UG Weekend Bass Riff: Part 3

Introduction:

Weekend Bass Riff - Flea Special. Flea, bassist for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers is renowned as one of todays leading bassists. He doesn’t just play the roots of the guitar he plays his own funk licks which really add to the song. For this special I’ll be covering licks from ‘Other Side’, ‘Under The Bridge’ and ‘Give It Away’. So without further ado here’s the low down on ‘Other Side’

Audio & Tab:

Other Side:

The bass-riff I’ve chosen from this track is when the guitar cuts out leaving just the drums and bass and flea executes a funky bass riff which complements the drum track, or should I say is complemented by the drum track. The lick begins with a basic E-E-D-E-E but on the second measure a A-E-F# fill is added to carry the riff to the 3rd measure where the same rhythm is played but this time G-C-C-C-C, another fill is then added to the 4th measure which occupies the whole bar, this fill goes: G-F#-D-F#-G-F#-D. Here’s the tab :

  Q    E   E   Q    E    E  Q    E   E E  E  E     Q    Q    E  Q    E
G----------------------|------------------------|----------------------|
D----------------------|------------------------|----------------------|
A------7----5--7-------|----7----5--7--0--------|-------3----3--3----3-|
E-0-----------------0--|------------------0--2--|--3-------------------|

 E  E  E  E  E  E  E  E
-------------------------||
----5--4--0--4--5--4--0--||
-------------------------||
-------------------------||

Click here to get a midi file of the tab above.

Under The Bridge:

I chose another funk melody from this track but this one is of a higher-pitched and could easily be played as a guitar riff. This time the riff is from the D Minor scale and complements the songs movement and progression, like the riff I chose from other side this riff also has a great fill at the end. The lick begins A-E-A-C with a small fill of A-G-A then the melody repeats as G-D-G-A# then the fill comes as G-A-C-A-G using sixteenth notes and sliding notes, I love the feel of this fill as it fits in with everything else so well. Here’s the tab :

     E  E  E   Q    E  E  E     E  E  E  E.  S S E  S E
G||-----9--------------------|-----7-------------5-------|
D||--7-----7--10----7--5--7--|--5-----5--8---5/7----7-5--|
A||--------------------------|---------------------------|
E||--------------------------|---------------------------|

Click here to get a midi file of the tab above.

Give It Away:

This funk-rock classic is outrageous and just generally…funky so its only natural it has a great bass line supplied by flea that will have you racing up and down the fret board from the twelth fret area down to the third fret. Yet again this bass riff has a marvellous fill (would I have it any other way !?) and is incredible fun to play. The lick starts A-D-E-A then (as usual) has a smaller fill which goes X-C-A-C, the A-D-E-A section is then repeat. This is followed by a great fill down on the e and a strings which goes E-G-A-C-A-G. Here’s the transcription :

   E   S S   S E    S E   S E     E   S S   S E    S S S S S E
G--------------12/-------------|--------------12----------------|
D------x-12/14-----------------|--------12/14-------------------|
A--0----------------x-3---0-3--|--0---x----------------0-3h0----|
E------------------------------|-------------------0-3-------3--|

Click here to get a midi file of the tab above.

Fleas Gear:

Flea plays his signature basses manufactured by Modulus, he uses GHS Boomers (.45 - .105) Fleas pedal board has Electro-Harmonix Q-Tron, an MXR Micro Amp and a Boss ODB-3 Bass Overdrive and for amplifiers he uses Gallien-Krueger RB Heads which run to Gallien-Krueger 1x15 enclosure cabinets. I hope you enjoyed this Flea Special.

And those who prefer six strings to four, may check out Part 9 of UG Weekend Riff series. This week you get one of those real metal riffs: F--king Hostile by Pantera!

Comments

[Cookie_master]

yeah :P

[Uome]

I don't really recognize Under the Brige and The Otherside. But Give it Away is pretty nice tabbed.

[free_iraq]

give it away's nice dude. maybe you should have done "by the way" instead of either of the first two.

[vinniebeast]

The midi files are attached to the wrong file on 'Otherside' and 'Unde The Bridge'. I thought I'd tell you to avoid further confusion.

[cool_geek_dude]

i would have thought that around the world would b the best one to do but theres plenty of gd tabs on this site for it anyway nice one man

[bat709]

finally sum good basslines thank you. but i think u messed up a note with under teh bridge i dont think the Ab bellongs there

[rhcpcure2826]

Ab i believe does NOT belong on under the bridge, and for otherside you should have included the variation on the last measure- you only tabbed what he does at the 2nd and 4th measure at the end of the bassline, not the first and third.

Under the bridge is in E major, i dont recognise that bass riff from the song, and if it is in D minor then the b6 would be named Bb, not A#, obviously a flattened sixth cant be a sharp note unless you name the natural sixth A##, which would be silly, ha ha. what happened to radiohead?

[rhcpcure2826]

under the bridge changes keys basically. it ends on A major, the progression for the outro is as follows:
A, A/C, Gmaj6/A, Fmaj7/A.

third chord im not sure i translated properly, but here it is:

0
3
4
5
0
-



verses are in E major, chorus is F#m, E, B, A.

keep in mind that almost all of these chords are different voicings than open chords.

now back to bass.

[rhcpcure2826]

sorry, second chord for bridge/outro is C/A, not A/C

well yes, but that final section isnt in Dmin either. The intro isnt in E either, but the bulk of the song is in E, and none of it is in D min.

[YouKnowYourRite]

the under the bridge bit is at the very end...i just guessed the keys by looking at the notes of the songs so there probably will be some error there but...hmm...well..... just play the song ^^

i think ive solved it, the 8 should be on the A string, not the D, giving us an F rather than a Bb (eugh!), i think thats right as its played over the Fmaj7/A chord, with that the notes do all fit in D min, though id say more accurately its in A min.

[YouKnowYourRite]

Thanks beat, sorry everyone else heh..

[TomD03]

These are O.K not great tho, could have had some better choices (like Aeroplane or Jungle Man, or get up and jump ) oh well... gj with what there is there, except for a few little tiny errors.

[alaska_bass_kid]

im glad they put some flea bass lines on there. they are very fun to play

[rhcpcure2826]

i think ive solved it, the 8 should be on the A string, not the D, giving us an F rather than a Bb (eugh!), i think thats right as its played over the Fmaj7/A chord, with that the notes do all fit in D min, though id say more accurately its in A min.

YES! i couldnt connect the way i played it with the tabbbed way- i always play where it should say 8th fret A on 3rd fret D... confusion cleared

[costa]

in under the bridge it shoudn't be an 8 right before the end it should be like a 3.

yeah i think weve established that costa.

[KevinHallX]

you know, i'm starting to think the bass riff is more fun than the guitar riff every week. keep up the good work

[binoroc]

i think the coolest bass riffs are in the song around the world off of californication

[Obie]

easy as pie

[Cookie_master]

otherside is wrong tabbed

[SeepZ]

i've been waiting for this for so long, and now its here and quite a letdown actually
sorry man.

[SeepZ]

maybe you should have put around the world on

[Dave_Grohl]

nice stuff, that lick on otherside is 1 of me fav basslines

[Uome]

Where is the suggestion box?

[r_lightning]

cool.. its getting better and better

[boxcarblink41]

your wrong rhcp cure, the interlude is A, Am7, g6, Fmaj7. so its very close indeed.

[vinniebeast]

No the interlude near the end is A, Aminor,Gmaj, Fmaj

[stealth_sloth]

This is the place - its got a pretty good bass riff you should have added that to the list

[Unseen_hero]

where's higher ground?

[The_Fast_Sloth]

this is sweet, you guys should do some Rage Against the Machine

[fcuk_you]

i think flea is one of the best out there. im glad u guys finally recognized him.

[r_lightning]

fcuk_you:
i think flea is one of the best out there. im glad u guys finally recognized him.

thats right..! get done with ya next UG Weekend Bass Riff now! We're all waiting:-P Try tab something by bassist like Cliff Burton or Steve Harris, that'll be cool..

[Scramchi]

Otherside is not correctly tabbed. How poor of the author, he will harvest the fruits of his presumption, thinking he can tab flea. I am much better than the author of this file. trust me.

[darkstar9814]

did u use a keyboard to do the examples??

['tallica07rhcp]

long live flea!!! Keep up the weekend bass, we need a lot more. Also long live RHCP. keep on rockin' in the free world...