Bass Around the World #17: Sexy M.F. Grooves
TAFKAP probably doesn’t ring a bell—the Artist—ok, getting closer. Prince Roger Nelson was a mighty and highly prolific artist, one of the greatest in the music industry. Even if you haven’t heard his music (which is almost impossible) you’ve probably come across his flamboyant persona and surely heard at least one of his signature high-pitched screams. Everything about Prince is sexy—the way he approached guitar playing, his dance moves, his voice, his songwriting, and of course, his whole life.
A beautiful character who left a huge hole in the music scene. His amazing talents are simply irreplaceable. As a pure genius, he could play any instrument, and not just play it, he could squeeze the thing. His mentor and friend was Larry Graham (legendary bass player and inventor of the slap technique) so when Prince played the bass, it was with this influence. There is a great story from Nik West about a lesson she learnt from Prince. He showed her how to dig into the groove and get the most out of it. Check it out on Scott’s Bass Lessons YouTube channel. It's an inspirational and humbling experience of Prince’s approach to the music.
Lesson time
Our example today is a real treasure of the early nineties, the bass groove from the track "Sexy MF", which was released on the album Love Symbol (1992). The bassist in the track is Sonny T., a member of the New Power Generation, Prince’s touring band at the time.
Drummer Michael Bland is grooving so hard in this track and the rhythm section is just outstanding. The bass line seems quite simple but don’t be fooled, it's a tricky one and you have to really feel and play every note as on the recording. Otherwise, you’ll lose the magic.
The verse is based around a one-chord funk progression (A7#9). The bassline runs over four bars and uses octave slides (root note A played on the D string) and some passing notes on the fourth bar of the phrase.
The chorus bassline is a heavily syncopated D major arpeggio landing on C, after passing in semitones through C#.
Honestly, this is one sexy bassline and it's worth playing it over and over along with the original track.
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