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Bernard Edwards "Chucking" Bass Technique – Everybody Dance by Chic

While BBG does sell plenty of stuff to help you get the Bernard Edwards tone (such as the Bartolini MM-size offerings among other things,) learning the technique Bernard used can be a challenge.

The song with the bass line which is arguably one of the toughest to learn is Everybody Dance; this is the song where Bernard uses what he called “chucking” technique.

This is the original where you can see Bernard chucking away (you can see some particularly good chucking at the 3:00 minute mark):

This is a YouTube user showing an attempt at getting the chucking technique working for him:

Here is a very in-depth explanation of chucking (with an almost spot-on example around the 4-minute mark):

This is what happens when someone slap-pops his way through parts of the song instead of using chucking. It’s not correct, but certainly passable and sounds good:

Want to give it a go? Foam mutes may help

Early Music Man basses had foam mutes underneath the strings that were adjustable by small turn screws. (Side note: Some modern MM basses labeled as “Classic” models have the mutes.) This could very likely be a big reason Bernard was able to get those short-attack/short-sustain notes so well when used in combination with flatwound strings. What you can take from this is that long-sustain notes work more against than for you.

Need an easy foam mute to help get Bernard tone? Get a Fump. Funny name, good product. You get the palm-muted bass tone without the palm. No, it’s not the same a Music Man bass with the foam mutes, but it beats having to buy a whole new bass just to get the foam-muted sound.

15 thoughts on “Bernard Edwards "Chucking" Bass Technique – Everybody Dance by Chic”

  1. That first youtube user with the Jazz bass sounds pretty good, although the slap and pop wasn’t bad either.

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  2. I am pretty sure the bass Bernard was using to do this record was a Jazz Bass, by the sound of it. Stingray from the video would have a totally different charachter. And the chucking sound that he’s doing can be easily achieved with a pick and palm! Try it! 🙂 The biggest problem here (and in bass phylosophy in general) is time and groove, which neither of these youtube-players pay attention to. 🙂

    mp00172

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    • Completely agree. I can’t get anything like the sound with my 78 Stingray (with flatwounds) but I can get it close with my Jazz (again with flatwounds). I think the first video is much closer to the sound, though I an extremely grateful to the 2nd guy for inspiring me to give it a try in the first place.

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  3. My ’69 JBass had neoprene foam glued to the pickup covers. I unscrewed the covers, kept them for thirty years and then put them up on eBay. The foam had fallen off from age and the chrome was peeling, but for some reason the set sold for $260! Anyway, all these guys are thinking too much. Nard is just listening and grooving. Speakers have a hard time with staccato, especially the end. Good players can shape notes that are exactly three or four cycles and speakers overhang.

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  4. Hi, I’m the user in the 2nd video. I can assure you mp100172 that it most certainly cannot EASILY be achieved by using a pick and muting, unless your pick is made out of flesh. Since perfecting this technique, I’ve tried using a pick and the sound is not even close to being the same. Something about the combination of your nail and the flesh on your fingers.

    I’m not thinking too much at all. I’m just grooving along, and looking at the hundreds of positive comments, I’ll let that do the talking for me. It’s always easy to be a critic.

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    • Yes – he did. But unless he had a time machine, he could not have used one when he recorded Everybody Dance.

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  5. I’m the bassist in the 3rd video. Let me address a couple of things:

    1) He wouldn’t have needed a time machine to record “Everybody Dance” with a MusicMan Stingray because they were made in 1976. Chic recorded this song in 1977.

    2) It’s not clear when he obtained his Stingray. He DID own a Fender Jazz as well as a Fender P-Bass. Given their habit of pawning their instruments for money, it could have been recorded with any of the 3 basses. Granted, his sound on the first album is a bit different than the next few which leads me to believe that it was one of his Fenders.

    3) When he demonstrated the technique for me, he used his palm to mute, although he DID say that he used the mutes on the old Stingray. But since they had disintegrated over the years, he incorporated his palm to compensate.

    4) NEVER slap and pop when trying to play this line. That’s something he hardly every did.

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  6. I agree with the you… I personally knew Bernard and his entire family and he showed me this technique at his home in Stamford CT and after that I gain much respect for him as a bass player for what you heard on his records did not compare to what I had the privilege of hearing and seeing. I personally never mastered the technique but his son did Bernard Jr. aka Focus.

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  7. It’s nice seeing conversation and engagement about the bassing of one of the baddest and most musically iconic bass players of our time. Everyday, somewhere on the planet Bernard Edwards has somebody bopping their head to one of his very serious grooves.

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