Sloop John B Featuring Carol Kaye

[greghagger]

For the next few weeks at GBS I'm going to be focusing on female bass players to draw attention to the huge talent there.

 

Who better to start with than Carol Kaye who's one of the most recorded bass players ever. She's on so many hit records and still has a big presence in the bass community with her teaching and bass books. 

 

There're so many of her iconic bass lines to choose from so I went for one of my favourites which is Sloop John B by the Beach Boys. It's also such a feel-good song which can brighten things up in the darker winter months!

 

You can hear Carol Kaye's bass lines on the whole of the 'Pet Sounds' album. She played with a pick, but it's perfectly fine to play her bass lines with finger-style and a punchy tone on your bass.

 

Find out more in my latest YouTube lesson.

The free PDF transcription is below the video. 

 

Note that you need to detune by a half-step if you want to play with the original track using my PDF. But I’ve also put a 5-string version in the booklet which you don’t have to detune to use.