Thriller

The title track from the biggest-selling album of all time (70 million copies and counting) and a Halloween gig favourite, “Thriller” features two long-term MJ collaborators, Rod Temperton (who wrote it) and Greg Phillinganes (who played the synth bass part).

Michael Jackson – Thriller

The main bass groove in “Thriller” is a one-chord vamp, outlining C#m7 and featuring a low C# that’s outside the range of a standard-tuned 4-string bass. Don’t panic, though: you can just replace it with your regular C# and nobody will yell at you.

Given that the original bassline is a synth part, my preference is to dust off my octave pedal and play the whole chart up an octave to give the lines a more keyboard-like flavour.

I’ve taken some liberties in the Middle 8 section, and written bar 33 up an octave so that the majority of readers who don’t have a B-string can still navigate that section with ease.