That’s The Way Of The World

by Earth Wind & Fire

Bass by Verdine White

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TRANSCRIPTION to THAT’S THE WAY OF THE WORLD by EARTH WIND & FIRE, bass by VERDINE WHITE

This transcription is Verdine White’s bass line on That’s The Way Of The World by Earth Wind And Fire.

This is an interesting bass line to study - because of the rela-tively modest tempo it’s a good one for those of you looking to work on your 16th note rhythms and bass lines.

As well as the 16th note rhythms to plunder - there are

lots of grooves, licks, fill, rhythms and riffs that you could take to your practice area - the harmony is also interesting. There are some sections with slash chords in the bass creating a pedal sequence - Verdine White is credited as one of the song writers on this tune, so I’m reasonably sure the song was written like this.

Slash chords are something that you can use to create interest in your bass lines. I’ve been thinking of teaching this at greater depth as its a topic that’s rarely talked about and I think mastering it gives bass play-ers another tool in their tool box of ideas. And it’s been used a bunch of times down the years by all the greats...but never taught. Go figure...

Anyway, here’s how the line lays out:Letter A - 0.00Letter B - 0.13Letter C - 0.36Letter D - 0.58 Letter E - 1.22Letter F - 1.52Letter G - 2.20Letter H - 2.34

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Letter I - 3.08Letter J - 3.50Letter K - 4.13Letter L - 4.41Letter M - 5.06Letter N - Fade Out - 5.18

As always, the tab reflects my fingering system, hand size and scale length. If any of these differ for you - the probability of which is high - then feel free to change the tab positions around to suit YOUR playing system, hand size and bass length.

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