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Giants of Bass – Flea

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'Flea Bites' was written to demonstrate the aggressive but funky style of bass playing that Flea has become renowned for through his work with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. As you’ll no doubt be able to hear, this track was heavily inspired by Flea’s playing during the band’s early to mid-nineties period, when Flea had begun to favour laid-back fingerstyle grooves in place of aggressive, up-tempo slap lines. In keeping with Flea’s style of playing during this era, this line is heavy on chord tones, and features several melodic ideas that are often found in funk grooves. It’s also played aggressively and makes use of some effects pedals.

If you enjoy working through this piece, you might also find the following courses useful (Access to ALL of our courses is included in the subscription cost):

Don’t forget to hit the Download Resources button above to get the PDF transcription and the audio files for this piece (available to subscribers only).

This course is 29 MINUTES long and contains the following videos, each of which can be selected from the video player above:

1. 'Flea Bites'

This video is a full demonstration of 'Flea Bites', performed on a Music Man Sterling SUB Series StingRay bass strung with stainless steel Rotosound strings.

2. Course Overview

This video gives a brief overview of this difficult piece and the technical challenges that it presents. I’ll also be offering advice on finding a suitable tone.

3. A Section

The intro section is similar to ‘All Around the World’ and is played aggressively and with distortion. This lesson covers bars 1-9 in the transcription.

4. B Section

This section is underpinned by a fingerstyle funk groove played over a D7 tonality. This line contains many key elements of Flea’s playing. This lesson covers bars 10-17.

5. C Section

This section – which could be considered the chorus – features a repeating two-bar bass groove that makes use of bends. This lesson covers bars 18-25.

6. D Section

This section repeats the line from the B section, but with a number of fills that are once again indicative of Flea’s bass work. This lesson covers bars 26-33 in the transcription.

7. F Section

This final section has a fingerstyle groove that makes use of double chromatic approach notes and should be played with an envelope filter. This lesson covers bars 43-59.