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Ian Dury & The Blockheads – ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick’

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'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 on bass. Blown away by Jaco's incredible playing, Norman later wrote the complex line that forms the backbone of this song.

When learning this piece, you might find the following courses (all included in the monthly subscription cost) useful:

A transcription (with TAB and without) is available for this course. To download it, please visit the Free Stuff page. Please note that these videos were originally used as part of a Facebook campaign. As a result, there are some references to liking and commenting and ways to access the next video - these can be ignored here.

This course is 18 MINUTES long and contains the following videos, each of which can be selected from the video player above:

1. 'Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick'

This video is a demonstration of the song performed on a 1966 Fender Jazz Bass strung with stainless steel Rotosound strings.

2. Main Riff

This video covers the main bass riff of the song, which is a continuous sixteenth note line that can be very challenging to play.

3. Verse Bassline

In this video you'll learn the four-bar bassline from the verse sections of this song. This line is once again sixteenth note based and has a strong Jaco Pastorius influence.

4. Chorus Bassline

This video covers the bassline that is played during the chorus sections. This is a simpler line than those from the previous sections and is based around root-octave figures.