5 James Brown Bass Lines To Get You “On The One”

James Brown bass lines are PERFECT for showing you how to get ‘on the one’. So what is ‘the one’ anyway?

You may have seen Bootsy talk about it… 

Maybe you’ve heard interviews with Victor Wooten, or Marcus Miller or Stanley Clarke or any number of amazing bassists where they talk about it… 

At the very least, you’ve definitely heard these bassists play this mythical thing that forms the foundation of funk:

‘The One’

And to really see where ‘the one’ came from, we have to go back in time and go to the source. The Godfather of Soul and hardest working man in show business, Mr James Brown.

James Brown is credited with the creation of ‘the one’ – that heavy, funky, phat feeling you get when everyone in the band hits in a certain way, and it just feels incredible.  

So today, I want to share with you 5 amazing James Brown bass lines – all played by different bassists – that will guide you towards getting on ‘the one’. What you play obviously matters, but how you play these bass lines also makes a HUGE difference to how they feel.

And not only will these bass lines show you how to get on the one, they’re also just unbelievably fun.

Check out the lesson here:

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If you want to practice these James Brown bass lines and get them sounding as good as possible, I’d definitely recommend you download the tabs, tracks and notation by filling out the form above.

It’s completely free, and not only will you get everything you see in the video, but I’ve also included some slower practice tracks so you can get your fingers around some of the trickier James Brown bass lines. (Bass lines #2 and #3 can be a workout for the fingers)

You’ll notice with some of the examples in the video that playing ‘the one’ doesn’t always mean slamming beat one of every single bar (although that does happen). 

In fact, most of the examples in this lesson are 2-bar phrases where beat 1 is totally de-emphasized – or even not played at all – in the 2nd bar of the phrase. Check out the 5th bass line and you’ll see that half of the bars, there’s nothing at all on beat 1 – and it’s one of the funkiest James Brown bass lines!

Good luck with ‘the one’ and happy playing!

Cheers,