Play-along Archives

Vulfpeck’s “Dean Town” really blew us all away when it was released on their latest album, The Beautiful Game. Bassist Isac Danielsson decided to take on the tune in this play-along video. If you’re interested in giving it a try, Isac has shared his transcription.

We can learn a lot about our instrument by transcribing other instrumentalists, and Charlie Parker’s recordings are a lifetime of lessons. Bassist Felipe Gianei spent four months transcribing Bird’s solo on “Cherokee” and applying it to bass. “[The] first time I listened to this recording of Cherokee I thought, ‘Man, I want to know what he’s doing here, I wanna...

Inspiration can come from anywhere, and combining your inspiration with your passion creates something special. Jason Everett sent in this video of himself playing along with the song “Jog” on his 7-string fretless bass. “I have loved Indian music for nearly 30 years and this vocal solo by Ujwal Nagar is a great example of why,” he states. “It is...

Yes, you read that right: Country/Fusion slap bass. Brazilian bassist Fernando Molinari posted this play-along of the song “Taffontry 20mg” from his album Identidade, which is kind of like a honky tonk song on speed. More of the fusion part of the equation comes out at 1:55 when Molinari plays some blazing tapping lines in unison with the guitar. I’m...

Roger Alcantara sent us his play-along to the funky tune, “Pinball Number Count” – the song used by Sesame Street to teach kids how to count to twelve. The original features the Pointer Sisters on vocals. After researching this tune for 30 minutes or so, the bassist on the original is a mystery (at least to me!) If you know...

Alessio Tori has offered up many great playalongs over the years. One such gem is this video, which features his cover of Pino Palladino’s lovely bass line on “Storm Warning” by Bob James and Hilary James. Another great example of Pino’s melodic but supportive bass lines.

A few months ago, Marta Altesa impressed us with her play-along to Jamiroquai’s “Time Won’t Wait”. We just heard from another impressive young bassist, Poliana Magalhães, who shared some of her videos with us. This play-along to Jamiroquai’s “Runaway” is a lot of fun. Poliana said, “I tried not play like the original song. It’s just a simple version.” Whatever...

Bassist Mats Ödahl sent us this remarkable video he made of himself playing along to a Charlie Parker solo. Mats has some lofty goals, which he seems to be living up to. This year I [will] try to learn and upload a solo to my Youtube channel every (or every other) week,” he shared with us. “That is to keep...

Joe Lester stopped by the EMG studio with his 5-string fretless Zon to record a play-along of his band Intronaut’s song “Australopithecus.” The bassist runs the gamut of tones from a beautiful clean fretless “mwah” to a bone-crushing distortion.

We don’t feature a ton of bass play-alongs here, but when Francis Allen shared this one, it was too darn funky to ignore. Here’s Fabienne Gilbert laying it down on Jaco Pastorius’ fun and funky tune, “Come On Come Over”.

Johan Hansén-Larson sent us this new video of himself playing along with “Gotta Be Another Way” by the Los Angeles electronica duo KNOWER. The bassist adapts the synth line to make a cooking and catchy bass line to jam along with the track, adding beautiful chords during the breakdowns.

When we first featured bassist Marta Altesa, she knocked us out with her Jamiroquai play-along. The video showcased her great playing, but what really blew us away was the fact she started playing bass less than three years ago. Marta stunned us again with a new a new video of her playing along to Paul Young’s “Everytime You Go Away”....