Bass Gym: “Dark Mode” Groove and How to Phrase in Groups of Five

I must admit that I don’t change my strings as often as I should. Guilty! So, when I’m feeling inspired and ready to lay down a new groove or riff, I sometimes struggle to find the right tone. This time, I just couldn’t achieve the punchy finger tone I needed, so I started switching between the pickups and adjusting the tone control on my Yamaha BB2025X passive bass.

In the end, I found that the bridge pickup with the tone control turned down created a dark mode groove tone, which inspired me to write today’s bass tune, “Dark Mode.”

This groove starts big with a five-note sequence lick, which is tricky to nail not only because it is four bars long, but also because it uses unusual five-note groupings. This peculiar phrasing forces your fingers into new shapes and tricks your brain as you play across the bars and beats.

The tone material is the E minor Aeolian scale (E, F♯, G, A, B, C, D) for the magnificent lick in the first four bars. For the groove, we stick to the reliable E minor pentatonic scale (E, G, A, B, D), adding a few twists with semitone shifts in the pentatonic sequencing.

Have fun with the darkness!