For the blog this week I am exploring bass technique, specifically how finger rolling and raking is used to produce smooth and fluid playing on the bass guitar. When choosing the songs it was important to keep the choice short and recognizable. A 5 minute rambling bass line with no tune is not very stimulating to listen to or describe. But what songs to choose? It was a bit of a dilemma until I remembered the very songs that drew me into the bass guitar: Michael Jacksons Billie Jean and of course the wonderful Money by Pink Floyd. Lets start with the king of pop himself

Musical Analysis

The wonderful quality about this riff is its simplicity, as all great riffs are. Its the hook that gets into your head and wont let go. Note below how the pattern is driven by continuous quavers, has a narrow range of notes and is repeated between bars. What makes this challenging to play are the adjacent notes  at the 2nd fret on the first beats of bars 1 and 2. To maintain the fluidity and speed of the music the player would employ a finger roll to fret the adjacent strings. This bass technique allows the finger maintains contact with the fretboard as to lift the finger would slow the speed and flow of the music:

Highlighted above in blue is also a bass technique known as raking, which is plucking with the same finger when descending across the strings finger. As with finger rolling this makes playing the bass feel much more natural, allowing smooth and rapid finger movement. The riff is finished by moving the pattern to the upper 2 strings and adding a rest on the 3rd beat, adding definition and jolting the listener from its hypnotic spell:

Pink Floyd use the same bass techniques when creating the iconic bass riff for Money. Here the riff again is repeated between bars and there are finger rolls using the 4th and 1st finger between the fretted notes on beats 2 and 3. Note also how a single finger is used to rake in a descending pattern between strings 1 and 4, again creating a fluid and rapid finger movement in the picking hand:

As the with the rest in Billie jean, the staccatos add to the definition and style of the music, creating an almost reggae vibe to complement the swing generated by the unusual time signature of 7/4. Famously the music switches to a straight 4/4 rhythm for the guitar solo. Here the descending pattern across the strings is replaced with a straight drive on a single string, providing a simple framework for the wonderful David Gilmour Solo:

I hope this blog has demonstrated how the bass techniques techniques of finger rolling and raking to used produce smooth and fluid bass lines, and as such how these techniques are essential to good bass playing. To finish I have extended the Bille Jean and Money riffs to allow the music to be more fully appreciated and enjoyed. See you on the dark side of the moon!

Billie Jean Riff

Money riff

Money guitar solo riff