In this course we'll look at how to add ghost notes - sometimes known as 'dead notes' into our grooves. Ghost notes are common to many techniques, but work particularly well with slap bass as they allow us to add an additional rhythmic, percussive element to our lines.
In this video we'll take a look at ghost notes and discuss how to play them.
Ghost notes are excellent for making a line more rhythmically interesting. In this exercise a few have been inserted to liven up the line.
In this exercise each note is followed by two sixteenth note ghost notes to create a ‘chugging’ rhythm.
This is an exercise that uses popped ghost notes. Be careful with this one - it can sometimes be difficult to alternate between popping pitched notes and ghost notes.
Slapped ghost notes also work well between pops. In this exercise the thumb ‘bounces’ between the pops, creating a semiquaver-based rhythmic feel.
This exercise is quite slow and uses two ghost notes as a prelude to the E-string hammer-on in each bar.
This busy exercise features ghost notes in between hammer-ons in the first and third bars. These ghost notes help to fill up the line and enable the thumb to bounce nicely onto the next note.