OK, my post-Josh learning plan is puttering along smoothly, and am on a one-man mission to learn the basslines to my favourite songs I used to dance and chase girls to back in the 1980s. No cover too cheesy! Debbie Gibson FTW. So I stumbled on this cool guy’s cover of ALL NIGHT LONG by Lionel Richie and through mostly ear and feel, I think I’ve got most of it down, BUT how does he get that groovy percussive sound on the last chorus/outro (from about 2:30 onwards). It sounds like he’s slapping but his fingerstyle suggests otherwise. Are those ghost notes? Any advice or tips?
Pulling up on the string and letting it “pop” back toward the fretboard? I’ve watched it a couple times, and it kind of looks like he might be using two fingers to get the pop?
@Ardea Thanks for replying! Yeah, it’s some kind of percussive thing he’s doing. Didn’t notice the 2 finger pop…you may be right, but he’s combining it with some kind of smooth percussive (I wanna say) triplet? rhythm I’ve sometimes heard bassists use live… obviously my own attempts to emulate it are laughable!
He burped the notes a bit. It’s just timing, I treat it like an extended ghost notes. This works for me visually, I tried coming from the other side by splashing the staccato but couldn’t get the right feel, with my visualization.
Thanks @Al1885 Am loving that sound. is what you described more of a right hand thing? Would love to learn it
Looks to me like he’s just using his plucking hand to hit the ghost notes. Basically you just use your plucking fingers and slap the string inwards toward the pickups. Use both fingers for the extra punch you need to get the percussive sound.
Well it helps if you your right hand is over the string and not flat. You get more angle of attack.
What I described was left hand(fretting hand).
Got it! Thanks!
@Al1885 Inspired by your comment, I Found This link from Dan Hawkins.… it’s in the ballpark of that sound…I think. I learn something new every day.
That’s Dan from at least two studios ago.
He moves with his wife’s work, and just moved from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur. Great guy.