I'm a bass player, I usually play a variety of rock genre songs, from classic to alternative... But my mother's birthday is comming along and she LOVES disco and funk from the 70s, so I'm learning this song, (my little sister on the keys) and we are going to play for her and make her sing with us. Thank you for your lessong, you made it easy for me! Now, to prepare for her surprise little concert :D
''THANK YOU, STUART CLAYTON!'' - I knew there was more to the beginning note sequence than just an Ordinary ''Low E'' played on the down beat. - YOU ROCK!
After all these years I've finally got it right Tk u . one other Bass line that always hunted me is "heart beat" by Gloria gardener, love to see you work it out 🤔
Excellent tutorial...I picked up my bass again after 20 yrs..and found it fun again..wonder if you could break down the track " Saturday night " by T Connection ..would love to master that one too .
Beginner bass player here... It took me forever to get the right-hand fingering correct, or at least to come up with a pattern that was consistent and seemed maximally efficient for the second part of the main riff. It would have been great to see more instruction and analysis on the right hand. That said, once I worked out a pattern that seemed good, and played it over and over every day for a few weeks, it became pretty intuitive, though god knows how long it will take me (if ever) to play it smoothly at speed :) Oddly enough, I found the verse licks a bit more challenging to really "get" since they were less distinctive, despite being, in theory, simpler to play. Thanks for including a breakdown on those, but a few more play throughs would have been nice. All that being said, thanks for the accurate tabs and great instructional video. It's resources like this that make learning bass so much fun! Cheers!
What strings are you using on your jazz? Without a Ray, I would be playing a jazz too, and your tone sounds great. Probably closer to the Stingray sound if you have a '70s model, which yours appears to be. Also it's surprisingly hard sometimes to tell the difference between rounds and flats. Great video!
I don't know what strings they are I'm afraid. Roundwounds, that's about all I can tell you. It's a 72 Jazz that I bought 10 years ago. It had old strings on it, and I haven't changed them as they sound great.
Fantastic lesson and superb playing. I've been trying to download the brilliant package but haven't received the email back. Can you help? I'm not sure if its a fault my end. Email goes to you ok but no reply. Also do you do a book with various songs transcribed. Thanks very much.
Thanks Andrew. This seems to happen to some people, although the mailer appears to be working correctly. Drop me an email at stuart@basslinepublishing.com and I'll get this out to you. In answer to your other question, yes, I published the Chic Book, which contains bass and guitar transcriptions of lots of Chic/Sister Sledge songs. You can read about it on this page, which contains a link that will take you to the Amazon page for that book in whichever country is closest to you (cheaper shipping): www.basslinepublishing.com/product/the-chic-book/
At around 4:32, you pluck the D string then on that fingers way up, you also pluck the A string. I think that's an important detail that's missed out for a beginner like me. I was trying to pluck the D and A strings with my index and middle fingers respectively which sounds wrong because muting is difficult/impossible. It also feels awkward to play like that. Your technique makes it so much easier because I can pluck the D string and then mute the A string on my way up.
Picking hand fingers are alternating at this point. In terms of muting, bear in mind that you can mute a note simply by lifting the fretting finger slightly. For example, when playing the F# and G notes in this phrase, to keep them short you can lift the finger to stop it ringing. That's what I'm doing with those notes. It's quite an instinctive technique, one that is often developed without thinking about it! I hope that helps anyway.
Question: All the several Good Times bass tutorials have the instructor playing the ascending part using all four fingers, fretting all the notes.. BUT the part is easily played on open strings..! Right? You can stay in first position; After the 3 open E notes... Then the two short open E notes, then 2nd fret- E string, then 3rd fret- E string, then OPEN A string, then 2nd fret A string, then 4th fret A string, then OPEN D string, then 2nd fret D string, then open A string, etc. WHY move the hand up to play the part? Its like seeing people play the 2nd part of Roundabout up at the 5th fret, when it is played easily in first position by playing open and hammering.
As I think I explain at some point in the video, the fretboard positions I teach here are the ones that Bernard used to play the line. You don't have to do it this way of course, the way you described works perfectly well. Up to you!
@@StuartClayton Thank you for your response. I love your teaching style by the way… you talk just enough to make it clear but you don’t babble on endlessly like so many online instructors do! :-))
Charlie Evans that depends on weather the body is made of Alder or Ash. My Alder bodied 74 jazz bass weighs in at 3.75kg ! Ash bodies from this era are generally heavy but if you find an Ash bodied jazz bass that weighs no more than 4.5kg your good to go!
