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 does exactly that: the reason why it sounds so good is that it adds an element of surprise –that will probably get you a lot of ‘wows’ by the way!
The surprise comes from the fact that it includes a lot of notes that don’t ‘fit’ in the expected harmony: most of the notes are not directly related to the G minor chord that we’re playing over. As a result, there’s a ‘tension and release’ effect that makes us feel good. Well, check out for yourself! ;)
Want the tab and notation for this lesson?!… Click here to find out!
You sir, are one heavy mofo on that bass. Very nice lick!
Nathan East! Badass!
Lol… You got me! He used it on the end of a Michael McDonald tune I heard… Can’t remember what tune it was… but when I heard him play it I was like ‘WOOOW’! ;)
I loved it from the moment you played it for the first time.
Mate it’s awesome! You should do a lesson on how to play the smash hit ‘Valerie’. I can’t help but think that would really benefit your life. Maybe Mustang Sally actually…..
Great work…workin on it right now :)
Hey, good lesson! I’ve been playing this shape for years, but I do like how you applied it.
Thank a lot for your help love it :-)
Hi Scott Just simply AMAZING…thanks so much!
No kidding Scott, b/c of my watching and learning from your EASY2LEARN bass lessons my skills have tripled in the past 2 months!!! I play Contemporary Christian music and what I’ve learned from you carries over so well into that genera of music as well as folk music. I’ve even played some Southern Rock and some Modern Rock with the same skills I’ve learned from you and it transitions SOOOOOO…. well!!! My unle has been playing drums for close to 55 years as a professional and I played with him the other day and he was impressed and said so in front of the other band members (that was the southern rock and modern rock). My Contemporary Christian band members are so impressed as well. I just lower my head in a humble manner and thank them thinking if only they knew my secret…lol. My Christian drummer plays professional on a large scale with big names and he too said I was professional level. They all said I should play professional but I watch your videos and realize just how far I have to go to be that good. I am very grateful for what you are doing here and if there was a way I could support you I would but like most, I don’t have any extra funds. Got paid today and EVERY single penny is gone and I didn’t even get gas for my truck!!! Love ya bro and God bless you for the effort and love you share with us!!!
Hey Scott,another awesome lesson,many thanks.
Hey Scott..
A correction on my comment concerning the backing tracks overriding the bass; when listening through headphones, the mix sounds fine. Great lesson by the way. Thanks.
Yeah… I think laptop speakers are the culprit lol! Glad you’ve got it sorted man, enjoy! Scott ;)
Scott once again you’ve given a lession thats like finding Gold. thx Bro
Any chance you could do a lesson on how to play ‘sex on fire’ by Kings of Leon? I really like that tune and I wanna learn it on bass.
Thanks in advance
awesome wow thanks…
I agree Scott is the Greatest Teacher of Bass on the tube. I wish to donate, PLEASE upload lots of R*B, Motown, Smoth Jazz licks, I already bought the backingtrack sets
good stuff Scott, you’re a good teacher thank you. But I would like to know how to get that great sound coming over my laptop into my earphones? what kind of equipment are using and I hear no notes over ringing which drives me crazy on my setup what are your settings? is been very frustrated for me for years spending unreasonable amounts of dollars in trying to duplicate these great sounds I hear over the Internet into my music room that’s a good lesson I feel to teach all of us. Thank you for sharing looking forward from more from you.
And yet again an awesome lesson. You’re the greatest, Scott!
Awesome lesson. Hope you could also do some lessons on vibrato and how hard you fretting fingers work on that.
I love the shaping, and REALLY love the way it’s bracketed into the groove. There’s no point in ‘going out’ if you don’t get ‘back’ in time!
Hey Nice LICK!
Scott is there any chance you make a basic tutorial on Equalizing? From the several videos you’ve uploaded i could recognize farily different tones with that same bass and it just cought my eye (or should i say ear?) since im not able to really shape the tone as precisely as i would like. Love that Gary Willis tone you get out of that bass.
Scott man this is funkAy. Exactly the kind of thing that pleases my ear. Well done
funky monkey :-)
that is one mean lick – fantastic lesson!!
Awsom bass lessons scott, guess wat tis is from Fiji nd i really enjoy learning bass from ur site!!
WOOPS WOOPS WOOPS! :-)))
As I was listening to the “out” examples I was reminded of the book by Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, [http://bit.ly/YLi8KB] that Coltrane used to study out of. Any chance you might venture down that road some day? It would be great to have a coach/ally enhance the parts of music theory that I missed out on.
Cheers,
hl
Hey Howard, I’m definitely going to be doing lessons on ‘playing out’ this year so keep your eyes peeled ;)