One Quick Trick to Improve Your Bass Fills 

never noticed I did that until now, thanks for opening my eyes haha

You just made a bad habit difficult to ignore. Thanks for this and you have a new subscriber. Thumbs up.

I'm fascinated for your right hand technique. (Self-taught bassist here)

Great point! I didn't realize I did the same thing. I noticed that my favorite bass players to their fills like you mentioned. It's always impressive to hear someone fill up the space no matter where in the beat they start but come back to the kick drum in perfect timing to end it.

You changed my life. I’ve been watching your videos for a long time now, and all those ours worth of video editing and making, made many of your subscribers great bass players. Thank you, for helping me reach my dream of a bass player.

2:00 alright you got me

Pretty awesome man, this is some of the best advice out there for bass players!

Hi Josh, I too never thought about this but your absolutely right about the tension relief I am now maximising on the fill without panicking back to the groove except my fills are a sharp pluck sound which contrasts with the grooves, thanks for making me aware the fills are more thought out and less improvised

good stuff, as always. I enjoy watching your lessons. You're a great instructor. I'll add this to my " things to pay attention to" list when I'm practicing.

You bring up a good point with this video. I believe that a good reason for this is that too many bass players are just doing what they hear other do. As Rufus Reid said it, there are not that many THINKING bass players. Great point about navigating thru scales in any given key, that should give you confidence to fill your lines completely -when necessary-.

Top advice! Thanks, Josh. Loving your work.

Nearing the end of your course Beginner to Badass and asked for some more. Josh directed me to this earlier set of lessons. It's exciting and I am looking forward to working through them. Thanks for all you do.

This was great helpful knowledge, I'm a beginner trying to learn new fills and how they work, so this will help in my long journey of learning to play the Bass! I'm sure this will help me develop into a great bassists,! Thank you!

Omg. This really helps me. You totally make sense about the tension thing. Nice!

I love your lessons! I've been playing bass for over 20 years and am a firm believer that you can never learn too much.....and you've taught me some stuff I've never thought about. Like this lesson, for instance. Thanks Josh!!

Now I'll be on the look out for this in my playing. Thanks for giving me something to think about :)

great vid josh thanks dude I put my hand up and say yes I do this more than I would like … always trying to improve my bass skills...

I have often been accused of not honoring the "less is more" theory. At which point I proudly point out having no respect for such an idea. (secretly I envy those able to show restraint). The "space" you allowed between fill and line actually sounded refreshing to me. LOL. A guitarist once made a comment about my playing which I took for a compliment, but in retrospect may have been an insult. "I don't know where you go, but you always get back on one". Thanks for the video.

Very good tip, Josh - something that's so often overlooked, and very common for bass players eager to get adventurous on the fretboard. Practicing with a good drummer is essential, IMO, and also adopting an attitude that basically says "Okay, maybe I'll flub it now and then, but I'm going to try, and I'm going to improve!" It's also helpful to think of the initial note of the grove you're flowing into as a target that you're aiming for. Practice those scales - and make your practice of scales interesting, fun, and most of all challenging - brutally challenging! Deliberate practice is the key! And yes, watch more of Josh's videos - that can only help! Thanks Josh!!

Absolutely love your videos man!!

Planning ahead also helps ---- "when i've finished filling around after the next bar, i have to land HERE". Thanks for pointing this out, I often try to bail out with a slide.

Great Topic & Presentation.

Yepppers, I find myself ending early. But when I do, I’ll try to put a bend or some vibrato in it to make it sound more intentional. Thanks for the tips!!

I'm having kind of an opposite problem, where I lose track of time during my fills, and end late. It's become quite a frustrating road block in my improvisational skills. Well, I can hold my own at slower tempos (maybe 100bpm and less) but faster tempos still trip me up badly, even if I'm not trying to squeeze out 16th notes or anything too fancy like that.

Hey thanks makes perfect sense. Now to get there 😁

Thanks for making me aware of this!!!

Very instructive, thanks !

CONGRATULATIONS JOSH!

Josh, as always: humorous, instructive and right on the money!

Amazing man, I've never noticed I had a problem !

Fantastic lesson. Thanks a lot. Jose.

Really helped me! Thank you!

this is almost like the first time of actually understanding the use of minor pentatonic scale as a fill. thak u.

Just a Beginner BASS Player, but, I really appreciate this advanced Wisdom, Bro! Thanx and Peace... Beautiful Instrument btw.

Thanks a lot, very specific advice! Appreciated

Great video. I think the best part is where you explain WHY there's a tendency to pause at the end of the fill - it's to give yourself time to recall the main groove. Being aware of this, the solutions are clear... either memorise the groove so well you don't have to consciously recall it, or else start thinking about the groove before you've finished the fill but keep playing anyway, don't pause.

Very good lesson!

As a drummer turned bass player, I can tell you drummers do it too! You would think that not being able to seamlessly transition from a fill back to the song would be enough to make the player say " You know, I should figure out a better version of this fill to make it flow back in or just play something else that does!". You'd think, right? Ego. Worst habit of all, listening to your ego! Btw, I hear keyboard and guitar players do it too, but as you point out, it's usually only with beginners. Usually, but not only! (Ego.😉)

Nice to see someone using a Peavey! I was feeling kind of lonely out here. Great video, never thought about that before.

You took me on the spot! I end my fills too and I think often: "Not bad but this one was not so sexy". Thanks for the analysis, it will help right away! ;-)

great stuff... thanks

I certainly like the gaps at times, especially when the last note of the full is sustained but I definitely know what your getting at

Totally guilty of all the things you've said! Thanks for your advices. 😘

a fill hits a wrong note. this is how jazz is born.

I don't know how you talk while playing simultaneously , spot on !

Yep spot on, from a begginer, who has advanced like mad- you got me cheers my man, people think im good listening to me doing this, HA HA you got me flowing straight away-hooked line and sinker baby

Nice man simple but effective

So true (need some free time to reconnect with the bassline)

2:01 Me every single time my friends and I are jamming.

I found a good song to practise "fills" to is Crossroads. I personally play the main part, (A to octave A and so on) and ad lib the fills. Its quite a good tempo, and so "busy" that it will help in my opinion with what you are describing in your video. (Awesome video by the way, you really helped my playing develop when i was younger, shame my right hand technique was god awful before i found your vids haha). Another bit of advice i would give for people trying not to leave space at the end of basslines is to practise a sort of walking bass fill, like in Smoke on the water, from verse to chorus.

great video mate i am guilty of this for sure i need more practice good bass tone too👍

That cheeky thumb over the E string makes me feel validated I have a sort of similar tendency on guitar too (have mercy). I subconsciously add double strums before a chord change, because it lets you start to form the next chord early without sounding like the current one is being cut short. You get this transition where the open strings ring for a second, like "da-bah-doo", or a partial chord, or just a percussive sound. It can be really neat, but it's also a crutch! Had to train myself to just strum on the chord change and just get faster and more accurate

Great video. Super accessible and instantly useful. Sure I'm guilty of all these things. :)

dude thank you, i used to do it like that until now lol

Josh Thank you for this.. As a good drummer/sort of self taught bass player; in your examples, I noticed that as a drummer, I would have filled in the last two notes with a Ta TA TA on the snare or some short tom roll so in some bands, perhaps the Bass may have been drowned out by that, or at least may not need to 'finish the fill?'

Dude you make sense brah!

Pretty funny coincidence. I was just thinking about this whole package you were talking about. I do cut short so I don't loose the groove. In large because of my lack of scale theory. I have been working on learning a few scales fluid. I play primarily on church worship teams. I had a whole 4 weeks of lessons before I started playing a couple years ago. I had a bass. They had a need. Boy meets s girl kinda thing. All that aside the worship teams I have played on all leave it to the bass player to develop their own parts. Good bad or indifferent it made things easy to step into a 4/4 or 6/8 without much difficulty. Then I got bored just holding the root down. So I've been adding 1/3 and 1/5 and some blues scales into my fill. It's been a lot more fun but I have to get to a place like you're talking about here. Great video for me.

I've never heard of this before and it's so useful to understand. Guilty? Yes

Josh great job man big up...the fingering man kills me bro

Been guilty of this myself, fairly often. One thing I do notice, however, is that the more notes you pack into the back end of a fill, the more it turns into an amorphous 'bubbling" in a live-group context. Just my perspective. Thanks for this, i'm subbing in.

As usual great lesson. Any thoughts on a video about the anatomy of a good bass fill. I struggle with that and even though I'll use the pentatonic is sounds uninteresting. Thanks

thanks!

This is good

Makes sense. Next level, here I come! :-)

Something I'm going to try based on this video would probably be when practicing to try to make fills that's only purpose is getting back to the bassline. For simplicity sake just leave space and think of as many cool ideas to start the groove again so that part doesn't fall into being an afterthought at all.

Premature de-fill-ulation....now ive got the cure! Thanks Josh!

Nice...do you have any toturial on how to make these fills? Hehe

What a magnificent bass you have..

Good point on bass fill. Drummers also need to play beats, e.g in bar 4 that will flow back to the rhythm.

Seriously awesome video! I never thought of fills so meticulously before , I sure will now ^^ On a side note, I absolutely loved some of the fills you did like at 4:18 , could you plz name the notes you played for that fill in order xD? And do you have a video where you elaborate on how to find cool fills like that?

Love your stuff, thanks Josh...will start by adding fills in the first place :) What kind of beginner lessons were you referring to in the beginning of the video?

Hi Josh, that was some good insight and a cool video idea. However I have to say one thing about this topic that you haven't mentioned and I feel it's very important on this issue. Thinking about our playing patterns and habbits that we do almost autimatically is always good so we stay fresh and have complete control of what we want and can do in a song. I think what you didn't say is the advantage of leaving some space (well maybe not complete blank space but a slide or a simple run up/down to the 1 note) and that is how you make that ONE stand out when it hits. In most music we wanna emphasize that one in a bass line. I think what you pointed out is very important but once people start to be able to do a complete 16 note fill they should consider where do they wanna put the complete fill and where to leave some space in the fill. Fills like the ones you have shown can be a bit too much for the song and make you sound like you're on dick measuring contest :D Also sometime just leaving empty space in a fill is a good thing when it's on the right spot and in a right circumstance (just like when playing a solo in a song) - we often need the empty space to give the notes more meaning. Anyways, good video, I agree that people who don't think of this should keep an eye on their fill habits, it's a very small but important advice. Cheers

honestly when you continue your lick to the very end of the break, I find its like apples and oranges. My taste would be more to the end the phrase with space so it stands out like a complete idea. Unlike all the extra notes that tend to sound like a run on sentence if you were speaking.IMO

Sometimes, the fill creates tension that needs to be emphasised with the space you mention before the resolution. I think the fills at the beginning of the video sound great too.

Light bulb moment. So useful and relevant to most of us.

Guilty. I play in a classic rock band right now so we do lots of grooves in G so I may borrow your riff..

I like sustain so having that "space" is ok to my ear as long as it's a sustained note during the pause. Not sure if that still counts as a pause though.

A great eye and ear opener as always Josh. Try this as well though, put on the long version of "Papa was a rollin' stone" and just try and play the three notes. Just the way it was played. Damn that took my brain to another level today. The young guns out there may well use a looper or sampler to do the same job, but try not to play a fill on it. LOL.

a good mix is key. tension plus void.....then tension throughout...then void.....then void plus tension... mix it up....that's what you're saying...I think....which is what I do...maybe not on purpose...but just as a matter of learned chops/experience...ellipses...

Do you recommend beginner to badass for an intermediate player? I been playing for about 8 years but i want to get to know the neck better and know how to add fills whenever i hear it in my head.

thank you ^_^

i never noticed but yeah i have the same problem sometimes

Well i guess i've somekind of input brainlag too. Seeing you having trouble just talking and playing reminds me how crazy Claypool is singing and doing his crazy slap strum thing.

Brother I have a question. I'm a long time guitarist trying bass for fun. What I need to figure out is those fills you do at the beginning of your 1st example. I mean, that chromatic run you do when you start jamming in G. You go G........then E, F, F#, back to G. Stuff like this sounds gold and I'm having trouble finding lessons about it.

Well I've been playing bass on and off for about 30 years now and YES, I am guilty :-) . Doing my best to avoid this now unless it's really called for. Thanks!

if you wanna see an example of great bass fills in bass lines there is a ton in japanese music in almost any genre. Its pretty much what josh is saying we should aim to do.

Hi. What would you say about keep filling after one, let's say, a beat or 2?

So I noticed the "thumb save" at 4:20. How do you feel about this move? Should it be employed intentionally or do you reserve it for when you don't think you can get your index finger back up in time?

My 2 hands can't coordinate well. Sometimes my picking hand goes faster and my fretting hand stumbles mid-fill which ruins everything and sometimes the other way around. This has been my issue in playing both guitar and bass in which i'm having little to no progress at all pls halp.

get this man his play button damn it

So which channel should we follow to become a bassssssexpert? Haha i just found out you have a second one

Nope, I don't have a problem but I wanna learn your fills and the like

HEY THAT'S COOL YEAH I GET IT THE FILL!

Can we have pdfs of fills

I am just getting started with improvised fills. Cheers for the heads up so I don't suffer with the "premature defilluation "... it sounds awful 🙄

Hey Josh, You should join a band. You're a great person. Thanks!

SUBSCRIBED...

Good stuff Josh! What are you using for the drum accompaniment?

this happens all the time. too much focus on the fill, no idea what the next chord comes to.

Lesson on those fills? :D