs,
devotional, and any up-tempo gospel movement.
Right
Hand Churchy Standards
Since the bass line walk is
pretty standard. It’s important to further your vocabulary of
right hand ‘stuff’ to play with your left hand. You don’t want to
sound like a robot and play the same right hand licks over and
over, since the gospel movements are so repetitive. So, we give
you some right hand variations so you can mix it up a bit.
1-4
Progression
The 1-4 progression is the
foundation to devotional service: You don’t know like I know; This
Little Light of Mine; Glory, Glory Hallelujah….all of these
movements share the same chord structure and bass walk. This is
the foundation progression in your church service chords and we
spend a lot of time going through how to transition from the 1 to
the 4 and then to get back with the 2-5-1.
Gospelly Progression Standards
These movements are what I call staples in gospel music. Some
things you just HAVE TO PLAY. No matter how contemporary, or how
jazz you are. No matter how advanced of a player, there are some
things that you just have to know how to play in church. They are
standards and staples. It’s like, no matter how many new
hamburgers McDonalds make. They will always have the Big Mac. So
these movements are your must-haves in gospel and from the new
beginner, to the most advanced musician, we all play them.
|
Deacon's Prayer and Preacher Chords
Did you know when the deacon is
tuning up and praying, that it’s almost the same as playing
preacher chords, but with some subtle nuances? If the deacon is
tuning up and praying, then you can’t just leave him hanging. I
teach you how to follow the deacon when he’s praying in tune.
Also, what would a good old fashion church service be without
preaching chords? I also give you some licks to play as well with
your preaching chords.
NEWSFLASH: I TEACH YOU A VERY
SIMPLE APPROACH TO PLAYING YOUR PREACHER CHORDS IN EVERY SINGLE
KEY. THERE IS NOTHING MORE EMBARRASSING AND FRUSTRATING THEN TO
TRY TO BE LOST WHEN PLAYING PREACHER CHORDS IN B, E, D, AND A!
Baptism -
Take Me to the Water
What would a church service be
without the oh so familiar hymn: “Take Me to the Water.” These are
gospel standards that you must have. Actually, I don’t even know
of any other songs they usually sing when baptism is going on…hahaha.
Take me to the Water is a must. The difficult part with this song
is that it’s so basic, that it’s hard to figure out how to fill up
the song. I teach you some important riffs and licks to help fill
the song up more as well.
Prayer
Time - "Prey for Me" (Remixxx)
This is the time in the church
service, where it’s an alter call prayer. You know what an alter
call prayer is. It’s usually the time before the preaching, where
everyone comes up to the alter and it’s prayer time. But before
going up, there is always an old motha who sings the song Pray
for Me….While I’m on this tedious journey…I want Jesus to pray for
me. This one I had a little fun with. I kind of remixed it a
little bit. I kept it gospel, but I used a subtle relative major
trick to give it a different feel.
I Love You
Lord Today and Remix!
Now it’s time for the youth
choir to sing and if you go to an old school churchy-church, then
you know that the song I Love You, is as contemporary as it gets….hahaha.
This is a very popular church service staple song. I show you the
standard way and give you a more contemporary way to play the
songs as well. What is so sweet about this movement is that I show
you one chord movement that will totally change your playing
forever. This is one of those life changing chords I was talking
about. These are simple chords that you probably have been trying
to figure out for a very long time, but couldn’t grasp. It’s a
very popular trick that will totally take this song to new
heights.
Amazing Grace with Remix
I had fun with this one. I gave you some pretty sweet changes to
play with Amazing Grace. I gave you some licks and some soloing
things you can do while playing Amazing Grace.
Other movements…
Talk Music
On the Urban Worship DVD's I
focused on talk music from a contemporary perspective, but not
this DVD. The talk music taught on this DVD are classic gospel
sounding progressions that you can find yourself hearing in an
urban-gospel church. I tried to give you the most important gospel
talk music standards, so you can begin to build your repertoire
and vocabulary of chords. Before you can branch out and do your
own chords, it is a good idea to learn the gospel standards first.
After that, I begin to teach you how to apply these standards
while adding passing tones and your own personality.
Shouting Music
Of course, what would an old
school service be like, without shouting music. The hardest part
about shouting music is coordinating your left and right hands. I
teach you this. It is also important to learn the difference
between the devotional bass line walk and a shouting bass line
walk. They are very different and I show you when, and how to use
it. The #1 thing for a beginner is coordination and I'll show you
the secrets to starting slow and building up to faster
coordination tricks. I also teach you the important trick of how
to shout in every key and how to find the sweet spots to shouting
music.
|