WILD CHERRY - Play That Funky Music | Allen Wentz | ISOLATED BASS

[Bart Funk Bass]

How many of you played that wrong?

 

 

[warwickhunt]

That's why I should never listen to these isolated tracks; the version I play and made up when I first learned it, is SO different!  LOL

[Lozz196]

I learned this a few weeks back via the guy on YouTube, great song and nice to get some funk in the fingers.

[nilebodgers]

Is that a double stoppy bit at around 4:21? The rest sounds familiar.

[stewblack]

3 hours ago, Bart Funk Bass said:

How many of you played that wrong?

 

 

God! Add me shamefaced to the list! 

[dave_bass5]

This is how i play it, and got ‘looks’ from my guitarist when i first did. 

I cant stand hearing the bass player play the same riff as the guitarist, its so obviously not the correct way. 

[chris_b]

This is one bass line I play pretty much as written.

[Al Krow]

5 hours ago, warwickhunt said:

That's why I should never listen to these isolated tracks; the version I play and made up when I first learned it, is SO different!  LOL

Hah, me too. 

Tabs on this clip which ties in with the OP's post if anyone's interested in re-working their cover (which I clearly need to!).

 

[Paul S]

7 hours ago, chris_b said:

This is one bass line I play pretty much as written.

Me, too.  Nice to know I play something right occasionally.  heck, even a broken clock is right twice a day!

[Al Krow]

The slow it down function on YT is a game changer for learning new basslines / tabs! 3/4 speed or even 1/2 speed if necessary.

That's a little trick @chris_b shared on a post a while back. Gotta be me in my top 3 most useful BC tips ever!

[dave_bass5]

2 hours ago, Paul S said:

Me, too.  Nice to know I play something right occasionally.  heck, even a broken clock is right twice a day!

Some of us use our ears 😎. Cover bands have been around a lot longer than YT and the internet lol. 

I get people want to play it differently, in fact I play the guitar riff when the solo is happening to fill out the song, but its not hard to hear how it goes if you want to play it as the original IMO.

Tricky if the drummer is off time though. Ive always felt that bass line sounds ‘awkward’, but if the band is locked in its great.

.

[Al Krow]

15 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

Some of us use our ears 😎. Cover bands have been around a lot longer than YT and the internet lol. 

I get people want to play it differently, in fact I play the guitar riff when the solo is happening to fill out the song, but its not hard to hear how it goes if you want to play it as the original IMO.

Tricky if the drummer is off time though. Ive always felt that bass line sounds ‘awkward’, but if the band is locked in its great.

Yeah interesting one - I remember you complimenting on my (as it turns out wrong!) take on the bassline to this one 'cos it wasn't simply completely aping the guitar part, although it's pretty close to it. Key for me was getting it locked in with the drums and I agree it sounds more natural / less awkward than the original / correct bassline and we certainly don't have any gaps where the bass drops off entirely. Seems to always go down well with the audiences.

I think I'll try them both and see which the band prefers when we next rehearse in 2025...😁

[dave_bass5]

19 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Yeah interesting one - I remember you complimenting on my (as it turns out wrong!) take on the bassline to this one 'cos it wasn't simply completely aping the guitar part, although it's pretty close to it. Key for me was getting it locked in with the drums and I agree it sounds more natural / less awkward than the original / correct bassline and we certainly don't have any gaps where the bass drops off entirely. Seems to always go down well with the audiences.

I think I'll try them both and see which the band prefers when we next rehearse in 2025...😁

I’m just making a point that if you chose to not go with the original thats fair enough, thats your choice and you consciously made it, and it works, but if you want to go with the oringal it’s hardly been buried in the mix from the time it came out. 

Why change what works now though? The original is still the same as it was when you decided not to play it and do your own version (which did sound good to me ). I think the original isnt as driving as it could be, especially in a smaller band line up. 

I’m not criticising  what people do at all, although duplicating the guitar seems a waste to me, just that its hardly a revelation to hear the original bass line this weekend.  

 

[chris_b]

1 hour ago, dave_bass5 said:

Some of us use our ears 😎. Cover bands have been around a lot longer than YT and the internet lol.

. . . . and back in the days of 45's and albums, if you couldn't hear the bass, the trick was to play the record on 78rpm and the bass line would magically stand out (most times).

[Rich]

1 hour ago, dave_bass5 said:

I get people want to play it differently, in fact I play the guitar riff when the solo is happening to fill out the song

 

Yes, I do this too. Really does help to fill it out.

[dave_bass5]

4 minutes ago, chris_b said:

. . . . and back in the days of 45's and albums, if you couldn't hear the bass, the trick was to play the record on 78rpm and the bass line would magically stand out (most times).

Yeah, thats the only time ive ever played up the dusty end of the bass for more than a couple of notes lol. 

Its surprising how much ive come to depend on YT over the years though, and ive come crashing back to earth trying to find keyboard tutorials or even tabs for keys like those.

[Lozz196]

Although I`ve learned this the proper way I`ve tinkered around with making it fuller sounding for rock, and the easiest thing is keeping the low E going at the same pace as the other parts of the riff, keeps it driving and fills out nicely.

[warwickhunt]

I'm sure the choice of covering basslines as per recording has been covered many times but aside from simply wanting to put your spin on it (I most often do), there is the fact that I play in a 3 piece band, sometimes covering songs performed by 5-6 piece bands is 'potentially' fraught with difficulties.  I sometimes ape the rhythm guitar part, maybe the keyboard part, possibly even horns etc.  It would be to the detriment of the song to stick religiously to the original.    

 

[fleabag]

That WC track  was one of our staples,  along with some James Brown.

I always played it incorrectly, though i knew what the correct line was.  It just suited me to play it my own way, and it was 90% the same anyways

[mr.terrible]

Many years ago, I was visiting my brother in Florida & the bass player on that record was staying with him for a short while. Impressive player & and OK guy.

[uk_lefty]

Not sure what the big reveal is here, it's really easy to pick out from the mix, have always played it like that. OK, I use open strings a lot rather than fifth fret but the rhythm and note placement aren't difficult to resolve. 

 

I should add... I am terrible at picking things out by ear. Terrible. This is probably a good song for people to start out with though. 

Someone previously mentioned filling out the song by playing the guitar riff under the solo, sounds interesting I'll be giving that a go 👍

Edited March 10, 2021 by uk_lefty

[Muzz]

On 07/03/2021 at 17:53, warwickhunt said:

I'm sure the choice of covering basslines as per recording has been covered many times but aside from simply wanting to put your spin on it (I most often do), there is the fact that I play in a 3 piece band, sometimes covering songs performed by 5-6 piece bands is 'potentially' fraught with difficulties.  I sometimes ape the rhythm guitar part, maybe the keyboard part, possibly even horns etc.  It would be to the detriment of the song to stick religiously to the original.    

 

Yep, this, absolutely; I've played this bob on in lots of bands, but in the trio (sometimes just an acoustic guitar and drums) I play the post-chorus (ish) one-off riff in unison with the guitar, because it sounds odd otherwise. The main riff, tho, is canon, and sounds good in whatever circumstances. As has been mentioned above, the better the drummer on this one, the better the song sounds...

[EMG456]

Well it's been years but I actually still prefer my own take on it - we're all different eh?

[cetera]

I always play the 'Lay down the boogie....' section in unison with the guitar. To my ear it sounds much better that way and I don't care for the original line...

[Muzz]

That's the bunny I was on about - in a bigger band with keys and possibly even 2 guitars, there's room for the bass to play the other line, but one acoustic and the bass? It sounded like I didn't know what I was doing...

...and that's the last thing I need to be alerting people to... 😕😀