- I didn't want to pick the bass up.
[funky music]
I'm Thundercat and I'm gonna talk about
some of my favorite basslines.
Once you choose the bass then it's like
the bass chooses you.
The bass plays the role somewhere between
melodic and harmonic and rhythmic.
When you think of rhythm
you think of drums.
And you think about harmonic and melodic
you think of piano.
But it's the in between of that
and it creates a bit of its own rhythm
and it carries its own melody.
If you know a bit about it then
it becomes a lot of harmony.
♪ You're my lady ♪
- I think this was towards the end
of d'Angelo's self-titled album.
Or was it, was the name of that album?
That was "Brown Sugar", yeah.
I would practice to this album
but there was this one mistake
that I would always make
that I didn't realize.
I spent a few years playing
and touring with Raphael Saadiq
and that's Raphael Saadiq playing bass.
I remember I was like, it was immediately
where I walked into the rehearsal with him
with a five string, he
was like, absolutely not.
He was just like I had
to play a four string.
Every time we would play
it he would be like,
"What the hell is going on with the song?"
and I was like, I don't know.
I listened to it and practiced it.
I remember one time he
took the bass from me
and he showed me that there
was nothing being played
other than three notes.
[funky music]
It's the part where the bassline is moving
the way it is and it's kinda driving,
it's actually driving to the song.
Even though it's so simple.
It's the actual statement of the song
and the guitar comes as
a response to it a bit.
[funky music]
And I was just like, no way.
'Cause I was just like how is
that feel, how does it feel
sitting like that?
Because this was like the beginnings of me
learning about feel and the importance
of how things sit in a
song and stuff like that.
It took me a long time
to really wrap my mind
around the part where this
guys only playing three notes
but this song grooves so hard.
♪ Your my lady ♪
- And if your feel socks
you just suck [laughs].
There's nothing you can do about that.
It's like for drummers,
it's an internal clock.
It has to do with your
touch to your instrument,
how you touch and feel.
I think that's a hard line
for a lot of musicians
because you just figure
it shouldn't matter
but the truth is feel is one
of the more important aspects
of being a musician.
If you don't feel right
you're getting fired.
It's the truth.
[funky music]
The thing that stood out
to me about this bassline,
you know it's like the symmetry based on
the area it comes out in,
the 80s, and like synth pop
and all that stuff.
Everybody's trying to be robot-like.
Funny thing is I think it
still freaks people out
whenever a musician naturally
arpeggiates something.
Arpeggiation is basically
like a step ladder scale.
It gets broken down in the
notes bassd on quarter notes,
eighth notes, 16th notes,
32nd notes and stuff like that
but it becomes like a
sequencing of those notes.
♪ You know my daydreams stop, stop, stop ♪
♪ My heart beats on ♪
- I remember when I started
listening to this record
over and over and over
again and I realized
what was going on between the synth lines
I was blown away because David Frank,
it's like there's a moment in the song
where it turns into this call and response
within the bassline between
the singer and the bassline.
♪ Oh, you're in my system ♪
- And melodically it's got this weird
jumping around like that between octaves.
It almost made me crash my
car a few times listening.
It was like, oh my gosh he's creating
this weird conversation within the song.
[funky music]
Marcus Miller man, legend.
Slapping the basses.
It can be a treacherous
area for a bass player
you know where it's like it can literally
be considered mutiny or treachery
you start slapping bass.
There's different styles that you can,
from everything from
the almost Spanish like
where you're playing
with all your fingers,
from that to just traditional
using two fingers.
Marcus is one of the guys that defined
what it is to slap bass like that.
It's an iconic bassline.
Everybody remembers when Snoop
sampled this for "Gs and Hustlas".
♪ It is me, you see, S-N double O-P ♪
♪ D-O-double-GY, the D-O double G ♪
That bassline, I feel like it's a staple.
Because it kinda transcended time
by becoming something
that's a new sample too.
This is one of those moments
where it was meant to be
the star of the story, I think.
[funky music]
I remember Chris Dave
told me when I was like,
if you ever slap bass, I'm
throwing my snare drum at you.
Like forbade me from slapping bass.
I think he still does too.
He was like, for doing something,
if we ever been on the same thing,
he'd like lean over and whisper in my ear,
he's like, "You better not
slap the bass." [laughs]
I think that this bassline
was one of those ones
that's like tasteful manner,
it hobble gobble tripping.
Makes you feel like you're supposed to be
smoking a cigarette and
flick it out the window,
kick the door open.
It don't matter if they start playing it,
wherever it comes in, I don't care
if the cops are standing
there, I'm dancing.
♪ Hello my love I heard a kiss from you ♪
♪ Red magic satin playing near, too ♪
- A lot of my favorite records
have Louis Johnson on them,
Michael Jackson stuff,
The Brothers Johnson,
a legendary group of course.
I feel like the bassline is definitely
one of the reasons why
it was a hit record.
I feel like this song is just
pimping incarnate [laughs].
It's like if you ever wanted
to know what pimping was
just play this song and it'll get you
in trouble immediately.
There's a way that Lewis
is playing this bassline
where he sliding into these
notes in a certain way.
Then it's what's giving it
the slinky feeling to it.
That type of playing with the playing
between the octave of a
bass, that's real 70s,
like disco-ish, a way to keep
the actual timing of the song.
It's kinda going in this eighth notes,
kinda feel in the song while
the drums are going a slight
regular four four, it's
giving it an eighth note feel.
And again, percussive.
It's a fine line between funky
and just disaster [laughs].
And you know sometimes some
cats like to take that risk.
That's again another one of
those moments with slap bass,
where it's a percussive thing.
It's got a lot to it.
It's a really simple
bassline but it's been turned
into this motion that is become
somewhere between the drums
and the rhythm that it holds.
And melodically it has its own melody
inside of what's going on.
The tempo and everything
and the overall feel
is kinda censored around that bass
♪ Oooh ♪
♪ Oooh ♪
- The role of slap bass music
is really controversial.
There are some moments where
I remember when I was younger
where I would have conversations
about this slap bass,
I felt like talking about slap bass
was like talking about girls.
You know you're a teenager
trying to figure out
how to talk to girls and it's like,
what the hell is wrong with us?
Like you're just sitting here wondering
where we're supposed to
slap bass at in the song.
I think you're supposed to do
it in this part of the song
because that place nobody's
paying attention there.
And it's like that's not why you do it.
You don't slap bass when
nobody's paying attention.
That's destructive.
Like why would you do that? [laughs]
I love that bassline man.
I don't even smoke cigarettes but I just,
these last two basslines,
just makes me feel like
I'm supposed to be smoking
a cigarette right now.
With like a bunch of frills
hanging off the bottom
of my jacket.
[funky music]
♪ I'm with you my love ♪
- That was Jack Bruce on bass.
That bassline, there's
again sliding a bit.
You can hear the sliding on that thing.
It sounds like he's playing a fretless.
It's one of those things
like this bassline is iconic
because a lot of the time
I'm choosing these basslines
because of the simplicity of them.
That's also becoming the
driving force behind the song.
Funny even today in music
like when you listen to things
like trap and stuff like that,
the bass is still driving the song.
It's just even more intense.
It's like 808's.
808 is an actual frequency of a bass
that's like more of a
synthesized sound that you hear.
Some actual stringed instruments
can get there with that
but a lot of the time it's an electronic,
like it's almost like
a digit for an analog,
like it's a synthesized bass
sound or bass frequency.
I'm not a [beep] scientist [laughs]
but that's what it is.
You know, what have we been listening to
for the past 20 years is 808s.
That's kind of where it's led us to.
When you listen to Future, when
you listen to Rae Sremmurd,
you listen to Post Malone.
This is one of those driving basslines
that you can't get away
from but it's simple.
[funky music]
The guitar, Eric Clapton's
following him with it
with creating a bit more of the role
of the harmonic by playing
the progressions of it,
creating progression to
it and all that stuff.
But nonetheless it's still
following the bassline.
It's just goat.
♪ They say, is that really all your hair ♪
♪ I just ♪
- Goodness gracious, as
a bassline that's insane.
You know of course everybody
knows at this point
Larry Graham and the vintage slap bass.
This is a known fact.
If you didn't know Larry
Graham invented slap bass.
This is also Drake's uncle
for those who didn't know.
I was always a Drake fan but
then when I found that out
I was just, it don't matter.
Drake was meant to do this.
The way that this bassline
is being danced around
between with the other instruments,
it's like you can hear
the puzzle happening.
You can hear a puzzle
in the song happening.
It's like an engine.
You know with an engine you
can see each part moving
and functioning a certain way.
That's what this song feels
like because of this bassline.
Between the keyboard and
the guitar and the drum,
the way the drums are
hitting the high hat,
like all that stuff, when
you listen to the bass
it's one of those things
where you're thinking
that it's just, you hear
this one part on top,
that boop, boop, boop, boop,
but there's a part where
it's doing all this little
boom, dicka, boom,
dicka, boom, daboom, boom
and it's like you don't
even realize it's happening
that's why it's so
important to show you that
he does that off the top.
He shows you this is what I'm playing
and it's like a bit more than just
what you're about to hear in the song
because there's so many pieces
that are fitting around it.
[funky music]
The part where he's singing and slapping
this on bass is like a miracle.
Like what the entire hell is going on?
♪ Even the blind can damn near see ♪
♪ What's outside you ♪
- You spend time playing it, you oh,
and then you start trying
to find how to do that
in other things.
[funky music]
Herbie's playing bass on set
but Paul Jackson's playing second.
There's two basslines going at one time.
So Paul is playing this
percussive role on the bass
but playing way higher up on the neck
and Herbie's playing actual,
like the holding down the root
of what's about to be played.
The bass players almost
being the percussionist.
He's playing this real
percussive part in between.
[funky music]
Paul Jackson's one of my favorite
bass players, hands down,
'cause he knew that line.
And he would destroy it with Herbie,
he would just be destroying with Herbie.
But this is a guy that understood
how to vacillate between
the role of a bass player
and a percussion player.
It creates more rhythm.
It almost goes very in-line with,
that's why I said percussive,
somewhere between melodic and percussive
is where it lies.
[funky music]
Yeah man, Jaco Pastorius
"Portrait of Tracy."
That's a special, special bassline.
This song is, he's doing
everything at one time.
He's doing melody, harmony, rhythm.
Before there's nobody really,
the people probably messed
around and tried to,
his bass makes these
weird noises and stuff.
But Jaco again knew the
role of everything like that
and welded it so easily.
It starts with you can hear
the harmonics that he's doing.
He's doing everything from false harmonics
to actual harmonics on the bass.
All along the neck there's
these different points
of resonation that happen.
It's almost like feedback.
It creates a natural tone
just by the slightest touch
as compared to actually pressing down.
So it's almost between the frets.
I didn't want to pick the bass up.
[bass playing]
So that's a false harmonic.
You have natural ones
and then the ones that
you can create are like,
you have to create the halfway point
between your fingers,
like you can create it too
and that's a false harmonic.
So he's using all of
these different elements
to create this melody, harmony.
So he starts with
[bass playing]
right?
And then the bassline is
[bass playing]
then he's creating the
[bass playing]
There's a false harmonic right there.
[bass playing]
Yeah that's right.
[bass playing]
That's the melody and harmony happy.
So it's like he's doing it all on his own
and in all these other
songs that we've referenced
there are these moments where
it's a part of something.
It's always been this role
where it's got to be fit
into this motion, or this engine,
or this locomotive thing.
Jaco was introducing you
to you are the locomotion.
[funky music]
I love what's happening with music now
but a lot of the time it's
like we look at these moments
like what Jaco did and these
other cats are so far off
because of there being less knowledge
or a laziness or
different things like that
which are also ultimately fine.
But there's nothing
wrong with wanting more.
That's all these other guys did.
