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Toughest bass line you play live?


Al Krow

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10 hours ago, steantval said:

Guitarist started the intro riff at the correct tempo, when the rest of the band kicked in the tempo sped up and carried on speeding up, luckily for you it was at the correct tempo to start 👍

I just had a feeling that everyone was waiting for the little bouncy bass bit at the start so I had to bash something out! They're good kids, it was a nice warm up before my set immediately after. I maybe didn't help the tempo by playing shorter notes than I should have... 

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10 hours ago, bassbiscuits said:

Too Much Too Young by the Specials is also one that takes a good bit of concentration live.


 

None of the Specials songs have any time to relax or anywhere to hide. And being a ska band, our set is full of 'em. :lol: The first verse to Concrete Jungle is another one... it's so atonal and weird, when you practice it at home you think "nah that can't be right". Oh yes it is. And as for Little B!tch... :shok:

Edited by Rich
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1 hour ago, toneknob said:

Mike Stern's Chromazone. (Tom Kennedy is awesone btw)

 

I used to love playing that in my old fusion trio. We didn't do it at that speed though :lol: but I did make a rod for my own back by playing it on fretless...

We did quite a few Stern tunes, one of my favourites was Tipatina's. That was a bit of a challenge too!

 

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1 hour ago, thebigyin said:

Hat's off to you Sir, I can't even play it in my front room under no pressure, I gave up just not good enough even after 17 years of playing Bass lol.

It’s a long term practice song for me to work on but I’ve never even considered the possibility of playing it live yet! It’s a handful 

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1 minute ago, Paul S said:

They sit together nicely, don't they!

Well if you're a BJ tribute band then I guess you should emulate their live set by doing both back to back eh 😉 I suspect it would go down a storm...hmmm wonder if I can persuade my crew to include in our set!

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11 hours ago, AndyTravis said:

Thing is, that needs a great rhythm guitarist. And they’re hard to find. Love that bass line.

Have you heard the Z-Trip remix?  The rhythm guitar part is stunning.

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12 hours ago, super al said:

Higher and Higher was a challenge for me too! At first if my mind wandered I lost it, eventually I found that focussing on smiling (or clenching my teeth 😁) got me through it.

Playing it live, everyone gets up to dance to it... this somehow made it easier if a crowd were up enjoying themselves.

I could play the part (with clenched teeth as described) but try adding the backing vocals and it was impossible.

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13 hours ago, pineweasel said:

Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick. The first time we played it I had a horrible moment of onstage terror halfway through the prior song, but it went OK in the end. We couldn't really hack it convincingly though, so it got dropped after a couple more performances.

Yup. Rhythm Stick 

Also, Keep the Faith. Not particularly difficult just relentless. Took a while to nail it, the secret seems to be to use the open D.

 

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And before I did stupid things like Weather Report and Mike Stern in a fusion band, I spent forever in Genesis tribute bands. This was "fun", especially from 5m25s onwards. However, here demonstrated by the best "Rutherford" to do the job, Lee Pomeroy. Don't bother trying to cop his licks, he's playing upside-down lefty.

 

 

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The complicated riffs in our set I find are the easiest to get right cos there's no gaps to lose the time.  One of the lines that sometimes throws me is our "Heavy" version of Hot Chocolate's Everyone's a winner which I thought I'd simplify through the verse with a dotted crotchet, rest, quaver,quaver, grace note type thing but I'm finding I sometimes don't get the middle rest right because i listen to the vocals too much.  Hysteria is a piece of fosters compared to this. 

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15 hours ago, bassfan said:

The beginning of sweet child was my nemesis for years! No idea why... the most complicated bass line we play now is probably Never too much, although I love it I don’t dread it! Somebody else’s guy used to send dread through me, Stevie wonders I Wish, took some getting used to as well. What yours? 

Yeah,its right out there and has to be = pressure !   

 

same with the two bass runs on Good times Bad times by Zep and the Bass solo in Know one knows 

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2 hours ago, DJpullchord said:

I’d love to play the real me.

Guess it’s just improvised all the way though.

That`s certainly what I used to do, I think people would have recognised the song but not sure I ever played it anywhere near correctly.

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Rhythm Stick has a few mentions here, and for good reason. Killer groove when it's done right.

There are two other songs that have caused me some extra practise time. First up is Footloose (Nathan East) which isn't too hard, but getting the choruses smooth and not rushed is the big test. And finally, Ain't Nobody by Chaka Kahn. The bass & drums are programmed and they are both a bi-tch to get right. The bass part is so syncopated and it's either correct or it just isn't. I used to use an octaver to emulate the bass synth sound but my C4 gets me a lot closer these days.

Edited by ratman
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16 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

In my current non-gigging band set up it has to be Dazed & Confused by Led Zep. None of the parts are actually that difficult, but the middle break part is finger energy sapping, requires a lot of concentration to not drift and keep with the drums. 

I used to play this with a band when I was about 17 and had exactly the same problem with the same section 

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On 20/03/2020 at 12:54, Leonard Smalls said:

Play it like this and you'll be fine!

😁

 

They can play. Like the trad instrument worked in with some funky bass. Like what the drummer is doing too. 

Edited by Geek99
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16 hours ago, super al said:

I want you back by the Jackson 5 has that bridge and I'm suffering to get that at the right tempo. I've played it slowly for a while then speed it up but it's a real sausage to get it right!

Great tune to learn otherwise 👍, I'll get it eventually.

Loving this slow version with the double bass:

 

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16 hours ago, Skinnyman said:

I used to have the same issue with All Bloody Right Bloody Now by Bloody Free.

The part under the solo. Nailed it every time in rehearsal ( and properly too) but either fluffed yet it completely or ended up bottling it and playing the simplified version at gigs.

Problem is that there’s nowhere to hide so if you get it wrong at the start everyone in the place knows.

I seem to have got past it now but for years it was my bete noir.

If you're talking about playing this with the band that we've both been in, then it wouldn't have been your fault😂

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19 minutes ago, Ricky 4000 said:

Loving this slow version with the double bass:

 

LSD (yeah they chose their name deliberately!) were simply outstanding. Their double bassist wrote a fair chunk of their material and provides a pretty decent BV to boot! 

Edited by Al Krow
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