12/24/2023 0 Comments Billie jean bass tabOptional notes for you to use are derived from: This is (one of the many) reasons I always suggest learning your scales and in particular the scale of the key of the song you are currently learning. If you don’t get it, don’t pay to much attention to this one at this for now). (Since the chord F#m is of course a derivation of the F#m scale itself, as it is -of course- built using the 1, 3 and 5 of this scale, the above notes ‘b’ and ‘e’ could also be seen as ‘chord extension’ notes of the F#m chord: the ‘e’ being the 7th of the F#m chord, and the ‘b’ being the 4th. These are notes that are derived from the KEY OF THE SONG F#m, the ‘e’ being the 7th note of the F#m scale, and the ‘b’ being the 4th note. But Billy Jean’s bass line also add’s in two more notes that are not in the actual chord F#m: the notes ‘e’ and ‘b’. Now as you can see, the bass line makes use of the above mentioned ‘optional’ notes that arise from the harmony being F#m: the ‘1’ or root ‘f#’, and the ‘5’ ‘c#’. Let’s take a look at the first part of the bass line of Billy Jean again:Īs indicated the key of the song is F#m, as is the first chord. Usage of the ‘3’ -also shown in the above picture (and in the previous two lessons)- doesn’t quite come as a surprise as well.īut, apart from our beloved, ‘1’, ‘5’ and ‘3’, there are even more notes to consider for usage in the left hand… Many, many variations can be made using the 1, 5 technique and it’s derived patterns and very interesting piano parts can be made just by using these two notes. Now as all you course followers know very well, the ‘1’ and ‘5’ are very common notes to use in the left hand. These notes are yours to play, either to form a right-hand-part, by using and combining them with one or more of the many different right hand patterns (want to know more about patterns? try our course, which covers everything), but they can also be used to form a left hand part i.e. The blue dot’s indicate all the other ‘optional’ notes that can be used in this situation: all the other ‘f#”s, ‘a”s and ‘c#”s on the keyboard. The red dots indicate (from left to right) the ‘root’/bass ‘f#’, played with the left hand and the F#m chord in first inversion (‘a’ – ‘third’ on the bottom, followed by the ‘c#’ – ‘fifth’ and the ‘f#’ – ‘root’ on top) played with the right hand. We’ve also seen that when the harmony is defined (like in the above case, an F#m chord with a ‘f#’ in the bass means the harmony at that time is in fact F#m) many more notes on the keyboard become ‘optional’ notes for you as a pianist to play and use to create your piano part.į#m in first inversion and all the options that arise. We’ve seen that adding a bass note, can provide a certain ‘depth’ to the harmony by providing it with a strong ‘root’ (for instance when the right hand plays a F#m chord and the left hand plays a ‘f#’ note one or two octaves below). So please don’t get angry with me for repeating it another zillion times. This might just be the most important thing to remember in this whole Pop-Piano, harmony/chord oriënted way of playing the piano that I’m trying to teach you. So, at this point, after reading the two previously mentioned articles, I take it you now know that the bass defines the harmony. (as many of you might remember, I started introducing the importance of bass notes even earlier, in the post ‘ Play ANY song – The first step in creating your own harmony.’) Just like the original, this video starts with this ‘one-in-a-million’, signature part of the song.Īs I want to teach you about the importance of bass notes, devoting such a major, two-part lesson to this song, carried by such an excellent bass-line, was no accident. Last time we finished by taking a quick look at the first and most important part of the whole song: the bass line.
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