Solsbury Hill

[cytania]

Alot of wrong guitar tabs for this about. Good news is bass is quite simple. Really wish this was still part of Stu's 'Solo Arrangements for Bass' book as I could then see the embellishments.

Song is a B G# B G# E progression, two 'verses' then a chorus 3 times over. Fingers just need to adopt a bouncing walking pace (found a great live video where the bassists walks and plays on a circular stage that revolves, Pete Gabriel goes for a bike ride whilst singing!). Then you add a basic arpeggio. In B it would be;

-------------
------9-----
---9----9---
-7---------7-

Anyone know what I should call this arpeggio? It's very useful. For instance with a 70s reggae groove it's the 'Up Town Top Rankin' line. Also reversed it's what I use for G chord bit in the chorus of 'Brown Sugar'.

--------------------
55-------------5---
---5----------5-----
------3-----3--------

[Alun]

It's root, 5th and octave - so in B it would usually be notated as a B5. It's the classic "powerchord" and neither major or minor due to the lack of a third.

It's a great way to add some movement to a bassline without cluttering the harmony too much and sounding too busy. James Jamerson used these kind of ideas a lot in the Motown stuff.

Cheers
Alun

[Stuart Clayton]

[quote name='cytania' post='347215' date='Dec 6 2008, 01:23 PM']Alot of wrong guitar tabs for this about. Good news is bass is quite simple. Really wish this was still part of Stu's 'Solo Arrangements for Bass' book as I could then see the embellishments.

Song is a B G# B G# E progression, two 'verses' then a chorus 3 times over. Fingers just need to adopt a bouncing walking pace (found a great live video where the bassists walks and plays on a circular stage that revolves, Pete Gabriel goes for a bike ride whilst singing!). Then you add a basic arpeggio. In B it would be;

-------------
------9-----
---9----9---
-7---------7-

Anyone know what I should call this arpeggio? It's very useful. For instance with a 70s reggae groove it's the 'Up Town Top Rankin' line. Also reversed it's what I use for G chord bit in the chorus of 'Brown Sugar'.

--------------------
55-------------5---
---5----------5-----
------3-----3--------[/quote]


I will post my solo arrangement of this on the bonus section for the solos book at www.basslinepublishing.com sometime in January.

Incidentally, transcriptions and MP3's are available at the same location for two other pieces that didn't make it into the book: Nothing Else Matters by Metallica, and The Jazz Medley.

Cheers
Stu