Is there a bass line that you just couldnt do?

[Mikey D]

There have only been two things I have struggled with that I have tried learning (of course there are more, but I haven't tried them! ) and they are:
The complete Port Of Entry including solo and that synth bass run in Speed Demon by the other Jacko.

Although, now I use four fingers on my right hand it would appear that the speed demon lick isn't as bad as I remember it to be from years ago...Time to get it up to speed.

Although, on upright, I am trying to transribe a lot fo NHOP at the moment...scary.

[Mikey D]

[quote name='bubinga5' post='66392' date='Sep 27 2007, 01:08 PM']Incognito's Jacobs Ladder is fairly hard.

Played by this master!![/quote]
One of my favourite basslines.

[Beneath It All]

[quote name='john_the_bass' post='66268' date='Sep 27 2007, 07:02 AM']we've (bizarrely) been asked to do a wedding in November and have to learn some covers. I'm struggling with going underground by the Jam and have resorted to winging it now - I've only spent about 5 hours on it and it's not bad, but I can't get the rhythms spot on - it shifts between 3/4, 4/4 and 5/4[/quote].... I was curious to hear of the tune shifting between 3 4 & 5 so I just downloaded it and had my first listen[of course I'd heard the track before without paying it much attention - not my bag etc....], and surprise,surprise - It never moves away from 4/4!!!....I guess you're being thrown by the bass intro, which actually starts on the & of beat 3....

[grosa]

close to the edge by yes when i was about 14 confused the hell out of my puny fingers

[alexclaber]

[quote name='Mikey D' post='68444' date='Oct 1 2007, 11:39 PM']...that synth bass run in Speed Demon by the other Jacko.[/quote]

That makes the turnaround riff in Havona seem slow!

Alex

[Chop]

I had all sorts of trouble with And Your Bird Can Sing off Revolver. Especially trying to do backing vocals over it at the same time....

[Mcflie]

+1 for YYZ... I can play it but nowhere near quick enough.

Also Phantom of the Opera by Iron Maiden, can play all the bits fine but still not at full speed!!! Linus and Lucy by Stu Hamm is a git as well!!! damn double hand tapping!

[Cantdosleepy]

[quote name='Chop' post='68550' date='Oct 2 2007, 10:45 AM']I had all sorts of trouble with And Your Bird Can Sing off Revolver. Especially trying to do backing vocals over it at the same time....[/quote]

I love that song.

I am rubbish at bass.

[JoeS]

At the moment, the intro to Day of the Baphomets by The Mars Volta has got me completely flummoxed. I can play the first 30 seconds no problem, but when Juan starts going off on one I just cannot keep up, and I can't see that changing any time soon.

[Bilbo]

I think there is a point to be made here.

Many of these monster bass lines/solos are played by people in an improvised setting. Take Jaco's 'Havona'. He didn't have to 'learn' that bass line as he had constructed his lines around the tunes he had written and used a couple of dozen of his own stock licks. Anyone who has spent any length of time listening to Jaco will know that he, like all musicians, repeats himself over and over, using his own signature licks to leave his mark on a piece. But it is important to note that much of what he does is made up on the spot ('Teen Town' being an obvious exception). It is actually a [b]lot[/b] harder to learn a passage that is played like that than it is to burn one of your own.

In a more conventional setting, someone like Bruce Foxton would have written a line that felt comfortable under his fingers and that he could play without too much difficulty. Noone in their right mind would compose a complex line for a song that he could pull off only 3/10 times. Someone once said 'amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong'. Geddy Lee plays that solo lick off 'YYZ' perfectly everytime. It can't be hard for him as a, he wrote it and b, he has played it 200 times a year ever since. But have you heard him crucify 'Girl From Ipanema'? Easiest song in the world and he f***s it up! Francis Prestia is known as THE finger style funk player but that's all he does. He can barely put together a jazz bass solo, probably can't play a fretless in tune and definately can't read music.

It is more important to play musically and to your strengths than it is to be able to execute every great line you have ever heard. Work on your technique, yes, but learn to play the music not the musicians! And don't get dispondent you can't pull off 'Red Right Returning' by Michael Manring. He probably can't play 'Ace of Spades' like Lemmy either (can you?).

[Beneath It All]

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='69378' date='Oct 4 2007, 10:05 AM']I think there is a point to be made here.

Many of these monster bass lines/solos are played by people in an improvised setting. Take Jaco's 'Havona'. He didn't have to 'learn' that bass line as he had constructed his lines around the tunes he had written and used a couple of dozen of his own stock licks. Anyone who has spent any length of time listening to Jaco will know that he, like all musicians, repeats himself over and over, using his own signature licks to leave his mark on a piece. But it is important to note that much of what he does is made up on the spot ('Teen Town' being an obvious exception). It is actually a [b]lot[/b] harder to learn a passage that is played like that than it is to burn one of your own.

In a more conventional setting, someone like Bruce Foxton would have written a line that felt comfortable under his fingers and that he could play without too much difficulty. Noone in their right mind would compose a complex line for a song that he could pull off only 3/10 times. Someone once said 'amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong'. Geddy Lee plays that solo lick off 'YYZ' perfectly everytime. It can't be hard for him as a, he wrote it and b, he has played it 200 times a year ever since. But have you heard him crucify 'Girl From Ipanema'? Easiest song in the world and he f***s it up! Francis Prestia is known as THE finger style funk player but that's all he does. He can barely put together a jazz bass solo, probably can't play a fretless in tune and definately can't read music.

It is more important to play musically and to your strengths than it is to be able to execute every great line you have ever heard. Work on your technique, yes, but learn to play the music not the musicians! And don't get dispondent you can't pull off 'Red Right Returning' by Michael Manring. He probably can't play 'Ace of Spades' like Lemmy either (can you?)...*********************You make some great points, particularly paragraphs 2&3..However, I think your take on Jaco is way off base [ no pun intended ]...I would contend that his tunes/solos were honed to the very last note,particularly Havona [ my fave bass line ]..I could accept that stuff like Come on Come over or The Chicken may be off the cuff and in fact maybe even Teen Town,as it's based on a simple 4 bar recurring motif of 13th chords but as for the rest of his stuff I suggest a lot of thought was involved and very little left to chance.....Where do Iget to hear Geddy Lee playing Ipanema?[/quote]

Edited October 4, 2007 by hipbass

[Johnny Wishbone]

Got a couple of days off work coming up soon - I've challenged myself to learn the bridge to Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke" in that time. Pretty sure I haven't got a hope in hell, but then I thought I'd never get the hang of Muse's "Hysteria" and that turned out to be a piece of p*ss after slowing it down and then building the speed up gradually.

I guess to an extent nothing is really impossible if you put the work in. Still don't fancy my chances with Sir Duke though!

[cockbongo]

I used to consider most of Les Claypool's stuff completely impossible to even consider trying. These days, after 15 years worth of listening to Primus, i'm ok with most of it.

However. I have *never* quite figured out what he plays in that two handed tapping phrase on "Professor Nutbutter's House of Treats". Nothing I do sounds *quite* right.

Sir Duke - just break it down into its "up" and "down" sections. It's much easier that way.

Edited October 4, 2007 by cockbongo

[fusionbassist1]

As my forum name might imply, I've spent a fair time trying to suck the essence of jaco out of his records but people like him aren't good because of the amount of notes they CAN play but because of the emotion, train of thought and feel the pieces they play and write have. I firmly believe that it's far more likely to see someone play chromatic fantasy faster than Jaco did (due ot the sophistication of modern bass playing techniques) than it is to ever see someone match the sensitivity in the '76 album version of Continuum and other similar tracks.

I have and never will get close to anything Victor Wooten has done, i've tried a few times at the "easier" bits of the 'A Show Of Hands' album. I just sit there for half an hour and end up saying to my self "you know what Ben, it'll take you a few years to get the techniques here down to a decent level of fluidity let alone get round to learning the piece 'as is'.........cuppa time?....I think so!" then go cry for a while.

edit....

"I think there is a point to be made here.

Many of these monster bass lines/solos are played by people in an improvised setting. Take Jaco's 'Havona'. He didn't have to 'learn' that bass line as he had constructed his lines around the tunes he had written and used a couple of dozen of his own stock licks. Anyone who has spent any length of time listening to Jaco will know that he, like all musicians, repeats himself over and over, using his own signature licks to leave his mark on a piece. But it is important to note that much of what he does is made up on the spot ('Teen Town' being an obvious exception). It is actually a lot harder to learn a passage that is played like that than it is to burn one of your own.

In a more conventional setting, someone like Bruce Foxton would have written a line that felt comfortable under his fingers and that he could play without too much difficulty. Noone in their right mind would compose a complex line for a song that he could pull off only 3/10 times. Someone once said 'amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong'. Geddy Lee plays that solo lick off 'YYZ' perfectly everytime. It can't be hard for him as a, he wrote it and b, he has played it 200 times a year ever since. But have you heard him crucify 'Girl From Ipanema'? Easiest song in the world and he f***s it up! Francis Prestia is known as THE finger style funk player but that's all he does. He can barely put together a jazz bass solo, probably can't play a fretless in tune and definately can't read music.

It is more important to play musically and to your strengths than it is to be able to execute every great line you have ever heard. Work on your technique, yes, but learn to play the music not the musicians! And don't get dispondent you can't pull off 'Red Right Returning' by Michael Manring. He probably can't play 'Ace of Spades' like Lemmy either (can you?)."

Very, very well said (Y). Music is a medium to be used for expression, not to be coppied from person to person IMO. But if u want to do something new, it's important know what's come before.

Edited October 4, 2007 by fusionbassist1

[Bilbo]

Geddy Lee refers briefly to Ipanema on 'Rush In Rio' - to be fair, his quote is ironic so perfect execution was never the priority but the point is made.

I knwo what is being said about Jaco's stuff - obviously the tunes are composed but the lines are improvised on the basis of familiarity with the groove, teh form, the intentions etc. My point is simply that constructing your own lines is very different to learning someone elses and that learning the lines played by others can take a lot longer because you are simultaneously learning to absorb a range of new techniques, scales, fingering patterns etc whilst also learning the piece.

I caution against learning stuff by people like Wooten. He is a supreme athelete and can groove like a Mother but the juggling and acrobatics he achieves on his bass are not that significant when you look at the music being played. It is entertainment not music (and, yes, there is a difference). A technically wizzy rendering of Amazing Grace is still only Amazing Grace, a cheesy hymn written by Englishman John Newton in 1772. I'd rather listen to it played a 1,000 other ways.

[16Again]

I'm really struggling to nail the bassline for Dead Kennedys track, Too drunk to f*ck!! My pinky just wont do what i want it to do

I spent years learning to play Hit me with your rythmn stick and managed to get a version of it going but it probably nowhere near what it's supposed to be like. i put it on youtube, but lookin at some of the bassists playing it on there....i'm crap at it. have a look if you like [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQki_sm-Bu4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQki_sm-Bu4[/url]

[Chezz55]

My three 'Mission Impossibles'

T-Connection - Do What You Wanna Do
Stevie Wonder - Sir Duke
Trammps - Disco Inferno

[Thunderthumbs]

[quote name='Chezz55' post='70672' date='Oct 7 2007, 02:54 PM']My three 'Mission Impossibles'

T-Connection - Do What You Wanna Do
Stevie Wonder - Sir Duke
Trammps - Disco Inferno[/quote]

My band's in the process of doing Disco Inferno, and to be quite honest, it's not as difficult as it sounds. And I've also sat and worked out Sir Duke just for my own gratification (although I might try and gently force the band to get it in the set at some point).

The key to both of them (like a lot of people on here say) is to work it out, or get the tabs from bassmasta.net or elsewhere, and just break it down into smaller components. Play those components along to a metronome at half to two-thirds the original speed, and slowly, but slowly, increase the speed. Eventually you'll find you'll piece it together nicely.

One for me was the bass part under the guitar solo in Lenny Kravitz's "Are You Gonna Go My Way". The phrases just feel unnatural. It's taken me hours, and it's only about 16 bars, not an entire song. But I've eventually cracked it.

I always tell the other guys in the band our rehearsals should be like 4 pieces of a jigsaw, we're all there to put our pieces together. That's pretty much the same approach I use to learning stuff. I work out small parts, and then piece them together.

Patience and practice is the key to it.

[7string]

I managed to work out the opening riff to the opening track of Dream Theater's latest release Systematic Chaos (In the presence of enemies Pt 1). I even wrote it down for a guitar-playing friend of mine..

It took a while but I really enjoyed working out this finger-twister. I don't know why, but I have to find something that really interests me to have a go at working it out....

Edited November 19, 2007 by 7string

[tauzero]

"Dance the night away" by the Mavericks. Because I'd slit my wrists if I had to play it as per original, all the way through the song...

[franzbassist]

I play in a disco tribute band and we play all the classic lines like "Disco Inferno", "Everybody Dance", "Ain't no Stoppin' Us Now". They all sound hard, but like anything the more you play them the easier they get. Plus a lot of the best basslines it's the [i]groove[/i] that makes them - "Sex Machine" for example - not a hard line in itself, but to nail the groove is another thing entirely. Same goes for the bass solo in "Le Freak".

Edited November 19, 2007 by walbassist

[Kiwi]

[quote name='Sean' post='68134' date='Oct 1 2007, 12:44 PM']I'll bet a month's cider budget that Stuart C can![/quote]
Its possible to do it double thumbing, but it doesn't sound the same as 'chucking' it like 'Nard did. Keep a pack of plasters nearby, you'll probably need them...

...or just use a pick like any sane person would

For me:

Eyes Waterfalling - Level 42

plus anything by
John Patitucci
Jaco (apart from Portrait of Tracey)
Victor Wooten and pretty much any other modern day Bass God.

I have enough fun trying to copy Bernards feel on I Want Your Love - man, in a band setting that is one TOUGH song to play with the same relaxed precision and yet still mix it up like he does. He doesn't play the same riff twice through a verse but still stays right there in the pocket despite injecting subtle twists into the groove.

Its playing like that which I tend to find inspiration these days rather than lots of fancy fingerwork.

Just means I'm crap at showing off though. Can't solo to save myself.

[Thunderthumbs]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned James Jamerson.

Just have a peek through Standing In The Shadows Of Motown and you'll find a dozen blistering bass lines.

For Once In My Life
Home Cookin
Darling Dear

to name just a few.

Take Darling Dear (Jackson 5) as an example. Apart from the opening few bars, there's virtually no repeating of anything through the rest of the song. Take away the rest of the song, and the bass line on its own is an amazing melody.

[Bassclef]

A few others have mentioned YYZ, that's one song I really struggle with. There is an accurate tab available. For me the combination of right-hand speed and sheer memory to play it all ... phew!

[MB1]

[quote name='Bass_In_Yer_Face' post='66222' date='Sep 26 2007, 11:38 PM']I've always been flabbergasted by Norman Watt Roy on "Hit Me With Your Rythmn Stick"

Having seen the guys on youtube playing it, I can safely say that if I played till I was 100 years old I still couldn't play it! [/quote]

MB1.

Theres quite a few! but i prefer not to play them!