Bill Black Technique: Rockabilly Double Bass

Part of the Video Series How to Play Double Bass: Lessons for Rockabilly

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Use Bill Black technique for playing rockabilly upright bass; learn how with tips from our expert double bass player in this free music lesson video.

Contact: www.kensteiner.com

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Posted by kensteiner on Monday, 13 August, 2007 at 8:48 PM

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write to me - get my address by visiting my website.

Posted by boogi88 on Friday, 27 April, 2007 at 3:56 PM

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wonderful, very informative and clear. I'll be studying this to improve my slap technique. i'd love to buy a dvd of this lesson if it were available.how about it ken?

Video Transcript

Bill Black Technique: Rockabilly Double Bass
Hi! Ken Steiner for expertvillage.com. Some of the most influential sides for rockabilly bass slap playing to me are Elvis’s first sides for Sun Records with Bill Black playing upright bass. I think it’s really important listening if you want to get into this at all, one of the things about it I mean besides their playing is the fact that there’s no drummer on the album so his playing comes through much clear than some other rockabilly sides where you might have a drummer, in fact if you listen to it until I knew I just always assumed there was a drummer and then I just realized hey there’s no drummer it’s just Bill Black slapping. I’m no singer and don’t pretend to be one on T.V. either but I’m going to just sort of sing or say the words along to one of Elvis’s sides, I’m also not going to play Bill Blacks lines but I’m going to give you sort of what I hear is feel to be on “That’s Alright Momma”…………sort of mixes up the time then when he comes to the solo…………. And back to the other thing, by doing that he sort of has two different feels one when he’s backing Elvis singing and then the other one he’s backing Scotty War playing the guitar, it gives it a different feel between singing and the instrumental that all goes into being a good bass player where you can accentuate the different types of music.

About the Expert

Expert: Ken Steiner has been playing string bass professionally in the Boston area for over 40 years. Read More