Chords for Jaco Pastorius "Portrait of Tracy" & Bass Harmonics | Reverb Learn to Play

[D] _ _ [A] _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ [B] _ _ [G] _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Hey there, this is Jake with Reverb.
[G] Today we're going to be talking about [Bb] bass [B] harmonics through [Ebm] Giacomo Pistorius' Portrait
of Tracy off of his self-titled solo [C] record, Giacomo.
[Bm] _ _ [C] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ So one of the more interesting things about this song is that the first thing you hear
is just these deep kind of bell-like sounds.
[D] _
_ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _
No other instruments, it was just the solo electric bass.
And what he's using is he's using these harmonics, which is these overtones, these notes that
are simultaneously within the string and not at the same time somehow.
If you take any _ resonating body, right, a pole, a string, you cut it in half exactly.
_ You get whatever sound you're hearing, principal tone, [Bb] an octave up.
And if you do that again, _ and again, _ the _ [E] next three prominent overtones that occur in the
overtone series _ correspond with pitches that we get out of the chord _ that forms on that string.
So we've got here on the seventh fret, _ we've got the fifth.
_ _ _ _ Now the next one that occurs on top of that is the third, which occurs two fifths into
the string length on the fourth fret.
You hear that? _
_ _ _ So all together, _ _ right?
_ _ _ _ A little out of order, but we still get a major chord.
So in the very [G] beginning of the song, Jaco uses harmonics on each of the strings in a
somewhat unconventional position.
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
[A] _ _ [E] _ Let's look at that a little bit slower.
So we got our pinky, or third finger, I like to use my pinky, on the fifth [G] fret on the
G string, _ _ going to the third fret.
The third fret harmonic is a little tricky, [Eb] because you can get a flat seven in there
somewhere, so [G] you've got to make sure you're getting _ _ _ _ _ _ just the octave.
_ It goes to the fourth fret on the D string, [D] _ and then to the third fret on [A] the A string.
[G] Now that lick, he just repeats on each of the strings.
[D] _
_ Again, now on the D string.
Fifth fret, [Gm] third fret, [Gbm] fourth fret on the A string, _ [Em] _
third fret on the E string.
_ Just that [G] part.
[D] _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Again, on the A string now, fifth fret, third fret, and then fourth fret on the E string.
Now from [G] the E string, he just walks up [A] that arpeggio we talked about earlier. _ _
_ _ _ So right off the bat, when we get to what is the melody of the song, Jaco does this beautiful [C] line. _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ What we're using there is we're [C] using the fourth fret harmonic, [Bb] _ _ _
the third fret, [Gm] _ _ _ fifth
fret harmonic, and this is just on the [G] G and D string right now. _ _ _ _
[Am] _ [G] _ _ _ Now there's a line in there.
That's [Ab] what's so cool about this song, is that he was playing actual lines out of the
[G] harmonic, _
_ _ [Am] _ [Gb] _ [D] [Gm] while he's creating [A] chords underneath by holding out these bass tones.
[C] _ [G] _ _
_ [A] _ [D] Now this next one, kind of a cool [Bb] concept that Jaco used, and that was to create [B] _ almost
like a capo or a movable bridge, but using the same logic as the twelfth fret, the fifth
fret, the seventh fret.
You should be able to get those third harmonics, right?
If you move where you're fixing the bridge.
_ _ That note is four frets higher than the B, the second fret on the A string. _
Creates [Eb] a third.
We hear that E flat, and so the [A] line then [B] becomes, [E] _ _ _ [B] _ _ [D] _ [G] _
_ _ _ [B] _ [A] _ _ _ [Eb] _
[B] _ _ [G] _ _ right?
Do it a little bit slower with the chords now.
_ _ Now _
[D] _ _ [B] _ [D] _ [G] _ _ _ _
what Jaco used later on in the song was he was [Ab]
moving the bass notes.
He was moving the root to color the harmony that the harmonics were creating on top of it.
[A] _ [D] _ _ _ [Bm] _
_ _ _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ _
[Bm] _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] He was keeping his pinky on the eighth fret, the low E, _ [D] _ _
ringing out [Gm] these fifth fret harmonics
[G] on the A and the D string.
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _
[Bm] _ _ _ _ _ What's incredible about studying these harmonics is that you stop looking at the bass [E] as a
series of frets or a system of frets, but you actually start to see the ratios, see
where some of these other possibilities exist, just in exploring this sort of movable bridge concept.
_ [A] _
[B] _ _ [G] _ [Gb] _ _ Right?
[Bb] We find all sorts of other melodies and tones that we didn't normally have access to on the bass.
At the end of the day, what we want to do is we want to imitate and then innovate.
I don't think Jaco would have wanted to live in a world where everybody was just copying
his licks verbatim, copying his ideas, playing the same songs over and over.
He was a jazz musician.
He was improvising all the time, and he wanted to let the soul of the music speak through his instrument.
So I hope that in exploring some of these concepts of harmonics through Portrait of
Tracy, you can find some of your own exciting ways to play.
This is Jake for Reverb signing [Em] off.
Thanks again for watching, and we'll see you soon. _
_ _ _ _ _ [D] _ [B] _ _
[D] _ [G] _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
[B] _ _ [D] _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _