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What's one song you ALWAYS mess up, no matter how many times you play it?


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At the moment for me it's Teenage kicks. I always jump straight into a chorus instead of the verse later in the song, much to the amusement of my band mates. We're also a 4 piece with only one guitar, so it's REALLY obviously when I screw up.

when I was younger it used to be Wish you were here by Incubus. It wasn't even a difficult bassline!

Why is it always the simpler songs that are easiest to mess up?

I think my brain just switches off...

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I wouldn’t say I always mess it up, because I don’t mess it up at all now 😂, but for a while when we added it to the set, True by Spandau Ballet became my nemesis. There’s a sax solo about halfway through which has an odd little bass riff behind it. One of those ones where if you don’t start it right, you have to wait until the next time round. I’m over it now fortunately.

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In our Acoustic-y Trio incarnation, we've been known to perpetrate Galway Girl on occasion. I've struggled with anything convincing bass-wise for this for an embarrassingly long time (I even posted a plea for help somewhere on here years ago); it just won't seem to stick in my head, I'm always inverting the Gs and frickin Ds...and I'm always a fraction late on the As. It's even more annoying because it's a three (OK, four) chord song, it's hardly Teen Town... 😐

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lol

 

hard to pick just one really   :)

daydream believer, dont look back in anger, blah blah .....   

brain just turns off!!

 

plus sometimes when i am doing backing vox, i just forget i am playing!  lol

 

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13 minutes ago, Graham56 said:

Dreams, Fleetwood Mac.

It sits on two chords for ever, then when it gets to the lovely little bass breakdown I've switched off and I miss it. Every time...

I didn't know there was a bass breakdown! Or maybe it's unremarkable and I intuit it and it's over and done on to the next.

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I sometimes dep with a great soul band. They cover Everlasting Love and the bass player (@rumblefish) took it upon himself to suggest the bass plays the little figure over the triangle about halfway through the song. I have tried to re0plicate the song with a pick (my only use of one) but just cannot get that bit right (it's played using 3rds), It's such a great song I hate balls'ing it up every time.

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At the moment my bugbear is Carry on My Wayward Son by Kansas. If we do it right the first time at rehearsal I’m fine with it but if someone else makes a mistake and we do it again I find my fingers falling over themselves on the fast riff at the end of the song. With it getting progressively worse the more times we do it. Aaarrgh!!

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I've had the displeasure of learning Teenage kicks for a "new band" I'm joining. Had the same issue first couple of times, but all ok now. There is just something so wrong about 50 year old blokes playing a song like that in my opinion, but hey ho it is what it is for the moment. I do hope they bloody drop it though!

I have just also learnt "Time Is Running Out" by Muse. Not overly hard, I can play it quite well, but really need to wedge the structure in my head, as I fear one wrong move on my part and I may be instigating a train wreck on stage!

 

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The very prominent bass solo(?) towards the end of 'Special Brew' by Bad Manners. It's simple enough but after a catastrophic balls up once, it plays on my mind through the whole song, and you know what happens when you think too much about what you're playing. 

We do a long, offbeat intro and slow verse of 'Chasing Cars' by Snow Patrol, which makes people wonder what the hell we're up to, then launch into a full fat ska version, which segues into 'Lip Up Fatty', then 'Special Brew'. All in probably over ten minutes long. As soon as we start my brain goes, "Ooh you f'd up the solo once and everyone stared, you'd better not do that again". And ten minutes of 'thinking' about it whilst playing is a surefire way to guarantee you'll f it up again, to the point that the rest of the band all turn to me in anticipation grinning. B'stards! 

 

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I’ve never figured out the timing at the start of Sex On Fire.

I count myself in for five and a half beats and then start and weirdly it works perfectly.

So it’s completely wrong, but appears to have been right all the times I’ve played it (which i suspect is quite often). 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Maude said:

The very prominent bass solo(?) towards the end of 'Special Brew' by Bad Manners. It's simple enough but after a catastrophic balls up once, it plays on my mind through the whole song, and you know what happens when you think too much about what you're playing. 

We do a long, offbeat intro and slow verse of 'Chasing Cars' by Snow Patrol, which makes people wonder what the hell we're up to, then launch into a full fat ska version, which segues into 'Lip Up Fatty', then 'Special Brew'. All in probably over ten minutes long. As soon as we start my brain goes, "Ooh you f'd up the solo once and everyone stared, you'd better not do that again". And ten minutes of 'thinking' about it whilst playing is a surefire way to guarantee you'll f it up again, to the point that the rest of the band all turn to me in anticipation grinning. B'stards! 

 

That's when you jump up in the air with a twist yelling DRUM SOLO coming down facing the drummer.

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10 hours ago, Maude said:

It's simple enough but after a catastrophic balls up once, it plays on my mind through the whole song, and you know what happens when you think too much about what you're playing. 

this is what happened to me. We used to play Losing my religion. We had played it to death over the years. We never rehearsed it because we were playing so often and playing that song so much that we knew it back to front. One time I forgot it. We had to feign tuning problems and play another song. Strange I thought but thought it must be a one time glitch. Next time we played I forgot it again, then again and again. Finally I had to relearn it at rehearsal. It was a complete case of worrying I was going to mess up that made me mess up.

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23 hours ago, Graham56 said:

Dreams, Fleetwood Mac.

It sits on two chords for ever, then when it gets to the lovely little bass breakdown I've switched off and I miss it. Every time...

I have to listen to the vocals to get my cue but I quite often forget to.

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On 09/06/2021 at 09:06, Sarah5string said:

At the moment for me it's Teenage kicks.

I think my brain just switches off...

Similar thing happened to me with Teenage Kicks a while back, fortunately during a rehearsal - my mind went completely blank and I just stood there staring at my bass wondering where to put my fingers. Awkward 😧

Edited by lozkerr
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