Chapter - Intro
If you want to take a bass solo - to improvise
- it can be confusing as hell! You have to
worry about keys, chords, scales modes - everything
like that. And on top of everything, you’re
just supposed to make it up on the spot? But
how are you supposed to do this if you haven’t
ever done it before? What’s the solution?
Steal other people’s solos!
[Video Intro]
Welcome to Become A Bassist where it’s all
about insanely practical no-B.S. bass lessons
designed to get you playing better bass, having
more fun and becoming the best bassist you
can be and when I say steal other people’s
solos, I’m not saying you steal entire songs
and try to pass them off as your own. Don’t
do that - but what you CAN do, is look at
bass solos that already exist, learn how to
play them for yourself and then you can use
those as your inspiration or you can extract
specific licks that you like and play them
just about everywhere.
Think about it! There are bass solos that
ALREADY exist that you KNOW sound good, so
why not just copy them? It’s not ‘cheating’,
you’re just learning the language of the
music and it’s not going to kill your creativity.
In fact, it’ll fuel your creativity because
it’ll give you ideas and things to work
with. So right now, I want to share with you
3 solos that are super beginner-friendly,
fall under the fingers really nicely and are
the perfect starting point if you want to
learn to take bass solos. The first comes
from the Red Hot Chili Peppers song Aeroplane.
It sounds like this.
Chapter - Bass Solo #1
[CLOSE UP] [plays] This is super simple to
start with - just 4 bars of Flea goodness.
[Explain - Play with slow track, then regular
track]
Now If you look at the chords in this song’s
chorus, it’s like a Gsus kind of sound going
to a C7 [plays] so the root motion is just
a bar of G a bar of C over and over and we
get that a lot from this bass solo. In fact,
the first bar starts off with those double
Gs - very strong, then we get a C on beat
one of the next bar, then the next two bars
[plays] G and C again. What can you learn
from this? Well, if you want a simple bass
solo that is going to sound good, you can
build everything from those root notes. You
don’t necessarily HAVE to use tons of scales
and arpeggios - you can just build on the
bass notes that you already know really well.
Also notice there’s a lot of space in there
- he’s not playing ALL the time. This solo
has room to breathe. [plays] Breath there
[plays] breath. In your bass solos, you can
do a similar thing and free yourself from
the pressure of thinking, “It’s a bass
solo - I have to play a million notes” You
don’t! It’s all good!
Chapter - Bass Solo #2
[LONG SHOT] By the way, I
have all 
the tabs and practice tracks available for
free on the website, so just click the first
link in the description and fill out the form
on that page and I’ll send you everything
from this lesson - including the slow practice
tracks - so you can start stealing these licks
and playing these solos today if you wanted.
Next though, let’s check out another great
starter bass solo from Sade’s Smooth Operator.
Here’s how it sounds.
[CLOSE UP] [plays] This one’s fairly different
from the Flea line, right? It’s a bit more
melodic - it’s kind of floating above everything
else. It’s also played up higher on the
neck, right? The Flea one was all in the first
5 frets. Here we’re stretching all the way
up to the 19th which puts us firmly in the
human vocal range which means it’s easier
for people to connect with what you’re playing.
As far as how to play this one, we’re starting
right here on the 12th fret of the D-string.
[Explain - Play with slow track, then regular
track]
As far as what this all is, it’s just the
notes of D minor - the key of the song. This
one does a lot less of pounding out the roots,
but that’s fine too. You’ve got options
for your bass solos - you can do whatever
you like. This solo isn’t super long, but
long enough to sink your teeth in a little
bit.
Chapter - Bass Solo #3
[LONG SHOT] Alright, let’s move on to our
last bass solo and this one is
probably the trickiest of everything we’ve
talked about so far, but it’s still very
doable and there’s some classic licks in
there that you can take, steal and then use
for yourself. It comes from Ben Harper’s
Steal My Kisses.
[CLOSE UP] [plays]
[Explain - Play with slow track, then regular
track]
[LONG SHOT] This one is kind of a hybrid of
approaches of the first 2. We are still getting
a lot of root notes, but every once in a while,
we get something that’s very scalar and
melodic that pops out and it’s also the
longest one too. Very cool.
Now if you’ve never taken a bass solo before
and
you want to get a sense for how it’s done,
just straight up steal these ones. Take a
look at the licks, take what 
you like, what sounds good to you. You can
only really do all of that though if you actually
pick up your bass and play them, and to make
things as easy as possible, I’m giving away
the tabs, practice tracks and notation for
everything you’ve in this video - even
the slowed down practice tracks so you can
work up to the actual speed. It’s totally
free - all
you
need
to do
is click the first link in the description
or right here, fill out the form on that page
and you’ll be sent absolutely everything,
so go ahead and download it all and start
soloing!
