Joe Dart Bass Licks: 69 Of Them To Add To Your Bass Playing

Joe Dart bass licks: Today, I have 69 of them to share with you, plus you’ll learn how to add them to your own bass lines, fills or even use them to improvise.

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So how did I come to learn these 69 Joe Dart bass licks? It all started in March of 2020, when the world went into lockdown and for me, this is where it happened:

I couldn’t 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.

It also meant I had complete control over my workout soundtrack and after trying a few things out, I stumbled upon Vulfpeck’s 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, I’d look forward to going upstairs and doing my lunges, squats and curls because I’d get to listen to some badass Vulfpeck.

I even started taking extra long breaks in between exercises just so I’d 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 musicians’ 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 didn’t stop there.

I went and listened to the entire Vulfpeck catalogue and transcribed all of Joe’s 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 ‘Joe-isms’ and started using them in my own bass lines, fills and solos.

I’m not one to hoard all of this for myself, so in the video above, I’m sharing everything I’ve learned from transcribing these 69 bass licks.

You’ll learn:

• 2 harmonic ideas that Joe loves to use (Seriously – they show up in more than two thirds of the licks)
• How Joe uses a machine-gun type rhythm to make his playing super exciting, but stays in the pocket while he’s doing it
• The quintessential Joe Dart bass lick – this is like a shortcut to sounding like Joe because he uses this idea so much
• 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 ‘Joe-isms’ 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 haven’t been able to figure out is how he does that thing with his neck. Lol.

If you want to follow along with all these licks, you can get the tabs and notation for all 69 of them as a free download. Just fill out this form and I’ll send them to you right away:

And by the way, if you know someone who loves Joe and Vulfpeck, or just wants to add some badass Joe Dart bass licks to their vocabulary, then send them this video. I’m sure they’d really enjoy it.

Good luck with all the Joe Dart bass licks and happy playing!

Cheers,