YouTube Backing Tracks

Here are the search results from the YouTubes with pages and pages of backing tracks, meaning tracks with no bass on them for us to play along with.

The styles vary from gospel to funk to blues to jazz so it is pretty good sampling of styles. And, lets face it, sometimes practicing bass without a band around sounds pretty empty. It makes practicing a lot more fun if you can hear what things sound like against chords and grooves.

And if you find one you like and want to keep it, check out http://keepvid.com/ (there are others like this too out there and plug-ins and browser extensions and stuff too). They will download any YouTube clip you want, and they have a little bookmarklet thingy that if you drag it to your browser bar, when you are on a YouTube page it figures out the video and downloads it for you. So you can harvest these things and play them on your 'puter whenever you want. Enjoy.

http://keepvid.com/

YouTube Bass Backing Track List

A Minor Funk Loop For Practice

The play-alongs have been very popular, so here is one that is nice and simple and will let you go ridiculoso all over A minor. (UPDATE: Now there are two. Both A min. What the hell. Why not.)
It's just that one chord, A minor with a gee-tar, a synth and drums, and it will loop until you can't take it anymore and make it stop. So drop it in your favorite loop-able audio player of choice and commence to A minor-ing.
Slap away over it or do some fingerstyle funk or do some one-chord-vamp soloing. Go nuts.
A minor, for the whole thing.

http://www.divshare.com/download/14665147-e04

http://www.divshare.com/download/14665981-b56

Flea Can Run A Marathon?

Apparently he can. Or at least he is gonna try. Glad to hear he is talking better care of himself these days, then uh, maybe he did, before, in the old days. Awesome.

He is going to run in The L.A. Marathon and do it for a really great cause, the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, which gives free music lessons to over 250 low-income kids. It looks like maybe this is something he helps fund or is definitely involved in somehow, which is very cool.

He is offering a free signed RHCP book to the first 50 folks that donate $45.00 to his running team.

All in all, pretty cool. In an era of musicians that are maybe a little too full of themselves and are more interested in discussing how unfair it is to have to sleep on fur pillows, it is cool that Flea is working so hard to help kids get into music and offer his talent and passion to the project.

Here is the link where you can read about more of it and contribute:

http://www.crowdrise.com/teamsilverlake/fundraiser/flea

Freaky Styley is one dang awesome bass record. It was earlier in the RHCP's career, so if you are not familiar with the Chili Peppers before they became mega-mega rock stars check out that record for, in this bassos opinion, Mr. Flea's best playing.

That record shows just how truly funky Flea is. Go get it if you don't believe me. Check out, Jungle Man, American Ghost Dance, Freaky Styley(for some very funky double stops), and of course, Black Eyed Blonde.

Daily Licking 011: Here's That Funk, The Lady Said

bass lick tempo 88 4/4 | Cmin c8. g+16 r16 bb16 r16 d16~ d16 bb8.~ bb16 r8 g16 | Cmin c-8. g+16 r16 c16 g16 r16 a8 bb16 r16 r4|

Name that tune from just the bass line? Answer in the comments, and don't cheat and look in the "tags" tab either. Cheater.

This is one syncopated stanky bass line that notation does not do justice. This is only one pattern used, the player varies it a lot throughout the tune, but this is the main skeleton of a very globular cluster of funkosity.