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Funk Bass Archives

Creative Bass Lines: Funking with the Dorian Mode and the Blues Scale
Creative Bass Lines

Creative Bass Lines: Funking with the Dorian Mode and the Blues Scale

Welcome back to the third installment of Creative Bass Lines. Before we start, I’d like to take a moment to say a fond farewell to the amazing Victor Bailey who sadly left us way too soon a few days ago. Victor was an enormous influence on me, and his highly melodic yet super funky playing made an indelible impression on...

Lesson: Getting Funky with Trills on Bass
Bass Lessons

Lesson: Getting Funky with Trills on Bass

In our last lesson, we focused on using vibrato to your bass lines for better phrasing. This time around, we’re going to spend time working on trills on the electric bass. As you’ll hear in the video, playing a line without trills is not bad. But when you add those trills, the line has so much more life to it....

Cody Wright: How to Play Funk Bass with a Pick
Bass Videos

Cody Wright: How to Play Funk Bass with a Pick

Last month we featured a burning track by the Jonathan Scales Fourchestra entitled “TNFJ“. The song really caught readers’ attention with sick drumming, other-worldly steel drums, and of course, the extra funky bass line by Cody Wright. Wright, who uses a pick to play, also wowed us with a driving and percussive solo. Here is his new video tutorial on...

Jan Urbanec: Acoustic Bass Funk
Bass Videos

Jan Urbanec: Acoustic Bass Funk

Warning: you’re about to experience some serious funkiness. The only problem, it doesn’t last long enough. Jan Urbanec is laying it down on his acoustic bass. He says he’s “…just messing around with one of my favorite grooves.” Oh yeah. And about that bass… I think it is a custom made archtop fretless acoustic, created by Procházka luthiers.

The Funky Knuckles: Barbosa
Bass Videos

The Funky Knuckles: Barbosa

Steven Smith sent in this video of The Funky Knuckles playing their tune “Barbosa” while opening for Snarky Puppy at Matt Garrison’s Shapeshifter Lab in New York City. Starting with a bass solo from Wes Stephenson, the group launches into an awesome funk-fusion jam that’ll leave you bobbing your head. Stephenson sets up a bouncy groove while keeping it tight...

Philip Smith: Crazy House Funk
Bass Videos

Philip Smith: Crazy House Funk

We’re big fans of bassist Philip Smith (aka KingOfPain) here at No Treble HQ. Here’s a new video from Philip, described by him as “some freestyle slap stuff behind a House loop on a Pedulla Bass. Fun fun fun on a Saturday night.” Fun indeed. And the commercial break is hilarious.

Funk Bass Line Lesson – James Brown’s “The Payback”
Bass Videos

Funk Bass Line Lesson – James Brown’s “The Payback”

Today’s featured video is as instructional as it is cool. Bassist/instructor Anthony Pell breaks down how to construct a funk line, using James Brown’s “The Payback” – a tune from Godfather of Soul’s 1973 album of the same name. Fred Thomas was the bassist on that album, by the way. Pell breaks down three approaches to note selection for the...

Davie504: Simple FleaBass Funk
Bass Videos

Davie504: Simple FleaBass Funk

Bassist “Davie504” gets funky with his modified FleaBass, and offers some instruction along the way. Enjoy the tune, or play along with the tabs.

Nathan Navarro: Funk Bass
Bass Videos

Nathan Navarro: Funk Bass

Here’s bassist Nathan Navarro showing some impressive skills while performing one of his own original funk compositions.