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Giants of Bass – Larry Graham

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'Graham Crackers' was written to represent Larry Graham's pioneering bass techniques and reflects the work that he recorded with his own group, Graham Central Station. The piece features an aggressively performed bass part which features a powerful slap groove and many of Larry's preferred phrasing techniques such as vibrato, trills, and shakes. His use of effects pedals is also represented here, during the intro and re-intro sections.

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 32 MINUTES long and contains the following videos, each of which can be selected from the video player above:

1. 'Graham Crackers'

This video is a full demonstration of 'Graham Crackers', performed on a Sire Jazz 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 opening section of this piece is a melodic line that is played with fuzz and phaser effects. This lesson covers bars 1-16 in the accompanying transcription.

4. B Section

This section introduces the main slap bass groove. This energetic line makes use of tenths, double stops, and shakes. This lesson covers. bars 17-32.

5. C Section

In this section, the established slap groove is transposed up to A. This is a two-bar riff that is repeated without variation. This lesson covers bars 33-40.

6. D Section

This section is simpler to play but again features popped double stops and tenth intervals. This short lesson covers bars 41-48 in the transcription.

7. E Section

This section reintroduces the main bass groove, with some additional variations added. This lesson covers bars 49-64 in the accompanying transcription.

8. F Section

This is a re-intro section that repeats the opening melodic line. There are a lot of variations this time around. This lesson covers bars 65-80 in the transcription.

9. Tone

This lesson covers Larry Graham's tone and offers advice on how you can achieve something similar.