3 Basslines That FIXED My Fingerstyle Technique

[Music] my fellow basist have you ever wondered how guys like Steve Harris can play Fast finger style baselines for hours or maybe you find when you're Crossing strings quickly your playing gets a lot less clean or you might be thinking that you're playing all the right notes but your finger style baselines still just don't sound pro these are all very common problems that I'm going to help you solve today as I reveal three fake famous baselines that fixed my finger style technique so when I say the word flee because you're a weird basist like me you don't think of this but instead you think of a crazy slap basist but one thing that often gets overlooked with flea is his incredible finger style technique and I would say one of the best examples of this is actually a lesser known Chili Peppers song called come on girl it's not as flashy as something like around the world but it takes a lot of stamina and dexterity if you can Master this Baseline you're going to mass massively improve your finger style speed dexterity and string Crossing ability so let's take a look at the first [Music] phrase so all you're doing there is a one bar pattern that outlines a seventh chord with no third and just repeating it four times the next phrase moves around the fretboard a bit more but it's really just the same constant 16th noes and now you're doing power chords like this and there's just one more phrase to add which is slightly more complicated but it's still just outlining chords which goes like [Music] this [Music] one of the main challenges of this Baseline is that it requires so much stamina because you're playing constant 16th notes with no rest at all but that's also what makes it such a good finger style workout so let's try playing the whole thing together [Music] now [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] don't worry if you had to stop at some point just let me know in the comments which level you got to my biggest piece of advice for that Baseline is to make sure you're always using alternating fingers in the right hand at all times it can be tempting to rake some of the notes where you play a note with one finger on one string and then pull through to the next [Music] string the problem when you rake a note and then go back to alternating fingers like you were before is that now your index finger is playing all the offbeats and your middle finger is playing all the down beats this often means that you start putting Accents in the wrong places and the Baseline just doesn't really sound consistent anymore there's nothing necessarily wrong with raking notes but it is a crutch for a lot of inexperienced players and if you become too reliant upon it it's going to really limit what you can do later on okay so the next Baseline that fixed my finger style technique is called Canned Heat by jir the funny thing about this Baseline is is actually performed on a Nord lead synthesizer so The Story Goes that the Baseline was written by the band's Keys player Toby Smith and was supposed to be performed by their basis Stuart Zender but Stuart left the band halfway through recording that album so they got Toby to play it instead whatever the real story is it's an amazing Baseline that sounds awesome on Bas as well so take a look at the first [Music] phrase so the first thing that this Baseline helped me to master was quick octaves which come up so much in Disco and Funk and just all baselines but the other thing that this Baseline really worked on for me is note lengths so I'm going to play the whole verse now and take a look at how short and long note lengths are used to create anticipation in certain spots [Music] in my never- ending quest to save you time I created an exercise that takes elements from all three of these baselines and combines them into the ultimate 5 minute finger style workout if you do it once or twice every day for a few weeks and remember all of the tips that I've given you in this lesson you'll be able to play a full set of fast finger style bass no problem you can get that exercise and practice video for free if you just click the link in the description all right so the last Baseline that really helps me fix my finger style technique is by the one and only Steve Harris and if any of you are fans of Iron Maiden you can probably guess it's Run to the Hills [Music] practicing this Baseline over and over is what finally gave me true right hand stamina and finally locked in my ability to play a good old Gallop Baseline a Gallup Baseline means it just has this Rhythm because it sounds a little bit like a horse Galloping so there's two ways that I play a Gallop Baseline either I alternate every single note like this or I play the first two notes of the gallop with my index finger and then alternate the rest it doesn't really matter which technique you use as long as you're making sure to put the accents on the Down Beat because that's really crucial to getting that gallop effect other than that there's not really anything actually complicated about this Baseline it's almost entirely root notes it's just really fast and Relentless for a long period of time so let's try and play it together and see what [Music] happens [Music] now that's a serious workout let me know in the comments which level you got to so if you want to be able to play any finger style Baseline you want as well as master all the other aspects of music right now I'm offering a free trial of the base camp gold membership this is where you can join Over 4,000 fellow BAS in learning everything from slap technique to music theory ear training and a whole lot more you'll get instant access to hundreds of exercises tabs and videos including today's 5 minute finger style workout so if you're interested in that just click the link in the description to grab your free trial thanks so much for coming here and practicing with me have a great day and I'll see you in the next lesson

Channel: BassCamp

Views: 176,792

Keywords: bass, bass guitar, bass lessons, bass guitar lesson

Id: Bb8MG4MXhEM

Length: 8min 51sec (531 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 17 2024