In this bass lesson, you’re going to learn
5 ‘shredding’ bass lines.
Hi, I’m Luke from Become A Bassist and if
you want to learn some really impressive,
fast bass lines, then check this one out.
[Video Intro]
Alright - this is going to be a ton of fun.
We’re going to get to play some fast stuff
and some trickier stuff.
But before we get started, there’s one thing
I really need to emphasize.
If there’s one rule for playing fast or
shredding it’s that you need to be able
to play things nice and cleanly at a SLOW
tempo before playing it at a faster tempo.
If you can’t play it slowly and cleanly
and with solid technique, then you’ll just
be B.S.-ing your way through when you try
to ramp up the speed.
That’s why we’ll be using a metronome
or a drum machine for every bass line we’ll
be talking about in this lesson.
It’ll keep you honest and probably be super
frustrating, but it’s well worth it in the
end.
Another quick note before we start - you’ll
notice that all of these bass lines use some
kind of distortion or at least a bit of grit
in their sound.
This does thin it out a little bit, but it
also makes each individual note much easier
to hear when they’re going by very quickly.
Of course, you don’t need to have any of
that, but it does help in making everything
you’re doing nice and clear for the people
in the audience.
Let’s dive in though!
We’ll start off in the shallower, easier
end of the shredding pool with a Metallica
song - For Whom The Bell Tolls.
This is the perfect intro to what some people
call ‘lead bass’.
It’s from bass player Cliff Burton, so grab
your bass, your effects pedal and let’s
get started.
This is how it sounds with our drum track.
[plays bass line] Maybe not the shreddiest
line in the world, but it’s a good starting
point.
So in the original recording, you’ve got
the guitars going like this playing power
chords.
[plays power chords] And Cliff comes soaring
in over top with some drive and grit in his
sound, coming down chromatically from the
high D on the 19th fret to the 16th fret.
[plays bass line] From there, we go to the
D-string 17th fret to the 16th. [plays notes]
Then back up to the D note on the 19th fret
of the G-string.
[plays notes] We’ve got a bit of jump there,
but we get an even bigger jump right after
when we jump a whole octave from this high
D to the D an octave below on the 17th fret
of the A-string.
[plays notes] Octave jump there - and to finish
off, we come to rest on the 16th fret of the
A-string.
[plays notes] So the whole thing again with
the drum machine [plays line].
If you’ve you’ve been playing for any
length of time, you probably won’t struggle
with playing this particular line - at least
not with the speed.
It’s not super fast and should be pretty
manageable for you.
Next, let’s check out a bass line from Tool’s
Justin Chancellor.
Schism is probably one of his most famous
bass lines and this one is tricky not because
it’s especially fast, but because it’s
in alternating bars of 5 and 7.
It adds up to one bar of 12, which is kind
of common, but there’s nothing common about
this bass line.
It also relies heavily on hammer ons, which
can be a bit tricky to nail and play them
perfectly in time.
Here’s how it sounds.
[plays bass line] And at a slower tempo, it
sounds like this.
[plays slower bass line] If you listen to
the metronome/drum track, the hihat sound
is on every 8th note and the cross-stick on
the snare are the downbeats of every bar.
Like I said a bar of 5 followed by a bar of
7.
1-2-3-4-5-1-2-3-4-5-6-7 over and over again.
The actual notes of the bass line go like
this.
We start off with an open D and immediately
hammer on the 10th and 12th frets - the C
and D of the D-string.
[plays notes] Then we go up to the F on the
G-string - the 10th fret there.
By the way - every time we play this F, it
should line up with the snare in our practice
track.
Those are the beat ones of every bar.
Now after nearly every note, we’re going
to go back down to the open D-string.
We’ll do it after this F, and then we’ll
play an E - the 9th fret on the G-string - and
once again go back to the low D. So far we
have this [plays bass line] This is like the
first half of the line.
The 2nd half is very similar and starts the
exact same way - with an open D, hammering
on to the C and D on the D-string [plays notes]
We even have the same F and E followed by
open D-strings in the 2nd half [plays notes]
Hear how they’re really similar?
When we get to the E though, instead of ending
the phrase and starting again, we’re going
to add one more note - the G - 12th fret up
here [plays note] plus one more open D-string
before we repeat everything again.
So our 2nd half sounds like this [plays line
with slow track] And once more up to speed
[plays line at tempo]
Of course there’s more to this song, but
the chorus is pretty similar and if you can
nail this part, there’s nothing stopping
you from taking on the whole song.
Just make sure those triplet hammer ons are
nice and tight and you’ll be golden.
Let’s move on to our next line now though
- a shredding Flea bass line from the Red
Hot Chili Peppers song Around The World.
The shredding part of this line is in the
intro of the song, but it does come up later
as well.
This is one where we really start to up the
speed of both hands - this will definitely
be one to practice slowly and accurately before
cranking up the speed.
It’ll look like this.
[plays bass line] If we skip the build up
on the low E’s and play it slowly, it looks
like this [plays slow bass line] You could
also play it down here as well.
[plays bass line in other position] I’ve
put both versions in the tab and notation
file that you can get from the link in the
description of this video, but for now, let’s
focus on the one that Flea actually plays
up here.
We’ll be starting with a 3-note pattern
that repeats 3 times.
It starts off with a D - 12th fret on the
D-string, hammering on to the E - 14th fret
on the D-string and then plucking that E again
and you do that 3 times.
[plays notes] After that, we go from the D
to the E again, but no doubling the E this
time.
Now we just come down the E blues scale until
we get to the G - 10th fret on the A-string.
[plays line] That’s the first half of the
line - and with the drums [plays track with
drums].
The 2nd half is also very similar to the first
half.
We still get the 3-note cell 3 times [plays
notes] but after we get that, we’re just
going to go down the E blues scale again,
but all the way to the D on the E-string at
the 10th fret like this.
[plays notes] We’re going down a bit further
for this one.
That means the 2nd half sounds like this.
[plays line] And the whole thing up to speed
again sounds like this [plays bass line]
Honestly, the original of this one has a bit
of slop in there - it’s not the tightest
line in the world, but it makes up for it
with sheer energy and drive, so you could
be forgiven for not nailing this one 100%.
For our next 2 lines though, that’s not
an option.
Our next bass line is from Chris Wolstenholme,
the bass player from British band Muse and
we’ll be looking at the song Hysteria.
Check it out:
[plays bass line] And more slowly, it’ll
look and sound like this.
[plays slower bass line] This one is a real
workout for the right hand.
Everything is plucked, the tempo is fast and
it’s a pretty unrelenting line.
It’s made up of 3 similar, but distinct
ideas - one on the A-string, one on the E-string
and one on the D. Let’s go through in order.
The one on the A-string starts with 2 strikes
of the open A, then straight up to the G - 5th
fret on your D-string, then immediately back
down to the open A. Next we go back up to
our G, then up to the octave A - 7th fret
on the D-string and immediately back down
the the open A again.
[plays bass line] So far, so good, right?
After this, we get our G again, followed by
our low A, then an E - 2nd fret on the D-string,
and again back to our low A. [plays line]
Then we get a bit of a break from always hitting
that low A. We get this [plays end of line]
2 Fs, down to an E, then down to our open
D, then back up to our E on the 2nd fret.
So the whole first phrase is this.
[plays bass line]
Our 2nd phrase starts the exact same way,
this time on the E-string though.
[plays bass line] See how it’s the same
pattern, but just starting on the E?
Where it changes though is right after that
part.
Instead of going down after it, we’ll stay
in the same position and we’ll actually
go up to our G on 
the D-string, then back to
our low E, then our octave E [plays bass line]
Then we get a little flourish at the end of
the phrase, just like the first one we did
except this time, it’ll look like this.
[plays bass line] We get 2 Gs, then down to
the E, then back up to the G and finally up
to the A. So the whole second phrase is this.
[plays bass line]
Our next phrase starts off the same way, but
on the D-string.
Check it out [plays first part of phrase]
It’s exactly the same as our 1st 2 phrases,
but just on the D-string.
The 2nd part that changes though is really
cool.
We do our first little bit and when we get
to the C for the 4th time, we do this descending
chromatic thing.
We play the C and go down one fret to the
B, then our low D, [plays line] then we repeat
this idea starting on the B [plays idea] and
once more starting on the Bb. [plays line]
How cool is this?!
After this we go straight back to the first
phrase and this final A in the 3rd phrases
kind of replaces one of the A hits that we’d
normally expect in the first phrase.
So the whole bass line up to speed sounds
like this.
If you’re practicing this one and you’re
finding it a bit hard, try not playing all
the open strings and just playing the higher
notes.
That’d look like this.
[plays bass line] This is like the hidden
melody of the bass line.
If you can nail this part, then it’s just
a matter of adding in those open strings and
getting it up to speed.
That’d sound like this.
[plays line with track].
Alright - let’s get to our very last one
and it’s YYZ from Rush.
This is probably the trickiest of all the
lines we’re talking about in this video
because Geddy Lee is all over the shop in
this track in the best possible way.
For us right now, we’ll just be focusing
on the main line after the crazy intro.
It sounds like this:
[plays bass line with metronome] That’s
the part we’ll be focusing on for now.
You’ll notice that it’s basically just
the same thing in two different positions.
If you learn the first half, you’ve almost
learned the 2nd half, so let’s jump in.
First of all, metronome or drum machine is
super important for this line.
Get it right with good technique - nice and
relaxed - at a slow tempo before you try to
ramp 
it up.
We start with this [plays first part of phrase]
2 As - 2nd fret on the G-string, then down
to our F# - the 4th fret on the D-string before
jumping immediately back to the A and then
back down to our F#. [plays line fragment]
Just like that.
That’s our first little part, then from
this F#, we’re going to go down chromatically
2 frets.
So from the F# to the F natural, then the
E and we’ll end the first part of the phrase
on the C# - the 4th fret on the A-string.
The 2nd half of the phrase is almost the same
with a little bit added at the very end.
Instead of having the little chromatic bit
on the D-string, we move that to the A-string
and instead stopping at the C#, we’re going
to pass through the C, and down the the B
- 2nd fret on the A-string, yoyo back up to
the C# before landing on our low F# - 2nd
fret on the E-string.
So the 2nd half of the phrase will sound like
this.
[plays 2nd half of phrase] Hear how we’re
extending the phrase at the end there?
Next, we play nearly the exact same thing
but up 3 frets.
That means we’ll start the phrase on the
5th fret of the G-string - our C. [plays 2nd
phrase] The first three quarters is exactly
the same, but when we get to the last little
bit, we get this.
[plays line fragment] It starts off the same
as our first part of the phrase with the chromatic
bit happening on the D-string [plays] and
we land on this E on the A-string, then we
bounce a little bit between the G on the D-string
and the E on the A-string.
We get 2 of the Gs then and E, then the same
thing with a slightly different rhythm, then
when we land on the last E, we slide all the
way down and play our very first phrases again.
The whole thing sounds like this.
[plays line with drum track]
Obviously there’s a lot more to the song
than just this, but I guess you could call
this the melody of the song - it’s super
iconic.
If you listen to live some versions of Rush
playing this - especially later on in their
career - the song isn’t exactly like this.
The phrasing is slightly different and they
actually play it a little bit slower than
the original recording.
If you want to try playing along with some
of those versions though, all the notes are
the same, you just have to focus on changing
up the rhythm a bit.
If you’d like the tabs and notation for
all of these tracks, then I’ve made them
available to download for free on becomebassist.com.
If you click the link in the description,
sign up on that page and I’ll send you the
PDF with all the bass lines in there for you
so you can get to shredding today if you want
to.
Like I said, it’s all 100% free and 100%
fun.
To recap though, you learned 5 ‘shredding
bass lines.
We started off with a sort of introduction
to ‘lead bass’ with Metallica’s For
Whom The Bell Tolls, then Tool’s Schism,
then we checked out the Chili Peppers’ Around
the World, then Muse’s Hysteria and finally
YYZ from Rush.
Please remember that when you go through these
lines, use a metronome or drum track, start
slowly and only increase the speed when you’re
100% comfortable and confident with the line
at the slower tempo.
Thanks for watching - this is a ton of fun
for me, and I hope you’ve got a lot out
of it as well.
Make sure and grab the tabs and notation if
you want from the site so you can start playing
these lines today.
I’m Luke from Become A Bassist and I’ll
catch you soon.
