Motown Bass Lines: 5 Of Them Guaranteed To Impress

Motown Bass Lines! As a bass player, it’s hard to go past Motown and James Jamerson when talking about incredible bass lines.

In fact, some bassists get super intimidated when they get asked to play Motown bass. You end up standing in the shadows of some of the most respected and influential bassists of all time.

But playing Motown bass lines doesn’t have to be intimidating or scary. In fact, in this lesson, you’ll learn 5 beginner-friendly, entry level Motown lines that are:

• Instantly recognizable – in fact, they carry the songs entirely; and
• Also easy to learn, get your fingers around, and master

Two of these bass lines are so simple, they only use 3 notes the entire song!

Check out the lesson here:

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If you want to learn, practice, and master these Motown bass lines, make sure to download them all for free using the form above.

Now because of the Motown record label’s record-keeping practices, it’s not always clear which musicians ended up playing on which songs – especially if multiple people were brought in to have a pass at a song.

Sometimes three or four people would come into the Motown studios and lay down the same part for the same song. Which take ended up on the final recording? Sometimes it’s tricky to tell.

For example, on Papa Was A Rolling Stone, the bassist on the final track could have been James Jamerson, Eddie Watkins, Leroy Taylor or Bob Babbitt. In fact, Bob Babbitt talked about this on his forum back in 2008 (check out the post here).

Apparently Babbitt and Jamerson were on the same session, but Jamerson walked out because he was being asked to repeat the bass line over and over. That being said, Babbitt himself doesn’t remember this. I guess that’s what can happen when you play on as many recordings as he did.

So while Jamerson is synonymous with Motown, it’s not always certain that you’re hearing him on the Motown recordings.

No matter who is actually playing though, these Motown bass lines are a ton of fun, they’ll get people singing along and dancing and like I said, they’re easy to get your fingers around.

Good luck with the lesson and happy playing!

Cheers,