"We Are One" Frankie Beverly and Maze Bass Line Breakdown

Indiziert: 2026-05-19

[00:00:01]Bass heads, happy Monday. Happy Monday.

[00:00:04]If we haven't met yet, my name is Ted and I talk bass. Today we're going to break down We Are One by Frankie Beverly and Maize.

[00:00:14]What inspired me? So, I was on scrolling on Facebook, as one does, and I saw the incomparable Tony Lindsay with the Maze Experience or the Frankie Beverly experience, I believe, is what what they're what they're rocking. Um, doing We Are One.

[00:00:34]We are One is a tune we play in New Orleans quite a bit. It's just a really great song and it is also a great vehicle to piggyback off of some of the things that we talked about in depth last week. All right. So, I should tell you actually first and foremost I I have I have forgotten my manners.

[00:01:02]Stream is brought to you by pocketscience.store.

[00:01:05]store, the pocket shop. We got brand new for Father's Day coming up. We got the Low Note Provider, a new Low Note Provider mug. We got the Funk Communion t-shirt and mug and a whole bunch of other groovy stuff up in there. Tampa checking in. I see you in the building. Okay, before we get into the actual tune, let me piggyback off of the stuff that I was talking about last week and the importance of being able to visualize your scale chords in that scale or the arpeggios within that scale. I got to clean these glasses off. Why y'all let me come up in here with dirty glasses, man?

[00:01:58]Tampa, you let me come in here with dirty glasses. Don't do that again, man.

[00:02:02]Don't do that again.

[00:02:06]Of course, I'm kidding. All right. So, first thing we're going to do is look at the key of B flat. Pulling out the What is this? A Sterling.

[00:02:18]This is actually a a loner. I got good friends. my my my dear friend Josh Bubenac who I've known for two decades said, "Hey man, won't you hold on to this base for a while?" And I've been holding on to it for about a year and a half now. So Josh, I'd say he he's not going to get it back, but he's a big dude. So I, you know, I I just I don't want the smoke. So here's the key of B flat.

[00:02:53]Every major scale has a relative minor scale. The relative minor starts on the sixth scale degree. 1 2 3 4 five six.

[00:03:06]Well, if Rob says, "My bad." So, if that's six, then that's also six. So you can find the relative minor by counting up 1 2 3 4 5 6 or counting down 1 7 6. Now let's look at the minor scale from that position.

[00:03:41]All right, that's just using the fingers that I used naturally in the scale while playing that scale. Let me play that minor scale again. Natural minor.

[00:04:08]So G, B flat, A, D.

[00:04:19]Okay. Um, let me make sure that this isn't too loud for you.

[00:04:34]Now I'm going to So with the natural with with the fingers that I would normally play the scale with G, B flat, A, D.

[00:04:50]This is going to uh is it slap or finger style? This is going to be all finger style here.

[00:04:56]Now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to play octave shapes. So, my first finger is going to be my guide.

[00:05:25]So I've come out of the textbook fingering for the scale so that I can play those octave shapes.

[00:05:35]the core. Now, the the core rhythm, the framework of the groove is what Robin played on the recording, but I'm switching up the rhythm of the octaves just a little bit. Let Sorry.

[00:05:51]Um, let's play it. I'm going to play it with the drum groove. I don't want to get in in trouble with the copyright people. I am I am using Songmaster Pro to get stems. All right.

[00:06:05]So, um, here we go.

[00:06:28]>> Oh, thanks so much for the for the compliment on the t-shirts.

[00:06:36]and thanks for your purchase.

[00:06:40]So now I'm using the fingers that I will use. Now watch this. I'm going to play the minor scale.

[00:06:51]Okay. What's up, baseline project? I'm going to play the minor scale. the natural minor.

[00:07:06]Now I'm going to play the relative major, minor, major.

[00:07:26]Now I'm gonna connect them.

[00:07:35]All right, that's the A section. Then we got a B section. We are one.

[00:07:43]We're gonna we're Okay, let's continue to talk about the a the the the A section first and then I'm going to explain what happens in the B section and why it works. Okay. So, oh, I'm on the wrong chord. Here we go.

[00:08:15]octaves.

[00:08:18]We'll keep it simple.

[00:08:28]Ah, now I'm going to make it I don't need you.

[00:09:21]Oh, heat.

[00:09:33]Okay. So now we're at the at the A se I mean at the B section. So the B section we are one.

[00:09:49]Let me stop let me stop disrespecting Frankie like that. So remember I said uh we can view this as um B flat major or G minor. All right. But that major scale is our mother ship.

[00:10:08]All right. And what happens is now it goes to the four. If if I'm thinking about this in the key of B flat from a vantage point of the B flat we are one that would be 4 six or if I'm looking at it from what's up Ally on bass if I were looking at it from the vantage point of G minor that would be 6 one okay what do you mean 1 2 3 4 or from B from G minor 1 2 3 4 5 6. This is why it's so important to count the scale degrees when you practice your scales. That E flat is the four of B flat major.

[00:11:02]Another song that does a movement similar to this is that that comes readily to mind is um is the song uh sign your name by Terrence Trent Derby which is in I believe F minor if I'm if I'm cor if I my memory serves me correctly I believe is in F minor but on the bridge It goes to the four of the relative major. And what does that do? That gives it one, the song has got this melancholic feel in the minor key, right? But it's I I I lied to you. It's in G minor. It's in G minor. Wait, I don't remember. I don't remember. I'm going to say it's in F minor. So if it's an F minor, the relative major of F minor is going to be four frets up. Is going to be a flat major.

[00:12:07]It goes to look into the sun before the day is done. that you got this um this melancholy vibe.

[00:12:29]And what happens on the bridge when it goes to the four of the relative major?

[00:12:34]That is a device that all of a sudden makes it have this this lift like it it it it it gives it gives you a sense of hope almost when it goes to the four of the relative major.

[00:12:51]So that's a similar thing that's a similar vibe that's happening here with the with the with the maze tune.

[00:13:25]So on the intro, what is that. Okay. That D, that D, that root D is the five of the key that we're in. We're playing in or the or the the root of the groove is going to be that G minor.

[00:13:51]And there's the flat 7.

[00:14:16]We are one.

[00:14:21]We are one.

[00:14:27]Now when I play that F, that's just a whole step. We are one and that's the way it is.

[00:14:41]Five flat 7. Um, okay. So now that's the bulk of the tune. The tune has an A section and a B section.

[00:14:58]One question that I get, I haven't gotten it in a while. I, you know, I like when people say, people always ask me, well, people don't always ask me, but people sometimes ask me, uh, how do you survive these things? Songs are like Lego, like Lego blocks, right?

[00:15:18]you have a, you know, you know, your intro, your verse, your core, all that stuff, and they're just sections of the tune. And so when you think this groove goes like this, or this section goes like this, it has this chord progression or whatever, and then this part has that, right? So if a singer wanted to like go back and forth or vamp a certain section, which happens a lot, you know what I mean? You be have those sections down. Question from Darius Jack. Ted, when you say relative minor, that is correct.

[00:16:03]It's a great question and that is affirmative.

[00:16:08]Um because the major the the minors share the same notes as the major. That is 100% correct. And for me as as as per usual, what I what I'm saying here on the good old internet is not the way. It it is simply a way. And for this guy, I I I can't tell you how proud I was of myself at about 13 14 years old when I said, "Oh, wait a minute.

[00:16:38]This is related to that.

[00:17:13]Ah, all those they're related. So, was that like the most musically innovative stimulating thing on in in the plan?

[00:17:32]Absolutely not. Not by a long shot. But, u I'm just illustrating how those how those notes work together. So, that was a great question and you are 100% correct. Relative major and minor, they share the same notes. All of your modes are going to share the same the same notes. And so some people will look at the whole thing, and I'm I'm kind of one of these people who look at the whole thing as sort of a a sound as opposed to, you know, getting too far off in the weeds. But, uh, you know, the a mode is just starting the scale from a different place. So, the relative minor, another name for that is aolon mode.

[00:18:32]I started in Aolon, but I ended up on Ionian.

[00:18:43]That's why those things work together.

[00:19:28]So, there's one other part in this tune, and that's that's one that that will bite people on the rear in because it is it's such a big part of the tune and everybody has to do it. So if you don't know it, you don't know it.

[00:19:53]If you are trying to simply remember um if you are too many games too many games by Maze, you know what a maze tune that I like is uh colorblind.

[00:20:09]Go check that. You got to go check that.

[00:20:11]You talk about a funky cut is colorblind.

[00:20:14]Um I won't get into it today, but colorblind is a dope tune. Okay. If you try to remember shapes alone, you can get by only so much with that because you don't really have context.

[00:20:37]You know what I mean?

[00:20:40]I'm trying to say it that way. So shapes have their place. They have their place.

[00:20:45]But if I know also essentially I'm playing a D minor pentatonic.

[00:20:58]So I'm playing a minor pentatonic starting from the five of G.

[00:21:23]and it goes right back into the thing.

[00:21:25]Right?

[00:21:30]When you get a lick like that, now you know what the you know how the sausage is made.

[00:21:38]Play it somewhere else.

[00:21:49]Take it out of context and then open an open D.

[00:22:05]2 3 4 2 3 4 Okay, that my friend is I love the questions in the comments in the comment section when when you do that lets me know that I'm that I'm doing that. I'm doing all right. So, I appreciate it.

[00:23:01]Listen, we're getting a lot of good feedback off of the merch from the shop.

[00:23:10]And there's some good stuff in here.

[00:23:13]More designs coming. Some of these are older designs.

[00:23:21]Um, I've got one of these on the way for myself.

[00:23:29]Can you play 12th fret D as well? Good question. Let's get into it. Let's get into it.

[00:23:37]So, I wouldn't do that because it's the same register and we need we need the lower D, right? So, this if what you're asking about, can you play the D on the on the 12th fret?

[00:24:08]This would be just this.

[00:24:15]It's not wrong, but it has it doesn't have the same amount of weight as this going to the lower D.

[00:24:28]these little um when you when you are learning like pentatonics and stuff um it is really cool to then start listening and and and and observing where you hear pentatonics in the wild. One of my favorites is um What?

[00:25:16]Wow.

[00:25:26]That's a C minor, but it goes through all these positions.

[00:25:59]So we have C minor.

[00:26:03]There's our C minor pentatonic in one position. But C minor is the relative minor of E flat major.

[00:26:19]There's so to the question earlier if I end up on E flat.

[00:26:32]H sorry sounds like I ended on E flat major pentatonic. If I go, sounds like C minor, right? Another uh another Stevie pentatonic line I'm thinking about right now. Um how does it go again? Um um uh that that that that's that's actually a tough when I used to play that three days a week and I and they would always play it towards the end of the day of a 5 hour gig and Ah, sloppy.

[00:28:17]All right. Anyway, that was Maze, Frankie Beverly, we are one plus some other stuff.

[00:28:26]So, I hope that this has been helpful.

[00:28:30]Again, if we haven't met yet, my name is Ted and I talk bass. Good to see all the bass heads, regular bass heads in the chat. Share this with a friend. Until I see you again, it ain't rocket science, it's pocket science. Peace y'all.