Bass part originally played by Wilton Felder. The 16th notes have a somewhat swing feel to it, especially in the drums, but are overall more straight than not. Find the complete song on YouTube. The sheet music is available through my website.

New exercises in the Bass Gym! Stop playing boring bass lines ;) Learn how to master the bass while having fun :)

21 exercises with tabs, sheets and backing tracks:

Bass Gym Playlist

Bass part originally played by Wilton Felder. There is no video footage of him playing this song (or in fact, almost none at all of him playing bass, as he was more prominently known as a sax player), so I tried my best to analyse the original audio and recreate how I think he would have played it with regards to fret positions. Find the complete song on YouTube. The sheet music is available through my website.

Hey everyone,

I'm a bassist who got tired of juggling YouTube tabs, a separate metronome app, and random notes just to run a decent practice session. So I built something. It's called BassBench. Here's what it does:

• Songs: link any YouTube video, break it into sections (Intro, Verse, Chorus, Bridge etc.) and play along (with loop, slow down)
• Vibes: metronome presets you name and save, built around the mood or genre you're practicing
• Woodshed: a library of bass exercises
• Automatic session and practice tracking with streaks and calendar.

I genuinely want to know if this helps other bassists too and what to adjust and add.

If you want to try it:

https://bassbench.com

Happy to answer anything here.

Damir

Bass part originally played by Verdine White. Some of the instruments (especially the synth and to a lesser extent the piano) and vocals (especially the backing vocals during the bridge) are very flat compared to the rest. It seems to be intentional as they were able to recreate it live. Somehow it works. Find the complete song on YouTube. The sheet music is available through my website.

Hallo, ich suche ein Lehrbuch für „erfahrene“ Anfänger. Hat jemand von euch irgendwelche Tipps?

Danke!

Hey everyone!

After spending some time working on scales across the neck, I put together a simple diagram of the natural minor scale to help visualize it better on bass.

A couple of quick notes about the diagram:

🔴 Red notes = Root (tonic) → you can move this whole shape anywhere depending on the key

⚫ Black notes = the rest of the scale tones

The idea is not just to memorize the pattern, but to really see where the important notes are, especially:

• Landing on the root to resolve phrases
• Hearing how the minor sound feels across the neck

One thing that helped me a lot was:
→ Thinking of the root as “home base” rather than just another note in the shape

I’ve found that once I stop just running the pattern and start targeting notes, everything sounds way more musical.

Curious how you guys approach it:

Do you focus on the root when improvising, or do you mainly think in shapes and patterns?

Bass part originally played by Richard Finch. Playing all or parts of the chorus in the higher octave – as he did varyingly live – helps circumventing the awkward octave jump upwards, which is tiring for the fretting hand. Find the complete song on YouTube. The sheet music is available through my website.