Bass ‘Double Stops’ – What Are They & How To Use Them

Double stops on bass guitar can be used to outline harmony, and to create awesome fills and bass lines. This video explains the shapes you need to know and how to use double stops in your bass playing.

Scroll down for a PDF of common bass guitar double stop shapes.


Bass Guitar Double Stops In Songs

The intro of Peg by Steely Dan has a really cool double stop moment played by the king of the technique; Chuck Rainey.

Bobby Watson used one in the middle 8 of Rock With You by Michael Jackson.

One of my favourite ever bass lines is Tony Levin's gorgeous bass hook on Don't give Up by Peter Gabriel. I did a full lesson and breakdown of it you can watch here.

Bass Guitar Double Stop Common Shapes PDF

A double stop is formed when two notes are played together at the same time. If you know your chords and arpeggios really well then you can easily play double stops. I did another lesson on double stops a while back and this is the PDF from that one...

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