Hello!
(I posted a [url="http://www.talkbass.com/threads/hair-larry-graham.296024/"]very similar question to talkbass.com[/url], but the thread was ancient, not sure whether anybody will read it there.)
I've spent a couple of weeks trying to figure out the main riff in Larry Graham's "Hair", and I'm close, but I've been trying to put it on paper, and there just seems to be a sixteenth too much in the main riff, no matter what I try:
[font=courier new,courier,monospace]
One -e- and -a- Two -e- and -a- Three -e- and -a- Four -e- and -a-
E0 R R E0 E3 D5 E5 D7 Ex E0 A5 E0 A7 Ex /D7 Ex /G7
[/font]
I left out the hammer-on A5-A7 for readability, and it doesn't seem relevant.(?)
I wrote the main riff down as a single bar, which makes it ~78bpm with most of the notes sixteenths... That seems to fit with the basic drum groove (Snare on 1+3, Kick on 2+4, and some tasteful hihats sprinkled around. :-)
I have read and listened to everything I could find on the net, including the excellent:
[url="http://playbassnow.com/song-tutorials/how-to-play-larry-grahams-hair"]http://playbassnow.c...ry-grahams-hair[/url]
Really, I have listened to this song (and the above video) many many times, and no matter what I do, the last note spills into the next bar, which is not groovy.
The notes on the beats above (The first E0, the E3 on Two, and the dead note on 3 all seem good to me, which just means that the Ex slide to D7 Ex slide to G7 on the fourth beat just do not fit.
I considered tripletsOne -e- and -a- Two -e- and -a- Three -e- and -a- Four -e- and -a-
E0 R R E0 E3 D5 E5 D7 Ex E0 A5 E0 A7 Ex /D7 Ex /G7
and grace notes, but the flow of the riff is very even - it really is all sixteenths.
I'd be very grateful for any clues!