Kai Kurosawa in Simple Harmony and One-Hand-Bass

Kai Kurosawa playing the uncrossed fourths-fourths tuning, using the ‘One Hand Bass’ and the strumming technique.

Kai has innovated in the world of tapping guitar with new techniques: He taps, plucks and strums, all with both hands.

He has developed a very interesting way of playing which he calls ‘One_Hand_Bass’ He actually plucks the string with one hand only. But he also uses another interesting strumming technique with the little finger on the melody side. In the four video lessons which follows Kai demonstrates those techniques on the board tuned both in 4ths/4ths and 5ths/4ths (similar to Emmet Chapman’s tuning).

First video lesson: Voicing sample lesson

In this lesson, Kai explains how to play a simple harmonic progression IIm V7 IM7. Namely Cm7 F7 BbM7 . The voicing is (Eb G Bb D) (Eb G A D) (D G A C) Notice that he uses an extra D note on top of the Cm7 and the F7, in order to colour them in a nice way. He demonstrates similarly a longer progression Em7 / A7 / DM7 / Dm7 / G / CM7 / Cm7 / F7 / Bb M7 . Kai shows those both on the board tuned in 4th/4th then in 5th/4ths

Voicing Sample lesson

Second video Lesson : Jazzy Walking bassline

In this lesson Kai demonstrates a chord Progression , with bass lines. The progression goes from Am7 to Em7 following a a kind of chromatic path: Am7(b5)/ D7 / Abm7(b5) / Db7 / F#m7(b5) / B7 / Em7 . The voicing starts with Am7(b5) with notes (A G C Eb) , D7 with notes (A D A C F# A# ) and goes nicely to Em7 with interesting voicings. Walking Bass Lines

Third Video Lesson : Voicing Sample lesson 2

In this lessons Kai demonstrates the use of the interval of a second in chords . For instance the progression Dm7 / G7 / CM7 is played with this voicing Dm7 (C E F A) G7 (B E F A) CM7 (G D E G). In the Dm7 chord for instance the E is played on the bass side, while the other notes C F A are played on the melody side. This gives an extra nice colour to the chord. Chords with added seconds

Fourth lesson : Funky Bass Line

In this lesson Kai demonstrates the full power of his technique. He takes a funky bass line in Em7 and plays it with his ‘One Hand Bass’ technique. On the melody side he plays a simple Em chord. But while holding the chord with fingers 1,2 and 3, he strums back and forths with the finger 4 (the pinky) Funky Bass Line

Notes by Daniel Schell