Bass Lines You Should Know: Week 7Money by Pink Floyd

Featuring Bass Player Roger Waters

This lesson contains:

A Video Demonstration A Lesson Outline Document A Downloadable Mp3 Playalong Track

About The Bass Player

Roger Waters was born in Surrey, England, on September 6th 1943.

In grammar school Waters was a friend of David Gilmour and Syd Barrett. After he graduated, Waters went to London to study architecture at Regent Street Polytechnic, now the University of Westminster, where he met Nick Mason and Richard Wright. Within a year of moving to London, Waters, Mason and Wright were in a band together, Sigma Six, along with Keith Noble and Clive Metcalfe. Noble and Metcalfe soon left, and the band went through other iterations and other names, including the Abdabs, the Screaming Abdabs, Leonard's Lodgers, Spectrum Five and Tea Set.

In 1965, Syd Barrett joined the group and Pink Floyd was born. The only song on Pink Floyd’s debut album not penned by Barrett was written by Waters, “Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk.” After Barrett’s departure, Waters became the front man for the band, and took more control over the band’s artistic direction.

He wrote most of the songs on the albums The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall, and all of the songs on The Final Cut. After releasing The Final Cut, Waters declared Pink Floyd “a spent force.” He announced his decision to leave in 1985, and initiated a legal battle to prevent the remaining members from using the name Pink Floyd. He ultimately lost his case, but retained the rights to The Wall. Since 1985 he has continued to record and tour around the world with his own solo project.

“Money” is the amazing Progressive Rock Tune written by Roger Waters. It is based off the 12 Bar Blues in B Minor and is known for it’s 7/4 sections. The Bass Line is a Classic and well worth studying and playing around with.

Here is the entire 12-bar excerpt we are analyzing in this weeks lesson.

All bass lines, Melodies and Solos that sound good, sound good for a reason. These reasons are basically broken down and dependent on a combination of 4 things:

1. The Time Feel: (how the line is played and felt)2. The Dynamics: (If everything was velocity it would sound very robotic. We

need our lines to have a human quality to sound musical) Aston “Family Man” Barrett’s sound is as important as the note choices he makes. Working on your sound is so important.

3. The Chord Tones: (How these Chord Tones are Approached and if the right Diatonic Passing Tones are used in-between them, this is achieved by understanding and being able to analyze Chord Progressions correctly or just having really great ears and confidence)

4. Confidence: (Confidence can give our lines the intention they need to give conviction to the music. Being tentative can really destroy the flow and energy of the music, which can have a knock on effect for the rest of the

musicians and the listener. Studying and practicing can really give us all the tools we need to feel good about what we are doing and enable us to let go of the fear so we can just play and enjoy. We have listened and absorbed music our whole lives, we already know and feel this stuff. It’s only our fears that make us feel we don’t).

Analysis

Bars 1-2 The Time Signature in the first 2 bars is in 7/4. In Week 2 of the weekly lessons we discuss in detail Odd Time Signatures especially focusing on the 7/4. Follow the link here to check it out: http://tonygreybassacademy.com/bass-lessons-archive/weekly-bass-lessons-archive/free-weekly-lessons-week-2/

These 2 Bars are played over a B-7 Chord and is the main Riff and Theme of the song.

The Riff is derived from the B Minor Pentatonic Scale.

The Pentatonic Scale is a 5 Note Scale commonly used to create Riffs and Licks in many different genres. There are 2 types of Pentatonic Scales, The Major Pentatonic and The Minor Pentatonic. You can build a Minor Pentatonic with the same notes as the Major Pentatonic Scale built off the 6th Degree.

The B Minor Pentatonic used in this Bass Line is also contains the same notes as the D Major Pentatonic Scale.

In the Tony Grey Bass Academy we have a Course dedicated to the Pentatonic Scale where we look at different creative ways of using it to build Riffs and Licks.

Here is the B Minor Pentatonic Scale shape written in Notation and within a Fingerboard diagram

B Minor Pentatonic

B Minor Pentatonic Fingerboard Pattern

When learning Scales it’s a good idea to learn them in there complete Vertical Positions. The way I practice and learn scales is to play them from each degree of the Scale starting on the lowest string and all the sequential notes up in order across all the strings.

Here is the B Minor Pentatonic starting from the F# on the 2nd fret of the E String. You can play the Whole Riff over B-7 in this one position.

I’ve created an Ultimate Vertical Fingering Course for the 4, 5 and 6 String Bass where we look at all of the Vertical Fingering shapes for the Pentatonic Scales, Major Modes and the Melodic Minor Modes in all Keys.

Bars 3-4

In Bar 3 there is a slight variation in Beat 2 to the theme to follow the melody. It still uses the same position and B Minor Pentatonic Scale. Bar 4 returns to the main Riff of the song. These 4 Bars repeat themselves.Bars 9-10-11

In Bars 9,10 and 11 the Time Signature changes to 2 bars of 4/4 and a bar of 6/4. If you total up the numbers 4+4+6 you get the total 14 which is the equivalent of 2 bars of 7/4.

You could in theory count these 3 bars in 7/4 but to my ears the feel of the melody dictates the change in Time Signature. Let’s now break these 3 bars down

Bars 9-10

These 2 bars of 4/4 are primarily over an F#-7 Chord. The F-7 on the last 1/4 note of Bar 10 is really just a passing Chord targeting the E-7 in Bar 11.

Bar 9 contains only the Root (F#) and 5th (C#) of the Chord.

Bar 10 starts with the b3rd (A) of the Chord on Beat 1. On Beat 2 is the 5th of the Chord (C#). Beat 3 is the Root (F#) of the Chord. Beat 4 is the Root of F-7 (F).

Bar 11

Bar 11 has the Time Signature of 6/4. The Bass Line is played over an E-7 Chord and contains the notes of the E Minor Pentatonic Scale.

Beat 1 starts with the Root of the E-7 Chord (E) moving down to the 5th degree (B).

From Beat 2 all 5 notes of the E Minor Pentatonic is spelled out in sequential order from the Root (E) on the Open E String. Again it’s a good idea to learn the Whole E Minor Pentatonic Scale in all Vertical Whole Range Positions.

The last 2 Bars are the main riff over the B-7 and finish up this excerpt of Roger Waters great Bass Line on “Money” by Pink Floyd

Recap

When you break down this Bass Line you really can see why it sounds so great. Some of the Techniques that make this Bass Line are?

Chord Tones Pentatonic Scales Symmetry in the Rhythms and Pitches (creating the hook) Multiple Time Signatures

It’s really important to always find ways of maximizing your practice time. Don’t forget, you sound how you practice. In the Tony Grey Bass Academy we look at all of these different techniques that make our lines strong within our bass lines and solo’s. Please visit www.tonygreybassacademy.com for more information regarding our different creative lessons and courses.

Listen to the original recording of this track and pay attention to Rodger Water’s sound.

He has a very clear way of playing and articulating the groove. It’s all about the conviction and intention of the groove that really makes this Bass Line a masterpiece.

Once you understand all this stuff and can really feel it start experimenting with some of these ideas to compose your own grooves. Try playing variations along with the Playalong track.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks Bass Line breakdown and don’t forget every Monday there will be a new video for you to guess the Bass Player and Track, with an opportunity to win a FREE month inside the Academy along with some great giveaways from Fodera Guitars!

Stay inspired!Tony Grey