Technique Of the Month
The great Stu Hamm returns with the second instalment of his essential techniques column. No matter what kind of music you play, or the level at which you play, you need to read this
The second instalment of Stu Hamm’s techniques column
“WE CAN USE THIS BASIC TECHNIQUE TO PLAY SOME TASTY FILLS”
Welcome, fearless readers and fellow bassists, to the second edition of Technique Of The Month! I hope that you’ve been practising last month’s lesson on open-note bends, and that you’ve developed the strength in your fingers – no easy feat, I know – you’ll need to pull off that technique seamlessly, because we’re going to use that technique as a starting point for this month’s lesson.
Let’s explore other ways in which we can use this basic technique to play some tasty fills that help establish the tonality of the key we’re in. In our last issue, we bent the F# on the fourth fret of the D string up to a G, while at the same time popping the open G string with the middle finger of our right hand, and letting the open G ring while we bent the D string up until the two strings were playing the same note. This created tension and a pleasing resolution when the two pitches finally matched.
Since we’re in the key of E minor here (what would a bassist’s life be like without E minor?), the two G notes that we eventually come to, after the ascending bend, create the sound of the G being the minor 3rd of the E minor chord. This enables the listener to identify our chord as a minor one – and as we know, our main job as bassists is to outline the tonality of the chord to the listener... hopefully making them dance at the same time.
Let’s keep going in the key of E minor and continue to outline the chord. If we pop the open G, while bending the A# up to a B natural and letting the low open E ring, we will be playing the root (E), minor 3rd (G), and 5th (B) of an E minor chord. Hey now!
(Oh, and in case you were wondering, that is the actual game jersey worn by Didier
Example 1