Stuff You Think You Can Play

[Pete Academy]

[quote name='JMT3781' post='807806' date='Apr 15 2010, 11:06 PM']how about the unison run in "gaslighting abbie" off two against nature? i spent a long time mastering it for my dissertation performnce.. but dropped when the keys and guitar simply couldnt work out the harmony parts.. have ended up was a very funked up version of josie

i bet if i go back to it now the'll be no chance i can play it, it was always the last phrase that gave me troubles, just some very awkward hand positions, at least where i played it anyway lol, any ideas on that front?[/quote]

That part in Gaslighting took some practising, as the note structure was unfamiliar to me. The whole song was hard to nail.

[urb]

[quote name='Bilbo' post='807650' date='Apr 15 2010, 09:08 PM']Teen Town, Donna Lee, Joe Frazier, Bach, Dixe - tried them all, got nearly there with them all but never hit a home run. To be frank, I know I could if I spent the time with them but what's the point? I even learned Parker's Passport as an alternative to Donna Lee but have never got it down to my own satisfaction.

Got a Match by Chick Corea is another one I never nailed.[/quote]

I'm with you there Bilbo - I seem to be able to play Donna Lee better when doing it with another lead player - keys or sax - and I have actually played it live a couple of times but I was just noodling around again today with it and it was horrible... I take heart in the fact that Laurence Cottle once said to me "Oh yeah Donna Lee, that's really hard to phrase properly..." so it must be bad if even he finds it tricky - Got A Match is nasty as well...

M

[throwoff]

Bullet in the head by Rage

I know it flawlessly but no matter how many times I play it I religious bum at least one of the picked double notes

winds me up

[Paul S]

[quote name='bubinga5' post='807833' date='Apr 15 2010, 11:23 PM']Rhythm Stick is awsome...wonderfull bass line..i could listen to it all day...fairly simple really, those 16th's over changes are the bugger...awsome bass player...[/quote]

Awesome is right. i saw The Blockheads again last Saturday at Edmonton. The guy is a legend.

I am trying to get to grips with it using a pick - no way could I move my fingers that quickly - it is neither easy nor sounding correct. Also trying to learn Muse's 'Hysteria' and am still at the stage where my fingers seem intent on trying each other into knots when doing the passage in E - you know the bit when it bounces between the open E, 12th fret E and the G on the A string. Should I stick to Status Quo?

[Simon.]

'That' section in the middle of the chorus on She Caught the Katy. I have the tab, I have the sheet music. I just can not nail the timing of it. Grrrr.

[4000]

[quote name='Paul S' post='808138' date='Apr 16 2010, 10:39 AM']Awesome is right. i saw The Blockheads again last Saturday at Edmonton. The guy is a legend.

I am trying to get to grips with it using a pick -- it is neither easy nor sounding correct.[/quote]

This is the issue I have. Many of these things I could certainly go away and learn in terms of right notes/right tempo, but that is nothing like playing the piece [i]correctly[/i]. The correct feel is everything, and with the Jaco-esque stuff (and Norman himself will tell you that's what Rhythm Stick is) I just can't nail it at all.

[thisnameistaken]

I never got Teen Town down properly either. I got to a stage where after a good hour's warm-up I could almost play it, then came to terms with the fact I was never going to be a virtuoso instrumentalist.

[thunderbird13]

I had to learn Aqualung for an audition in Jan. Fortuneatly the audition was cancelled but I'm still struggle to play the middle section where it speeds up properly

I should add that what makes it more annoying is that its the same notes and the same riff - just using 1/8 notes instead of 1/4 notes

Edited April 16, 2010 by thunderbird13

[JTUK]

Some thing fit and some don't.

Don't worry about it 99% of the time as I don't cop basslines anyway.

For the little practice things that trip me up...well, I keep that to myself anyway..

[4000]

I was never interested in playing Teen Town or Donna Lee to be honest. Whilst probably good technical exercises I'm not sure I ever saw the point of learning to play them other than to say you could. Unless of course you're in a Jaco tribute band.

[JakeBrownBass]

Bela Fleck & the flecktones - Stomping Grounds,

No matter what i do my fingers always seem to tie themselves in knots after the first verse!!

[ahpook]

one of my band's songs...

there's something about what i'm playing that won't gel, and it's driving me mad tbh.

gig on friday, better sort it soon

: :wacko:

[Brother Jones]

I tried to figure out Rhythm Stick for months and months, but the little pedal notes in the verse part kept tripping me up. I can play it pretty much spot on now after a miraculous rainy Sunday afternoon two or three years ago when I finally figured out what he was doing. Great fun to play live - just don't have too many drinks beforehand.

Most of Sir Duke is quite straightforward - except for the famous horn break, which is a total bastard to learn (especially the timing at the end), but great fun to play. I could play Teen Town when I was, er, a teenager, but am pretty rusty with it now - unless you play that regularly it tends to go and you forget which section comes next.

One thing I can never really nail is the intro to 'Hair' by Larry Graham with the little slides and greasy timing....

What these lines have in common, and why I try to learn them, is that they're different ways of looking at the fretboard, as opposed to the usual, cliche'd things I come up with when I'm being lazy and plateau-ing. For example, a lot of the Stevie Wonder lines (possibly because they're written on a keyboard) have things in them that make you think 'that just shouldn't work there', but they do.

[WonderHorse]

Several Rush songs.

YYZ being a good example. I can play everything apart from the really fast main riff.
Also I think it's Red Barchetta where there's several parts it changes time signature and I can't get my head around it.

[bottlebassman]

I have learnt to play rhythm stick - but only at half the speed! No matter what I do when i speed it up it all goes pear shaped in the verses!

[davidmpires]

[quote name='Musicman20' post='807673' date='Apr 15 2010, 09:29 PM']Ocean Colour Scene - Riverboat song. Not so difficult, but constant playing of the main riff makes my wrist ache like mad...and thats with correct hand positioning. Ive only played it 8-10 times though with this new band, so time to progress.[/quote]

we play that almost every gig, i find that shifting the position every so often it relives the stress on your hand.

I used to have that playing "paradise" by Sade.

[xilddx]

There's a part in Tempus Fugit by Yes I simply cannot work out to my satisfaction. It's the part that comes out of the version of the main riff he does an octave lower, in the verses. It goes E F# G A. The run is so easy in theory, but Chris Squire's doing something so liquid with those notes that I'm convinced there are other notes that are kind of ghosted, but I can't get close to it. It's the oiliest, greasiest bit of bass I can remember hearing and he does it slightly differently every time. The riff everyone loves in that number is child's play next to that ostensibly dead simple little run. Amazing.

[Conan]

Just remembered another one. "Fools rush in" by Bow wow wow. Yes, I know all the notes, and can play it pretty accurately at about three-quarter speed.... but that's it! Just far too bloody fast - and how is he so accurate? Incredible - a real one off, Leroy Gorman!

[mgibson]

For me I can never quite get this little run down on 'The Girls' by Calvin Harris, it sounds fine, but I'm just never happy with it...

[Sue]

[quote name='silddx' post='811702' date='Apr 19 2010, 07:24 PM']There's a part in Tempus Fugit by Yes I simply cannot work out to my satisfaction. It's the part that comes out of the version of the main riff he does an octave lower, in the verses. It goes E F# G A. The run is so easy in theory, but Chris Squire's doing something so liquid with those notes that I'm convinced there are other notes that are kind of ghosted, but I can't get close to it. It's the oiliest, greasiest bit of bass I can remember hearing and he does it slightly differently every time. The riff everyone loves in that number is child's play next to that ostensibly dead simple little run. Amazing.[/quote]

I saw him play this from the front row at the Birmingham gig of their last tour - it was awesome!

[Bilbo]

[quote name='silddx' post='811702' date='Apr 19 2010, 07:24 PM']There's a part in Tempus Fugit by Yes I simply cannot work out to my satisfaction. It's the part that comes out of the version of the main riff he does an octave lower, in the verses. It goes E F# G A. The run is so easy in theory, but Chris Squire's doing something so liquid with those notes that I'm convinced there are other notes that are kind of ghosted, but I can't get close to it. It's the oiliest, greasiest bit of bass I can remember hearing and he does it slightly differently every time. The riff everyone loves in that number is child's play next to that ostensibly dead simple little run. Amazing.[/quote]

Are you playing it with a pick?

[xilddx]

[quote name='Bilbo' post='812267' date='Apr 20 2010, 09:45 AM']Are you playing it with a pick?[/quote]
I am, Bilbo. I use a similar pick to his, and a similar technique where he uses the flesh of his thumb on the string aswell.

I have studied the TF promo video, but that's miming and his finger movements don't look quite right, although I can't understand why that should be. I have listened to a tracking session where the bass is very clear, but he does it differently, the main notes of the run are on the off beats in that earlier version, which also sounds ace. I've watched recent videos of him playing it live but it is hard to see, hear, and he seems to be playing it slightly differently.

The album version sounds like he's sliding down then up to the next note and so on, but at that speed it is very difficult and it doesn't sound like a sensible approach. Whenever I learn someone else's lines, I try to think like that player, almost no-one is going to do something using a very difficult technique for only one song. It would probably be something they do fairly often, a finger memory technique. Except this is perplexing me. I simply can't work it out.