Lay Down The Bass (analysis)

Music Lesson: Bass Scale and Dynamics

Lay Down
The bass is just about playing a scale, really consolidating the notes. We've learned C, D, E, and F. We're leaving B aside for the moment.

Finger Movement
Don't forget: when you're changing between notes, move your fingers smartly from one note to the next.

• Avoid picking your fingers up in between, as that will slow you down.

Note Sequence Practice
Listen, I'll play the four notes in sequence, moving my fingers quite quickly.

1. One, two, three.
   • So that was quite smooth, wasn't it?
   • Moving my fingers quickly when I tongue the notes.

Common Mistake
This is what happens if we don't really move our fingers as cleanly as that:

• Here we go.
• So it's a bit messy in between, isn't it?
• I'm doing that all in one breath.

If you can't do that yet, of course, you could:

• Take a breath at the end of each note
• Try putting two notes together and then taking a breath.

Key Focus
The main thing is to make it sound smooth.

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Dynamics

The other thing we're talking about in this tune is dynamics. This means playing softly or loudly and moving gradually from soft to loud.

As we play our four-note scale, we can crescendo.

• That means making the sound grow, making it go louder.
• Start as soft as you can, then blow harder as you go up the scale.

Helpful Reminders

• Low to Higher - This refers to the pitch.
• Soft to Louder - This helps you remember the dynamics.

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Next Section: Lay Down the Bass

The next section of the piece features the words lay down the bass. If you find that too much to do, you could just do the first section of that little phrase:

• You could just go lay it down and then play the notes.
• If you're getting more confident, you could add in the other little bits as well, which is lay it down the bass. Play the notes in time.

You can miss off those quick notes if it's too much for you, and that bit goes around twice.

Playthrough Example
I'll just play this section for you. So I'll do it without the quick notes first of all:

1. Starting on E: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Okay. Now I'll add in the quicker notes:

• If you're getting more confident at moving your fingers, you could try adding in these notes.
• That all goes round twice.

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Quick Scale Practice

The third section for this piece is going quicker up the scale.

• Play: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Just like we did on one of the other songs.

• C, C, C, C, C.

• Rest for four beats, then de de de de dee.

• Rest for four beats and then going up the scale.

• Rest for four beats, and then going up the scale.

See if you can get louder.
I'll play this last section now:

1. 1, 2, 3.
2. 1, 2, 3.
3. One, two, three.
4. One, two, three.

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Improvisation

In this song, we haven't put in an improvisation or copyback section, but what you could do is:

• Use the whole track and just have some fun improvising with your four notes.

A nice, easy way to get into that could be taking those long notes of the scale and making up some rhythm patterns.

Key Words for Inspiration
Remember all those words we were thinking of:

• Questions
• Your name
• Rhythm

On this one, make something up by changing those long notes to some rhythms. And when you get better at that, you could try improvising over the whole track.

Example of Improvising
So I'll just show you the four notes:

• With some improvising rhythms on those notes instead of four plain long notes.

1. 1, 2, 3, 4.
   • So I'm still using the same four notes, but I'm adding in some rhythms.

Have fun improvising on this piece!