jakobvidar
Verified buyer
12/30/25
Great course
It´s great course. I´we learn a lot.
Bass Fills & Thrills
13 Creative Strategies for Crafting Compelling Bass Guitar Parts
Get this course and 1,000+ more with All Access
Try 14 days free. Cancel any time.
Ariane Cap
Educator
Genres
About this course
Bass fills are cool! They spice up a line, punctuate a groove, and can sound impressive, dramatic or driving. Ariane Cap’s Bass Fills & Thrills focuses on fills and the important function they play for bass players.
”We’ll examine bass fills in-depth here, and I’ll demonstrate how important they are and how they help you shine in the mix. I’ll show you 13 creative strategies that you can use as your springboard for crafting your own bass fills.
For example, we’ll work on several strategies for fills incorporating the top two strings such as using thirds and fifths. We’ll examine Box shapes and we can integrate chromaticism into your fills. We’ll combine chromatics with octaves, top it off using shakes, slides, some cool pedaling, and of course, double stops which are cool to use in a blues. When we’re done with this course you’ll have lots of ideas for fills for thrills at your fingertips.”
Ariane will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way. You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies. Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson. You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are included to work with on your own as well.
Grab your bass and let’s play some fills with Ariane Cap!
”We’ll examine bass fills in-depth here, and I’ll demonstrate how important they are and how they help you shine in the mix. I’ll show you 13 creative strategies that you can use as your springboard for crafting your own bass fills.
For example, we’ll work on several strategies for fills incorporating the top two strings such as using thirds and fifths. We’ll examine Box shapes and we can integrate chromaticism into your fills. We’ll combine chromatics with octaves, top it off using shakes, slides, some cool pedaling, and of course, double stops which are cool to use in a blues. When we’re done with this course you’ll have lots of ideas for fills for thrills at your fingertips.”
Ariane will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way. You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies. Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson. You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are included to work with on your own as well.
Grab your bass and let’s play some fills with Ariane Cap!
What you'll learn
- Apply chromatic approach tones to target notes
- Apply 3-bar groove + 1-bar fill structure
- Create contrast using register changes
- Transpose groove patterns up an octave for fills
- Develop smooth transitions between groove and fill sections
Release date: 04/20/2020 • 1h 27m runtime
Sample lessons
Chromatic Colors in Fills
Demonstration
Fill By Sliding Into a Phrase
Demonstration
Take it Up!
Demonstration
What's included
21 lessons • 18 charts • 18 Jam Tracks
Bass Fills & Thrills
In this course I will show you 13 strategies to come up with your own fill. You are invited to copy the examples I present and most importantly encouraged to come up with your own versions of the concepts I present.
What are Fills?
I explain the difference between the groove and fills. I give an example that shows an obvious fill and also the gray zone between fill and groove variation.
What Makes Great Fills?
There are 3 basic principles that can help you make good fills. I explain these principles and give you a few general tips to guide you on the fills path.
Groove and Fill: 1 Bar Each
This is an explanation and demonstration of a core practice method I use in this course: Groove and Fill. By practicing this way you will learn to think ahead and invent new fills on the fly. We start out with 1 bar of groove followed by 1 bar of improvised fill.
Groove and Fill: Half Bar
Here are more groove and Fill examples, this time playing 1.5 bars of groove and 2 beats of fill.
Groove and Fill: Four Bar Phrase
These examples show fills at the end of each 4 bar phrase. This is getting closer to “real life” musical situations and also trains you to keep track of groups of 4 bars. This is an essential skill that will help you keep track of the form in many songs.
Fifths for Fills: Top 2 Strings
This shows how intervals can become the basis for fills. Simple theory concepts like this can become rich sources for musical ideas and I give you a few examples to get you started. To give us a manageable amount of options, we’ll only use the top two strings to create fills.
+ 14 more lessons
Reviews
8 results
jstr
Verified buyer
11/05/25
grooves & fills
Very easy to follow
Albor
01/25/22
clear and progressive
Very useful, well done, clear and progressive to have mastery, creativity and be aware of the Fill
Felix1967
Verified buyer
06/14/20
very well
Good explanation, very helpful
Stop searching. Start improving with All Access.
Try 14 days free. Cancel any time.
