Lush Life Solo Jazz Piano Transcription, and Tips on Constructing Bassline

Transcription of Lush Life Solo Piano Version, and some tips on constructing bassline

Did a transcription recently on one of my favourite solo jazz piano video on youtube by 7notemode.

Check out this Jazz Standard Lush Life, the way you never heard it before..

The transcription I did here is from 1m21s to 2m00s of the video above

Lush-Life-Solo-Jazz-Piano-Transcription

Important note! All 8th notes in the transcription must be played with a swing feel.

One of the grooviest part of this video, is the bassline that sets the groove for the whole tune. Here are a few tips on constructing bassline for solo piano playing, based on the transcription provided.

– Choose a tune with several bars consisting of similar chords, and simple melody line. The first few bars of Lush Life goes something like this.

• The recurring Db and D chords makes it easy for us to construct a catchy and memorable bassline
• The simple melody line gives us space for bassnotes. 

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– When you have a nice bassline going for your tune, repeat it a few times before putting in the melody, to let the idea sink into your listener’s ears.
That’s what 7notemode did for the first few bars as shown in the transcription.

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– Let the bassnotes fill in the spaces between the melody, and vice versa. Don’t cloud your listener’s head with too many notes at one time, unless you are doing a Bach fugue of course.. 🙂

Observe how 7notemode demonstrate my point in these few bars cutout from my transcription.

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– Include chord extensions in bassline to make it more interesting. Look at this cutout of the bassline from the transcription again.

The two circled notes occured on one of the downbeat of each bar, thus play a significant role in outlining the prevailing chord.

The Eb note circled in red is the 9th of the Db major chord

The C note circled in blue is the 7th of the D major chord  

Everyone should go over to 7notemode’s youtube channel and give him a 5 star rating on his jazz piano videos. That’s the least we can do in showing appreciation and respect to this great youtube jazz pianist.

Stay tune for subsequent transcription of this song, and also other great transcriptions I have in store for you guys. Subscribe to our feed to be updated regularly.

Until then, Have fun and enjoy… 😀

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