Easy songs causing trouble. Is it just me?

[SteveXFR]

We've decided to add a couple covers to our set insurance original metal band. Easy set filler we thought so we worked out a stoner metal version of maniac from flashdance (an obvious choice) and a punky version of Paranoid by Sabbath. 

Paranoid is about as easy as it gets. Every beginner rock guitarist and bassist learns it so why the hell am I playing it so badly? It should be the easiest song in our set.

Anyone else have trouble with a beginner standard tune? 

[smithy]

I think, there is actually no real easy tune. Have a look at for example AC DC `s "The Jack". You might even reduce it down to three notes, and to me it´s one of biggest (bass)tune. But it took me lots and lots of hours to be really tight (hopefully I am now).

To me it seems to be : the slower ,the harder

 

 

 

 

[BlueMoon]

Yes. I had almost the same experience recently with the old Ace hit “How Long”. Dead simple and I just blanked when I approached playing it. Crazy!

[fretmeister]

It happens to me too.

 

I’m beginning to think it’s an aging thing. I don’t have the self confidence of youth anymore, I worry more about making mistakes so perversely I now make more of them.

[dmccombe7]

16 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

We've decided to add a couple covers to our set insurance original metal band. Easy set filler we thought so we worked out a stoner metal version of maniac from flashdance (an obvious choice) and a punky version of Paranoid by Sabbath. 

Paranoid is about as easy as it gets. Every beginner rock guitarist and bassist learns it so why the hell am I playing it so badly? It should be the easiest song in our set.

Anyone else have trouble with a beginner standard tune? 

Is it brain fog or are you finding some of it difficult to play.

Remember Geezer is/was a competent player

Someone asked me to play that at a wee jam and could i remember how it went. Lots of wee fiddly bits in there. I never really had an issue until playing it in a band situation where it was played a bit faster than i expected.

Dave

[asingardenof]

Sometimes a song is that easy/boring/repetitive that I just zone out, forget what I'm doing and it takes me a second to get back up to speed.

[gafbass02]

We have this with ‘Go your own way’, should be simple, but something always seems to stumble in that one. 

[Happy Jack]

[SteveXFR]

4 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Is it brain fog or are you finding some of it difficult to play.

Remember Geezer is/was a competent player

Someone asked me to play that at a wee jam and could i remember how it went. Lots of wee fiddly bits in there. I never really had an issue until playing it in a band situation where it was played a bit faster than i expected.

Dave

 

It's getting really tight that is screwing with me. I don't ever play anything else where you play several bars in a row of just one note at solid quater notes and somehow I now find that difficult to play tight.

The bridge with the octave jumps is just hard at the speed we play it, 180bpm. I've trued it with a pick and fingers but it's just hard to play eighth notes alternating between the A and G strings. I'm tempted to cheat and just play power chords!

 

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, SteveXFR said:

 

It's getting really tight that is screwing with me. I don't ever play anything else where you play several bars in a row of just one note at solid quater notes and somehow I now find that difficult to play tight.

The bridge with the octave jumps is just hard at the speed we play it, 180bpm. I've trued it with a pick and fingers but it's just hard to play eighth notes alternating between the A and G strings. I'm tempted to cheat and just play power chords!

 

If i remember right there are some triplets in that song too C-G-C then up to D-A-D.

Dave

    

[Lozz196]

3 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

 

It's getting really tight that is screwing with me. I don't ever play anything else where you play several bars in a row of just one note at solid quater notes and somehow I now find that difficult to play tight.

The bridge with the octave jumps is just hard at the speed we play it, 180bpm. I've trued it with a pick and fingers but it's just hard to play eighth notes alternating between the A and G strings. I'm tempted to cheat and just play power chords!

 

It does highlight the playing of people like Cliff Williams & Adam Clayton as being more important to the songs/bands than would have originally been thought, playing like that takes discipline and has its own skill.

[BillyBass]

6 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

 playing like that takes discipline and has its own skill.

And very good concentration.  I find reasonably complex but not difficult songs the easiest to play, there is enough going on to stop my mind wandering.  I find monotonous bass lines problematic as my mind wanders.

[itu]

I might change one word from the headline: "easy" to "simple".

 

One of my favourite songs is "Everybody wants to rule the world". Just eighths, only eighths, and nothing but the eighths.

Edited June 25, 2023 by itu
1/8

[lozkerr]

43 minutes ago, itu said:

One of my favourite songs is "Everybody wants to rule the world". Just eighths, only eighths, and nothing but the eighths.

We're having fun and games getting that one up to gigging standard. Most of it's a simple shuffle, but the keyboard solo is giving problems - bass and keys are drifting apart. But we'll get there.

[itu]

Very much the same with us trying to play Africa, and the piano solo starts...

[lozkerr]

On 24/06/2023 at 21:36, smithy said:

To me it seems to be : the slower ,the harder

Same here. Two songs where I really have to concentrate are Dignity and Purple Rain. Basslines are dead easy - lots of full notes - but getting the timing right is crucial.

[asingardenof]

1 hour ago, itu said:

I might change one word from the headline: "easy" to "simple".

 

One of my favourite songs is "Everybody wants to rule the world". Just eighths, only eighths, and nothing but the eighths.

A friend of mine who is much more musically-educated likes to call that rhythm "the 12/8 plod" (see also Black Velvet, etc)

[merello]

Simple songs leave you no place to hide. Having a verse, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, solo, bridge, chorus, verse, chorus end can be much easier than something straightforward.

recently did “Don’t Get Me Wrong” . Took me to the last rehearsal to nail it. Even then, the “fast G” meant I stared at the guitarist for a cue!

 

Once did a Country n Western set as a favour. Sweating buckets at playing 1/5 all nigh5 and hittin* my mark!

 

Ginal easy song….sing Purple Rain….the gaps for the singer! Ended up counting her in at times.

 

 

[merello]

1 hour ago, itu said:

I might change one word from the headline: "easy" to "simple".

 

One of my favourite songs is "Everybody wants to rule the world". Just eighths, only eighths, and nothing but the eighths.

Tell me about it. Think the original had a programmed e-bass line….

[3below]

My increasing failure as an older bass player is 'getting lost' in the simple basic stuff - how many verses, choruses have we done and then missing the cue.  The (alleged) tricky stuff - turn round riffs, fill ins, key sequences I can still do.  Getting in the zone and concentrating / bar counting is getting harder.  It has been easier in the originals band than doing covers but I am not the bass player I was 40 years ago.

 

IIRC @Beedster made an interesting comment about radio music a while back which I will echo.  The quality /detail of bass reproduction (and general sound) of BBC DAB seems to have improved dramatically recently.  I am noticing a lot more detail in the bass playing I hear on the radio.  Quite a lot of what was 'simple'or 'easy' is not, I am hearing a lot of subtlety that was missed in my youth.  

Edited June 25, 2023 by 3below

[Beedster]

Easy to overthink these things 

[tauzero]

On 24/06/2023 at 19:44, SteveXFR said:

We've decided to add a couple covers to our set insurance original metal band. Easy set filler we thought so we worked out a stoner metal version of maniac from flashdance (an obvious choice) and a punky version of Paranoid by Sabbath. 

Paranoid is about as easy as it gets. Every beginner rock guitarist and bassist learns it so why the hell am I playing it so badly? It should be the easiest song in our set.

Anyone else have trouble with a beginner standard tune? 

 

We started out as a five piece band. One of the factors in getting rid of one guitarist is that he could not play the intro to Paranoid, and despite me explaining to him what he was doing wrong (which included a wrong note) he couldn't get it right. That aside (the intro is pretty simple), the bass line has quite a few variations and I can just about play it with fingers at the original speed (I have fairly slow fingers).

[tauzero]

10 hours ago, gafbass02 said:

We have this with ‘Go your own way’, should be simple, but something always seems to stumble in that one. 

 

The bassline on that is another one that's not that simple, especially the timing round the start of the chorus.

[Gasman]

The challenge can sometimes be counting the number of times a hypnotic riff repeats before a radical change, like the 32 bar guitar solo spot in Sweet child of mine before the stop chords under ‘where do we go’. Concentration and counting is key, plus a readiness to follow if the singer comes in too early!

[uk_lefty]

Fully understand you! What I do is cheat and make the simple songs really complicated 😂. But on a serious note, look at the drummer, lock in, practice practice practice (or is it practise practise practise?). Paranoid isn't a song I'd play with a pick at normal speed, I'm more confident with my fingers for the string jumps and quick octaves I'd usually do with a thumb pluck and a finger reach.

 

Everybody wants to rule the world... When I started up an 80s band I really got into trying to merge bas sand synth lines to avoid bringing in a keyboard player. Felt that one really lent itself to fretless bass for a slide down in amongst the pulsing root notes. Didn't attempt the tinkly higher notes though, left that to the guitarist!