This exercise is a slow-tempo fingerstyle funk groove that recalls the playing of the legendary Jaco Pastorius. This challenging line requires precise timing and smooth technique with regard to string crossing. When playing the first bar of this exercise, I recommend fretting the F at the third fret of the D-string with your fourth finger, […]

This week’s exercise is a fingerstyle funk line that features double stops and some challenging phrases that use open strings. The first bar of this exercise is a lick that uses the G blues scale (G, Bb, C, Db, D, F). When playing this, it’s important to play all hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides as written, […]

This week’s exercise is a slow-tempo fingerstyle funk line written in the style of Jaco Pastorius. This exercise should be played with some specific fingerings. After playing the two Bb’s on beat one, you should fret the E at the beginning of the second beat with your third finger. Your fourth finger can then play […]

‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick’ was a number one hit for Ian Dury & The Blockheads back in 1978. This piece is well-known amongst bass players thanks to Norman Watt-Roy’s fantastic semiquaver-based fingerstyle groove. The inspiration for this line came from the band witnessing Weather Report live at the Hammersmith Odeon, with Jaco Pastorius […]

‘Is This Hip?’ is a challenging track that was written to represent Rocco Prestia’s bass work with Tower of Power, with a particular focus on their material from the early seventies. The line features many common elements of his playing style, such as continuous sixteenth note grooves, the use of chord tones, the use of […]