Flash Light

Arguably one of the funkiest recordings ever, Parliament’s “Flash Light” got the world to shake its booty, and it turned Bernie Worrell from a mere keyboard virtuoso into the baddest bassist around. Bernie played the bass line you see here on a Minimoog, working the glide knob to come up with slippery glissando fills such as those in bars 10 and 26 (we’ve omitted the breakdown section in the middle of the song, in which Bernie plays all kinds of glissandos and effects). This bass part is a study in simplicity and variation, as Bernie weaves his lines up and down, and rarely plays the same fill twice. For more on how to get Bernie’s Minimoog sound, check out Mitchell Sigman’s Vintage Sounds on page 98.

These audio and MIDI files correspond to the full song transcription beginning on page 48 of the November 2007 issue of Keyboard. All files performed by Scott Healy.

Where’s the Sheet Music?!

Much of the sheet music that Keyboard publishes is copyrighted material, licensed from the artists to run only in the printed version of the magazine. Keyboard continues to offer the explanatory text of these lessons online, but in order to get the complete song transcriptions and other bits of licensed sheet music, you need to have a copy of the magazine.

Sure, you could run down to the local music shop or corner store and pick up the latest issue of Keyboard, but why not subscribe today? It's easy, cheap and you'll never miss another lesson!