Bass Lines that sound easy to a non-muso but are really hard

[colgraff]

[size=4][font=verdana,geneva,sans-serif]Everyone knows there are bass lines that are really impressive whether or not they are difficulot, but what about the ones that you dread playing but noone else can see the problem?[/font][/size]

[size=4][font=verdana,geneva,sans-serif]For me it is repetitive patterns that change one part, then change back. Notice me by New Model Army is a good example:[/font][/size]

[size=4][font=verdana,geneva,sans-serif]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4ErZefDt44[/font][/size]

[size=4][font=verdana,geneva,sans-serif]Even playing it slower and without the harmonics and the super fast bit, I get tangled up. I think of it as a tongue twister on bass.[/font][/size]

[size=4][font=verdana,geneva,sans-serif]What do others find hard?[/font][/size]

[BruceBass3901]

Little Bitch by the Specials - Not hard in the slightest to play, except that it is repetitive octaves played quickly for the whole song. Wears my hands out pretty quickly when we play it

[alyctes]

'Israelites'. I can't get the pattern of when the rising scale appears. Possibly because certain guitarists and singers don't necessarily know either

[scalpy]

Johnny Cash, ring of fire. A case of guess when to change chord. No verse is quite the same!

[cybertect]

[quote name='scalpy' timestamp='1440694288' post='2853077']
Johnny Cash, ring of fire. A case of guess when to change chord. No verse is quite the same!
[/quote]

Dylan's 'Mr Tambourine Man' is like that. Listen carefully to the singer if you can.

The Byrds' version is much shorter and more regular.

Edited August 29, 2015 by cybertect

[skywalker]

Hotel California for me. Constant repetitive arpeggiation ties me in knots.

[such]

all of them

[fleabag]

Norman Watt-Roy's line on Rhythm Stick

[colgraff]

@Fleabag. I'd forgotten that one. I remember having to learn it for a dep gig and believing the singer when he said not to worry about it because "that one isn't too hard!"

[fleabag]

Yeah i'm pretty sure non musos wouldnt even think about that line being hard work.