In this lesson, you’re going to learn exactly
what to do if you want to improvise on bass,
but you’re not sure where to get started.
In fact, you’ll get an entire system to
go from being a clueless bass improvisor to
taking a great, simple bass solo that you
can be proud of creating.
Hey I’m Luke McIntosh from becomeabassist.com
and in the next few minutes, you’ll learn
the secret to making your bass solos great,
even if you’ve never taken a bass solo before.
[Video Intro]
Improvising can be scary, right?
Most of the time, you stand at the back of
the stage locking it down with the drummer
- you’re usually not in the spotlight.
Every once in a while though, you might get
the nod from someone - they want you to take
a bass solo.
And what happens?
Your heart rate skyrockets, your palms start
getting sweaty.
Where you were once calm and relaxed before,
now you’re just a ball of tension, and what
comes out?
Nothing good, right?
Maybe you just play the same old bass line
you’ve been playing the whole song.
Maybe you play that one lick you know over
and over until you put everyone to sleep.
Maybe you try to play some scale that you
know ‘should’ work, but just ends up sounding
horrible.
Or worse yet, you may completely freeze and
play nothing.
If any of those sound like you, you are going
to love this video!
You see, improvising on bass - taking bass
solos - it doesn’t have to be nerve wracking
and stressful.
It’s actually supposed to be fun and I want
to show you the secret to playing something
that you know is going to work, but more importantly,
I want to show you how you can take a bass
solo that you can be proud of - something
that you can listen to afterwards and instead
of cringing and hating the sound of it, you
can listen to your playing and smile and be
satisfied that you created something special.
To do this, we need a song to improvise over,
right?
For us, let’s use the Stevie Wonder Song
“Isn’t She Lovely”.
Honestly, you could use pretty much any song
for this, but this will work well for us!
Now have a look at the chord progression for
this song up here.
There’s a lot of chords in there, right?!
Now conventional wisdom would say that in
order to improvise, you need to know every
scale and every arpeggio that goes with every
chord.
What does that look like in this example?
Well if we analyse this song with it’s chord/scale
and arpeggio relationships, we’d end up
with this.
Woah!
Lots of things to learn here, right?
Dorians, Lydians, some weird diminished scale,
that G#7b9 chord.
But hold up - we’re not going to use any
of this at all!
Scales and arpeggios can be a great way of
building bass solos and they’re super useful,
but when you’re just starting out, a lot
of the time, they get in the way of the music,
so in this lesson, we won’t be using them.
By the way - I’m not suggesting you never
use scales or arpeggios.
Once you get the hang of them, they can be
amazing for finding new sounds and creating
more complex and interesting solos - not to
mention they’ll really open up the fretboard
for you.
But if you’re watching this video, chances
are that you’re not quite ready for that
yet.
Even if you do know how all this stuff works,
we’re going to put it aside, just for now.
We can always come back to it later.
So what do you do instead?
If we’re not going to use scales or arpeggios,
what is left?
Do we just use the roots of the chords?
That’d get pretty boring pretty fast, right?
So what’s the secret?
How do you go from being lost in a bass solo
to knowing exactly what to play without using
scales or arpeggios?
The secret is to play the melody!
Oh my god - it baffles me that more people
don’t do this!
The melody IS the song, but most people when
they get to a solo, they try and play everything
except the melody.
But think about it!
You already KNOW the melody works with the
chords, you’ll never get lost playing the
melody, and best of all, your audience is
going to love it too.
The melody is like a ‘hook’ for your audience.
They hear it, recognize it and are immediately
drawn in because they can relate to the melody.
They’re going to appreciate the melody a
whole lot more than a bunch of random scales
that go nowhere and don’t make sense.
Even Stevie Wonder knew this.
When it gets to the harmonica solo in the
song, what does he play?
The melody!
Listen to the recording - it’s right there!
So how do you get started with this idea?
Simply learn the melody to whatever song you
have to improvise over.
With Isn’t She Lovely, that would look like
this.
I’ve got a quick little practice track here
- so imagine you’ve just been given the
nod for a bass solo.
You might do something like this.
[plays melody] How simple is this?
There’s absolutely nothing in there that
wasn’t already in the song.
The melody - it’s already part of the song,
even that lick at the end there [plays lick]
That’s in the song too.
If you’re truly stuck and really just don’t
know what to do when it comes to your bass
solo and you don’t just want to play the
same old bass line you’ve been playing the
whole song, play the melody exactly how it
is on the recording.
You’re guaranteed to always sound good and
you’ll never play a bad note!
Now I know what you’re saying right about
now - you’re saying “Luke - that’s not
improvising!
That’s just playing the damn melody!
How can I start making up my own bass solos!?!?”
First of all - calm your farm just a little
bit! [laughs] You could definitely make the
argument that this method doesn’t leave
you improvising because you’re just copying
the recording, so if you want to level up
your solos, here’s what to do next.
We’re going to take that same melody that
we’ve just played - the same notes in the
same order and play with where you place them
in the phrase.
You’re playing with the phrasing of the
melody here - the same melodic line but just
played slightly differently.
How do you do this?
The first thing to try is take the melody,
but instead of playing it perfectly in time,
like we did before, you’re going to play
every phrase just a little bit later.
Instead of playing this melody exactly where
it should be, we’ll just delay it by a bit
- you’re pulling the melody back.
Just like this.
[plays delayed melody]
Of course at the end there, you have to kind
of play that lick in time or it’s going
to sound pretty bad.
Again though - it’s the same melody, but
now you’re putting your own spin on it.
You’re deciding how long to delay that melody
- you’re improvising with the phrasing - even
though you’re using the same melody.
Pretty sweet, right?
You can actually do the same thing but instead
of delaying the melody and laying back, you
can anticipate the melody; pushing it forward.
You’ll end up playing the whole melody a
little bit earlier than it is normally.
That might sound 
like this.
[plays anticipated melody]
Now personally, for me, I find this just a
little bit trickier than delaying the melody.
You might be the same way, or this pushing
the melody might make way more sense to you.
So now we have 3 different ways of taking
a bass solo JUST using the melody!
How great is that?!?
You’ve got the melody exactly like the recording,
then the same melody pulling back and pushing
forward.
You could make your whole solo using one of
these ideas or you can mix them all together
so there’s a bit more variety.
Right now though, I want to give you even
more options that are a bit more advanced
but are still melody based.
Next, we’re going to take the rhythm of
the melody, but play the notes in a different
order, yeah?
So the notes we’ve been using in the melody
are G#, A, G# again, F#, E, and then C# and
B, and we also use this B up here when we
get to the 2nd part.
So those are the notes we’re going to use,
but rather than play them exactly as they
happen in the melody, we’re going to make
up our own order for the notes.
It’s almost like we’re rewriting or remixing
the melody.
The exact same ingredients, but just treated
slightly differently.
It’s like taking the same eggs and making
an omelette vs. making eggs sunny side up.
Same stuff, just put together differently.
Still super delicious, just slightly different.
So what would this sound like?
The rhythm of the melody but with the notes
in a different order?
Remember the rhythm of the original melody
was da-da-da-daaaah-daaah.
Ba-Ba-ba-baaaah-baaah ba-bum.
So if we take that rhythm and mix up the note
order, you might get something like this.
[plays bass solo] Messed that one up a little
bit.
Did you notice how the rhythm of the melody
was still there and we still used the same
notes.
The only thing that changed was the order
the notes were played in.
Now when you get to this level, it does get
a bit trickier.
Some of the notes will clash with the chords.
You even saw it, or rather heard it in what
I just played before.
There was one note - I think it was an A - that
really should have been a different note.
Yeah?
You have a few options when this happens.
First, you could analyze the chords, figure
out the avoid tones - which notes will clash
in theory - and then be sure to stay away
from them.
If this appeals to you and you’ve got a
very analytical mind and you have the knowledge
to do it, then go for it!
However, if you don’t know how to do that
just yet, then you can use a much more intuitive
method of trial and error.
For example, you might play something like
this.
[plays bass solo]
[plays clashing note] Right there!
Ok.
That note right there - that A did not work
over that particular chord, yeah?
That A just doesn’t sound that great - it’s
clashing with the chord so it should really
be a G# or a B. Yeah?
But NOT an A. So what you do - you make a
mental note of that.
Over that part of the song, a G# or B will
sound much better than that A. After some
trial and error, you’ll have a kind of mental
map of the song - what’s going to sound
best where, and pitfalls of the song where
you know not to play certain notes.
 
A good way to find these clashy notes is to
record yourself - just on your phone is fine
- but record yourself playing over a track
kind of like this one, listen back and find
where the notes just don’t work!
Usually when you find a note like this, the
notes either side of it will usually work
pretty well.
Not all the time, but that’s a great kind
of starting place for you.
Notice how every level, we’ve moved further
and further away from the melody.
First we moved away rhythmically by pushing
and pulling on that melody, then we kept the
rhythm but changed the order of the notes.
Now, let’s combine those two ideas.
Change the order of the notes as well as pushing
or pulling on the rhythm of the melody.
Now we’re really starting to truly improvise
and create new melodies rather than recite
the existing one.
So let’s try this - we might end up with
something like this.
[plays bass solo]
That lick at the end!
Oof…Now that doesn’t really sound like
the original melody, but it still has its
roots in that melody.
That solo was still born OF that original
melody, and that matters.
Remember how I said the melody can hook your
audience and make them pay attention.
There’s still enough of that melody in there
that people listening to you will recognize
the melody - even if it’s just subconsciously.
This stuff works - I can tell you from experience.
When I was much younger, I remember I was
playing a jazz set at a wedding gig.
It was just dinner music.
Nobody was really paying attention to anything
the band was doing, nobody was clapping or
even reacting to the band, but holy damn - I
was trying so hard to get a reaction from
anyone in the room.
When it came to the bass solos, I was pulling
out all the fancy licks I knew, trying to
play as fast as I could, doing anything I
could think of to pull their attention away
from their fancy fish or whatever they were
eating.
Nothing worked - at all.
So I tried a different approach - I did exactly
what we talked about in this lesson.
I played the melody, and played around the
melody.
Super simple, no fancy scales, no double-time
licks, no wanky B.S.
And do you know what happened?
I remember it like it was yesterday.
After I finished this super simple, melody-based
solo, I hear exactly 1 person clapping, and
no one had been clapping for anything so far.
I still remember him too - it was an older
guy, greying hair, big glasses and a patterned
shirt.
He had this big grin on his face looking right
at me.
In my mind, I was like “YES!
I got him!”
[laughs] Sure, it was just one guy, but if
I can make just one person happy with my playing,
that’s a win in my book, and because I’d
made him happy, so I was happy as well.
It was a HUGE confidence booster at the same
time and it was all because I took a melodic
approach to my bass solos.
Once you get to the point where your melody
based solos are going well and you want to
take things further, you can start looking
into the more scalar approaches to soloing
- using different scales and modes to create
more complex and more interesting melodies,
yeah?
When you combine knowledge of all your scales
with this melodic approach, you’ll be unstoppable
because you’ll have all the sounds you’d
ever want, but they’ll make sense because
you’ve developed your solos in a super melodic
way.
If you want to start getting into these different
scales and sounds, I’ve put together a killer
guide for you all about the different scales
and modes you can use when in your bass solos.
All the scales can be intimidating, but everything
in the guide I’ve made sure to be super
clear, super simple, without any of the confusing
jargon that just muddies the waters when you’re
learning.
It also comes with 24 practice tracks you
can use today to start your journey towards
mastery over the modes and after you’ve
gone through it, you’ll know exactly what
you can play in nearly any situation.
You’ll never have to struggle with the modes
again.
To get started, just click the link below,
sign up on that page and I’ll send it straight
to your inbox.
You’re going to love it.
To recap really quickly, you learned the steps
to follow to getting started with improvising
on bass if you don’t know where to start.
You learned that the simplest, most effective
way of starting to improvise was simply taking
the melody.
Then we started playing with the phrasing
- pulling back and pushing forward on the
melody.
Then we took the original rhythm of the melody
and changed the order of the notes, and finally,
we combined those ideas to start truly improvising
- creating new melodies that are still grounded
in the original melody.
I hope this has been super helpful to you.
If it has, definitely be sure to sign up for
that guide to the modes on the website, and
give this video a like and subscribe to the
YouTube channel as well.
Thanks so much for watching - I’m Luke McIntosh,
creator of becomeabassist.com and I’ll see
you super soon.
