This study piece has been written as a resource for working on playing slap grooves over the shuffle feel. This is something that bass players typically find quite challenging, but once you have the feel down, they are fantastic to play. This piece also makes use of tenth intervals, some double popping and the use of the blues scale. This is quite a challenging piece, but it’s a lot of fun to play!
Don’t forget to hit the Download Resources button above to get hold of the PDF transcription and the audio files for this piece (available to subscribers only).
This course contains the following videos, each of which can be selected from the video player above:
This video is a demonstration of the piece, performed on a 1966 Fender Jazz bass.
In this video I’ll be talking about the shuffle and the difficulties it presents when playing slap bass grooves. I’ll also be talking about some famous pieces that make use of the feel.
In this video we’ll be working through the A section of the piece, which is a melodic line built from the blues scale. This line is played in unison with the other instruments and can be tricky to play accurately due to the shuffle feel. This lesson covers bars 1-8.
This video covers the B section of this piece, which is the main slap groove. This line is predominantly built around conventional slap technique, although there are some double popped chordal figures as well. This lesson covers bars 9-16.
This video covers the C section, which is second slap groove which builds on the ideas found in the first. We’ll be making use of double popped chordal figures once again, and tenth intervals will also feature quite heavily. This lesson covers bars 17-24.
This final video covers the D section. This slap groove is based on the line from the B section, but with a slightly different fill in the second bar. This lesson covers bars 25-35.