Two-Handed Funk Bass Lines

It's time to turn down the melody side and pick up some funk chops. There's something about Stick bass in fifths - new patterns lead to new ideas, which lead to new music. Tony Levin gets it, so do countless other players. Ron Baggerman has it down too, as his latest contribution to StickNews shows.

In the following examples Ron works off a basic two-handed groove on the bass side then expands it into more complex and funkier riffs. Each audio clip plays the riff as written then drops it down and octave.

All the necessary information is in the notation, including the fingerings. I like to think of these riffs as patterns that you can move around the fingerboard - just pick a different root note and plug in the pattern for instant funk.

Make them sound good, move them around and funk out. If you really want to get into it, maybe a little flanging or an envelope filtering is in order, or how about some a bass wah-wah pedal, things could get seriously out of hand.

Funk exercises in PDF form
Funk exercises audio MP3