Toughest bass line you play live?

[Skinnyman]

14 minutes ago, gary mac said:

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

Lol!

In all fairness it was that band plus the one before. 

So I think I played my part in screwing it up. 

But yeah, maybe I had some help 😁
 

 

[Ricky 4000]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

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! 

Fab' stuff. I'm in awe of anybody who plays a double bass, and her particularly.

I'd like to get one myself, but I'm much to lazy to practice standing up. 😬

[Al Krow]

7 minutes ago, Ricky 4000 said:

Fab' stuff. I'm in awe of anybody who plays a double bass, and her particularly.

I'd like to get one myself, but I'm much to lazy to practice standing up. 😬

Ever considered going half way and getting a Stagg 3/4 EUB? Don't cost the earth and are a lot of fun. And there is just something uber cool about playing walking bass on an upright!

Does mean standing up to practice, though...

[arthurhenry]

21 hours ago, Maude said:

The Real Me by The Who, not too bad if I busk it a bit but nail the important runs in the verses, but a lot of people in our audiences expect it to be bang on all the way through

I wish we had audiences like that. Most people don't notice a thing when I play a note perfect version of  the album recording.

[arthurhenry]

18 hours ago, Al Krow said:

What is nicely showy on that one is including the second half of the bass solo riff an octave up at the dusty end part way through the solo. 24 fret basses definitely help! 

With the simultaneous rhythm part on the open A underneath of course.

[arthurhenry]

Dirty Linen by Fairport.

[Al Krow]

1 minute ago, arthurhenry said:

With the simultaneous rhythm part on the open A underneath of course.

Yes exactly, so continuing down the bottom end for the A AA E F# A A E F# and then heading up to dusty end for second part of the phrase  

[FinnDave]

Estimated Prophet, a Grateful Dead (who else!) song in 7/8 with a shifting emphasis between 3rd and 4th beats in different bars. 

Was on the list for the April gig, but Boris has just saved me from worrying about it (or prevented me from showing how well I can play it after all this enforced woodshedding!).

[Skinnyman]

12 minutes ago, arthurhenry said:

With the simultaneous rhythm part on the open A underneath of course.

Of course.

That’s the way I (try to) play it. 

Perfectly in rehearsal. Badly at gigs. 

It’s even worse when I know there’s another bass player watching me. 

[Oopsdabassist]

Intro to Sweet Emotion, for some reason I just couldn't get that drone note pulsing like it should, that band has folded now and I'm in no hurry to be in the spotlight again!

 

 

[Maude]

9 hours ago, DJpullchord said:

I’d love to play the real me.

Guess it’s just improvised all the way though.

I wish 😁

I reckon I'm about 80-90% there in playing it as JE does on the original. We're a Mod/Ska/Northern Soul band and we have a decent following who know the songs inside out so I need to be on the money. For songs like The Real Me it's a pain cos they know when I'm busking it (and my pride makes me try to get it right) but it's great cos for most of our set the bass is leading the way and our crowds do notice it. 🙂

Edited March 20, 2020 by Maude

[Maude]

9 hours ago, Rich said:

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.  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...

I love doing Nite Club, it's such a fun song to play, especially the middle 8 (16, 20 or whatever it is 🤔) where there's those little fills right up around the 19th fret and all the octave runs. 

Hard to believe really that Horace pretty much learnt to play in that band. Still not sure if he was a natural genius or just had no real idea what notes to play 😁

Sorry, getting a bit fanboi now. 

[lee650]

I was given "Wuthering Heights" by a visiting caberet! Very scary,brilliant bassline though. 

"Spain" by Chick Corea and "Rhapsody in blue (funk version by Bob James I think).

Whenever an operatic act came on,I'd be sweating too 😂

I played for a Singer calked Elaine Delmar who did a bass and vocals version of "Summertime" it had an ostinato figure, that was fairly simple, but had to be played so slow. I used to get sweaty palms prior to that one 😂

 

[Raslee]

Master Blaster throws a challenge in my current band, not so much me playing it but tolerating a guitard who plays it wrong and out of time. 
Vasoline by Stone Temple Pilots was easy but again, similar to above, that had similar rhythm oddities.
I depped doing ‘Fly me time the moon’ as a first dance...that was the point I realised I should give up trying to learn to read music...got so lost!

[mcnach]

On 20/03/2020 at 10:43, MacDaddy said:

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.

 

 

Keep the faith I never had issues with, it was in fact one of the first basslines I ever learnt (after many years as a guitarist, so I was not exactly a newbie). Indeed, using that open D is what makes it sound right without much effort.

RHCP's Parallel Universe I struggled sometimes live. Not complicated, but to keep it going thoughout the song... I was doing it fingerstyle and I sometimes just used a pick (like Flea does, I think) to make it easier.

One that often trips me up live is the intro to RATM's "Calm like a bomb". It's, again, pretty simple... but I used to forget it when we first started to play it and that left a mark. I can play it with my eyes closed half asleep... but because of its history, I'll often get the guitarist giving me a funny look or the singer might even announce it as my favourite song, putting me on the spot... and then I'll either forget or miss a note or something. Unless you're a RATM fan you might not notice as I just play "a solo bass intro", but not THE solo bass intro

I think I'm more likely to fail at the easiest ones. The hard ones I practice. The easy ones I don't, and then I go "hmmm, is this one in Bb or A?" just before we start 😛

 

[Bassfinger]

My Sharona.  Not a difficult bassline by any means, but I find it really hard on my left little finger.  We always do Doctor Doctor (UFO) after that to give my hand a rest before moving on.

Edited March 21, 2020 by Bassfinger

[Angelus]

I’m in the mood for dancing by the Nolan’s, if I never, ever play that again, I’ve already played it too many times. Although I did utterly fluff The Chain by Fleetwood Mac the other week, after playing for 35 years. Now it gives me the fear.  🙄

[Woodinblack]

On 20/03/2020 at 10:45, lozkerr said:

Town Called Malice for me. Keeping time's OK but keeping the staccato constant through the riff is another matter. Lockdown should keep me busy trying to nail it properly, though.

I have no issue with the song, but it always caused stress in my last band as to whether the guitarist would get the section right when it changed!

[grandad]

I haven't played this for some time now but a tune I love is TIME IS TIGHT - Booker T and The MGs.

Not hard but just keeping it going for so long!

[bakerster135]

On 20/03/2020 at 17:53, arthurhenry said:

Dirty Linen by Fairport.

Good call! This has been one of my practice tracks for some time, prime Pegg! A good workout and needs some stamina to get through all four sections...

[bassbiscuits]

40 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

I have no issue with the song, but it always caused stress in my last band as to whether the guitarist would get the section right when it changed!

It’s that count of 10 for the middle breakdown that throws dep drummers.

Lost count of the number of times I’ve told them  to trust me on the 10, counting it out loud to cue them, and watching the panic in their eyes as they just can’t resist counting to 12 before coming back in.

What the hell happened there?

[kevham]

Living Color's Cult of Personality is the one that I have had to work on most to date.

String skipping at pace makes it really tough for my wee old hands. I've had to spend hours with the metronome building up the speed but when we nail it - it feels great!

[arthurhenry]

13 hours ago, bakerster135 said:

Good call! This has been one of my practice tracks for some time, prime Pegg! A good workout and needs some stamina to get through all four sections...

Me too. I've been playing it  since the early 2000s and it's just beginning to get quite smooth! Hardest part for me is the line that begins on C# in the last section. Also, in the 12th fret D section, the pesky double E to D in the 4th bar.

[djc63]

The bass solo break in Call me Al. Our keys player/band leader insisted we had to have it in our set list every gig despite my protests! I think he loved to see the look of terror on my face as we worked our way through the song to that dreaded bit where I would quite often just freeze or at best just slap anything just to fill the gap. I worked on it for years by which time I had managed to come up with something really quite passable. There was just one time I felt I actually perfectly nailed it at a gig. After that it was dropped and we never did it again!!!

[Al Krow]

15 minutes ago, arthurhenry said:

Me too. I've been playing it  since the early 2000s and it's just beginning to get quite smooth! Hardest part for me is the line that begins on C# in the last section. Also, in the 12th fret D section, the pesky double E to D in the 4th bar.

Dirty Linen - Fairport Convention: have to fess not come across this particular track before. It's on at 42.00 of this clip if other folk are new to it like me. Really punchy PJ bass tone at the start of the song. No idea what make/model this 1976 bass is though!