#1 Slap Bass Line Heard In Guitar Stores

I have come to the conclusion that the most common bass line heard in guitar shops and music stores around the world has to be Flea's rendition of Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground. It also has to be the most butchered line played in these music stores. It is a real simple line that sounds confusion because Flea does some slight variations on it throughout the song. I think you should get the basic line or theme down before moving on to the variations. I have been playing this live and teaching it to other players for years and most people seem to have the same problem with "getting it". Notice that the riff starts with thumbing the open E twice, plucking the E at the second fret on the D string then thumbing the open E string again. The way to get the essence of the riff is to thumb that last open E instantly after the plucked higher octave E. Most players seem to pause after the pluck, Thumb the open E again the move on to G,G,g A,a,A. You will never have a chance of coping the phrasing or moving on to get the variations of the whole song if you don't get that. So here is a sample of the tab and a cool video of the Chili Peppers doing it live on Arsenio in 1989. Freakin' 1989! We are all getting old.

Intro
G|------------------------------------------------------------|
D|------2----------5---------7--------2-----------5-----7---| x2
A|-------------------------------------------------------------|
E|-0-0---0---3-3------5-5------0-0----0---3-3-----5---5--|