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How To Play Bass

Learn songs not scales

How To Play Beginners Bass Songs – Green Onions (notation and tab in video)

Most people think that the late, great Duck Dunn played the bass line to Green Onions by Booker T And The MGs, but in fact it was Lewis Steinberg.

When I came to prepare the lesson I isolated the bass line in Anytune software and was surprised to find that it’s just a quarter note based line.  As well as playing it this way in the first video below I’ll also play it how it’s commonly played by cover bands (and how I played it for years).  Once you get beyond the intro (and be careful, on different versions of the song this intro can be 4 bars long!) the bass line is just a simple 12 bar line that’s repeated over and over without variation for the duration of the song.

I class this as a Level 3 bass line.  (The scale I use is 1 to 10 – a Level 1 bass line might be a predominantly half note ballad  kind of line like Imagine and a Level 10 line would be an uptempo 8th note based line like I Saw Her Standing There or Shake A Tailfeather).

Here’s how it was originally played – there’s notation and tab in the video:

 

Here’s a video showing the basic 12 bar pattern and how I used to play it and how it’s often played by cover bands.  If you want to vary it up you can also throw in some dead notes on some of the ‘swung and’ beats:

 

 

If you’re a little more advanced you can also use patterns like this to practice your time and your “internal clock.” In the following video I’m using a ‘harmonic metronome’ that is clicking on Beats 2 and 4:

 

Harmonic Metronome

For those of you who wish to pracrtice with the harmonic metronome, here’s the MP3 track. Please note it’s called “12 Bar Fm Blues Harmonic Metronome” and you need to right click on this link:

12 Bar Fm Blues Harmonic Metronome

For those of you who have midi software here’s a midi file with the harmonic metronome on it – please note that the ‘count in’ that is present on the audio file isn’t present on this midi file:

12 Bar Fm Blues

 

 

THE ONLY 6 THINGS BASS BEGINNERS SHOULD PRACTICE:

If you’re a beginner you should definitiely check out this article (and the follow up articles) for information for bass beginners that you won’t find anywhere else.

HTPB50 – The Only 6 Things A Bass Beginners Should Practice

Comments

  1. Looks & sounds good. I saw a video of “Duck” playing it with Booker T and he didn’t take the ‘shortcut’ on the C runs, he played them the same as the F & A# runs. Nice to get a bit of a rest doing it the way you show [guess I have short fingers 🙂 ].

    Thanks for posting the video.

    • Hey Bj

      The last time I saw a clip of Duck playing this live my memory is that the band took it a madcap pace! I wasn’t watching for how he played it then, but interesting that he just moves the pattern upwards.

  2. Hi. I think I’m a little bit above beginner, not being arrogant.. I love the sound of a electric bass. I have a Yamaha four string. I seen and listen to you on YouTube many times… Could you please do me a favorite? I’m trying to learn the bass notes to the song HEAVEN HOOKED US UP, by the isley brothers. I want to play this song for my girlfriend.. Please help me, thanks!!!!

    • hey troy

      my request list is not open at this point in time I’m afraid.

      paul

  3. Thank you so much. I love the Tuesday lessons and this is a wonderful bonus.

    I took the beginner lesson course and learned so much.

    • Thanks Paulo. Keep a look out as there will be a slew more of these coming.

  5. I’ve been playing for man years, but watching very fine local players caused me to look back, review, and re-learn basics. Your emails and utube material are great for this. Thanks for the assist!