Silk Sonic – Leave The Door Open Bass Line Lesson

I first heard Silk Sonic’s Leave The Door Open the day it came out and fell in love with the bass line (and the song) pretty much instantly.

Burgers, toasted cinnamon donuts, John Mayer tunes and a few good friends. That’s how I spent my rare Friday night off last week.

In between discussing everyone’s favorite Mayer albums, (mine is Where The Light Is just btw…) one of my friends asked if I had heard the new Silk Sonic tune.

I was honest and told him I had no idea what he was talking about.

My friend’s eyes lit up. “Dude – you gotta hear this – it’s so cool!” he said; and this was coming from a guy who doesn’t get outwardly excited about much.

I was intrigued.

He went to the YouTube app on his ‘fancy’ TV and searched for the song he wanted and pressed play.

You know those songs that just have a ‘vibe’? This song was dripping with vibe.

As one commenter on the music video said, “Many pandemic babies will be coming soon” Lol.

There was just so much attitude, so much swagger, not to mention the production and songwriting.

For the 4 minutes of Leave The Door Open, I was glued to every single note. I was almost disappointed when it finished – I nearly asked if we could listen to it again. Once through just wasn’t enough for me.

It had this nostalgic flavor to it, but still sounded modern – which makes total sense. Silk Sonic is the supergroup pairing of Bruno Mars (the master of modern-sounding nostalgia) and Anderson .Paak. The song lingered in my ear the rest of the night and on the drive home as well.

When I woke up the next morning, that song was still playing in my mind, so I did the only thing I could think of doing…

I Learned The Bass Line Note-For-Note

Just for pure pleasure.

It was so satisfying to play and felt great underneath my fingers. And rather than just hoarding it all for myself, I figured I’d also write it all up in tabs and notation, and share it with you.

This isn’t something I usually do with individual songs on the BAB YouTube channel, but this one was too good not to share, and there’s a ton you can learn from it as well. Things like:

• How to ‘build up’ or ‘strip back’ a bass line to give it a storytelling quality (just listen to the bass at the very start vs. the end – it’s a whole world of difference) 
• How to lean on the dynamics of a song to make people feel all the feelings
• 3 super slick runs that are kind of busy, but never get in the way of the song

Check out the lesson here:

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Sure – there are some flashy licks in the Leave The Door Open bass line, but the thing that I really found myself loving about this track is just how thoughtfully everything is constructed and how everything works so well together.

Every single note, snare hit, backing vocal and everything else is there for a reason; they all serve a purpose. It’s not just a lazy producer copying the first verse of the bass line and pasting it into the second – it’s been intentionally crafted and I love hearing that.

Of course is you want to learn this bass line for yourself, the tabs and notation is available to download in the form above.

Just fill out the form on and I’ll send it straight to you. There’s almost no better way to learn the deeper lessons of these bass lines than by playing them for yourself, so have at it!

And if you haven’t already checked out the song, I couldn’t recommend it enough:

Good luck with the song and happy playing!

Cheers,