There’s no other groove that feels like this one!
By Jon Liebman
May 9, 2024
One of the coolest grooves to play on the bass is a slow, dirty, 12/8-feel blues.
Like pretty much any style, the best way to learn how to play this one is to start slow and simple. Then you can build on it to whatever degree is appropriate.
The most important thing, always, is to give the music what it needs and only play what’s going to help the song.
Watch the video below, including my demo. It’ll give you some ideas on how to play this type of groove.
Enjoy!
Jon
Not 20 minutes prior to getting this I was grooving to the 12/8 using my B1 Zoom,FenderP. Awesome!!!!!
Awesome indeed, John! Great minds… 🙂
I do want to be able to play blues on the bass like this so this may be a useful video for me Jon – it would be helpful to know how you find the notes when you’re improvising all over the fretboard e.g. are you using a particular scale and adding chromatics? (I want to learn how to do this). One thing I just want to say though is please stop calling it ‘dirty’ – maybe it’s an American expression I don’t understand, but where I come from it’s like calling a woman a slut, it’s an insult – slow blues is beautiful and deserves more respect:)
Hi, Celia. Thanks for your input. Great suggestion!
No harm meant by the word “dirty.” Thanks for pointing it out!