# Grooves & pocket

Bass is a rhythm instrument first — where the note sits against the kick matters more than fancy fills.

## Pocket lab

Four placements of the same two pitches: open E (E1) and its fifth B on the A string at fret 2.
Nothing about the notes changes between feels, only where they land and how much silence is left over.
The page prints each cell as TAB with the count above it and loops it at the practice bar's tempo.

1. **One root a bar** — one attack, then air. Half-time verses and ballads.
2. **Root on 1, fifth on 3** — attacks on the two beats the kick usually takes; 2 and 4 left for the snare.
3. **Fifth pushed before 3** — the fifth arrives on the "and" of 2 and beat 3 stays silent, so the bar leans forward.
4. **Eighth pocket with two holes** — driving eighths with the "and" of 2 and the "and" of 4 cut out.

## Lock with the kick

Roots on kick accents; fills never hide beat 1 for long. Record and check alignment.

## Space, density and accent

Rests and full mutes. Dense gallops need phrase gaps. Two exercises make the point: two bars of
continuous eighths against two bars of whole-note roots, which is arrangement rather than chops; and
eight bars of eighths accented with the kick on 1 and 3 against eight accented with the snare on 2
and 4 — identical notes, two different songs.

## Ahead / behind / center

Practice the same note three ways on purpose. Eight bars of one, eight of another, and label the
take; do not blend two feels in one take until you can produce either on demand.

## Building your own cell

Write the grid before the notes: eight eighths, decide which get an attack, put beat 1 in, choose the
holes on purpose, and only then pick pitches. Steps one to three take longer than picking pitches —
that ratio is what makes bass a rhythm instrument.

## Metal pocket

Downbeat agreement, controlled drones, early exit from fills.

## Common faults

Erased downbeats, copying guitar busyness, ignoring snare, overplaying ghosts.

## The push, and why it works

Anticipation: the note arrives before the beat it belongs to, so beat 3 can stay empty. Two things
make it work — the anticipated note has to be short (ring through beat 3 and you have smeared the
groove, not pushed it), and beat 3 must stay empty, because a note there turns the push back into an
extra note.

## Three tests you can actually run

You are the least reliable listener in the room while you play. Tap 2 and 4 with your foot while you
play 1 and 3; drop out for a bar and check whether you land on the next downbeat; record ten seconds
with the click audible, then solo the bass and tap along. Keep two takes, best pocket and best fill —
one take should not have to win both contests.

## Fill exit rule
Leave beat 1 free after fills.

## Note length is half the groove

Where a note starts gets the attention; how long it lasts decides whether the groove breathes. Practise
three lengths on one pitch at one tempo: let it ring, half the beat, clipped. Decide the length before
the notes. Filling the gaps with ghosts rather than silence is the same decision one step on, and it
belongs to [Muting & ghosts](muting.md).