Mutant Bass Players Metro, Dance, Charmon, Spectrum, and Illusion climb the wall and escape the dark room.
On the other side they encounter The Extension Bridge that leads to a seemingly endless path of melodic freedom on the bass.
There is only one way to cross The Extension Bridge: hear tension and release and the bridge will never snap or sag too low!
The Extension Bridge Concept
Mutant Bass Players: Metro, Dance, Charmon, Spectrum, Illusion
Spectrum: What is this?
Charmon: It looks like some sort of bridge.
Illusion: If it’s a bridge, how do think we are supposed to cross it?
Dance: Hey guys look!… It’s a paper! It seems like it’s giving some kind of instruction. Hmmm…
Metro: (Reading the paper)
Unlimited combinations of tension and release,
Embrace the journey to let your mind cease,
Take a step and never look back,
Forward…
Backward…
Both lead you to the pack,
The consequences are all but a dream,
In the end…
A big cup of ice cream,
The journey begins here: E major
Spectrum: Ice cream! Oh yeah!… I’m hungry! So what do you think we need to do?
Metro: Let’s take a step!
(All the Mutant Bass Players take a step on The Extension Bridge. The plank they step on is labeled E. A note from the sky begins to sound. But the bridge begins to quickly sag!)
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Charmon: Hurry up guys…We need to move! There is not enough tension on the bridge! Let’s move to another plank! The paper said the journey starts at E major! So let’s step on a G# and see what happens!
(All the Mutant Bass Players step on the G# plank. The bridge slows down it’s sagging, but continues to still sag! The Mutant Bass Players are afraid they will fall into the depths of the darkness!)
Illusion: Let’s step on B!… Now back to G#!
(The Mutant Bass Players frantically bounce from E, G#, and B! The bridge continues to sag!)
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Dance: I think I see what’s going on guys! These notes all fit into an E maj 7 chord. They do sound great!… But the bridge keeps sagging. There is not enough tension in bridge for it to lead anywhere interesting! These notes, for this particular situation, are not necessarily leading anywhere! They might lead somewhere on another bridge, but not this one!
Spectrum: Let’s see what happens if we step on an adjacent plank! Let’s step on F#… Now let’s step on C!
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(The Mutant Bass Players bounce from the notes E, G#, B, F#, and C! They start to explore other notes as well! The bridge seems to breath by sagging and tightening! The Mutant Bass Players quickly realize that the notes outside of the chord start to function as tensions, that will tighten up the bridge! Tensions are not necessarily wrong notes. Without tension, your music will not go anywhere. However, if you sit on a tension too long, the bridge feels like it’s going to snap! And maybe, it will. Soon the Mutant Bass Players become comfortable playing any note—feeling the tension of one note and releasing the tension with another note. A path on the bridge becomes clear and a big cup of ice cream falls from the sky! The Mutant Bass Players are now on the path of melodic musical freedom on the bass.)
Mutant Bass Players: Metro, Dance, Charmon, Illusion, Spectrum
