Category Archive for: ‘Licks’

If you’ve watched my lesson ‘Using Simple Shapes on the Bass #2‘, perhaps you remember that it dealt with those ‘sexy notes’ that have a special flavor to them, that kinda surprise our ear, but in a nice way, well… at least for most of us. In this new bass lesson, I’m showing you a very simple bass lick that …

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In this new bass lesson I’m going to show you a nice little lick you can play over a Major 7th chord. What’s interesting about this one, is that there’s a sharp 11th in it, which creates the “tension”. If something makes you think of the Simpson’s, that’s because of this very tension note. If you’re not used to hearing …

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In this new bass lesson, I’m taking you through a lick that we can play over an E minor 7th chord or over its relative major chord which is G Major 7th. I’ll be showing you what triads and arpeggios I’m using, so you’re not only learning a new lick but you can also expand on that and build your …

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Here’s another bass lick you can play over major-7th type chords.The previous one was built mainly over the C major arpeggio. This one uses quite a few chromatic notes, for a change. Nothing really complicated but watch your fingering! We’ll learn this lick in B flat major but as always, don’t hesitate to transpose it in other keys. Also, experiment …

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As you probably know by now, ScottsBassLessons is not just about licks, grooves and chops… What I’m striving to do here is to give you a ‘non-reductive’ approach to learning and playing the bass. That said, I’m not ‘anti-lick’ at all! What I’m saying is that it’s not enough to learn a ton of bass licks, particularly if you want …

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Here’s a new II-V-I bass lick in the key of Eb. Like in the previous lesson, we’re gonna be playing the II-V within the first bar, instead of playing one chord per bar (or two bars for the root). When you’ve got it under your fingers and you’ve practiced it in various keys, try to be inventive with the phrasing …

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I‘ve received quite a bunch of e-mails asking me about II-V-I bass licks that happen within one bar (actually, it’s generally the “II-V” that happens on one bar). The previous II-V-I’s I’ve showed you were on 3 or 4 bars: one bar on the II, one bar on the V and one or two bars on the I. So, in …

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Here’s a new lesson showing you another II-V-I bass lick, this time in the key of Eb. As I said many times before –but I’m saying it again in case you didn’t hear it…, once you’re comfortable playing a bass lick in one key, stretch yourself a little and practice it in all keys. You won’t regret it, as you’ll …

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In today’s bass lesson we’re gonna be working on a little II-V-I melody in the key of C Major. The chords are Dm7-G7-C7 and we’ll have one bar of each. Within this lick, I use a chromatic exclosure type lick that sounds really cool, IMHO (btw, you may be interested in my lesson about targeting chord tones chromatically). When you’re …

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Here’s just a quick bass lesson showing you a really easy II-V-I lick. Here I’m discussing the 7th to 3rd resolution on the II-V. Sounds complicated but you’ll see it’s not! If you haven’t heard of this, do check this lesson out, as it will really help you out when making up your own lines. Here, we’re gonna be playing …

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A few of my students asked me to show them the ‘lick’ the great bass player Richard Bona plays in many of his solos. I figured there’d be lots more bass players out there that would be interested too so here it is… Downloadable Transcription

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So, we’ve learned all the scales and arpeggios… now what do we do with them?! Well, improvisation is a language that is learned over time. The ‘Licks’ section is where I demonstrate various licks/melodies that can be incorporated into your own playing so you can start developing your own vocabulary. By studying how the licks/melodies are constructed from the different …

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