I Transcribed 69 Joe Dart Bass Licks - Hereâs What I Learned
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 29. 06. 2024
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When the world went into lockdown last year, I couldnât go to my gym, but instead of getting all hot and sweaty in my apartment living room, I decided to go to the roof of my building to exercise. Gotta get huge, gotta stay huge, right?
It also meant I had complete control over my workout soundtrack and after trying a few things out, I stumbled upon Vulfpeckâs Live At Madison Square Garden concert.
WOAH!
This concert blew me away - I fell in love with it on the first listen.
It was a ton of fun, the music sounded incredible and I became obsessed with it! Everyday, Iâd look forward to going upstairs and doing my lunges, squats and curls because Iâd get to listen to some badass Vulfpeck.
I even started taking extra long breaks in between exercises just so Iâd be able to listen to the album all the way through. I had listened to a bit of Vulfpeck before this, but this concert completely sold me on the band.
I loved all the musiciansâ performances, but being a bassist, the person that really stood out to me was Joe Dart playing bass.
Just about everything he played sounded great, felt great and just put a massive smile on my face.
So after my rooftop workouts, I started stealing all of my favorite Joe Dart licks from the concert, but I didnât stop there.
I went and listened to the entire Vulfpeck catalogue and transcribed all of Joeâs language from there too. I even went and listened to some non-Vulfpeck recordings that Joe is on.
All up, I learned 69 of these little pieces of language; these âJoe-ismsâ and started using them in my own bass lines, fills and solos.
Iâm not one to hoard all of this for myself, so in todayâs video, Iâm sharing everything Iâve learned from transcribing these 69 bass licks.
In the video, youâll learn:
âș 2 harmonic ideas that Joe loves to use (Seriously - they show up in more than two thirds of the licks)
âș How Joe uses a unrelenting rhythm to make his playing super exciting, but stays in the pocket while heâs doing it
âș The quintessential Joe Dart bass lick - this is like a shortcut to sounding like Joe because he uses this idea so much
âș 5 things you can do to get a Joe Dart-esque sound on the gear you already have (no need go out and buy another bass)
Plus I show you how you can take these âJoe-ismsâ and very quickly and easily add them to your own playing as ready-made bass lines, fills or even add them to your improvisation arsenal.
The one thing I havenât been able to figure out is how he does that thing with his neck. Lol.
By the way, if you want to get the tabs and notation for every single Joe Dart bass lick I talk about in this video (plus all the ones I didnât have time to go through), Iâve got them all available as a FREE download.
Just go here:
becomeabassist.com/joe-dart-b...
Fill out the form on that page and you can be playing along with Joe in less than 60 seconds.
By the way, if you know someone who loves Joe or Vulfpeck, or just wants to add some incredible vocabulary to their playing, forward them this video. Iâm sure theyâd love it and itâd be a great help to me as well.
Good luck with the lesson and happy playing!
Cheers,
Luke
P.S. If you havenât seen it yet, Iâd highly recommend checking out the MSG concert that I took a lot of these licks from. Itâs pretty incredible:
âą Vulfpeck Live at Madis...
P.P.S. Hereâs where you can download the tabs and notation for the 69 Joe Dart bass licks:
becomeabassist.com/joe-dart-b...
Additional transcription and Sibelius wizardry - Brandon Coleman: www.brandoncoleman-music.com/
Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:33 Joe Dart Concept #1: Pentatonics/Blues Scales
3:29 Joe Dart Concept #2 - The 2-b3-3 Cell
7:02 Joe Dart Concept #3 - Constant Rhythm
9:48 Joe Dart Concept #4 - The Quintessential Joe Dart Lick
13:15 Final Joe Dart Concept - 5 Ways To Get A More âJoe Dartâ Sound
19:47 How To Sound More Like Joe Dart
#joedart #vulfpeck #becomeabassist - Hudba
Which other bass players would you like to see âdecodedâ like this? Where you get to see *underneath* their playing and how you can sound more like them for yourself?
Geezer Butler, John Entwistle, and Chris Squire.
Stefan Lessard
Pino Palladino please! Though the great thing about what you do, Luke, is the enthusiasm.
A good idea to decode is the John Entwistle style. Thank you for you sharing.
I can add James Jameson and Donald Duck Dunn.
Jamerson, Entwistle, Sting, Rick Danko! You rock btw
This dude explaining all this technical stuff, we all know the funk comes from that signature Joe Dart neck.
The neck and the shades - it's deadly combo...
Lol I thought you were talking about the bass neck for a second đ€Ł
@@Bhangshot I thought they were too wtf lol
I thought you were talking about the one with the "what does it do" volume control đ
Thank you for doing such a great job sharing the Joe Dart sound! (I shared it with Joe as well)
Woah - for real? Thanks so much @Abby Dart - I can't tell you how much I appreciate it!
Mama Dart is in the building!!
â€ïž
This has to be the greatest interaction in CZcams comment section history
so heartwarming lol
Vulfpeck always get me motivated to pick up my bass and practice.
Then you accidentally watch a Jaco Pastorius solo!
*Sells the bass guitar*
đ€Łđ€Łđ€Ł
Honestly jaco doesnât play as fast to busy as lots of new players he was super musical with his ability and it is the reason he is memorable
What a fucking gift this video is. Man's done some serious legwork obsessing over these lines for us.
He really Joe Darted it for sure
...and here I thought i was a little too obsessed w Joe's sound... While the theory explained here is đ€ over my head, this vid is still GOLD for anyone trying to get better at the bass. I've already learned so much the first time thru! Nice work mate.
The real spice hearing Joe play in Vulfpeck is his sense of rhythm and the way he plays in the pocket with the drums. He's a bit spoilt playing with Jack and Theo who are not only fantastic drummers but versatile multi-instrumentalists and composers themselves. That groove really comes together playing with people who truly understand all parts of a song. And add Cory and Woody in the mix and you have an absolutely stonking rhythm section - and that's the root of Vulf, inspired by the legendary Motown rhythm players and solely focussed on the groove.
Saw a guy say that Joe plays the bass almost like it's a joke. For instance, if there's an easier way to play any of his lines in terms of fretboard positioning and hand placement, Joe will always pick the harder way to do it. And he does it effortlessly too. He's too damn good.
I noticed this learning Dean Town. I realized his hand is not where mine is on the neck during certain lines. I tried matching up hand positions and playing it like him, but it was definitely the harder way!
I would disagree. Joe does play out of the norm, e.g. breaking standard pentatonic patterns, but I would always say that from an ergonomic perspective it actually the smarter way...
He plays like that because he's self-taught. He finds his own way of playing certain lines, its not a deliberate way of playing "hard", it's just what feels natural to him. It just won't work for anyone else. Learn from his style and definitely check out his influences and learn them and avoid trying to emulate the specifics too much. I saw a recent interview with Marcus Miller and he noticed that people used to come up with more original techniques when they couldn't see what people were actually doing before youtube came along. Might have a point there.
@@ewetoo I'm not sure that's true, he went to University of Michigan and studied Jazz - pretty sure that's where he met the other band mates.
@@AzuriteCoast I saw an interview with him and while that's true he also taught himself a lot and maybe he made it sound like that was most of what he did and not the Jazz studies at the U of M, I'm just going on the impression I got from what he said.
The MSG live concert is a right of passage for all musicians
That show was awesome!!
Ah, Madison Square Garden. Not Michael Schenker Group...đ
It dawned on me a few weeks ago that the "Quintessential Joe Dart Lick" is probably from the shout chorus on Sir Duke. Joe has said before that Songs in the Key of Life is one of his favorite albums of all time and it's so cool to hear that language in his playing!
it's also a very typical bluegrass/country motif. you hear it all the time in Nashville recordings!
For a well known modern example, "Dust In a Baggie" starts with this lick basically every time.
Actually almost every Joe Dart lick is based on James Jamerson, like the chromatic line from 9th to 10th through #9, or the 'quintessential lick', which is technically a scale run on the 3rd mode of the blues scale (yeah, blues scale has modes too). His whole approach is the same, and also his midrangy, flatwound, kinda muted sound is very much like Jamerson. But after all, I love Jamerson, so I love Joe's playing too.
That must be the quickest i've ever clicked on a link hahah. Thanks for that..
Lol. Happy to help
Not being familiar with his music, I Googled him and learned not only heâs a great bassist, but heâs from a tiny town not far from where I live.
Learning about Joe Dart for the first time you can really go down a rabbit hole!
Dean Town
Love Joe! Heâs a great dude too
Awesome. Julia taught Bootsy stuff and youâre teaching Joe Dart! Itâs a great Friday.
Thank you for the lessons, youâre a great teacher.
It's always a good day to learn some Joe! Glad you're enjoying the lessons.
Who is Julia?
@@american-professor Julia Hofer from Thomannâs channel. She usually gives a lesson on Fridays. She and Luke dropped one the same day so itâs a good day to have the morning off to practice!
@@grizelda4526 awesome
This is great man. And you put up the PDF for free. Get that man a beer. Cheers from across the ditch.
9:48 That's the Barney Miller lick. Joe is playing the Barney Miller lick. As a middle-aged man, I grew up watching Barney Miller, so I'm quite familiar with the Barney Miller theme. If you're not familiar with the Barney Miller theme, just look for it here on CZcams: Barney Miller Theme.
I don't even play bass, i'm a drummer. But Joe Dart is life.
Amazing work, can't believe you're sharing this with us. This is the next step to those how to improvise videos
their recorded performance in Belgium at the Ancienne Belgique is killer . . if anyone is loooking for Joe live to practice ty
Love Joe's playing and enthusiasm and that he (and Vulfpeck) have brought new eyes and ears into old school funky town (big props to them)...but it's nothing new tbh; all roads lead back to the funk machine himself: James Jamerson. Anyone who has studied or remotely listened to Jamerson, Chuck Rainey, Jaco, Bernard Edwards, Nate Watts, Stevie's left hand, Pino Palladino and just about half the gospel bassists in the U.S. over the last 40 years...has heard most of these licks before in some variation. Again, not taking away from Joe's brilliance as I'm a fan as well, just hoping people know he didn't invent this particular wheel, but he's keeping it spinning and it's all good :-)
Totally agree @johndough247, although 50 years ago, people would have said the same thing about Jamerson. Jamerson distilled a whole ton of musical language that came before him from bassists like Ray Brown, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Blanton etc. In the same way Joe was likely influenced by Jamerson, Jamerson himself was influenced by others. That's not to take away from his importance in the continuum of musical language though - he's a super influential figure.
Musical language isn't 'invented' in a vacuum though - it's always built on what came before. Jamerson built on the work of the bassists before him, Joe is doing that today, and there'll be people in the future who build on the language that both of them have distilled.
@@BecomeABassist one manâs ceiling is another manâs floor.
I'm glad someone said this, I was about to myself. Everyone develops their tonal language from their influences, and there's a bunch that Joe isn't using that might suit your ear better.
Donât forget Rocco from Tower of Power.
@@garrettlowell7637 I understood Dart's power 16ths on learning that, what a monster.
The "Quintessential" Lick looks a lot like the beginning of Sir Duke "bridge" :)
No doubt about it. Joe picked it up from the Master and ran with it.
Bah yes that MSG concert. I could listen to that daily. If that was my heaven to be stuck there for eternity, Iâd be totally fine with it
Great analysis of Joe's style and sound ! đđ Thank you Luke for a such amazing job !
Great job, man. Thanks for all your hard work!
Super glad to hear you talk about the quintessential lick at 10:00 , out of all Vulfpeckâs songs this is definitely the lick that stands out to me the most, and is so simple yet so unique to Joe
This is so egregious :) The internet is stoked with this premium content
Thanks a million Luke, That was brilliant .
Hey Luke, it has to said: GREAT WORK!!!! Thanks a lot for the incredible anlysis of the most oldschool modern player who is really reviving bass playing for large audiances!!! all the bass-t from kayo
You're a genius sir. The way you were able to explain it in such a simple manner just blows my mind. Amazing work!
Thanks Luke. I don't know much about Joe Dart or am particularly interested in this type of bass playing, but fantastic lesson. I am always open to learning something new.
That run you showed that he does in deantown is ferocious..
high energy brilliance
High energy and low volume!
Excellent work Luke! Been pretty stagnant as player since college. Looking forward to hitting these transcriptions with a drum machine. Bass love runs deep my man
Extremely detailed! Excited to rewatch MSG with this PDF!!
Thanks for this, your insights are great. Love Joe.
Great analysis, and original content. If every video was like this, CZcams would be an amazing place.
20 minutes and 25 seconds of very educational entertainment. Thanks Luke and Joe!
You can definitively tell that there is a huge Francis Rocco Prestia influence in the ghost + 16th notes and some of the James Jamerson licks. Dart has amazing precision and feel. Amazing bassist.
Great video my man!! Enjoyed every second đ
Lots of new (to me) and good bass channels I'm discovering lately - subscribed :)
Brilliant. Reverse engineering stuff and listening to Joe Dart are two of my favourite things
Excellent style breakdown - thanks
You are an absolute legend. Thank you so much this is so incredibly helpful thank you omg
Great work, Luke! One of the best CZcams instructors around...
Regarding the "constant streams of single subdivision", one should always mention Francis Rocco Prestia (Tower of Power): Songs like What is Hip, Come On With It, A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing, etc... The constant flow of 16th notes controlled with left hand muting was his signature style after all. Joe has lot of influence from Rocco (RIP). Rocco's old lessons can also be found from CZcams.
Yeah, I was surprised to hear nothing about those facets as well. I haven't got to know Joe's playing enough, but I would bet he uses quite a bit of left hand muting!
I love that technique, Rocco really inspired me to embrace it in my own playing.
This is incredible, Iâm so happy I found this on reddit. Could you do the same about other bass players? Some ideas Iâd love to see: Flea, Victor Wooten, Marcus Miller
Super great job on this video. Thanks so much for taking the time to do it. I passed it on to my son who is a budding new Bass Player.
Exactly the video Iâve been wanting! Awesome job Luke. Although kinda typical Iâd love to see some of Fleaâs licks
Nice! Thanks for the suggestion!
Great job!! I'm having loads of fun with these tricks/tips... whatever you call it
This is super awesome dude, awesome lesson
Superbly helpful! Thank you so muchâŁïž
great, thanks for the tabs! exercise sessions for a long time.
Awesome job Luke superb, great video love joe Dart đŻ
That's a lot of work! Great job and thanks for sharing đ
Joe is my favorite bass player because the crazy licks I have in my head but don't know the names of the notes or notation, he just does. His rhythm, I have the same bits in my head. If I could just translate it to an instrument I bet I could do some cool stuff too
69. Nice.
It's a good amount of licks...
@@BecomeABassist lol
@@fenderfetish XD
@@BecomeABassist Oh I see what you did there!
Next video- 420 Joe Dart licks?
Don't want to be unfair, I mean this is an amazing work and video you made, just to remember that this distinctive "Dart" lick , is nothing else that the beginning of "Sir Duke" lick ... Stevie Wonder genius !!!
There's nothing new in music, everything already played and listened, but that s the great thing...you can steal around ideas and mix them in different situation, making it "your" way of playing....
At least thats what I think...
Bye and thank you
You can trace that lick back even further than Stevie. I mention in another comment that it's essentially the melody to the song Sister Sadie (about 20 years before Sir Duke), but I'm sure it can be traced back even further than that.
I also mentioned in another comment that I don't say this is the quintessential Joe lick because it's unique to Joe - just that he plays it almost every chance he gets, and it sounds phenomenal when he does.
I love the random dog right at the beginning
I only just found your channel, it's well done your tips are easy to follow so I'll be using it plenty.
I like how you broke this down. Well done đđŸ
Very well done! Youâre absolutely right that the most important part of Joeâs sound is his immaculate pocket! I need to get my How to Sound Like Joe Dart video done soon...
For sure - I have no doubt Joe would still sound like Joe even on a cheap starter bass just because of the sheer weight of his groove and depth of his pocket. Let me know when you make that video too - I'd love to check it out.
Much obliged Luke~~~
Great video man. I'm about to buy my first bass, and as a long time guitar player I already know a fair bit about technique/theory, but I wanted study some great bass players. This info is very telling, and I'm gonna be learning that whole MSG concert as soon as I get good enough to!
Oh man - learn even a little bit and youâll be well on the way! Itâs such a cool album
Awesome! Thank you man!!
Nice one, cheers from Sweden. Subscribed đ
Thank you very kindly for sharing!
Wow, that's fantastic, congratulations! Great job!
"The gear is not gonna give the Joe Dart sound" exactly!
In fact, Joe got most of his sound out of Jaco Pastorius, many of his technique and groove sound like Jaco
Thanks Luke, great presentation! Subbed. Kudos to Stevie Wonder for the genesis of Joeâs âsignatureâ lick in Sir Duke.
Greetings from across the harbour... Iâve got an â86 red NS2. Love the natural finish on yours. How much fun are they to play, eh?!
you legend, thanks for the tabs!!!!
No worries! Use them wisely. Haha!
Great lesson! Thank you!
Great video bud, thank you!
killer vid my man
thanks, i needed that
Great video mate!
Thanks so much @Carlo R.
Great vid! Thx
"Hear Cory play like Joe"
"That's me!"
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Well done!
This is a great lesson. It's so rare these days for youtube lessons to be this comprehensive nice one : )
Ahhh pero vos sos un capo capo capo de la vida ! Gracias por este laburazo
This is an amazing birthday gift, thank you sir!
Happy birthday!
Awesome video
outstanding work luke! so interesting and useful! thank you! maybe george porter? jim mcvie? chris wood? mononeon?
Thanks
Nice tone on your bass
This is great,
thanks
great summary, can't agree more with the analysis from what my hears tell me
Thank you for all the work it took to break all of this down! What a great resource! The 1 2 b3 3 5 6 pattern is the standard major blues scale. Not as popular as the minor blues but much cooler imo
That's the best sounding banana I've ever seen.
Jokes aside, kudos for this gem of a video!
Unfortunately it's not a very good tasting banana. âčïž
dude, thanks for the joe dart licks! Woody Goss (Woody and Jeremy) has a song, "Too Hot in LA" and Joes on the bass. Man, that bass line is so catchy. Simple and elegant
I wish there were a way to triple-quadruple-like a video. This is seriously such a great tutorial. đđ» đđ»
First off, thank you so much for all the great lessons, Luke! I've learned a lot from you and you have a very nice attitude.
Funny you don't mention that what you call "The Quintessential Joe Dart Lick" is *very* similar to bars 4 & 5 of Teen Town... I can't believe you haven't noticed! :)
Itâs also super similar to the melody to Sister Sadie or the lick I talk about in this video: czcams.com/video/JnbX6kB-zBA/video.html
I donât say itâs the quintessential Joe Dart lick because itâs unique to Joe or that he created it - itâs just that he uses it all the time.
Great video
Wow I absolutely love this
Thanks!
It'd be amazing if you could do one on Leon Sylvers, I love his basslines and hes so underrated. Be really cool to see a breakdown of his style!
Seems like the main lick from Stevie Wonderâs âSir Dukeâ is the blueprint for most of Joe Dartâs fills. And thatâs not a bad thing!
dude, your tone is great
Stay relaxed as much as possible
Before I learned about Vulfpeck and Joe Dart, some of my biggest influences were Jaco Pastorius and Rocco Prestia, and I was doing a lot of the stuff that Joe does for a long time already: Small subdivisions, lots of ghost notes, attention to articulation, muting and tone length, and approaching harmonies in a similar way. Then one day, maybe 10 years ago, I saw a CZcams video demoing an Aria RSB Standard, kind of like a P bass with the pickup further to the bridge, almost in StingRay position. I love the sound, and looking back, it really sounded similar to Joe. I bought one and put flats on it, still not knowing about Vulfpeck. Now I have the perfect finger funk machine that can just nail the Joe Dart sound, by accident! But you're totally right: Gear is the smallest part of the equation, and the things you talked about absolutely nail it, and they are not only a great example of how to get the Joe Dart sound, but also what the many different aspects are that make someone's sound. This helps a lot in finding _your own_ sound. In my case for example, in contrast to Joe, I tend to play a lot less licks, play more laid-back, leave a lot of room for the other instruments and try to fill the room they leave with something complementing. Something I learned from other awesome bass players like e. g. Pino Palladino and Nathan East.
This video was so interesting and well made! Can you please do the same thing but with the bassist for the band «men i trust»?
#4 = Sir Duke, a great tune to learn for bass players =)
thanks for your great insights!
Tapped my foot, subbed and commented! Thank you Luke!
and liked of course!
Thanks so much!
You're very welcome!