Girlfriend

This is one of Michael Jackson’s lesser hits from the ‘Off The Wall’ album. It was originally written by Paul McCartney for Michael but ended up being recorded by Wings instead. When Quincy Jones was approached to record it for Michael he had no idea it was originally written for him.

It features a great and well developed bass line by the late Louis Johnson. The line is mostly based on pentatonic and and box shape patterns but it’s the rhythmic aspect and development that makes this one interesting.

It’s in the key of E major and mainly stays within key excluding the D9 chord in bars 19, 33, and 61.

For the line in bar 2, 10 etc I play use a standard pentatonic shape starting on the open E string then slide from the F# (D string 4th fret) onto the G# ending in 4th position)

The penatonic riff in bar 4 is repeated at the end of verse phrases throughout. I would grab the high G#  on the G string (1st Fret) and then play this in 2nd position (first finger on the second fret).

Almost everything else in the song in based around the box shape or basic octaves. Take your time and make sure you have the semi-quaver rhythms nailed and try not to rush.

This was recorded on my 50s reissue Fender Precision bass with ’62 reissue pickups. I recorded direct into my mbox2 into logic and added a little compression and an eq bump at 200hz.

Click here to download PDF transcription