If you’re anything like me, you grew up listening to Jaco Pastorius’s “Teen Town” and you always dreamed of playing it. Except for me, it was all on upright, because I only played upright for most of my life. So I grew up listening to this song wanting to play it on upright, and now I finally can. I’m here to show you how to do the same.
Teen Town is really one of the great bass tunes of all time. It’s on Weather Report’s Heavy Weather, which is one of the great, great albums of all time. Definitely in my top three. Jaco played it on electric bass, and if you’ve tried the Teen Town bass part on upright, you know the speed of the record is the problem.
Here’s how I get it up to that speed on upright: open strings in my left hand, and how my right hand starts each line.
Open strings are the key to Teen Town on upright
This is something I talk about in a lot of my lessons and in a lot of my videos. Open strings. The key is open strings.
Take the first part of the song. You probably want to play it the way the old Simandl taught you to do it. I don’t know if you know this, but there’s a new Simandl: The New Simandl. Anyway, if you try to play this part that old way at a faster tempo, it’s not going to work.
The reason I’m able to play it at the speed of the record is that I’m using open strings. I start on the C with my first finger, and then the open string lets me play it with my fourth. It’s much easier once I have the open string. I’d argue that the only way to do it at that speed is to use the open string.
Pick the fingering that cuts your shifting
Here’s an example. Most people would probably play it one way, but it’s way more efficient at a faster tempo to play it another way. That just minimizes the amount of shifting.
I’m not saying the other way’s impossible, or that it’s wrong. I’m just saying it’s way easier to play it fast with this method of fingering.
Start every eighth-note line on your second finger
Then there are the right-hand techniques that let me play at this speed. One thing I keep in mind: I start all of my lines on the second finger.
I was teaching a student one morning who noticed this, and I thought it was a great observation. They said, hey, you seem to start all your lines on the second finger. And I said, yeah, that’s true.
Here’s the reason. If I start on the first finger, then I have to bring the second finger around. A lot of us make that mistake, just because it’s the first finger, and that’s when we get tripped up. If we start on the second finger, it’s much easier. That second finger lets me put the first finger right in position without even really thinking about it.
So here’s the rule. If I have two or more consecutive eighth notes, I start the line with my second finger. I don’t want to worry about bringing the second finger up because I started on the first. Starting on the second gives me the momentum I want, and it makes these faster phrases much easier to play.
If I don’t have another eighth note, I might play it with the first finger. That’s not necessarily an eighth-note line. But when it is an eighth-note line, I need to start with the second finger.
This is really, really important, because if you don’t do this, you’re going to be wondering why you can’t play it at this speed.
Cole Davis
Try this today
You don’t need the whole tune to start on this. Grab any line you’re working on, Teen Town or anything else.
- Mark the eighth-note lines. Find every spot with two or more eighth notes in a row.
- Start each one on your second finger. Let your first finger fall into position right after it, without thinking about it.
- Compare it to the old way. Play the same line starting on your first finger and notice the moment you have to bring the second finger around. That’s where people get tripped up.
- Leave single notes alone. If there’s no eighth note after it, you might play it with the first finger.
This is really one of the great bass tunes of all time, and I’m happy to share it with you on upright.
The full transcription is in Teen Town, and there’s more Jaco and plenty more on the transcriptions page. Put on Heavy Weather and see how long you can stay with the record.
