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I've been asked several times about this track that I recorded with the band Jazz Against The Machine: we do an instrumental version of "Creep" from Radiohead and it's pretty much a bass feature ballad. So I made this full transcription of my bass part with all the melodies and improvisations. It's here in the attachments, I hope You like it.

We made the recording 10 years ago. It was summer, the studio was boiling... I do remember, that we had a good vibe on this one - but still, I now hear inaccuracies and fret noises and stuff that I would like to do better now. And I would probably also not go for the Music Man StingRay as the instrument for this bass ballad. But it's interesting:  this striving for perfection all does not matter so much: obviously, lots of listeners like this one just as it is and are being touched by the vibe of that moment, and that's what really matters. So I went back to that "old stuff" of mine, practiced it again, wrote made this transcription video.

Slapping involves various elements such as thumb, pluck, deadnotes, hammer-on, upstrokes, etc. This is similar to the different drums in a drum set. From these different "slap instruments" you can then put together basic motifs (rudiments), e.g. slap-hammer-slap-pluck or slap-hammer-pluck. And from various rudiments you then build riffs and entire solos. The approach of seeing the whole thing as a rudiment means that you practice different basic finger movement sequences until you have them going accurately and smoothly. Then you put those rudiments together. You can order the bass transcription as a PDF below. If you want sheet music for the whole band (including sheets for drums, percussion, keyboards and guitar), send me an e-mail: lessons@philipprehm.com

drums: Ralf Gustke | djembes: Tilman Bruno | hammond-organ: Martin Meixner

Groove and a natural flow in any time signature - this is one of my favorite subjects in music. Play over a 4/4 just as naturally as over a quintuplet beat or as in this case 7/16 - and the audience can just follow the natural flow, it doesn't feel like "odd meter". So other time signatures can bring a lot of variety, no matter the genre. The solo here is from the song "Septivity" from my album The Philbum. It features slap improvisations and tapping lines over that septuplet beat. The transcription runs in the lower part of the video. You can order the bass transcription as a PDF below. If you want sheet music for the whole band (including sheets for drums, percussion, keyboards and guitar), send me an e-mail: lessons@philipprehm.com

Watch the video of my whole performance on BASSTHEWORLD.COM : https://youtu.be/rPveBrXeLGI

vocals: Pallavi Arun | drums: Ralf Gustke | batá: Tilman Bruno | hammond-organ: Martin Meixner

Funk is one of the big reasons why I wanted to start playing bass: positive vibes, fantastic basslines and drum grooves and a great oldschool sound aesthetics. For this video I combined some of my favorites into one track. It's far from all that deserves mentioning - it's a personal choice. I wanted to present non-slapped funk riffs here, the order should be musically cool and I also wanted to include a bit of variety: from James Brown to Meters to Parliament and Afro-Funk:

The Meters: Gossip | James Brown: Funky Drummer | The Meters: A Message From The Meters | Parliament: Dr. Funkstein’s SupergroovalisticProsifunksticationMedley | T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo de Cotonou: Agnon Depke | D’Angelo: Chicken Grease | Sly & The Family Stone: If You Want Me To Stay | Lee Dorsey: Night People | Steely Dan: Josie | James Brown: Make It Funky | Average White Band: Your Love Is A Miracle | The Meters: Cissy Strut | Jimmy Smith: Root Down | The Isley Brothers: It’s Your Thing | Average White Band: Love Your Life | Richard ‚Groove‘ Holmes: Groovin’ with Mr. G.

Quintuplet beats are becoming more and more popular. What I like about quintuplet beats is that they actually feel like a normal 4/4 - only now the beats are divided into five subdivisions (and not into four 16's oder two 8's). That means you feel the 4/4, but the subdivision is different and opens up exciting new possibilities. My solo here in the transcription of is based on tapping and slapping. It is written as 5/8 so that there are not too many auxiliary lines. This means: what feels like a 4/4 bar now results in four 5/8-bars. The transcription runs in the lower part of the video. You can order the bass transcription as a PDF below. If you want sheet music for the whole band (including sheets for drums, percussion, keyboards and guitar), send me an e-mail: lessons@philipprehm.com

drums: Ralf Gustke | bongos: Tilman Bruno