Alvaro Martín Gómez A.
08-20-2007, 12:21 PM
Hi everybody.
Due to a reinvigorated enthusiasm about playing with a tropical music band thanks to this (http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=349993), I started transcribing new music to expand the band's repertoire, as I used to do.
Unfortunately, most of new latin music is crap and the band's configuration isn't the most adequate to play that music, so adding new songs is something that doesn't occur so often nowadays.
Within that "crappy" music, there's a sub-genre known as "Tropi-pop", which features a young, handsome boy as the lead singer, plenty of acoustic and electric guitars as a background, fat and muddy basslines, latin and electronic percussion, a small brass section and accordion. It's a mix of several rhythms, mainly dominican Merengue, caribbean Soca and colombian Vallenato (ugh!). Recently, my bandmates told me that there's a Tropipop song which is a big hit and that I should transcribe it. I couldn't avoid to make an annoyed face when they told me that, but anyway I got the recording since it's a "big hit".
And, to my surprise, it turned out to be a really good song! Well, not a "work of art" but it's really enjoyable to me. In spite of the accordion (which I hate, but it has a comparatively discreet use here) and the singer's nasal voice, it is a really well done song with a very infectious groove, mainly courtesy of its bassline tied with the percussion section.
In all honesty, I can't remember when was the last time that I put so much practice time into a tropical tune. Most of the times I just listen to it, try to get the most characteristic parts of the bassline and then I do it my own way. But I was so impressed with this guy's playing (I'd like to know who is it) that I decided to learn this bassline note for note and took my time to transcribe it. Maybe I'm alone, but I feel it deserves a shot:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v639/alvabass/Latinbassline01.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v639/alvabass/Latinbassline02.jpg
The chord progression is just I-V-IV-V with some vi, iii and II7 here and there. I've already learned it in its entirety and I've been thinking of posting a play along video to show how to play it, but I'm not sure about how interesting it will be to the audiences (specially because of the accordion and the lead singer's voice). Again, maybe I'm alone, but this is a very interesting bassline in my opinion. I'd like to hear yours as well, at least from glancing it. :cool:
Due to a reinvigorated enthusiasm about playing with a tropical music band thanks to this (http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=349993), I started transcribing new music to expand the band's repertoire, as I used to do.
Unfortunately, most of new latin music is crap and the band's configuration isn't the most adequate to play that music, so adding new songs is something that doesn't occur so often nowadays.
Within that "crappy" music, there's a sub-genre known as "Tropi-pop", which features a young, handsome boy as the lead singer, plenty of acoustic and electric guitars as a background, fat and muddy basslines, latin and electronic percussion, a small brass section and accordion. It's a mix of several rhythms, mainly dominican Merengue, caribbean Soca and colombian Vallenato (ugh!). Recently, my bandmates told me that there's a Tropipop song which is a big hit and that I should transcribe it. I couldn't avoid to make an annoyed face when they told me that, but anyway I got the recording since it's a "big hit".
And, to my surprise, it turned out to be a really good song! Well, not a "work of art" but it's really enjoyable to me. In spite of the accordion (which I hate, but it has a comparatively discreet use here) and the singer's nasal voice, it is a really well done song with a very infectious groove, mainly courtesy of its bassline tied with the percussion section.
In all honesty, I can't remember when was the last time that I put so much practice time into a tropical tune. Most of the times I just listen to it, try to get the most characteristic parts of the bassline and then I do it my own way. But I was so impressed with this guy's playing (I'd like to know who is it) that I decided to learn this bassline note for note and took my time to transcribe it. Maybe I'm alone, but I feel it deserves a shot:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v639/alvabass/Latinbassline01.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v639/alvabass/Latinbassline02.jpg
The chord progression is just I-V-IV-V with some vi, iii and II7 here and there. I've already learned it in its entirety and I've been thinking of posting a play along video to show how to play it, but I'm not sure about how interesting it will be to the audiences (specially because of the accordion and the lead singer's voice). Again, maybe I'm alone, but this is a very interesting bassline in my opinion. I'd like to hear yours as well, at least from glancing it. :cool: