In this video course I’ll be showing you how to play the bass solo from Marcus Miller’s song ‘Son of Macbeth’. This track appeared on his 2015 release Afrodeezia and is one of the most popular pieces on the album. Although this is undoubtedly a very challenging bass solo, it relies mostly on conventional slap technique and would make for a fantastic study piece for Intermediate/Advanced players.
For subscribers to our video courses, the notation/TAB and backing track used in the main performance are available to download using the link above. You can also find a full transcription of this song in the book Marcus Miller – Highlights from Afrodeezia.
This course contains the following videos, each of which can be selected from the video player above:
This video is a demonstration of the bass solo performed on a Fender Marcus Miller Signature Jazz bass.
This video gives an overview of the course and the techniques required.
In this video we’ll be tacking the first part of the solo, which requires either very rapid thumb strokes, or the use of the double thumbing technique. This lesson covers bars 1-4.
This lesson covers the second part of the bass solo, which features the use of the open string hammer-on technique. This lesson covers bars 5-8.
In this lesson we’ll be looking at the third four-bar chunk of the solo, which features some descending minor pentatonic runs. This lesson covers bars 9-12.
This lesson covers the fourth part of the solo. This is one of the more challenging sections of the solo and features some more complex lines. The double thumbing technique is also required here. This lesson covers bars 13-16.
This part of the solo is a little simpler to play than some of the previous sections and uses only conventional slap technique. This lesson covers bars 17-20.
This lesson covers the final four bars of the solo, which are quite straight-forward. This video covers bars 21-24.