Ten Jazz Standards “Decoded” For Electric Bass, So Your Solo Finally Changes When The Chords Do

Dear Electric Player,
From: The practice room of Cole Davis
Re: Your solos (this one’s for you)

Surprised to see a $27 price tag on this?

I thought you might be.

Would it surprise you more to learn this is the same system I use on gigs in New York every week, and that the thinking behind it comes out of two years of lessons with Ron Carter?

Skeptical?

You should be. Everybody selling bass lessons says something like that.

So don’t take my word for any of it. Do this tonight instead, whether you buy anything from me or not:

Put on a play-along of a blues in F and take one chorus with the scale you always use. Record it on your phone.

Now listen back and ask one question. In bar five, when the band goes to B♭7, does your solo change? In bar eight, when the piano hits that D7, does it change again?

Play the same test on a Miles record, or Charlie Parker, or Jaco. You’ll hear the line shift every single time the chord does.

Then listen back to yourself. Twelve bars, one box, same five notes all the way through.

That’s not a talent problem, and it’s not a theory problem.

When people ask “what are the changes?” they’re really asking what are the differences? The players you love move one or two notes every time the chord moves. You keep all five notes where they were. That’s the whole difference.

Here’s Exactly What That Sounds Like

Take Autumn Leaves. Over the C minor 7 you’ve got a box with a B♭ in it. The next chord is F7. Keep the same shape, move that one B♭ down a fret to A, and you’re playing the F7.

Play those two notes back to back, just the B♭ and then the A, and it already sounds like the song resolving. Nothing else moved.

Now leave the B♭ where it was and play through the F7 anyway. The notes are all “in the key.” The band is playing a different chord. That’s the moment the keys player glances over.

From lesson one, Autumn Leaves. Listen for the B♭ dropping to the A.

I Didn’t Invent Any Of This. It’s How The Changes Work, And I’m Giving You The Whole Rule On This Page

Instead of adding more to your playing, this takes things away.

Here’s what you’ve probably been told to do instead:

• Learn the seven modes, then learn which one goes on which chord.
• Memorize the altered scale, the diminished scale and the bebop scale.
• Transcribe a stack of horn solos and hope some of it sticks.
• Put on a backing track and “just noodle around.”
• Practice arpeggios in all twelve keys until they come out at tempo.

Every one of those is addition. This is subtraction.

You already know the box. You’ve had a pentatonic shape under your fingers for years. The problem was never that you don’t know enough notes. Here’s what it actually gets rid of:

• Dropping into the same pentatonic box the second the sax player points at you, and staying there for the whole tune.
• Starting a solo with a plan and hearing it turn into the same handful of riffs by the second chorus, every single time.
• Cantaloupe Island going to D♭7 while the A♭ you’re leaning on turns sour under the keys player’s voicing.
• Soloing down in the first five frets and hearing a busier version of your bass line come out.
• Running out of ideas halfway through the first chorus of So What.
• The blues being the tune you’ve played longest and solo over worst.
• Knowing A is the third of F7 and still not being able to find it at tempo.

From lesson one: why your ears go blank on dominant chords.

The rule, free, right now

Only One Or Two Notes Change

Pick one five-note box for each chord. From one chord to the next, change only one or two notes. Never zero, because if nothing changes you’re just running a scale. Never all five, because then it stops sounding like one line.

That’s the entire rule. On the first four bars of Autumn Leaves it means one B♭ turning into an A, and the same shape you played over C minor 7 becoming your E♭ major 7 without moving a finger.

And a box isn’t just any five notes. I pick boxes that start on the 9th, the 13th or the sharp 11, with the other colors sitting one fret outside the shape. That way you’re never more than a half step from a right note.

Here’s The Part That’s Going To Annoy You

You just got the rule. That was it. It took you ten seconds to read.

So go try it tonight. On a blues you’ll get halfway through bar five, reach for the box you always use, and hear it happen anyway.

Because knowing the rule exists and knowing which box goes on which chord are not the same skill. And the ten tunes in this course all ask a different question.

Blue Bossa modulates to D♭ major, and if your box doesn’t modulate with it you’re playing a different song. So What gives you two chords and all the rope in the world, and the obvious scale runs dry in a chorus. Cantaloupe Island sounds like a blues and punishes the blues box. Satin Doll changes chords twice a bar, so there’s barely time to think at all.

Four tunes. Four different answers to the same rule.

The rule is free. Knowing which box goes where is the ten lessons.

Here Are The Ten Standards You’re Decoding

Every one played on electric bass. Every chord gets one box, shown on the neck, with the one or two notes that change marked out, so you can hear the decision and then make it yourself.

1. Autumn LeavesMajor and minor 2-5-1s, and the six chords that make up the whole tune
2. Blue BossaMaking the modulation to D♭ major actually sound like a modulation
3. So WhatTwo boxes per chord, both starting on the 9th, so you don’t run out
4. Freddie FreeloaderA B♭ blues with a twist, and an altered box that does the work for you
5. Billie’s BounceAn F blues with Lydian dominant color and an altered D7
6. Cantaloupe IslandSounds like a blues, isn’t one: F minor 7 to D♭7 to D minor 7
7. SummertimeMinor 2-5s and the half-diminished chord nobody can hear
8. All BluesA blues in 3/4, all dominant chords, voice leading that falls under the hand
9. Song For My FatherFour boxes built around the one note that sits in every chord
10. Satin DollTwo chords a bar, handled with one scale, or one scale split in half