["Losfer Words" by Iron Maiden]
Ever since some kid in high school
gave me a burned copy of "Powerslave"
I've been a huge Steve Harris
and Iron Maiden fan.
[Batman transition music]
Whether you're just a fan of Iron Maiden,
or you're looking to
improve your bass game,
here are seven reasons
why I think Steve Harris is awesome,
including bass lesson tips you can use
to emulate his signature style and sound.
Up the irons, baby!
[BassBuzz theme]
Most of Steve's music
fits within the rules of music theory.
His basslines typically
either use the Major scale,
[plays Major scale]
the Minor scale
[plays Minor scale],
the Minor Pentatonic scale
[plays Minor Pentatonic scale],
or the Blues scale
[plays Blues scale].
But here's the thing -
Steve has said in interviews
that he doesn't know any
scales or music theory at all.
Here's a little bit from a 1983 interview
with "Guitar Player" magazine,
[Impeccable British accent] "I
don't know what scales are."
So how does he come up with
such killer bass lines?
It's a mix of having a great ear
and using some specific signature shapes.
So if you learn the fretboard shapes
that Steve commonly uses
you can come up with your
own Maiden style basslines.
And there's one shape in particular
that you can hear in a ton of Maiden tunes
and it looks like this.
Let's call it the "Harris Box".
So if you just wiggle
around inside that box
and slide it around the neck a bit
you can get a bunch of cool stuff.
Here's a classic Steve
lick using this shape
from the chorus of "Number of the Beast".
It starts with just some simple root notes
following the guitar chords,
and the at the end of the phrase
we use the Harris box
to get that cool lick.
This goes by pretty fast
so rewind if you need to
and use the YouTube speed controls
to slow any of the play-alongs down
that you need to in this video.
Okay, four clicks
and then we'll come in on the and of four.
Okay, here we go.
One, two, three, four--
And you don't have to play
every note of the shape
every time,
you can break it up,
the way that Steve does in this lick
from "Phantom of the Opera".
He's starting on the D string,
so there's not actually
room to play the whole shape
because you would need another string,
so he's just using
those first three notes,
sliding them down the neck,
sliding them down again,
and then back up.
And that's the whole lick,
all using that shape.
Let's try that together,
here we go.
One, two, three, four--
So how can you use this box
to come up with your
own Maiden style licks?
If you're jamming with a guitarist
first you need to find the root notes
of whatever chords they're playing.
So let's say that they're playing E,
C and D chords,
you need to find an E,
a C and a D on your bass.
So let's use the E on the
seventh fret of the A string,
we'll find the C on the third fret,
and the D on the fifth fret.
And then just plug in the Harris box
from each of those starting notes.
From E, [plays riff]
from C [plays riff]
from D. [plays riff]
You can play the notes
in any order you want,
just make sure you
start on the bottom note
so that you're still laying down the bass.
And now a brief message from our sponsor,
Eddie the Head.
[Uncle Sam voice] Eddie wants YOU
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for more killer bass lessons.
At crazy speeds like these
it's easy to see why metal
bassists often use a pick...
but Steve Harris plucks with his fingers
and still plays at break-neck speeds.
And it's all index-middle plucking
which is pretty standard
for most bass players,
but Steve leaves his ring and pinky
out straight when he's plucking,
which may give the illusion
of him plucking with
three or four fingers,
but as he's clearly stated
in his 2015 "Bass Player"
magazine interview,
[Even More Amazing British
accent] "It's only two."
Being able to tear through
two or three hours of super-fast plucking
the way Steve does during a Maiden show
takes a ton of practice.
But here are a couple ways you could start
building up that kind
of speed and endurance.
Number one,
get a metronome and set it at a tempo
where you can comfortably
alternate index-middle.
Just on an open string or something.
And then every few days,
or every week or something
you want to increase the
speed of the metronome
by just a few clicks.
You want to stay within the range
of being able to nail it most of the time,
because if you start practicing at a speed
where you mess up all the time
you just create bad habits for yourself.
Number two,
you can take an Iron Maiden song
and slow it down in a
program like Transcribe!
and then gradually bump up the tempo
until you can play along
with it at full speed.
Let's wake up your alternating fingers
with a tune from the "No
Prayer for the Dying" album,
"Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter".
- --PSA: BassBuzz does NOT endorse
bringing your daughter to the slaughter---
Okay, here we go.
One, two, three, four--
Working on your plucking speed
is essential if you want
to play this kind of music,
because you're going to need
plucking fingers of iron
to nail Steve's trademark gallops.
Steve has become famous
for this driving rhythm
called the gallop.
So if this is the pulse of the song
and we divide each pulse
into four equal parts,
one, two, three, four--
one, two, three, four--
one, two, three, four--
one, two, three, four--
the gallop is the first,
third,
and fourth hits of each pulse.
One, three, four--
one, three, four--
one, three, four--
one, three, four--
one, three, four--
one, three, four--
one.
Again, Steve does all of this
with two plucking fingers,
which is pretty cool,
and to make that work
you need to use a consistent fingering,
like index-index-middle.
Index, index-middle,
index, index-middle,
index, index-middle
That way the index hits
all of the strong beats
and the middle finger
hits all of the off beats.
Also, index-middle,
I-M,
also stands for Iron Maiden.
Coincidence?
I think not!
You can find this rhythm
in most Maiden tunes,
but a nice slow gallop to get started with
is from "Sign of the Cross"
from 1995's "The X Factor",
which sounds like this.
One, two, three, four--
By the way,
I wrote out every single Maiden riff
in this video for you,
so you can check the
link in the description
if you want to play with
these more on your own.
Eventually you can work your way up
to the super break-neck gallops,
like "Run to the Hills".
Here's a little bit of that just for fun.
Ready? It's fast.
One, two, three, uh--
One downside of playing finger-style
in a metal or rock band
is it can be tricky to get the bass
to cut through the mix
with all the guitars,
like Gene Simmons says,
"Bass players who play
with their fingers live
"have no idea that we can't hear
"what they're playing."
Okay, Gene,
super sick burn,
but to solve this problem
Steve Harris has some clever
tone tricks up his sleeve.
Steve is known for his growly,
clacky tone
that cuts right through
the wall of guitars
in Iron Maiden,
so here are five quick tips
to get your gear set up for Steve's tone.
Number one,
use a Fender Precision Bass.
Steve has used the same P Bass
for most of Maiden's history,
and if you don't have a P Bass
just use the pickup that's
closest to the neck.
Tip two is roll your tone knob
all the way maxed.
Steve's tone knob actually
isn't even connected
inside his bass' guts
because he always wants it maxed out.
Tip three,
use Steve's signature
Rotosound flatwound strings,
which are surprisingly
bright for flatwounds,
and Steve changes strings
before every single show
just to keep them nice and clear.
Tip four,
you can grow out the fingernails
on your plucking fingers
for even more clicky high end.
This is hotly contested
by a few Steve fans,
"Steve does not use nails,
"your info is incorrect."
But in a 2013 interview
with "Bass Player" magazine
Steve clearly states that
he grows out his nails
for recording Maiden albums,
and you can see in these live photos
that his nails are long enough
to hit the string when he plucks.
Lastly, tip number five,
is you want your action
set as low as possible,
with your strings nice and
close to the fretboard,
which will make it easier to pull off
his signature clacky plucking technique.
Maybe even more important than the gear
is Steve's unique plucking technique.
The most common way
that bass players pluck
is called the moveable anchor technique,
where the thumb moves between the pickup,
the E string,
and the A string
depending on what string you're playing,
and the fingers pull across.
I have lots of in-depth tutorials
on standard plucking technique,
both here on YouTube,
and over at BassBuzz.com,
but Steve's technique
is more like a unique variation
on the floating thumb technique.
So he's got his bass strapped super low,
so his arm is almost straight,
and his wrist and palm
are resting on the bass,
the thumb is moving
along with the fingers,
and the fingers come
crashing down on the strings
rather than pulling across.
This downward motion
is the most important part of
Steve's plucking to imitate,
because it smashes the
string into the fretboard,
which is what creates that clacking sound
that helps the bass cut
through the guitars in the mix.
So if you want to get that sound
and stick with your
moveable anchor technique,
like me,
you can keep your thumb anchored
and just pluck downwards
with the entire finger.
Getting that clack is really the key
to a legit Iron Maiden vibe.
Let me demonstrate by playing "Wrathchild"
with normal plucking,
and then clacky plucking.
So here's normal plucking.
It sounds okay,
it's just kind of tame.
And here's with some more clacky plucking.
It's way more nasty and raw sounding.
This technique,
along with Steve's trebly tone,
sounds pretty messy by itself,
but it works really
well in a full band mix.
You can hear this in
isolated studio tracks
of Steve playing.
It's messier than you'd think, right?
But then if you listen in context
you can hear that it works really great
with the rest of the band.
If you want more in-depth instruction
on Steve's unique plucking technique
there are a couple great videos on YouTube
by a bassist named Didier Gerome,
who actually uses a
floating thumb technique
more like Steve's,
so you can check the
link in the description.
Most bass playing is
just one note at at time,
including in Iron Maiden,
but Steve sometimes adds
in some bass chords,
like this,
to fatten up the sound
or add some melodic flavor.
These are often simple power chords,
which look like this.
Technically these are
root-fifth-octave power chords,
some power chords are just root and fifth,
but if you don't
understand the music theory
you can just steal this shape.
Power chords help add some
thickness to the bass part
in songs like "When the River Runs Deep",
and Steve just plays these by
strumming downwards with his fingernails.
Here we go,
one, two, three, four--
When he does quicker strums
he might go down with his nails
and the back up with
the pads of the fingers,
like in the intro of "Aces High",
which sounds like this.
One, two, three, four--
For chords that are more melodic,
like this,
Steve tends to pluck
them one note at a time,
but let them ring over,
like this,
and he'll usually pluck them
thumb-index-middle for three note chords,
or just thumb-index for two note chords,
and the spookiest example of that,
of course,
is in the bridge of "Rime
of the Ancient Mariner",
which goes like this.
One, two, three, four--
Back in 1989 Steve said this,
- "When I'm 60, what'll I be doing?
"I probably won't be
jumping around on stage,
I very much doubt it anyway."
But now, in 2020,
Steve is 63,
and not only is he still
jumping around on stage with Maiden,
with their "Legacy of the Beast"
tour continuing this year,
he's also touring with his other band,
British Lion,
who released their second album,
"The Burning",
in January of this year.
And he just seems like a nice,
humble dude.
Unlike some rock stars.
NIGEL: Well, no,
there's some problems here,
I don't even know where to start.
And then it's this,
and I don't want this,
I want large bread.
I hate it, really,
it does disturb me.
IAN: It won't happen again,
it's disgusting.
NIGEL: But I'll rise above it,
I'm a professional.
[extreme dork alert]
