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What makes Steve Harris a metal bass legend? Here’s my take, plus tips to match his signature style and sound. Up the irons!
Sheet music + bass tab for all the Maiden riffs I played - www.noteflight.com/scores/vie...
Didier Gérôme's lesson on Steve's right hand technique - • How to play like Steve...
We’ll start with one of the fretboard shapes Steve uses most often, which allows him to create cool riff-y bass lines without needing to know theory. (though his lines end up working within theory rules anyway)
I’ll show you how you can easily drop that shape in to create your own Maiden-style bass lines, like Steve does on lines like Number Of The Beast and Phantom Of The Opera.
Steve Harris plucks with his fingers, never using a pick, which sets him apart from a lot of other metal bassists. I’ll give you a couple exercises to start getting your plucking fingers up to Maiden speed.
You’ll need that plucking speed to pull off “the gallop,” Iron Maiden’s most signature rhythm. I’ll break it down for you, and we’ll play some gallops from the comfortable trot of Sign of the Cross, to a breakneck race through Run To The Hills. (that s**t is fast)
Then we’ll dig into Steve’s signature tone. Getting the bass to be audible through the guitars in a metal band is tricky without a pick, so I’ll explain all the tricks Steve is using to make sure we can still hear him.
Last we’ll look at some of the bass chords Steve plays, which range from big thick simple power chords, to quirky melodic triad chords. (like the freaky spooky augmented triads in Rime Of The Ancient Mariner)
As fans of metal bass, we all owe Steve Harris a lot for his contributions to the style. Thanks Steve! Up the irons.
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