http://www.bassguitarmagazine.com/features/bass-technique-kev-sanders/Mark Kings styleAs an ex-drummer, Kings bass-lines have a strong bias toward the rhythmic aspect, with percussiveghost notes adding to the fast and furious sound of his up-tempo slap lines. These are created inseveral ways, but the most common is for notes to be damped or choked with the fingers of the lefthand resting against the strings to deaden the sound as theyre slapped or plucked with the right. Healso creates complex polyrhythms using percussive hits with his left and right hands on the strings(see exercise 4). Apart from octaves, listen out for sliding major 10th intervals in his playing.Exercise 1Try this classic Mark King bass-line. The first note of each triplet group is slapped, but the note ischoked with the left hand. The second note is slapped in the normal way and the third plucked orpopped, giving three different tones per beat.

Exercise 2Heres a variation of the same technique. All the notes here are slapped. This is similar to thetechnique he uses on the track Heathrow.

Exercise 3Heres another example of how Mark King uses ghost and grace notes to add rhythmic interest to aslapped bass groove. Again, this should be played using just thumbed notes with the ghost notesmuted with the left hand. Listen to Running In The Family to hear how effective this can be.

Exercise 4