Bass Lick of the Week #9

This exercise is a fast-paced fingerstyle line that was originally intended to be part of the Victor Wooten-style piece that I wrote for my book Giants of Bass. It might not have made it into the final track, but it’s still a great line that I wanted to share...

After playing the E and octave at the beginning of the first bar, two ghost notes are played on the D-string. You then need to perform a slide from the A at the seventh fret of the D-string to the B at the ninth. I recommend fretting the A with the first finger, then sliding the same finger up to the B: this will put you in position to play the F# that follows, as well as the two G’s at the end of the bar. After playing the the F# you can rake backwards across the strings to play the ghost notes - simply drag whichever finger played the F# back across the strings.

When playing the second bar, I recommend fretting the B at the fourth fret of the G-string with the third finger. You can then hammer-on to the C with the fourth finger, and play the A at the second fret with the first. This hand position will also allow you to play the descending D major chord at the end of the third beat using the finger-per-fret system: first finger on the A, third on the F# and fourth on the D.

In the third bar, I recommend using the third finger on the B again. After playing the two open G-string notes at the end of the third beat, the E can be fretted with the first finger, and the C with the second.

When playing the fourth bar, I recommend fretting the D with the second finger. This will allow you to play the entire bar using the finger-per-fret system: the B will be fretted with the first finger and the A with the fourth. In the second half of the bar, the D# can then be fretted with the third finger.

To download the backing track and PDF worksheet for this exercise, please visit the Free Stuff section of the website.