He doesn't blindly walk up and down scales-he places a single connecting note between the strong ones. McCartney frequently guides you from chord to chord using a single step-wise connecting note between the strong Chord Tones. While Something perfectly outlines the chord structure, it also has some of the best Scale Tone usage you'll ever find in a bassline. Scale Tones (Grey) & Chromatic Tones (Black) Like we saw with Jamerson, McCartney doesn't go too crazy early in the song while the song's harmony (chords and key) is being established in the listener's mind. The next strongest beat (beat 3) is nearly all Chord Tones. Once again, beat one is all Chord Tones except for the last two bars. Like most basslines, Something's bassline is overwhelmingly made up of Chord Tones. There's a lot to discuss about this bassline. My comments and analysis follow the heat map. What notes fall where? How does it line up to the Note Choice Pyramid? How does it fit with the concept of rhythmic weight? Scan through the individual beats and see what you notice. Something Note Choice Heat MapĪs in the last lesson, look over the heat map. The bassline on Something is a great example of McCartney's melodic, yet harmonic style. What I'd like you to understand is that a bassline can be melodic-singable-but, it still has to function as a bassline and pin down the harmony. Paul McCartney's style is often described as "melodic," and it is. The song itself is highly melodic and has an excellent chord progression. It contains everything you could want from a McCartney bassline. For our Note Choice Heat Map, I've chosen the song Something composed by The Beatles guitarist George Harrison. It's hard to choose, but I think The Beatles album Abbey Road has many of McCartney's best basslines. It's very insightful to listen to and study his basslines chronologically. With every successive album Paul's basslines became more interesting and sophisticated. On the early albums Paul started with what we all do-banging away at roots and fifths. ![]() And everyone sort of turned 'round and looked at me.” As Paul put it, “So it was like, Uh-oh, we haven't got a bass player. The Beatles decided to be a four-piece instead of a five-piece. Paul already sang and played guitar and piano, but not bass. Just before The Beatles signed their first record contract, they had lost their original bassist Stu Sutcliffe. One of the most fun things about Paul McCartney is you get to witness his growth as a bass player on The Beatles recordings. Just like Jamerson, Paul's basslines and style have influenced thousands of bassists all over the world. ![]() When you're as popular as they were, lots of people are going to imitate you.Ĭould you imagine if one of the most influential bands of all-time had had a boring bass player? Well, lucky for us, Paul turned out to be an extremely musical bassist. ![]() The Beatles' Paul McCartney is another bassist often cited as one of music history's most important bass players.Įven if for some crazy reason you don't like The Beatles, you can't deny their tremendous popularity. In our last lesson we discussed our heat map idea and bassist James Jamerson.
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