Bass Around the World #12: Seinfeld Theme

A few fun facts about the Seinfeld Theme:

• Each monologue in the sitcom got its own variation of the theme.
• Wolff used his voice and fingers for extra sound effects.
• After watching Jerry Seinfeld's performances on HBO, Wolff discovered that Seinfeld has a special way of delivering his jokes—at a tempo of around 110 BPM. That's why this became the tempo of the Seinfeld Theme.
• The theme has strong melodic variations which can be built around and adjusted to each individual joke, Lego-style.
• The theme almost didn’t make it as the network representatives didn’t like it. They called it "annoying" and "weird." Fortunately, Larry David stepped in and convinced everybody that it would be an excellent choice.

And that’s it, the story of the Seinfeld Theme... Also, it's a great way to practice your slap chops. 

Lesson time

The central musical theme is played on keyboards, but it has a great funky feel and most of all it sounds awesome on its own when played using slap technique on electric bass.

The starting descending lick uses notes from the G major pentatonic scale (G, A, B, D, E).

Then, you play a slap bass line with a syncopated groove using the notes of the E7 arpeggio (E, G#, B, D) in combination with a chromatic passage from the A7. 

The whole pattern is then modulated several times into F7 and F#7, coming back to E7 at the very end.