Day 7 - Less is More

This past weekend has been a rather enlightening one:

Event 1 - Smart Percussionist

During my church band rehearsals, our band leader spoke. He is one of the very few people who's words have an impact.He either says something hilarious, like how he can never accept someone's unfinished chapati because he doesn't like moist chapatis (unless he moistens them himself), or something really smart. There are two main reasons why I really respect and look up to (that's funny because his Masaai genes have blessed him with some serious height) this moist-chapati-hating man. Firstly, he, quite like myself, I believe, is a very deep thinker. He has a great mind, and this is also apparent in his musicianship. He is the type of person who would go for a concert and quietly stay in his chair, analyzing the music. In relation to this, the second reason why I really respect him is because he is a percussionist/drummer. As opposed to other instrumentalists, percussionists are usually looked down upon because it is perceived that their musical ability begins and ends with rhythm. This guy, however, understands chords and their quality, musicality and performance. Back to the main point....Before our rehearsals, he gave a little speech, which in summary was:

• It's about Jesus on Sunday, so let it not be about your virtuosity 
• Always step back a bit as we get in worship mode, to allow us and the congregation to focus on what's really important
• If you're going to add funky stuff, only do so if it compliments the message of the music

Event 2 - Words of a Soul Singer

I have this friend who is an amazing vocalist. She has a powerful voice and is not afraid to let her insides pour out. I usually don't have much respect for today's singers because most of them lack artistry and musicianship. I've worked with some who have no concept of musical timing and some who can't tell when they are in the wrong key, and then get offended when you tell them. I really admire this one though, because she is an artiste in the true sense. Not only does she have a powerful voice, but sings and writes from the heart. Additionally, she has a great musical ear and the ability to produce accurate pitch. I remember at one of her rehearsals, she wanted the saxophonist to play a particular line for her song, so she sung the line. At the exact pitch. Her voice even sounded like a saxophone! Anyway, she visited me, and of course you cannot have two musicians in the same room and not talk about music. So we were watching videos of some of the newer African musicians, and critiquing them. One was of a Nigerian artiste, on which she commented that the lyrics were as if the singer was addressing a bunch of five year olds (quite simple), but they were very catchy and got to the people. Basically, you have failed as a musician if your audience can't remember your lyrics (or licks in my case). You don't always have to complicate matters.

Event 3 - Bassists Unite (and support the rest of the band)

I was recently on an online bass forum and the topic of discussion was basically "what makes a good bassist". The role of a bassist is mainly to support the band and and help the rhythm section. The main issue of debate was therefore, how much is too much. Here are some of the viewpoints (and my opinion in brackets):

• Basslines are like vocal lines....if it can be sung, it's a good one (agreed...it doesn't have to be overly melodic to compete with the singer/lead guitarist, but a decent amount of melody is good as opposed to sticking to one rhythm note. I used to only stick to root notes, played at the rhythm of the bass drum. This is not so bad in certain genres, like pop or soft-rock, or in certain places of a song e.g. at the intro or outro. However, it's very boring and your audience will definitely not notice you.)
• Technical ability makes a good bassist (agreed to an extent. Technical ability and understanding of your instrument is key in your playing. However, some musicians take to over-showing their technicality that the musical essence gets lost. It's no longer music but just a bunch of...technique. I find this particularly the case with guitar shredders, especially those who go past 20 seconds during their solos. Even 20 seconds is stretching it.)
• You need a 6 or 5 string bass to do good lines (disagreed...a good line can be done on any bass. It's up to you to know how to work it. Flea, pictured above, has some very memorable lines. He is among the world's top bassists, but I have never seen him playing a bass guitar with more than 4 strings. A 5 or 6 string can be good for certain sounds, but even then, simplicity is key. A very good example is in Zahara's cover of Brenda Fassie's "Vulindlela". The bassist here plays a 6 string, but keeps it quite simple, yet it has a line that can be sung, supports the lead and still keeps the rhythm. Quite memorably tasteful, if you ask me. Watch it here ->> Zahara - Vulindlela (Brenda Fassie Cover) )
• Keep it simple, listen, and only add in fancy fills where there are empty spaces (fully agreed. I couldn't put it better.)

What I've taken from this encounters, is that as a bassist, I should remain simple but augment the music with fills where necessary, have a holistic musical view, communicate the music, and that it is okay to be a supporting character as long as you do it well. 

Sidenote: In Sebene music it's a bit different as the lead, rhythm and bass guitars all have counter-melodies. I am still working on it and am yet to fully understand the playing. But it's quite fun to play and I imagine that since, compared to other genres, it's very interactive and the main purpose is for dancing, that everyone has a main role in one way or another to add to the adrenaline.

Day 6 - Abstract playing Pt.2

On Sundays, I play the keyboard at my church during Praise and Worship session. If there's anything that has thrown me in the deep end in my journey, it is playing for my church band. Firstly, not only am I playing with successful, professional musicians, but I don't know many gospel songs. The list of songs we do on Sundays is normally revealed on Saturdays, therefore the first time I would have ever heard a song is on the day before performance, and sometimes on the actual day or on stage. Of course this would make it difficult to remember a progression. Improvising and putting melodic fill-ins was a no-touch area as a result; it was like trying to form a sentence in Spanish when you don't know how the verb and noun pattern works.

I realized that if I listened more to the singers, the melody line would make it easier to predict which chord could be used at a particular point in the song. Abstract playing comes into work here. To be able to hear these changes before they take place, you need to first be able to hear the scale, intervals and chords in your head. This also applies to the bass guitar as an additional ingredient to "sound via shapes". Basslines become so much easier to create when you not only understand the physical pattern of melody and harmony, but if you can hear them before playing.

Something amazing happened in church the last Sunday, that I consider to be a milestone in my growth as a bassist and musician. Our professional and quite competent musician of an instrumentalist leader had not yet arrived during the run-through of the day's songs. Since we had not practiced the previous day, this was going to be my first attempt at playing the songs. Our band leader said that the vocalists should just practice on their own since the instrumentalist leader was not there and it was no time to start figuring out chords. Since the vocalists were gathered around the keyboard, as I sat there helplessly, I realized that with the lead melody, I could hear the chords in my head. So I tried it. And it worked. I was playing a song on the go that I had never played or heard before. Even she high-fived me. During the Praise and Worship session, our bassist was absent. As we played, I realized I was also playing a bassline in my head, a legitimate one at that, and I was so confident of my head-hand coordination, that had the bass cable been there at the time, I would have jumped up and played it. On.The.Go. I feel that to be a true musician, you have to play from the heart, and like in real life, matters of the heart are not always planned. You don't plan to feel angry. You don't plan to fall in love. It just happens, but once there, you can control the impact. I now feel I am on the way to becoming a true, heart-playing musician, as I work on my abstract playing.

Even though I felt like I was drowning in the beginning, I believe I am now learning to swim. I hereby declare in Jesus' name, that I will swim across the ocean and back.

Day 5 - Abstract Playing

Immediately I started playing classical music, I was training for my Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) exams. My main goal at the time was to get my three songs and technical exercises perfect so that I could pass the piano exam. Having skipped two grades at the advice of my teacher, I had quite a lot of work to do in a short period of time. This, I believe, resulted in me playing in a mechanical way as opposed to playing with analysis and deeper understanding. The piece was placed in front of me, with notes and performance directions. I knew what came next before I played it, because I could physically see it. However, I could not hear it before playing it, because I did not have that deep understanding. This ability to hear any piece of music in your head before playing it, and then translating it onto your instrument, is what I am referring to as "abstract playing".

One of the challenges I've faced as an emerging Kenyan musician and crossover artiste, is abstract playing. I was able to hear the sound I wanted in my head, but somehow along the way the translation would be lost and my fingers would not execute the appropriate sound. This was particularly frustrating because the Kenyan music scene mostly requires improvisation and on-the-go creations. As a self-taught bassist (before I discovered the power of Google and YouTube..woohoo!), since I did not know the string and letter names, I had to rely on shapes on the fretboard and connecting those shapes with sounds. I believe that this connection is what bridged the gap between my head and fingers. A lead guitarist friend of mine even remarked once that my musical ear (read abstract playing) is much better on bass than on the keyboard. However, sound via shape is just one of the ingredients for abstract playing.........To be Continued...

Day 4 - Sebene

Growing up, on Sunday afternoons, my parents would put on the radio at full-volume, listening to their favorite Congolese Rumba artistes such as Franco and Mbilia Bel, among many others. I grew up on Lingala music. However, not as an instrumentalist, but a dancer. I may have been quite soft-spoken, but when it came to taking Lingala on the dance floor.......aiyayaya! I would gather my family for a full show in my grandparents' home, complete with my brother's (as the MC) introduction and my dramatic emergence from behind the dining room curtain. I even won a dancing competition at the age of 5 years. My favorite musician was Yondo Sister. This woman could mooooove! I admired her so much, I copied her dance styles and even cut my jeans like she did, so my nickname was Yondo. Fast forward many years later..................

Now that I am an instrumentalist and have studied music, I appreciate Rumba music on a different level. Not only is it probably the most dance-able genre of music, but the instrumentation is beautifully intricate. Particularly Sebene. This is the section in Rumba music where the lead singer stops and the instruments play, as the performers engage the audience in dancing. The interesting thing about Sebene is that the instrumentalists somehow (yes, it's still magic to me) manage to turn a basic 1-5-4-5 progression into something wonderfully complicated. (please refer to the Interlude post to have an idea about progressions) This is how I visualize what happens during Sebene:

• Lead Guitar - plays and improvises on a melody based on a certain theme. He has now taken the position of the lead singer and is now the communicator of the music. 
• Rhythm Guitar - plays the 1-5-4-5 harmony, but using that, he plays an underlying supporting melody to the Lead Guitarist. His Guitar line could very easily have been a Lead part in another genre.
• Keyboard - From what I've heard, this one doesn't have much work other than entering the progression on time. He can add funky stuff, but stays far out of the foreground.
• Drums and Bass (where I come in) - Mr Drums has to have an amazing sense of time (and a strong foot) to keep the kick constant. Other than that, the rhythm is not too complicated, he'll live. Mr (or Miss, in my case) Bass has to have Multiple Personality Disorder. She plays a somewhat melodic line, responsive to the Lead's melody, while still keeping the progression, while occasionally sliding on the fretboard to assert her presence. Most importantly, she assists our Mr Constant Drum with the rhythm, like any other Bassist. However, this one is more involved. While she is conscious of her melodic line and keeping the harmony, her rhythm must also be prominent, making sure her thumb visits a lower register key at some point of her line, sometimes even playing the kick herself by muting and tapping on the lower strings. All this happens simultaneously.

<<< Where my thumb usually hangs out when I play

Where my thumb will start hanging out when I play Sebene>>>

One of my challenges for the year is to learn how to play at least some very basic (but enjoyable) Sebene. My practice technique is to break a whole line down into 3 parts, rhythm, harmony and melody, and practice each part separately then put it together. Today I did the rhythm and harmony of Yondo Sister's "Africa". After perfecting this bassline and a couple more from other Rumba songs, soon I will get the drift and will be making my own Sebene lines. Wish me and my thumb some luck.

Interlude - Quick Music Class

In my next entry, I will be talking about the beauty of my new adventure, Congolese Sebene music. I felt it would have been really difficult to fully paint the picture without touching on some basic theory. So this is for my non-musician readers that I love oh so dearly and want to try to include them in the emotional ride that is Sebene. In summary:

Lesson 1: Common Band Instruments and Roles

• Lead Guitar - Plays melodic lines and fills in empty spaces. Sometimes may have a solo part to shine.
• Rhythm Guitar - Provides harmony and rhythm in line with the band
• Keyboard - Provides harmony and fills in where the lead guitarist or lead singer doesn't
• Bass Guitar - Works very closely with the drummer to provide rhythm and linking it with the harmony. Basically the bridge between drums and other instruments.
• Drums - Keeps the rhythm and controls the tempo (speed). He holds the time together, and it is said your band is only as good as your drummer.If you have a bad drummer, even if you hired Mariah Carey to be your lead singer, you cannot be helped. Sorry. 

Lesson 2: The Scale

Basically, a scale is an arrangement of notes according to pitch and intervals. Every characteristic of music, from harmony to melody and genre, is based on a scale. One of the most popular scales that we will focus on is a Major Diatonic Scale. That is simply do re mi fa sol la ti do. Everyone at one point or anther has sung the Solfa Ladder (do re mi...), so we are together up until there. This scale can be built from any key, as long as when you sing or play it, it sounds like do re mi..... The key where you start your do is the key of the song, for example if you start from C, you're in the key of C.

Lesson 3: Degrees of the Scale

If you count from the do you start with to the next do, you will find that there are 8 notes. This group of 8 notes is known as an octave. The degrees of the scale are simply the position number given to each note. However, since do is repeated, it is usually counted as 1 again. Assuming we are in the key of C:

Scale notes:           C  D  E  F  G  A  B  C   (*side-note: The musical alphabet only goes to G and starts over)

Degrees in Solfege: Do  Re  Mi  Fa  Sol  La  Ti  Do

Degrees in Numbers: 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  1

Therefore: C D E F G A B C = Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do = 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1

I hope you are still with me here.

Lesson 4: Harmony and Progression

Harmony is basically two or more notes sounding at the same time. Harmony forms what are known as chords. We have what are known as primary chords. These are formed from the 1st, 4th and 5th degrees of the scale. For now, each chord will have 3 notes, while skipping a note in between, for example, C will consist of C-E-G. That will be chord 1(C), as it starts on the 1st degree. As such, chord 4 (F) = F-A-C and chord 5 (G) = G-B-D. A chord is named after the letter on which it starts.

A progression is how a song moves from one chord to the next, for example if you play chord C to chord F, then back to C and to G, then finish with C, that movement is known as a progression. In my experience playing in Kenyan bands, I have discovered that most have learnt to play by ear and improvisation and not had much theory lessons. Also quite commonly, while communicating in a band setup, chords are referred to as the degrees, therefore our above progression would be communicated as 1 - 4 - 1 - 5 -1.

On that note, I believe we are now ready to progress onto the next level.

Day 3 - Of Techniques and Improvisation

When I was younger, my tomboy self was involved in all the sports teams and competed against other schools. The teams I enjoyed most were hockey and soccer. As a member of these teams, I hated practice sessions where we would do drills and exercises, because at the time, my young, uninformed mind did not see how running up and down a hill twenty times would help me score a goal.....this was until I ran out of breath after running five steps during a game and got the ball ruthlessly tackled from me. 

Music practice is like playing for a sports team. Doing exercises and drills is the most boring part, and most times we prefer to just jump into the fun action that is performing. Sadly but true, exercises are a very, very important part of your playing, even though they are painfully boring. I have grudgingly accepted that I need to focus more on my technical exercises. This in the long run will make playing even easier, and I believe that with good technique, you cannot run out of improvisation ideas. At least three eighths of my practice session will have to have technical exercises such as scales and spider exercise. Additionally, the session will include improvising a bassline over a backing track. During today's session, I found that it is easier to come up with reggae basslines. Rock is also fairly simple. I also practiced the blues scale, which I used to play over a shuffle backing track. I am now ready to take on the bass world. Let's see how this goes!

Day 2 - First Show of the Year: Analysis

Today was my first performance of the year. The good news is that it went well. The bad news is that it could have gone so much better. Sigh.

I was on the organizing team, and since I was away for about two weeks, I had to work under pressure when I came back. Nothing is more frustrating. Grrrrr!

The sound was sub-standard and we had to operate the sound ourselves because there was no sound engineer. Multi-tasking when performing is not my cup of tea. Again, because I was away for those weeks, not only did my band not have adequate practice sessions, but I did not have my individual sessions, so my fingers were not as flexible. Sigh.

Lack of practice => lack of performance confidence => poor quality performance. Minus 1 point because I did not look like this:

Some bands cancelled their appearances, which meant that the available bands (including my not-practiced band) had to have extra time on stage. Going with the flow had a whole new meaning. This wouldn't have been so bad if we had amazing chemistry. Note to self: bond with band. I also played for another band which had 50 songs I had never heard of before. Because of the poor sound, I could not even hear the rhythm guitarist or vocalists well enough to be able to follow well. Minus 6 points.


In my experience as a classical pianist, everything was strict and planned before the performance, except for sight-reading. For piano exams, we had to prepare the pieces a year in advance. I reckon it is because of this structure that I get severe performance anxiety when I feel unplanned, and this affects my performance. However, I find that there is an element of freedom in going with the flow, and since anything can happen on stage, I have made it a point to include improvisation of different genres, to backing tracks in my individual practice session. But this is only to be used to make a performance better. Otherwise, I have also learnt to not accept to perform when I feel ill-prepared, lest I give an unwanted impression.

Day 1 - The Embarkment

In the last couple of months, some rather life-changing events have happened. The biggest event was the death and burial of my dear Grandma. A few weeks after her death, I turned a year older. I never wanted to celebrate, as my heart was laden with grief. On my birthday last year, my Grandma sung "Happy Birthday" over the phone. The thought of never hearing her voice again, the sadness of losing someone so close and the thought of having to face the world, all seemed unbearable. I retreated into fetal position, as I, quite hopefully, awaited my turn.

Suddenly, some light from the end of tunnel shone through, and like a baby eager to know the ways of the world, I reached out and felt a sense of freshness. My Grandma finished her race and left nothing unsaid. She was renewed to a fresh beginning, closer to God.  Her promotion to glory, and my birthday, both symbolized the end of one thing and the beginning of another. With this, I embark on my journey.

I am an instrumentalist, and last year I started being more involved in the music industry, with a focus on bass guitar. Throughout the last years, I had always been self-conscious and I believe that this, as a result, affected how I performed. My former piano teacher pointed this out when he left the room as I practiced, and later came back and commented on the difference in quality of my playing when there are people in the room and without. He noted that I would play much better around people I'm comfortable with and have known, than around other people, and even better when alone. He always told me that he knows and understands that my playing abilities are much higher than that shown on the piano exam report card. However, as I have recently come to learn, out here in the industry, no one cares to understand; you're either capable or not.

It is commonly said that how you perceive and portray yourself, is how others are going to perceive and portray you. Despite certificates of excellence and merits in music, I perceived myself to be an inadequate musician. I have had people telling me to not try a song, because they consider it beyond me. Even after going ahead to play the song perfectly, much to their shock, they would still question my abilities. In my eyes, I lacked ability, therefore in theirs, I lacked ability. As a fairly new bass guitarist who has never received formal training on bass, I understand that I still have a lot of work to do and I'm very open to constructive criticism. However, such comments are restricting and imply that there is no room for me to expand my abilities.

With the new life, new confidence and new perspective, I will take the challenge. It is hereby my goal, to not only be one of the very rare local female bassists, but among the top bassists worldwide. Not only to prove to the world, but to myself, that I am adequate and to document my growth. This is the embarkment. This is my Bass Chronicles.