BASS LINES by Jaime David Vazquez – Grooving the Vamp! Part I

Happy New Year Bass Players! The 2014 is our year for grooving! So, grab your bass and play!

What is a vamp? There are many definitions for the term vamp. A vamp is a repeating musical figure, section or accompaniment. Also means to improvise a tune’s simple accompaniment or variation.

Tips for Grooving a Vamp:

1. Know the chord(s) and their time duration.
2. Study and learn the music style.
3. Start with a basic groove and then improvise your own variations.
4. Take into account the possible scales, modes and chromaticisms that you can use as part of your groove vocabulary.
5. Try to apply techniques like hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, muted notes, etc.

Below we have some extracts of one of the top hits of the 2013, Daft Punk – Get Lucky. The vamp consists of the chord progression: Bm-D-F#m-E. Let’s GROOVE!

Fig. 1 – Basic groove.

Fig. 2 – 1st groove variation.

Fig. 3 – 2nd groove variation.