Bass Exercise based on an Analysis of Scott Larfaro’s Improvisation

Abstract

This thesis, focused on creating an exercise based on an analysis of Scott Lafaro’s improvisation on Bill Evans’s album, “Waltz for Debby”. Researcher looked for a characteristic of Lafaro by searching for the most repeated phasing on his improvising line, then analyzed by Jazz Theory and bring the result to create exercises. From an analysis, “Methods of connecting a melody” and “Using many kind triplets” were found on a Lafaro’s improvisation which lead to 10 exercises, each exercise has a connected on its content which started from an easy content from a very first to harder content at the very last exercise. By doing this, a student will understand the way Lafaro choose his note then combined with his motif. The purpose of this exercise is willing to see a student to be able to be adapted the knowledge from the exercise to the songs they want, by setting bass range of each exercises from E2 – C5 which is the most suitable range for bass to be played, along With  “ii V I” chord progression, and all exercises are modulated in to 12 keys, it makes this exercise easier for student to adapt the content in a real situation.