Jonathan Proud

Breaking News

This track was recorded in January 2015 as part of a Peculiar Disco Moves EP. I took a DI out of my Sansamp and mic’d up my SVT rig (Ampeg SVT CL and SVT 4×10 classic). I did it in one take with an extra run through just for safety (in case of audio glitches or unwanted noise). Once again pre-production makes everything easier, you should always go into the studio knowing exactly what you need to play.

The song’s in Db major but has some chromatic harmony and borrowed chords. There’s nothing too fancy in this one bass-wise, I mostly stay down the bottom of the neck and hold down the root and as always use chromatic and diatonic approach notes and runs to keep the track bouncing along.

In verse 1 there’s a bass counter melody to the main vocal that then walks down a major pentatonic scale to the root. Before each ‘in the news’ section I superimpose an Ab over an Ebm chord to lead nicely back to the tonic (Db). Using the 5th of the next chord as an approach note to it is a standard bassist technique and is a great way to create some forward momentum harmonically speaking. The ‘in the news’ section has two chords (Db – Ebm) per bar with an ascending root note. The bass essentially plays a up Db major scale with added #4 (G) and b7 (B). This leads to some interesting chords (Db/G or Gb9#11 (no3rd) being one). The chorus has a pseudo latin/bossa nova feel with each root note being anticipated a quaver before leading up to Bbm arpeggio that follows the phrasing of the vocal.

This version was recorded on the same bass (now with a jazz bass neck) through my sansamp then into Logic Pro X via my Mbox 2. I added a little compression and a slight a EQ bump at around 3-5k. I hope you enjoy the video and transcription, if you like the song check out http://peculiardiscomoves.com/ for more info on the band.

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House Upon The Hill

I recorded this track in September 2014 prior to touring with RJ in support of Jools Holland. Playing this song to a soldout Royal Albert Hall is one of the proudest moments of my life. I’ll do a blog about that another time. The original recording was done with my 50s re-issue P bass through a Sansamp BDDI straight into the desk. We then re-amped into my Orange Terror head and Ampeg SVT 4×10. I got sent a demo version of the song the night before and put a few ideas down in my home studio. Pre-production is always worthwhile.

The main skeleton of the groove was already there, the G octave idea and the off beat Ebsus and Csus chords. My job was to fill in the gaps and add the flavour. I did this using some classic bass player tricks! In the verse I use some walk up/walk downs between the Gm and Cm chord. In verse 1 I outline a Gm arpeggio and in verse 2 move up chromatically from the flat third and down chromatically from the 5th. In the choruses I was asked to play longer lines to contrast with the more rhythmical verses. In bar 4 of the chorus I reference the intro with a C-Bb dotted quaver semiquaver lick. I added a nice walk down to follow the vocal melody in bar 6. For the breakdown I put in a little bass fill. I outline a Gm11 chord then walk down from the fourth/eleventh to the root. I’d been playing a lot of fretless prior to this recording and this is the kind of lick that works really well on fretless.The fill just fell out of my fingers when I went to play something. I liked it so kept it. In the outro I repeat the same lick an octave down. It stands out a bit less in the lower octave and stays out of the range of the vocal and guitar solo.

This version was recorded on the same bass (now with a jazz bass neck) through my sansamp then into Logic Pro X via my Mbox 2. I added a little compression and a slight a EQ bump at around 3-5k.

Thanks for reading I hope you enjoy the video and have a go at playing the song too. It’s great fun to play.