How to Play Bass to Master Blaster Part 2/2

Hi, it’s Paul from how-to-play-bass.com, this is the second part of the Master Blaster tutorial and in this part of the lesson, We’re going to be having a look at the two riffs. I’ll go through them slowly, play them slowly, spell out the notes. When you learn this song, really crucial that you get these riffs down, there’s no room for any vamping or any playing around with them, you just got to learn the notes, learn the sequence, learn the rhythm and then when you come to play in a band situation, you just got to deliver it consistently. If you make a mistake, everyone will look at you and the audience will know it was you who made the mistake and it was your fault, it sounded crap. So it’s really crucial that you go through and nail that and get it sorted. So let’s move on to the first riff which comes after the first chorus. Okay the first riff occurs after the first chorus, it’s around the one minute 50 mark in the song and put the metronome on, it’s a bit slower than the original. I’ll play through the line first and then we’ll do the notes. [Demonstration] Okay, so obviously pretty much tripled bassed. First bar is this and then it moves up to F so we’ll just go through those notes first. That’s how it starts out on C, third fret of the A string. And you’ve got C, B flat, C, E flat, B flat, C, first and third frets of the A string, E flat, first fret of the D string and then you go back to C and back to E flat before you leap to F in bar two. So first part again quickly. [Demonstration] So it’s just E flat, C and B flat. Now the second bar is this— [Demonstration] And you're coming back to do the pattern again. So, the notes are F, G, F, 3 and 5 the D string, down to E flat, first fret of the D string, C, B flat, which are 3 and 1 of the A string. The pattern starts again or it kind of comes to conclusion. On the C, third fret again, then the pattern starts again and pickup notes for bar 3 but we’re still in bar 2, our G, third fret of the E string and B flat, which is the first fret of the A string. So the first two bars— [Demonstration] Okay, so then we go to the second two bars of the pattern. Now the first bar, which is the third bar of the pattern is a repeat of the first bar. [Demonstration] And then the fourth bar is very similar to the second bar. [Demonstration] So it starts off with the same pattern which is F, G, F, then E flat, C and instead of going down to B flat, it goes back to E flat. We should have all those note locations from earlier in the description. And then it plays back again, F, G, F and then E flat, C, B flat to finish the pattern. So really slowly, the whole pattern is this— [Demonstration] And then you start on the next verse on C. So that’s the first time through the riff. As I said it’s about the two minute mark. The first few bars of that are used in the second time through the riff, which is the more complex riff, let’s go look at that. Okay the second time through the riff, a bit more complex, 8 bar pattern this time, play through with the metronome, let me talk through it. [Demonstration] And then you're back into the intro pattern. Okay, first three bars are identical to the first part of the riff. So I won't go over them again, I’ll just play them very slowly. [Demonstration] And then in bar 4, so we start getting a deviation from the first pattern. [Demonstration] Okay so bar 4 starts out with F, G, F, third and fifth frets of the D string, E flat, C, E flat, which is your first fret of the D string, C is third fret of the A string of course, back to E flat then up to G, fifth fret of the D string then the approach notes to the next section are F and G. so I’ll play the fourth bar. [Demonstration] Okay the fifth bar is this— [Demonstration] Which is B flat, third fret of the G string, G, B flat, fifth fret of the D string, third fret of the G string, C, fifth fret of the G string, B flat, C, third and fifth frets of the G string, then you need to move up, slide up with your forefinger and you’ve got—the sixth bar is this— [Demonstration] And those notes are E flat, C, B flat, which are eight and five of the G string, eight of the D string and you’ve got G, fifth fret of the D string, B flat, eighth of the D string, C, fifth of the G string, E flat again and then the pickup notes, to sort of the triplet rundown which ends the pattern is B flat and C which are eight of the D string, five for the G string. Now we’re on to bar six and seven. And bar six and seven are played together, it’s a triplet run that flows together. Here’s the run slowly. [Demonstration] Back to that intro pattern, so we do the notes first and then we’ll come back. So I’ll do the notes in that run first and we’ll come back for locations if we need to, starts off E flat, C, B flat, C, B flat, G, B flat, G, F, G, F, E flat, repeat that, G, F, E flat, shift, F, E flat, C, E flat, C, B flat, C, B flat, G and then you're into that intro pattern again. So let’s go back to the top of the run, quickly talk through the notes, E flat, eighth fret of the G string, C, fifth fret of the G string, B flat, eighth fret of the D string. Next triplet, C, fifth fret of the G string, B flat, eighth fret of the D string, G, fifth fret of the D string. Next triplet, B flat, eighth fret of the D string, G, fifth fret of the D string, F, eighth fret of the A string. Next triplet, this one repeats, so don’t get caught out by that, G, fifth fret of the D string, F, eighth fret of the A string, E flat, sixth fret of the A string. That repeats, G, F, A, then here’s where I do my position shift. Other people do it differently. This is where I found it, the easiest way to do it, shift down, F, third fret of the D string, E flat, C, first fret of the D string for E flat, third fret of the A string for C then E flat, C, B flat, C, B flat, G, we’ve covered all those notes before in the first week. You should be able to see where they are. So I’ll just play through that triplet run that finishes up bar 7 and 8 really slowly. [Demonstration] That’s the repeated line, repeat, shift— [Demonstration] Back to the intro riff. Okay, and if you put that in conjunction with the parts that I taught you in one of the lessons, you should be able to get through Master Blaster.