CHAMELEON🦎 - How to Play it RIGHT!

Chameleon by Herbie Hancock is surely up there as one of the greatest funk bass lines! In this clip, Scott Devine and Ian Allison discuss how to play it just like the record.

Have you been playing this wrong or right?? 👀👇

See you in the shed!!

[carraigroche]

Crazy how such a simple bass line can be very hard to learn by ear when synth bass is used

[logangreenwood]

Feels good to know that I found the one tabs video that teaches it the right way in 2023, I consider myself very lucky cause I literally practice and warm up with this song

[skiphoffenflaven]

I pointed this out once to the “experts” in the group I was playing with but since I am “just an amateur drummer”, I was obviously wrong.

[edwinrivera]

I remember when we first heard this playing on the radio and many of us in New York purchased the album to hear that bass line better and still couldn't get it right 😄 ... so many thanks!

[sicilianmammalian]

It’s a killer bass line but the wicka wicka on the rhythm guitar is probably most underrated part

[easterntrees]

this is NOT THE BASS PART TO 'CHAMELEON.' Paul Jackson's bass part, the real one, is amazing. you're playing Herbie's left hand part. there isn't an epidemic of players playing it incorrectly, there's an epidemic of people ignoring Jackson's brilliant playing and you caught it.

[xxitz_prgxx]

As someone who played this song in jazz band in highschool, I didn't think anyone would play it this way.

[tylerthompson]

I’m a keyboard player, that’s Herbies part not Paul Jackson’s baseline. It’s not like an “I Wish” thing where the bass is double.. Paul breaks it up and dances around the keyboard part

[alexanderlyon]

So simple and I can't stop playing it now!!!! Super addictive bass line.

[neighborhoodconspiracy]

"I always played it this way":

*proceeds to play the quietest notes possible*

[ScottyGMusic]

It makes me happy how much Scott loves other bass players and their signature lines.

[nomannic]

This is a keyboard riff, played on a moog synthesizer tuned to a low octave. It sounds killer on bass though! 🔥

[MrBoblangan]

Love this song! As a trumpet player, this song comes up, you are revved up and ready to go!!

[Makkis]

This song also has a 2nd bass part that everyone forgets

[CryptoBeanie]

I saw this live and that’s all keyboard actually! The bass is playing the high wah part up on the highest frets of the G string! (Until the middle of the song) My mind was blown!

[martinheath]

The *actual* electric bass part is staccato notes played high up the neck with some envelope filter.
To play the synth bass part, keep your fretting hand in one position and find the notes across the strings between the 3rd and 6th fret keeping your index finger at the 3rd fret and using it to play the B flats on the G string

[oshawott]

can't believe I taught it to myself right by ear then, nice.

[lemonidosipov]

My first chameleon was Brian Bromberg's one. And I think I've learned it the right way by sheet music.

[antoniopizarro]

Love this. Pls do Actual Proof starting at about 2min mark!!

[Mo-tngm]

Believe it or not, I played by ear - could not sight read when that song came out, but I played it right. Wish I played everything else that way...