Chords for Soukous Thumb Technique | Learn African Bass Guitar | Edd Bateman

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_ I've had a request from Matteo from Paris wanting to learn more about the thumb technique that we use in Succus
[Gb] _ So we're going to look back at the bass line I played in part one of the African bass lesson Succus one with the [G] chords
A [E]-E-G [Eb]-E _ _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _
_ [E] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ [E] _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ [E] _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
With my thumb I'm playing down strokes. _
I'm using the side of my thumb _ _
This section right here. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ If I want to play an upstroke I use my first finger
_ Pulling the string towards me doing it quite gently if I use too much pressure
_ _ It's going to create a twang sound like that which we don't want and we can use that thumb and first [E] finger _ _ _
[A] across all of the strings
_ [E] _ _
Someone like Victor [A] Wooten he would use the thumb for a down stroke and an upstroke as well _ _
It was something he would be practicing for a long time allowing him to play really fast
But that's really not necessary for Succus.
It's you know.
It's not about being too quick you can notice
_ Subtly there's a different tone with the down strokes and the up strokes the down strokes _ _
sound like this _ _ _ _
_ _ up strokes _ _ _
like this
_ It is a very subtle difference, but the down strokes are thicker
It's because the thumb is stronger than the first finger, _ and I'm striking it harder now
_ _ _ Because [F] it's a slightly thicker tone if we think about a Succus rhythm
[Ab] You'd have to kick drum playing on beats one two three four
Constantly throughout the track so those are the strong beats of the bar what we'd call the down beats
So if I kick drums there, and we want to emphasize that
Subtly just by putting our down strokes on those beats we can make sure
Together with the drum we combine and we make a thicker
_ Fuller sound so when I play this line as we did before I'm [A] going down down up down
Down stroke down stroke up stroke down stroke
_ down down up down
[E] _ _ [D] _ _ Down down up [E] down _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ [A] now alternately I could play it down up down [G] up
_ _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ [E] _ Sounds pretty much the same thing just a very subtly the difference is _ _
if I've got
[A] If I've got down up down up it would mean that last upbeat
_ _ [Am] Will land [Gm] on one of the kick drum beats which is as I said before that's where I want my kind of strong
_ downstroke to be _
So if I count through the time one two three four [A] one [E] two three
[D] four one two [E] three [A] four one
_ [E] Three you can see I'm [D] always
_ [E] Putting a down stroke on [A] the beat one two three four [D] one two [E]
three [A] four as
_ [N] That is as I said the strong part of the bar.
That's what we want to exercise emphasize even
_ There's many exceptions to this.
It's not something you need to be thinking about all of the time
It should just build to be something that you kind of do subconsciously if you're doing variations _ feels
You know that it's you know you've got much more freedom
You can be you know you could be playing up stroke down stroke whatever's easiest in that situation
But in response to Matteo's question, I'd say you know I could do the same thing [A] finger style _ _
like this
_ [D] _ _ _ [E] _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ You know I play a [E] lot of finger style stuff and a [A] lot of different styles.
I play _
_ [D] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ [A] _
but with that constant jumping between the low and the high strings if I change that for the thumb _ _ _ and the first finger
[E] _ It's a [A] very relaxed way [E] to play [D] sukus and [E] using the thumb [A] adds the thicker tone
It might take [D] some of you time to [E] develop that thicker tone [A] at the moment you might not notice
_ [D] Any difference especially [E] if you haven't used [A] this thumb technique [E] before you'll just [A] need to build up some strength [E] so
[A] To do that we can just go through the scales simply using the thumb _ _ [Db] _
like this
[Gb] _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _
[Gb] _ _ _ _ [Db] _ _ _ [A] _
Then play the same thing again with quavers on each note
[Db] Then _ [A] _ _ _ [Ab] _ _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _
we could do the same thing with the thumb and first finger
alternating _ [B] _ [Db] and _ _
[Gb] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ Then first thumb and first finger playing quavers on each note
[Db] _
_ _ _ [Gb] _ [Ab] _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ [B] _ _ [Am] _ Now if you serious about building that [Ab] strength you want to work on these exercises _
_ [Bb] _ [Ab] Make sure you're doing every key.
It [Eb] means [C] as well as building [Fm] _ [G] your strength _
[E] and your dexterity
_ [D] You're getting to know your scales _ [F] and getting familiar [Eb] with the fretboard as well
[Gb] _ _ _ _ _ _ So Matteo, I hope that answers your question and for anyone else wanting to understand more about [Eb] the thumb technique
We use in sukus.
Hopefully that'll be [D] helpful as well
Remember, you know if [A] you want some feedback
Send [E] videos if you're playing to the Facebook page on the message for the African bass lesson
Or if there's other stuff you want to learn in future [Ab] videos as well
Let me know [E] and I'm sure we can focus on that _