Color “Outside the Lines” Using Chromatics!
If you are looking to come up with some fresh ideas for grooves, try injecting some chromatics. “Chroma” is the Greek word for color. Chromatic approaches and transition notes are a terrific way to use non-scalar notes to expand the possibilities for your grooves. While a diatonic scale has seven notes, adding these additional notes expands your palette to enable you to paint with up to 12 notes!
And chromatics are a great finger workout – a bit like permutations in a musical context!
In this episode of Talking Technique, I demonstrate a cool riff that highlights the use of chromatics. I’ll explain how to use them in your own phrases, and we’ll also touch on the importance of getting the right fingering, which becomes super important when you’re playing at a quick tempo like my example.
Have a look and listen here:
Follow along with the PDF for this lesson and view the original post on notreble.
You might also be interested in these posts:
- Chromatic Acrobatics 2
- Chromatic Acrobatics 3
- Practicing Hack – Chromatic Acrobatics
- Chromatic Acrobatics – Finger Twister Alert!
- The Permutation Exercise
- Practical groove ideas using Octaves and Chromaticism
In our Flagship Course – Music Theory for the Bass Player you learn all about chromatic and non-chromatic notes. We have 12-week Cohorts running 2-3x/year. Don’t miss your chance to join!
