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30 Ways to Play the Bass in Just Two Minutes

The coolest guy in the band is always the bass player. Hey, don’t get mad at me! That’s not my opinion, that’s just scientific fact, long ago proven by researchers at Funkytown University.

Okay, fine, it is my opinion, and no I did not go to Funkytown University (I never even audited a class there), but bass players exude a coolness that is unmatched. It’s just a sexy instrument, one that you can simply hold without even playing and still look like the hippest person that ever lived. Plus, there are so many ways to play it, which means there are so many ways to look cool. Don’t believe me? Then just watch this video of a bassist seamlessly using 30 different techniques to play his bass–in just two minutes–and tell me it’s not the best.

This comes from YouTube user Davie504, and his many ways of rocking out vary from the totally standard, to the totally weird, to one that isn’t even technically “playing.”

So what are the 30 ways to play the bass?

  1. Palm muting
  2. 2 fingers
  3. Hammer-ons
  4. Pull-offs
  5. Staccato
  6. Legato
  7. Knob tweaking
  8. Slap
  9. Strumming Chords
  10. Double thumb
  11. Slides
  12. 2 hands tapping
  13. 1 hand tapping
  14. Zero hands tapping (THIS WAS INEVITABLE!)
  15. Natural harmonics
  16. Tapped harmonics
  17. Octave playing
  18. Artificial harmonics
  19. Using a guitar as a pick (Not as cool as using a violin to play a guitar, like Spinal Tap‘s Nigel Tufnel, but it still counts!)
  20. 3 fingers (4 fingers would be ostentatious)
  21. Galloping
  22. Pick
  23. Scratching
  24. Muting
  25. Pick & slap
  26. Sweep picking
  27. Pre-bending
  28. Bending
  29. Teeth (He must have forgotten about “Post-bending” and “Off-season bending.”)
  30. Neck bending

That guy, for those two minutes, was the coolest man to ever live. Oh, and he’s also crazy talented and that was awesome.

Okay, so what’s your favorite technique? Did he leave one out? Let us know all your thoughts in the comments below.

HT: Laughingsquid
Image: Davie504/YouTube

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