Here’s how to get the absolute most of out those 12 bars!

By Jon Liebman
March 6, 2025

If you want to play some blues on the bass, it’s really not hard if you break it down into manageable bites:

1. Start with the simplest, most common blues form, which is just 3 chords: “one,” “four,” and “five”
2. Assume those chords are all dominant 7ths (not always the case, but a good place to start)
3. Narrow the note choices to those in the Mixolydian scale (this doesn’t fit 100% of the time, but it does most of the time)

It’s amazing how much variety lies in that framework, in all kinds of feels, including rock, shuffles, gospel, metal…

In this week’s FBPO video, I demonstrate several approaches that follow this format, along with various types of fills, spanning the spectrum of musical styles and genres.

Check it out and give some of these feels a try. Then let me know your thoughts. 

Let’s play bass!

Jon