Get Into The Groove

By Ed Friedland
No single idea sums up the essence of bass playing better than the groove. Those who have it live by it, and those in need of it seek it out like the Holy Grail. But what exactly is the groove?

• The word “groove” is often used to describe a rhythmic style, as in a “shuffle groove” or a “funk groove.” Another definition is a bit more ethereal: Groove is the energetic force created by an individual or group of musicians through the act of playing. This energy is what makes people bob their heads, tap their toes, and shake their booty to music. Although this definition implies the presence of a steady pulse (as in dance-oriented music), groove can also be present in other forms—such as classical music, where the tempo may vary at the direction of a conductor.

• If we accept that groove is energy, then it is essentially the life force behind music. It is not bound to strict tempo, but it is most often linked to it. Time and groove are not necessarily the same thing; it is possible to keep strict, metronomic time and still not groove, and it is also possible to rush or drag a bit within a tune and groove hard. From the bassist’s perspective, it’s ideal when time and groove are both present. Most of what we bassists do involves working within the framework of a song’s tempo, so it is our primary task to create “groove energy” in real time. Developing your ability to groove is an important part of being a successful bass player, as other musicians depend on you to do your part in creating this essential element.

The groove is an organic thing, like a flower: It starts with a good seed and needs an environment fertile with nourishment so that it may flourish. When it’s fully grown, it becomes a thing of beauty. The groove is also somewhat of an enigma: You can’t touch it, but you can feel it; you can’t see it, but you can watch its effects. It can be powerful enough to move thousands of people, but you can kill it in an instant with a simple thought. When people play together and groove, the energy passes among the players and opens up a group link to its source. Everyone feels it, and the experience forms deep personal bonds. This energetic exchange creates a euphoric state that all musicians have experienced, either as listeners or players. When that chill runs up your spine, it’s the groove—the reason we play. On the other hand, when the groove isn’t happening, or gets sabotaged by ego or carelessness, it can turn brother against brother and create tension that will break up a band, get someone fired, or ruin reputations. The groove is serious business: It is something to honor, serve, and protect. If you mess with it, you’re in deep trouble.

Learning To Groove
While there are many active ways you can develop your groove, you can’t just sit there with a metronome and magically turn into a groove-mutha. You also have to open yourself to the energetic force that makes the groove happen. Once you’ve achieved basic mechanical competence on the bass, the biggest obstacle to the groove is internal blockage. Groove should be like water falling down a mountainside, taking the path of least resistance. Removing the boulders in its way is part of your challenge on the path to groove-land.

Paradoxically, to achieve a state of openness to the groove, you need to consider it in its many forms. Contemplate the relationship between the kick and the bass, the kick and the snare, how the hi-hat subdivides the time, how your line interacts with all the elements of the beat, how the time flows through a song—and yet, if you get too inside your head, you can paralyze your body’s ability to feel the groove. It’s a delicate balance between the mind, body, and spirit—a willingness to subvert your own personal desires for the groove’s sake. Sure, you could cram a cool 16th-note triplet fill into the last two beats of bar 32, but should you? Does it serve the groove, or your ego? In many ways, being a bass player is like being a guardian of the most precious element on earth. Groove makes the world go round. How many nations would go to war if we could all find a way to groove together?

Aside from groove’s metaphysical aspects, there are some very concrete and physical aspects to hitting and maintaining it. First, you need a minimum level of technical consistency on the axe—but you don’t need monster chops. As a matter of fact, some of the strongest groove players are not the most technically oriented. Do chops ruin the groove? Hardly, but it is all too common for people to spend most of their time developing speed without considering the groove. You’ve all seen the local hotshot at the music store furiously wanking away to the throngs of slack-jawed teens, amazing shoppers with his blistering runs and other feats of pointlessness. How many of these amp-room cowboys have what it takes to make a band rock or a dance floor surge? How many of them can play half-notes and make it count? While many people point out that James Jamerson, Jaco, Stanley Clarke, Billy Sheehan, and Victor Wooten (among others) often play a lot of notes, they’re missing the point. These guys all have the groove; that’s why it sounds good when they let it fly. Remember: It’s not about what you play. It’s how you play it.

Internalize It
Your ability to groove is in direct proportion to your ability to internalize rhythm. There is no more direct route to your internal understanding of rhythm than singing. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have pipes like Sting; what counts here is that you can sing in the groove. For our purposes, it’s all about the rhythm. Too embarrassed to sing?

Get over it—it’s way more embarrassing to have a sucky groove! Let’s look at a simple syncopated eighth-note groove (Ex. 1). The accented upbeats are held in place by attaching them to the rests that occur on the downbeats. Just as there is no light without dark and no good without evil, there is no upbeat without downbeat. Set your metronome to 72 bpm and start feeling an eighth-note pulse. Ex. 1 illustrates how to sing the eighth-notes using the syllables “da-ba-da-ba.” Inhale deeply before you start; you can easily learn to sing several measures in one breath.

After you feel locked in, start singing the syncopated rhythm in Ex. 2. Use “ch” as a place marker for the rests on beats two, three, and four. It’s important to feel the space created by “ch”—it keeps the other notes in proportion to each other. If you cheat the rest, or make it too long, you mess up the surrounding beats—and then you can kiss the groove goodbye. Once you’re comfortable with singing the groove, play it on the bass. Stay with this for at least one minute—let it really settle in.

Next, add different notes to the groove (Ex. 3). Play and sing the line together. It may be tricky at first, but it’s a great way to connect your playing with your inner being. The bass is just an instrument, a tool for bringing out the groove you feel inside. If it ain’t in there, it ain’t comin’ out!

The shuffle groove is one of the most popular feels in modern music—and one of the most frequently butchered. When you play a shuffle, can you feel the eighth-note triplet undercurrent? Can you feel the space that occurs on the second subdivision of each triplet group? Ex. 4 shows you how to sing eighth-note triplets, which are the basis of the shuffle. Dial in 46 bpm on your metronome and fit the syllables “ba-ch-da” evenly within the space of each click, making sure that “ba” falls directly on the click. To create the shuffle groove, “ch” becomes a rest—sing it quieter than the notes on “ba” and “da.”

Ex. 5 is a classic Muddy Waters-type line. Keep the click on 46 BPM. Notice that beat four has a quarter-note on the downbeat; let the note ring through the rest usually held by “ch.” Sing the syllables with the pitches. Don’t worry about being in tune—just make it feel good. Once you’ve settled in with the click, start playing it. When you are aligned with the flow of the rhythm, it comes to life. Notice how it feels to relax into the groove. If you internalize the line’s rhythm, you can play it perfectly, effortlessly, indefinitely.

Sixteenth-note grooves can be tricky. Each quarter-note gets subdivided into four equal parts—that’s a lot of notes and space to keep track of. Typically they are counted with the syllables “one-e-and-a, two-e-and-a,” etc., but for now we want to emphasize feel over intellect. The key to groove success is being able to accurately internalize each beat’s subdivisions. Ex. 6 shows you a method for singing the 16th-note pulse. It’s quite a mouthful, but the syllables are designed to be easy to articulate. Start practicing this around 44 bpm; make sure you nail the first syllable (“dig”) to each downbeat, and evenly space the remaining syllables throughout the beat.

Ex. 7 shows the rhythm for our groove. Some of the consonants have been shifted over to make singing a little easier. Practice the syllables out of tempo at first to get the articulation; don’t forget to sing the rest on beat four. Once you can sing it without breaking the flow (or laughing), use the metronome at 44 BPM. Next, put pitches to the rhythm (Ex. 8) and you have a complete groove. Experiment with faster tempos—it’s possible to sing this as fast as 120 BPM.

The process you’ve just learned can be applied to any groove. These specific syllables are just suggestions; I encourage you to find your own rhythmic language, as it will groove even harder if it comes from you. Not only does singing rhythms help you groove, it is the best way to explain a feel to a drummer. Not every drummer will know what you mean if you tell him to play a 16th-note feel with kicks on the “a” of one, the “e” and “a” of two, and a solid downbeat on three. But every drummer will understand what you mean if you sing it to him. (Wouldn’t it be nice if it were that easy to get drummers to understand things like “play softer” or “don’t speed up”?)

Same Notes, Different Grooves
So far we have looked at ways to internalize the rhythmic material contained in a bass line—but very often you’re asked to play a line that uses larger note values, like quarter-notes and half-notes. The surrounding groove may be 16th-, triplet-, or eighth-note based, yet the bass line never uses those rhythmic values. Would you play a quarter-note line exactly the same if the drums were playing triplets or 16ths? Not if you want to hit the deep groove. Even if you don’t actually play the beat’s subdivisions, feeling them as you play your bass line helps you connect to the rhythmic flow. Ex. 9 is a simple quarter-note line with an eighth-note undercurrent. Set the click to 80 bpm and say the syllables “da-ba, da-ba” in eighths while playing the quarter-note line.

Ex. 10 is the same line with a triplet subdivision, at the same tempo: Say “ba-ch-da, ba-ch-da” under the quarter-note. Ex. 11 applies the line to a 16th-note pulse, still at 80 BPM; say “dig-a-chick-a, dig-a-chick-a” while playing it.

If you have a drum machine, program the kick drum on beats one and three, with the snare drum on two and four for Examples 9 through 11, and assign the appropriate subdivision to the hi-hat. The quarter-note subtly absorbs the flavor of its surroundings, and the feel shifts slightly to match the groove. This is an important fine point in hitting the big pocket groove: Your feel needs to integrate with the surroundings.

The Groove Is In The Heart
Rhythm is a language we all intuitively understand. To prove this, pick a non-musician friend, sing a rhythm to him or her, and have your friend repeat it back to you. Most people get it on the first or second try. If you wrote it out, it could take months before they could sing it correctly. When it comes to rhythm, hearing is understanding, and feeling is believing. Groove on!