Your first tune.

[Oopsdabassist]

On 03/03/2019 at 15:26, upside downer said:

It was either Public Image by PiL or Stepping Stone by The Sex Pistols (Monkees cover).

I never knew this Pistols had covered Stepping Stone...gotta go look for that now!!

 

Being a late starter mine was With or Without You, U2, although I knew right from the start that the bass didn't follow the guitar on Smoke On The Water!!   I've been humming the bass lines to songs since about 1971!

[Stub Mandrel]

Far from my first song, but I bought this years ago:

Total waste as I (a) I can't read the music in it and anything I did learn I had to work out one note at a time. (b) I thought it would actually be a tutorial on slap, actually it doesn't contain a word of advice on how to play in thw style and (c) a large proportion of the songs aren't slap anyway...

I think it was a 'bandwagon jumping' exercise by the publisher and never intended as "an easy to follow insight into 'slap' bass playing".

The useful thing was it got me to listen to (but not play like) Stanley Clarke and Weather report!

 

<edit> Just looked up a review on Amazon " There are a couple of things I would like to point out though, which is firstly that it is not a book about slapping. Even most of the Mark King lines are his finger style tunes (Chinese Way, Dune Tune, Living it Up...). "

Bit late to ask for my money back...

Edited March 24, 2019 by Stub Mandrel

[Jimothey]

Mine was Holiday by Green Day then Hard to Handle by The Black Crows

[machinehead]

Boots, by Nancy Sinatra.  The descending bass line.  I played it by ear on my uncle's guitar when I picked it up in his front room when I was about 9 or 10 years old.

Shortly after that I learned to play guitar the "proper" way by reading music.  That was from about 1968.

Around 1985, as the guitar player, I played bass for a gig when the bass player couldn't make it.  After that I stayed on bass and I've never played guitar on stage since.

Frank.

[dannybuoy]

First tune on bass I learnt was this on a Yamaha RBX270F fretless:

Essentially just a power chord arpeggio pattern up and down the neck, but it’s a good groove exercise!

[Crusoe]

I'm not 100% sure, but think it was Peggy Sue, followed by Sheena is a Punk Rocker.

[bassace]

Having played bass for more than 55 years I’d be too embarrassed to say which tune. Probably something very low on the coolometer, like a skiffle tune.

[Low End Bee]

On 03/03/2019 at 16:41, skankdelvar said:

A 12-bar blues pattern in A from the Jim Gregory / Harvey Vinson bass book, played on an unplugged Commodore semi-acoustic in 1975

 

That's the book I mentioned on another thread. That cover's bought back some memories.Got it with my Avon EB0 from Rose Morris. Plugged into a Radiogram that was butchered to make an amp.Dreadful all around. Youth of today. Never had it so good, etc.

Edited March 25, 2019 by Low End Bee

[Bigwan]

"Seek and destroy" by Metallica. I didn't even know who Metallica were...

Edit: actually the first tune I could play was the theme to top gun on my brother's guitar... VERY badly...

Edited March 25, 2019 by Bigwan

[tony_m]

Absolute first would probably be "Hey Joe" from some bass tuition book or other, but the first actually playing with another person (a mate from work on guitar) was REM "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?".

[SpondonBassed]

3 hours ago, bassace said:

something very low on the coolometer, like a skiffle tune.

Skiffle's cool.  We wouldn't have our Ringo if not for skiffle.

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, SpondonBassed said:

Skiffle's cool.  We wouldn't have our Ringo if not for skiffle.

You might not have me if it wasn't for the effect of Lonnie Donegan on my mum...

[leschirons]

On guitar, Green onions, on bass, How long (Ace)