Solo Bass Arrangement: "Ain’t No Sunshine"

This is funky arrangement of the classic Bill Withers’ tune, “Ain’t No Sunshine” arranged for solo bass by Michael Dimin. This arrangement is for 5 string bass, tuned E to C or 6 string bass. Techniques utilized include both fingerstyle and some cool two hand tapping. The key is A minor. The level of difficulty, on a scale of 1 - 10 is a 5.

This is funky arrangement of the classic Bill Withers’ tune, “Ain’t No Sunshine” arranged for solo bass by Michael Dimin. This arrangement is for 5 string bass, tuned E to C or 6 string bass. Techniques utilized include both fingerstyle and some cool two hand tapping. The key is A minor. The level of difficulty, on a scale of 1 - 10 is a 5. Although the form is short, the two hand tapping and wide range on the neck add a bit of difficulty. It might be easier if you’re familiar with two hand tapping technique. “Ain’t No Sunshine” is arranged as a classic “call and response”. The melody acts as a “call” and the cool, two hand tapping of the bass line and chords are the “response”. This allows for the development of solo and improvisation ideas for the “call” while keeping the groove provided by the “response”. Note: It can also be played on a 5 string bass in standard tuning. If playing strictly from the the TAB, you’ll be down a 5th. Both Notation and Tab are included in the arrangement. A Bass and Vocal duet with the amazing Brittany Frompovich can be found here: https://youtu.be/X6nRjCxl91w

These Solo Bass arrangements are written specifically for the bass. Taking into account all the possibilities as well as the limitations of the instrument. Arrangements are played one octave higher than written.

Michael Dimin is the author of The Chordal Approach as well as The Art of Solo Bass and was a solo bass lesson columnist for Bass Frontiers, Bassics, Bass Player Magazine and Bass Guitar Magazines. Mike was an original Ask The Pro at Talkbass.com and a teacher at Gerald Veasly’s Bass Boot Camp, The National Summer Guitar Workshop, The Collective and more. Michael Dimin’s new video series based on his revolutionary book, The CORE Method is changing, forever, the way bass is taught.