The Slow Fun Way

[Shambo]

I'm in my mid fourties now and after playing for thirty odd years (mostly) off and on, when someone asks me about playing bass, I always say I learned how to play the slow fun way as opposed to the quick hard way.

What I mean by the quick hard way is the discipline of theory... the chops, the scales, arpeggios, chords, the sight reading and all of that. I kind of wanted the chops but have ultimately been scared away by the musical constriction I've seen in a couple of my friends, (one good friend of mine is a seriously fabulous scouse flamenco guitarist who, by his own admission, couldn't string three power chords together to save his life... although he can probably still wing a better performance on the bass than I could with practice).

I couldn't help but pick up a bit of theory along the way, major & minor scales and the triads (best ten minutes of bass theory ever) but for me, the slow fun way has always been been hearing a song and thinking...

"Yeah, if I could play that the bassline to that song, I'd be a happy bass player"

When you master that new song, that's the joy... and that's what I'd like you to share with me chronologically. The songs you've aspired to play as your bass playing progressed. The lines gets maybe more intricate, nuanced, simple or complicated, but as soon as you've mastered that one song you never thought you could , you've already set your sights on another song that's a little bit more... whatever it is that you want. That IMO is what I mean my fun.

It really doesn't matter what genre or level of playing ability. I'd love to hear from dicsiplined players with fabulous chops and players just starting out... I don't really care how good a player you are, just put those benchmark songs in the order that you learned them.

I'll start with the first bass line I think I ever remember wanting to learn as an angsty teenager and finish it with the last I remember being reasonably proud to master. I'm going to keep it to half a dozen but there was obviously lots more inbetween.

• Louie Louie - Kingsmen
• We've Got A Bigger Problem Now - Dead Kennedys
• The Thrill is Gone (live) - BB King (was atributed to Wille Dixon on that Blues Collection album but I'm not convinced it's him)
• Take The Power Back - Rage Against The Machine
• Cake - I Will Survive
• Man Who Sold The World - David Bowie
• Message To Society - Wally Coco (you'll have to google it)

OK, stinky poo, half a dozen was harder than I thought. I deleted quite few (I must have played and forgotten hundreds of songs), but the list is in a sort of cronoligical order.

Please tell me yours, I'm looking for inspiration... nothing serious and just for fun.

P.S. next on the list is Scott Walker - The Old Man's Back Again.

 

Edited March 31, 2019 by Shambo
one more word

[upside downer]

This sounds very similar to my bass playing life. Self taught punk DIY ethic, played in mainly covers bands since '91 with a huge 10 year gap in there. Here's my lucky 7.

Public Image - Public Image Ltd

Moon Over Marin - Dead Kennedys

Heartbreaker - Led Zeppelin

Step Right Up - Tom Waits

I Am the Resurrection - Stone Roses

Under the Bridge - RHCP

Won't Get Fooled Again - The Who (and going full Entwistle by varying it every time it's played live)

 

 

 

[Unknown_User]

I'm am completely self taught and when I first started I was similarly didn't want to be constrained by having to learn a set way and preferred to feel may way around learning in a very ad-hoc way.  Learning songs and going from there.

However since picking it up a bit more seriously a few years ago I have found stuff like YouTube videos by Scott Devine and Daric Bennett really useful in filling in massive gaping chasms in my knowledge of musical theory and I've found it much more useful and rewarding than I had thought twenty years ago when I first started.  If I had the money to not have to work for a living and could sit down to practising for an hour a day then I'd be able to justify signing up to SBL or something and I think I'd really like to and get lots from it.

Playing in a covers band I've had to learn a load of songs I never would otherwise have given the time of day.  I have learned lots and improved a great deal from doing so.  Songs such as the following I wouldn't have listened to, never mind learned how to play, but now make me happy to pick up and play include such hits as:

• Rebel Rebel - Bowie
• I Want You Back - Jackson 5
• Rescue Me - Fontella Bass
• Respect - Aretha Franklin
• Heard It Through the Grapevine - Marvin Gaye
• Love Me Two Times - The Doors

Asides from the other songs I have up and coming to learn for the band (I'm enjoying "I'm Coming Out" by Diana Ross more than I thought I would but I'm going to insist on a shortened version!) I have an ever expanding list of songs I'd love to learn from bands that I'll probably struggle to find tab or YouTube bass lessons for.  So I will need to improve my transcribing skills, which are currently pretty hopeless.  It's just getting the time to sit down to it.

I'd love to learn "Son of a Preacher Man" and "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" as the bass lines in them are fantastic, but I think both would involve too much learning and possibly beyond my capabilities anyway.

[mikel]

Yep, thats the way I did it. Learn what you like and what you need. It remains fun and for me that is what music is all about. Playing about with bass lines I have picked up and sometimes morphing them to suit something else. The essence of our own music and the sense of rebelling against the establishment.

[Carlcoops]

I'm doing this right now. Never owned an instrument before. Got myself a bass and trying to teach myself. White Stripes - 7 nation army, almost nailed it. Then I've tried Smashing Pumpkins - Today also had a go at Fugazi - Blueprint. Sex pistols - Stepping stone is another. They're not bad, I've only had my bass 6 weeks. 

[ead]

Mostly self taught but I used to be a good violin player so an amount of musical knowledge definitely helped.  Weirdly whilst I can read / sight read the treble clef music I still struggle to read the bass clef, no idea why.  Thinking of having pano lessons in an attempt to sort this once and for all.

Thinking bass lines, the first band I ever joined (and am still with) is an originals band so probably doesn't count.  For covers maybe the following:

American Idiot (probably the first I learned)

Dark Side of the Moon - taught myself to play the whole thing with a bit of tab help for Time

Ziggy Stardust

Can't Get Enought Of Your Love

Eleanor (The Turtles)

Nothing Else Matter (easy, but love the song)

Aspiring to learn:  What Had Ye For Supper, Maddy Prior iirc, beautiful fretless bass part & Starship Trooper

[Nicko]

I'm a converted guitarist, having played for a long time before taking any lessons, I found I learnt more in my three years of lessons than I had in the fifteen years before.  I fell into bass playing out of boredom while working overseas but the theory really helps.  These define how my playing has progressed - all learnt in covers bands.

• My Girl
• Daytripper
• Hey Joe
• Under the Bridge
• Jesus of Suburbia (the full 9 minutes version - when I nailed this I finally decided I was a bass player)
• Somebody Told Me
• No One Knows

 

[Jimothey]

I'm like you I enjoy learning the songs more than scales and stuff but I mostly learnt riffs first like Longview, Sweet child of mine, Black night (Deep Purple) etc but here's my list of full songs I think it's basically in chronological order?

Holiday - Green Day

Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day

Hard to Handle - Black Crowes

Africa - Toto

Killing in the Name of - RATM

Monkey man - The Specials

The list of songs I want to learn but are way beyond my ability at present is 10X longer