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Moving on Up (right) | Harmonically Speaking
In Search of the Perfect Custom Bass, Part 6
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Harmonically Speaking

(More than just an easy way to tune)

by Keith White

The year was 1976, the summer was hot as usual in hot 'lanta, I had graduated high school and nothing was going to upset my world. I was a bass playin' fool, progressing swiftly and dipping my toe in the jazz/fusion world. I was going to be the world's greatest bass player. Yeah, right. I couldn't have been more wrong. So what happened? What upset my rose-colored-glasses-little-world? Four insignificant (I'm jokin') recordings by various artists. The daggers to my little bass playin' heart came in succession.

Already a huge fan, Weather Report releases "Black Market" where I discovered some cat named jAco pastorIus. (OK, not bad.)

Return to Forever's "Romantic Warrior" where I was reacquainted with Stan Clarke and introduced to Al Di Meola. (Oh this is gonna hurt!)

Which lead me to a record called "Land of the Midnight Sun" by Al Di Meola, which held a track named "Suite Golden Dawn" and this jAco pastorIus cat again. (I'm feeling a bit woozy!!)

I return home from a trip to the record store still a bit light headed and place this jAco cat's LP on the turntable. In the words of the immortal one himself, "BLAM, first track you're dead!!" I somehow managed to stand through the first four tracks (probably because of the whole chin-on-the-floor-tri-pod-type-action-thang) until track 5, "Portrait of Tracy"!!! (Here I must give thanks to all of the dead dinosaurs for silicone and vinyl as the bean-bag chair held its ground and mi cabesa was saved.)

I spent the next three months in front of the turntable learning "P.O.T". Talk 'bout Harmonically Speaking. I was 'bout to learn a whole new language.

For those of you who haven't investigated the use of harmonics, it's way past time. Not only can you tune your bass quickly with these little gems, you can compose entire pieces of music as shown to us by JP. (Oh yeah, and some guy named Pythagoras.) So let's get to it.

The basic layout of where harmonics lay on the 4 string bass:

Most of these harmonics can also be found above the 12th fret in reverse. There are others. You should investigate the entire fingerboard and find as many as you can. Now let's explore some chord voicing.

If you hold a bass note (black dot) and play harmonics (letters) at the same time, you can create some interesting chords. Play these behind your soloist to make him sound great! Here are some basic chords and some of my favorites.

Yer basic G (major or minor)

G major (I smell P.O.T.)

C 9

Cmaj7 add 9 (a tough one)

Cmaj #11 9 (one of my favs)

Ebmaj7

Bbmaj7 13

Eb7 #9 (what's that funky smell?)

That should be enough to get you started. Happy chording.

Until next time,
k-dub, keeper o da funk

I can be reached via email at k-dub@funknotes.com.