When it comes to funk bass, few players are as influential as Bernard Edwards. His work with Chic laid the foundation for countless grooves, and his style remains one of the most imitated in modern bass playing. One technique he helped popularise is known as "chucking"—a percussive, rhythmic "pick without a pick" bass technique that adds snap, energy, and undeniable funk.
In this lesson, I dive into that exact technique. The most famous example of the technique can be found in Chic's Everybody Dance, which showcases Edwards’ signature tone, timing, and musicality.
More than just a trick, chucking is a tool for enhancing your groove, timing, and articulation.
What You'll Learn in This Lesson
To help you master chucking, I’ve put together:
- Three exercises that build strength, coordination, and rhythmic feel
- Three versatile funk bass patterns you can adapt, modify, and use to improvise
- Tips on how to develop your own funk lines using these shapes and the chucking technique
These shapes are incredibly useful—once you get them under your fingers, they’ll pop up in your lines naturally.
Whether you’re jamming over a drum loop or writing your own grooves, chucking adds that next-level funk articulation. It’s physical, expressive, and deeply connected to the pulse of the music.
Download the Free Bass Chucking PDF
To help you practise, I’ve included a free downloadable PDF with all the exercises and shapes used in the lesson.
Premium Bass Guitar Courses
There are YEARS worth of practice material in these courses, all for a very reasonable one off price.
What Is Chucking?
Chucking is a way of incorporating percussive muted plucks or snaps into your lines. It often mimics guitar-style funk strumming, but on bass, it becomes a rhythmic texture that complements ghost notes and tight fingerstyle articulation. The result? A super funky feel that cuts through the mix and drives the rhythm section.
In Everybody Dance, Edwards blends muted rakes, popping accents, and syncopated patterns in a way that’s deceptively simple but incredibly hard to replicate. That’s why this lesson is structured to break it down into learnable parts.
Here are my other chucking videos including the Everybody Dance bass tutorial. That's the classic chucking bass song!
- Bernard Edwards CHUCKING Bass Guitar Technique
- Learn The Everybody Dance Bass Guitar Riff (Bernard Edwards – CHIC)
