ubit

This what I do. I have been playing bass for more than 45 years. I think I am decent enough. I don't read music but I know where all the notes are on the fretboard. I still listen to songs many times to work out exactly what is being done. unless I am jamming. Then I go by intuition but if I want to learn a cover I give it many runs through to get it right. If most songs can be learned on a single listen then why bother with tab? Even easy songs that I work out in minutes would get listened to over and over so that I was sure I had the lot worked out correctly.

Quite a loaded question. Everyone knows what a statement like that means.

This is quite different from your earlier posts

I can't believe you are still touting this rhetoric. If you had just said it's possible to play a lot of pop songs after VERY FEW listens, I think most people would have accepted that. But to say MOST songs can be learned after one listen and if you can't do that you shouldn't call yourself a bass player has caused such controversy and derision.

The loudest band I have ever heard was Mamas Boyz in The Garage in Glasgow back in the 80's. We liked loud bands but that was just noise. I was young and even I found it painful. You couldn't make out what song they were playing. Absolutely no need for it.

Here ya go, take yer pick. "Be My Girl – Sally"Sting Andy SummersOutlandos d'Amour1978[1] "The Bed's Too Big Without You"StingReggatta de Blanc1979[2] "Behind My Camel"Andy SummersZenyatta Mondatta1980[3] "Bombs Away"Stewart CopelandZenyatta Mondatta1980[3] "Born in the '50s"StingOutlandos d'Amour1978[1] "Bring On the Night" StingReggatta de Blanc1979[2] "Can't Stand Losing You" StingOutlandos d'Amour1978[1] "Canary in a Coalmine"StingZenyatta Mondatta1980[3] "Contact"Stewart CopelandReggatta de Blanc1979[2] "Darkness"Stewart CopelandGhost in the Machine1981[4] "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" StingZenyatta Mondatta1980[3] "Dead End Job" Sting Stewart Copeland[5]Non-album single B-side of "Can't Stand Losing You"1978[6] "Deathwish"Sting Andy Summers Stewart CopelandReggatta de Blanc1979[2] "Demolition Man"StingGhost in the Machine1981[4] "Does Everyone Stare"Stewart CopelandReggatta de Blanc1979[2] "Don't Stand So Close to Me"[a] StingZenyatta Mondatta1980[3] "Driven to Tears"StingZenyatta Mondatta1980[3] "Every Breath You Take" StingSynchronicity1983[8] "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" StingGhost in the Machine1981[4] "Fall Out" Stewart CopelandNon-album single1977[9] "Flexible Strategies" Sting Andy Summers Stewart CopelandNon-album single B-side of "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic"1981[10] "Friends" Andy SummersNon-album single B-side of "Don't Stand So Close to Me"1980[11] "Hole in My Life"StingOutlandos d'Amour1978[1] "How Stupid Mr. Bates"Andy Summers Sting Stewart CopelandBrimstone and Treacle1982 "Hungry for You (J'aurais toujours faim de toi)"StingGhost in the Machine1981[4] "I Burn for You"StingBrimstone and Treacle1982 "Invisible Sun" StingGhost in the Machine1981[4] "It's Alright for You"Sting Stewart CopelandReggatta de Blanc1979[2] "A Kind of Loving"Andy Summers Sting Stewart CopelandBrimstone and Treacle1982 "King of Pain" StingSynchronicity1983[8] "Landlord" Sting Stewart CopelandNon-album single B-side of "Message in a Bottle"1979[12] "Low Life" StingNon-album single B-side of "Spirits in the Material World"1981[13] "Man in a Suitcase"StingZenyatta Mondatta1980[3] "Masoko Tanga"StingOutlandos d'Amour1978[1] "Message in a Bottle" StingReggatta de Blanc1979[2] "Miss Gradenko"Stewart CopelandSynchronicity1983[8] "Mother"Andy SummersSynchronicity1983[8] "Murder by Numbers" Sting Andy SummersNon-album single B-side of "Every Breath You Take"1983[14] "Next to You"StingOutlandos d'Amour1978[1] "No Time This Time"StingReggatta de Blanc1979[2] "Nothing Achieving" Stewart Copeland Ian CopelandNon-album single B-side of "Fall Out"1977[15] "O My God"StingSynchronicity1983[8] "Ωmegaman"Andy SummersGhost in the Machine1981[4] "On Any Other Day"Stewart CopelandReggatta de Blanc1979[2] "Once Upon a Daydream" Sting Andy SummersNon-album single B-side of "Synchronicity II"1983[16] "One World (Not Three)"StingGhost in the Machine1981[4] "The Other Way of Stopping"Stewart CopelandZenyatta Mondatta1980[3] "Peanuts"Sting Stewart CopelandOutlandos d'Amour1978[1] "Reggatta de Blanc"Sting Andy Summers Stewart CopelandReggatta de Blanc1979[2] "Rehumanize Yourself"Sting Stewart CopelandGhost in the Machine1981[4] "Roxanne" StingOutlandos d'Amour1978[1] "Secret Journey" StingGhost in the Machine1981[4] "A Sermon" Stewart CopelandNon-album single B-side of "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da"1980[17] "Shadows in the Rain"StingZenyatta Mondatta1980[3] "Shambelle" Andy SummersNon-album single B-side of "Invisible Sun"1981[18] "So Lonely" StingOutlandos d'Amour1978[1] "Someone to Talk to" Andy SummersNon-album single B-side of "Wrapped Around Your Finger"1983[19] "Spirits in the Material World" StingGhost in the Machine1981[4] "Synchronicity I"StingSynchronicity1983[8] "Synchronicity II" StingSynchronicity1983[8] "Tea in the Sahara"[b]StingSynchronicity1983[8] "Too Much Information"StingGhost in the Machine1981[4] "Truth Hits Everybody"StingOutlandos d'Amour1978[1] "Visions of the Night" StingNon-album single B-side of "Walking on the Moon"1979[21] "Voices Inside My Head"StingZenyatta Mondatta1980[3] "Walking in Your Footsteps"StingSynchronicity1983[8] "Walking on the Moon" StingReggatta de Blanc1979[2] "When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around"StingZenyatta Mondatta1980[3] "Wrapped Around Your Finger" StingSynchronicity1983[8]

This is hurting me head.

What I want to know is, with this revelation that it should only take one listen to learn a song, is the "what song are you learning" thread now defunct? It will be the "what song are you lear.......ah, it was on in the background, forget that, what's next?" thread

You can read it more than once if you want but if you do your name will be mud and you won’t be able to call yourself a real forum poster!

after playing in a cover band for over thirty years I’m gutted to find out I don’t have what it takes to be in a cover band!

in all seriousness we used to finish with this and it went down better than all our other covers. We used to get the biggest cheer of the night when we started it.

Thou art truly a prodigy! I wallow in thine shadow.

Mrs Ubit's brother is one such guitarist. He really is a prodigy. Self taught, no lessons, no Youtube back then. Left handed but plays right handed. Can play any stringed instrument after a quick familiarity. He can pick up songs in no time. He is by far in a minority. Even other good guitarists are in awe of his talent. I do take Tim R's point that it's possible but to come away with a statement that anyone can do it is a little bit condescending. Certainly to me. I am not saying it was meant that way but it has come across that way to a few of us. Maybe he is a prodigy like my Brother in law or maybe he is satisfied to play stuff not caring if it is perfect. Saying that if I can't do it I shouldn't be in a cover band is definitely condescending.

Listening to a song once and being told by the guitarist that it's A-E and G, then the verse is A-E-B and F isn't learning a song. You would only be playing root notes with your own connecting runs. If you want to learn a song properly you need to spend more time than that. Boys and Girls by Blur, Rio by Duran Duran. No one could play them purely on one listen. Same with Cake By The ocean. All do-able pop covers.

Don't get me wrong, when I first heard it by Old Crow Medicine Show I thought it was great but it got so over played that I grew to hate it. We learned it way back before it was so well known and I was dismayed when I heard lots of other bands doing it. The punters loved it!

You are either a child prodigy or you are playing very simplified versions of songs in your cover band. One listen and you know them?

See this is where I'm different. If I found a band doing Rush covers in a bar I would be over the moon and I would enjoy my evening with both my fellow local Rush fans. Everyone else would be somewhere else!

He must be talking about Status Quo songs mate. Not many musicians can play any song after one listen.

This was my exact point. If we played songs that were only what I wanted to play because they were songs I liked, the bar would empty. We were forced, because we wanted more gigs, to play what went down well and brought people in to the bar. You used to hear massive cheers when we played Wagon Wheel. I detest that song and it's beyond boring to play but drunken punters loved it. We used to fill our set with rubbish like this and throw in a couple of songs that we liked and you could tell. They preferred the rubbish, commercialised bore fest that every other band did.

Yeah mate, I hear ya about the bands mentioned. No doubt they have made money out of this genre. I just hated that that's all everyone wants. There are fans of other genres but we just found that on the whole that kind of music got people dancing and if we wanted gigs we gradually had to develop our own take on it. Its when our accordion player started jamming with the rock stuff that I got cheesed off.

You should have done it, its a great song when done right!

There, I fixed that for you. 😉

This! Music does date for the reason you provided. Production and recording techniques give a good idea of when a song was brought out. Its all down to whether people still listen to it and like it. Personally I like new music but I also like old music, so I am keeping some old music current.

I don't know but I have commented that the old folks homes soon will be filled with people who like to listen to Slipknot or Lamb of God, Seems quite strange. Most punks who were pogo'ing back in '77 will be well into their sixties now!

Thats too sensible. I know I don't NEED the extra basses but I want them!