Okay, that's enough six string
for the rest of my life. That's right, we're
talking about Thundercat. I first heard his work 10 years ago with his Apocalypse album. Thundercat is one of the most
popular bassists on the planet and possibly elsewhere. So, what's his secret? He doesn't just play
like normal bassists do, he does things a little bit differently, and I think I've figured out the recipe for his secret bass sauce. Whether you're just a fan of Thundercat or you're looking to
improve your bass game, here are seven reasons why
Thundercat is crushing bass like no one else, including
tips on how you can use his secret sauce to add
some thunder to your... cat. I don't know what that means. Thunder, Thunder,
Thundercat, HOOOOOOOOOO!!! Spot the difference. Can you see what Thundercat isn't doing here that
other popular bassists are? What about here? Or here? You got it, he has a slap bass allergy. Slap makes the sound of the
bass pop out to your ear which helps the average person notice that the bass player is even there. So it's a good way to make
your bass line stand out more. But Thundercat doesn't really slap, and he's one of the most
popular bassists alive. So why doesn't he slap? Well it turns out that when
Thundercat first got his powers, he was forbidden to slap by
the drum wizard Chris Dave. I remember, Chris Dave
told me when I was like, if you ever slap bass, he's like I'm throwing my snare drum at you. Like forbade me from slapping bass. So like many other bassists, he's been forced to slap in the shadows. Only sneaking out on one song. Plus this insane Instagram post. Although apparently, he was able to fly under Chris Dave's radar
when he was slapping with Suicidal Tendencies
before his solo career. Now as you know if you've
watched my videos at all, I love me some slap. But here's why I think
it's cool that Thundercat got so big without slapping. Cause as much as we bassists love to slap, it's rarely used out in the wild playing regular bass on
other people's songs. I've heard from tons of
students who think that they have to learn slap to
be a well-rounded bassist. But if you listen beyond
the handful of bands that have a lot of slap bass, you'll realize that most music
doesn't involve slapping. If you're not obsessed with the style, it's really not necessary to learn slap to be a solid bassist. And Thundercat shows us
it's not even necessary to be a bass virtuoso. So how does he blow our
minds if he's not slapping? Where most bassists
pluck lovely single notes one at a time to support the song, Thundercat goes a different direction. He plays ALL the notes AT
ONCE using bass chords. Bassists don't normally use
chords that much in real songs. We leave that to the guitarists
and the bungee jumpers. Bass chords fill up a lot of sonic space which can lead to
muddiness, low rumbly sounds that clash with each other and
with the other instruments. But somehow, Thundercat makes
bass chords sound amazing. His lush chords fill the
space of a normal bassist and a guitarist with powers combined. While somehow leaving room
for all the synths to do their sparkly magic on top. So how does he do that? Thundercat has three hacks
that makes bass chords work. Yes I just said HACKS in a
YouTube video, bear with me. First, most bassists have
to fit their bass lines around pre-existing vocals, guitars, etc. But because Thundercat is the
lead singer and songwriter, he gets to design the song
around the bass chords. I mean, let's say you're
writing a bass line for this existing song. There's already a really
full arrangement of drums, guitars, synths. So doing a big Thundercat chord explosion just wouldn't work. It might sound cool in a YouTube video, but ultimately it's way
too much to serve the song. Second, most bass
players use a four string which limits how many notes you can reach in one hand position
and can lead to muddiness. So you usually end up
playing like only two or maybe three notes at
a time to avoid the mud. But for Thundercat, chords
with four notes work because he can reach more notes using his signature six string. Take the Tron song, which yes
is a song written for his cat, whose name is Turbotron Over
9000 Baby Jesus Sally Uzi Clip. I just felt like we should all know that. If you only have four strings, you have to play those chords like this. Which sounds okay. But with an extra high string, you can avoid the mud and
space the notes out more which sounds more clear and
melodic and guitar like. And third, he's got a
live trick to really get the chords to pop out of the mud, using an added octave up effect. This takes all the notes of the chord which might normally sound like this, and duplicates them up
an octave like this. This brings the bass into
the register of a guitar which makes it easier for
the listener to pick out what he's actually doing. Okay seriously, I'm
done playing six string. Using all these hacks, he's
able to pull off not just clean bass chords but
way fatter bass chords with more notes than the average bassist. Learning to play chords
as fluently as Thundercat takes a ton of practice. I've got a video on super beginner chords you can start with in the description. SIMON: Horrendous. And if you wanna nerd out super deep, I also made you a PDF
with some of Thundercat's most used chord shapes that you can start wrapping your fingers around to create cool progressions of your own. Most bassists are focused on
laying down a simple solid groove that allows the
rest of the band to shine. You know that old saying less is more? And then there's Thundercat. Like what is even happening right now? Thundercat can definitely
do the less is more thing and we'll talk about that more later, but the reason we know
and love this dude is that he's primarily a more
is more type of bassist. Following in the steps of
influences like Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke, this kind
of speedy shredding playing gives the bass a strong
melodic voice in the band versus just playing the
typical support role us bassists usually do. And it also adds crazy,
mind blowing, O M G vibes that you don't get from simple chugging. Take his tune Friend Zone
- for most of the song he lays down super cool but
relatively simple bass lines. Most bassists would just keep it there but then he goes totally nuts. And this is the part where I tell you how you can EASILY play as fast as Thundercat in just FIVE minutes using
this MUST DO exercise. Except not, it takes years
of deliberate practice to play at this speed and
no amount of BassBuzz videos is gonna change that. Even if you hit the like button and subscribe to the channel. Which you should still do... Right now... But here are three tricks
that will get you closer!!! Step one, relaxed efficient technique. That means working on your
flying fretting fingers using as little movement
as possible to reach the notes you need. And I've got a video to help you with that in the description for
when you're done here. Step two is setting up your
bass with low to medium action. Meaning the strings aren't
too far from the finger board so you can make smaller
more efficient movements to press down the strings and
they're not as hard to pluck. And step three, pluck near the bridge. The strings don't have
enough give back there, so your plucking fingers
don't have to work as hard and it's easier to play it fast. But there's more to Thundercat
than just thunder chops. A lot of bassists who can shred, kinda lose their ability to play simple. Like it's just too tempting
to go like this all the time. Show off what they can do. Look at me. Blaahhhh, I'm on YouTube. But Thundercat isn't afraid to
play simple, supportive bass. Bass that locks in the drum groove, gets your head bobbing
and supports the vocals without being too distracting. Take What's the Use, his most famous Mac Miller collab track. There are a few tasty
shreds, but for the most part Thundercat just repeats the
riff verbatim over and over to support the vocals. If he wasn't able to
adapt and play supportive, songs like this would get wrecked
by impressive overplaying. Here's the part where I
do my best impression of Thundercat style shredding
untastefully over this song. Just notice how it's totally overbearing, distracts you from the vocals and would get me fired in a second. So how does he practically switch from shred mode to... bed mode? [?] And how can you cop that on
bass or any other instrument? Three steps. Step one obviously, is to play less notes and the best way to do
that is to listen first. Challenge yourself to
listen to your band mates more than you listen to yourself. You'll get better at it
the more you practice. And step two, use repetition. Repetition sends bass
into the background more, so other voices can have the foreground. Take Thundercats line on
Silk Sonics, After Last Night with Bruno Mars, Anderson
Paak and Bootsy Collins. Thundercat plays it super
simple and plays this riff over and over with almost no fills to keep the listeners
attention on the vocals. And repetition actually
makes it more impressive when you do play a sick bass fill. Like Thundercat starts ripping
out at the end of this song to stand out more and add intensity. And step three, use repetition. Repetition sends bass... [this is a joke] So Thundercat knows how to blend in but that doesn't mean boring. He manages to make even simple
lines have a sense of melody. And how does that leads us
to his other maverick skill, reason number five. Singing and playing bass
at the same time is hard, and that's why so few people do it. It's generally considered to be harder than singing while playing guitar because the rhythms are
more complex than just strummy strummy strum. And singing one rhythm and
playing another is like patting your head and rubbing
your stomach times infinity. Not only is Thundercat a sick bass player, he's also a sick lead singer. And Grammy award winning lyricist
of powerfully poetic lines like, cool to be a cat. Meow meow, meow meow. [let the depth sink in] Being a singer is actually
a part of what makes him a standout bass player in two ways. One, he thinks about bass melodically and this comes from
actually singing your ideas rather than just playing
based off of finger patterns. Let me try to show you. Here are some bass noodles, just based off of
thoughtless finger wiggling inside of a scale. It's not terrible, but I'd bet you money you're not gonna be singing
it to yourself later today. But if I start the drums and try actually humming an idea to myself even if it's just internally, then I'll play that. That's much better right? It's a totally different vibe. Way more singable and catchy. As even more evidence Thundercat is thinking about bass vocally, sometimes the bass just
copies the vocal melody. Like this fun little sing a
long riff in Captain Stupido. And two, he uses call and response, a common musical device that's been around probably as long as humans
have been making music. There's a strong tradition
of blues singer guitarist combos using this, creating
the call with their voice and then the response with the instrument. And there's no better
example than B.B. King. And here's Thundercat
doing the same thing. Singing naturally makes
you good at this because it's too hard to play fills
while you're also singing. So when you're playing with a singer or any other lead melody instrument, imagine they're the call and
wait for an appropriate space to give your response. By the way, did you
notice the trippy sound of the bass in that last clip? We gotta talk about those crazy tones. A lot of bassists kinda have one sound. Like if you listen to James
Jamerson on the Motown stuff, you're gonna hear the sound
of his super tubby P bass with Labella flatwound strings and tone knob rolled all the way off. That's THE sound. And obviously that's
super cool and amazing. But because Thundercat
jumps around so many different musical roles,
he shape shifts the sound of his bass a lot. From super muffled and thumpy, to nasal and jaco-y, to what the frick how is that even a bass? He often shapeshifts using effects pedals which transform the
normal sound of the bass into something less obvious. The use of effects
accomplishes three things. One, he can give his bass
more of an artificial processed sound which matches the vibe of the synths and other
electronic sounds in his music. Two, effects help him layer
his songs with multiple bass tracks which is
normally a huge no no because they get really clashy
and fight each other. But the effects give each
layer their own sound. My favorite example of this
is Oh Sheit It's X from the Apocalypse album
which has at least four, four bass tracks on it. Just listen. Crazy. This kinda thing just
wouldn't work without the distinct tones created
by the effects pedals. Here's an awful, muddy
recreation of this song with four bass tracks
with the same bass tone. Don't say I didn't warn you. Three, effects make his bass
sound more like a voice. This links back to taking about singing. That signature wow wow sound he gets comes from an envelope filter. Which makes the bass sound
more like it's talking to you. Funny Thing from It Is What It Is, is a great example of this. That song wouldn't just bang the same way with plain clean bass. If you've never made the
sojourn into effects pedals, the best way to get started
is to spend as little money as possible and just try some stuff out. You can start with a
cheap multi effects unit that gives you a bunch
of sounds in one box. I didn't own any effects
except for my Boss ME-50B for like many years when I was younger and it's still kinda cool. I know a lot of folks on
the BassBuzz forum are really into these Zoom multi
units that are super cheap. And there are tons of
free effects plug ins for various DAWs. Be warned, if you get into
pedals you may start getting visits from GAS Guy who'll
encourage you to endlessly add to your collection
until your bank account is fully drained. GAS GUY: You know what you
need is just one more pedal, come on what could it hurt??? Not every bassist gives you a
clear sense of who they are. Most of us just stand shyly in the corner while the singer and lead
guitarist take all the glory. I think my favorite
thing about Thundercat is he's not shy about expressing
himself on bass or in life. Which is probably one of
the reasons he connects to so many people. But his expression isn't
like those American idol plastic bands where it's all
manufactured personality. Thundercat's vibe is authentic, coming from a place of genuine passion. From his name being Thundercat
which is inspired by his love for cartoons including
the Thundercat series, to the way he dresses
showing his love for cats and anime and video games. To his dorky lyrics about playing Diablo. Thank god, I thought it was just me. The fact that this
official music video was shot on his phone and it's
about girls rejecting him. This authentic expression is part of why other awesome artists
recognize his awesomeness. From Flying Lotus, to Erykah Badu, to Gorillaz. Ariana Grande covered Them Changes. And also performed it with Thundercat with Adult Swim cartoons
playing in the background. I mean this is just dope. As someone who's been putting
out content since 2011 which in internet years is like a thousand billion years ago, I've done more than my fair
share of worrying about how I'm perceived and what do I look like and what's everyone gonna
think of the things I make. And I'm sure Thundercat
experiences that to some degree too since he's also a human person. Or is he? But I really admire the way
he just fricking goes for it and puts it all out there. Like hey world, here I am. ♪ I may be covered in cat
hair, but I still smell good ♪ It was like you know, like I don't know I just have
always been my own person. You're music has to be honest
and be honestly who you are. And he's still trying
to improve as a bassist. I practice scales and tunes every day, and I do a lot of writing. I'm always listening with intent. Here's the thing, it's okay
to tred the well trodden path of normal bass playing. We don't all need to be
mavericks and most bassists are getting paid to just lay it down simple. But thank the Eye of Thundera
that there are wild innovators like Thundercat who when
everyone else is zigging, he zags and inspires us
with his own funny thing. Check out my seven reasons
Flea is awesome video for more maverick inspiration. A bassist who carved his own unique path through punk, funk and nakedness. And is also a huge Thundercat fan.
