18. Phrasing Techniques
Phrasing techniques are simple additions to your toolkit that will enable you to play smoother, more effective basslines. They’ll also allow you to add a more expressive edge to your playing, in turn enabling you to find your own unique voice on the bass. The phrasing techniques that we’ll be looking at here include hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, trills and vibrato, all very simple techniques that you’ve probably begun to use already. All of these techniques are performed by the fretting hand.
Don't forget to hit the Download Resources button above to receive the PDF worksheet and backing tracks that accompany these lessons! This course contains the following videos, each of which can be selected from the video player above:
1. What Are Phrasing Techniques?
In this lesson we’ll look at each of the phrasing techniques covered in this course: hammer-ons and pull-offs, slides, trills and vibrato.
2. Exercise 102
This exercise is a slow tempo rock groove that uses hammer-ons extensively.
3. Exercise 103
Here’s another rock groove that uses hammer-ons.
4. Exercise 104
This exercise is a rock riff that uses pull-offs as well as the ‘galloping’ rhythm that we covered in the sixteenth notes course.
5. Exercise 105
In this exercise, two consecutive pull-offs are used in each bar.
6. Exercise 106
This is a fairly simple exercise that uses slides followed by octaves.
7. Exercise 107
This exercise uses slides to give a smoother feel to a typical rock line.
8. Exercise 108
This groove is based around C and the trill that is used in bars 1 and 3 highlights the major third of the chord.
9. Exercise 109
Here’s another exercise that uses trills.
10. Exercise 110
This exercise is a simple rock riff that uses vibrato quite extensively.
11. Exercise 111
Vibrato is once again used extensively in this exercise.
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