‘Watermelon Man’ is one of Herbie Hancock’s best-known compositions. Originally written for his 1962 album Takin’ Off , it was revisited in 1973 by Herbie and his group The Headhunters. This version of the song – covered in this course – features an inventive bass part built around tenths, from bassist Paul Jackson. To download […]

‘The Wicked Vicar’ is an original composition that was written to represent virtuoso bassist Victor Wooten. It is representative of his work both as a solo artist, and as a member of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. The majority of this piece is based around a relatively simple chord progression over which slapped parts are […]

This study piece was written as a resource for working on the chordal fingerstyle technique. This technique involves playing the strings with the thumb and fingers in a similar way to that of a classical guitarist. As you’ll find out when working on this piece, it’s a technique that translates really well onto the bass […]

‘King for a Day’ was written to represent Mark King’s bass work with Level 42, with a particular focus on the instrumental jazz-funk that the band played in the early eighties. The bass part features many common elements of his playing style, such as continuous sixteenth note-based slap grooves, fingerstyle funk lines, and the use […]

The sixties were an experimental time for musicians, none more so than The Beatles in the UK, and The Beach Boys over in the U.S. Although The Beach Boys began life as a surf rock band, under the stewardship of chief songwriter Brian Wilson they evolved into a far more sophisticated outfit during the mid-late […]

This piece of music was originally written and performed on the acoustic guitar by Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt. I’ve always loved it and have spent many years figuring out the best way to translate it onto the bass. Fortunately, it works well on the instrument, although as you’ll see from the video, it is a very […]

This video course will show you how to play a solo bass arrangement of the Cantina Band Theme from Star Wars. This piece is performed using several different playing techniques, making it a very challenging study piece. A backing track and a PDF transcription are available for this course. To download them, hit the Download […]

This study piece is a 12-bar blues in the key of E. The bass plays a walking line throughout much of the piece, albeit one with a lot of variations to get your teeth into. There’s also a short bass solo, which is full of blues licks; these will be useful to know when it […]

This is a jazz-funk composition that is based around some heavily syncopated bass grooves that are challenging to both read and play. It also makes use of sliding octave figures and unison licks and features some slippery bass fills. Don’t forget to hit the Download Resources button above in order to download the PDF transcription […]

This piece is a jazz-funk fingerstyle workout built around harmony that is relatively static. As a result, the bass part has more of an improvisational feel to it, with there being a lot of opportunities to play fills and develop the fundamental parts. The piece also includes an eight-bar bass solo, meaning that there’s plenty […]