James Taylor – How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)

This song was recorded by James Taylor back in 1975 for his Gorilla album. A cover of the Marvin Gaye hit, Taylor’s version features a simple but highly effective bass part from session legend Leland Sklar. Sklar, who has spent much of his career holding down the low end for Taylor (and many others), performed the line on a highly modified Fender Precision bass. This song is in the key of G major and is played with a swing feel resulting in many triplet figures. Lee’s bassline is at all times supportive, but with simple and effective melodic fills poking through where appropriate. This is a simple song to perform, but the lesson itself is aimed at the intermediate level bass player: no TAB is included in the transcription, with the student encouraged to study the notation. The lesson itself focuses on the construction of the line, taking into consideration the use of chord tones, rhythms, and bassline development. Be sure to hit the Download Resources button above in order to download the PDF transcription for this piece (available to subscribers only). Please note that a backing track is NOT included with this course. The track used in the play-along can be purchased from www.karaoke-version.co.uk. This course contains the following videos, each of which can be selected from the video player above: