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Bass line: 'Reach Out' - George Duke funkstar650 14,274 views A song that makes me feel gggoooooddd, nothing too complicated, just a nice catchy song that will make your head bop! Buy the album 'Guardian Of The Light'. It's a must :-)
Bass line: Overture - George Duke (slow) funkstar650 1,973 views By request. I slowed the fast part down so everyone can see the notes that are played during Louis his fast riffs. Remember there's a lot of percussive 'deadnotes' as well ...
Bass line: Overture - George Duke funkstar650 2,913 views By special request. Great song, great album! Get your hands on it if you're into Louis's bass style! Done with courtesy of Louis.
Funkstar650 meets Spongebob going 'Off the Wall' funkstar650 3,018 views Well, here's our almost 6 years old Amanda... after making the other clip with our oldest she insisted in being a part of this as well. Understandable! She wanted to play a...
Bass line: T-Connection 'Time is short' funkstar650 13,202 views Well, here's our 7 years old... having fun with me on the Tube. 'Playing' her own Greg Bennett Corsair mini scale Precision bass. It's true... time is short so why not have...
Bass line: Brothers Johnson - Smilin' On Ya funkstar650 2,624 views Another gem from the 'Light Up the Night' album. Courtesy of Louis. Catchy tune with power slaps. Hope you'll enjoy. Buy the album!
Bass line: Mantra 'Action' funkstar650 2,652 views Playing along an 80's songs by the band called Mantra. Larry Blackmon, leader of the band Cameo, produced this album. Get your hands on a copy if you see it somewhere in th...
Bass line: Aurra 'Are You Single' funkstar650 14 views By request. Funky bass line from the group Aurra. Whats' hard on this one is to keep it up and keep it funky. I made a few flaws here and there but our dog distracted me :-...
Bass line Mothers Finest: Everybody Needs Somebody funkstar650 2,991 views Another funky song from the album called 'One Mother to Another'. I just love this creamy train like bass line. Enjoy and buy the album!
Bass line: Mothers Finest 'Victory' funkstar650 3,149 views A gem on a not so popular album called 'One Mother to Another'. Everyone knows the more popular hits by Mothers Finest but I felt like doing the lesser known songs... Jerry...

About funkstar650

youtube.com/funkstar650

Created by

funkstar650

Latest Activity

Jan 29, 2012

Date Joined

Dec 2, 2006

About this user

Music lover & Funkateer. I am 47 years old, happily married, 2 daughters and I have been playing bass for about 20 somewhat years now. I never studied bass or went to school for it. I think I am just 'blessed' (or whatever you may call it) with a good set of ears, patience, persistence and supportive people around me.

Why the name 'funkstar650'? It's got nothing to do with stardom or becoming a star LOL. I used to ride a Yamaha Dragstar 650 cc motorcycle. When I started my account with YouTube I had to come up with a name and I thought of 'dragstar650' but since my heart is with the Funk I changed it into 'funkstar650'. That's all! :-)

Why these video's on YouTube? Just for fun. NOT to show off or something. It shows my own interpretation, my own hands and my own ears.

UPDATE: I am proud to tell you that I became an endorser for Spector basses. (http://www.spectorbass.com ). Thank you so much for believing in me PJ Rubal and Jiri Palek! New vids with this bass coming soon!

Lessons: check out Louis Johnson's MySpace page http://www.myspace.com/louisbassplayerjohnson for more info about my lessons in collab with Louis Johnson's Black Dragon Bass Institute.

Tips for beginning players:
If you wonder how to play these kinda basslines and songs start listening to them real carefully. Put down your bass and just listen. Try to remember the lines and licks. Once you got the main line into your bass head, try to SING it. Really, I mean it... SING it. Or at least hum it if you don't dare to sing :-).
Don't be shy, but just try to sing (hum) the line so you will know for sure you got the bassline right and where the accents go etc.
Once you got that down it's time to pick up the bass and turn off the iPod/CD player or whatever you use to listen to. Just try to find the notes you are singing or humming on your bass 'til you got it right. Start S L O W... and I mean S L O W! Be patient and just keep on trying...
Once you found the right notes you can try to put them into a certain groove and speed it up a little. Just a little until you got it all down.
When you feel confident enough it's time to turn on your music player again and try to play along. And stick to the basic lines first. Accents, fills, licks and riffs will follow later as soon as you got the basics right.
Well that's about all the advice I can give you. Believe me, it works!

And now for all you pro-players and advanced players:
Don't listen to the advice I just gave the beginners. :-)

And now about my gear. I get a lot of questions about how I record and what gear I use. Well here is the answer:
I use a cheap Behringer Bass V-amp that I hook up to the mic input of my iMac. The advantage of this V-amp is that you can hook up your bass (LINE IN) and your stereo, CD player or iPod at the same time through it's AUX IN. So this whole setting is going directly into the Mac, the video is recorded with the built in iSight cam with the standard Apple software iMovie. Hope this helps.

And now my other gear:
• MusicMan Sabre '79. (my oldest and the "beast" :-))
• MusicMan Stingray '90 3-band eq. (Power!!!)
• Spector ReBop DLX FM4 (thanks for the endorsement PJ!)
• Alembic Edwin van Huik Signature '88. (the most expensive one)
• Fender Marcus Miller Signature (plays like a dream)
• Fender Jaco Pastorius Fretless Signature USA (no additional info needed here is there? ;-))
• Jackson 5-String active (an OK active 5'er)
• OLP MusicMan 5-string passive (cheap but good!)
• Fender Squier Telecaster Special (just for some funky chops)
• Stagg Stratocaster copy (cheap... and yes crappy too :-))
• Czechian 4/4 double bass (big, heavy and hard to play and I just can't play it! ;-))

My wife:
• Dean Edge 4-string active (pretty cool bass)
• Motion Acoustic 4 -string
• Yamaha acoustic Western guitar

Our oldest daughter (8 year old):
• Mini scale Gregg Bennet Precision bass (cool cute mini bass!)

Our youngest daughter (almost 7):
Spongebob Strat miniscale

Live rig:
• Hartke HA 5500 amp (not the best but it's what I can afford right now :-))
• Eden 4x10" cabinet (yeah... this cabinet rocks!)

Effect pedals:
• Sadowsky outboard pre amp (phat!)
• EBS BassIQ envelope filter
• EBS OctaBass octave divider
• Behringer Chorus (cheap!!! :-))
• Behringer Overdrive (cheap!!! :-))
• Line 6 FM 4 Filter Modeler
• Boss TU-12 tuner
• Pedaltrain pedalboard

So anyways, for all those cats who are interested in learning how to play: good luck with practising and let me know how things are progressing OK?

Peace and keep on playin' that bass!

George

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