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06-15-2010, 09:06 PM
| | | | How can I play more like Cliff Burton?
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I've been listening to classic Metallica a lot lately, and would like to play more like Cliff. Orion and (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth of course, but even stuff like For Whom The Bell Tolls and Master of Puppets. Does anyone have any practice tips to play more like Cliff?
On a side note, are there any modern players that remind you of Cliff?
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06-15-2010, 09:08 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2006 Location: North Houston | | | If you want to play like Cliff be original
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06-15-2010, 09:26 PM
| | | How do I do that? 
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"That's our band...Jamie's the talent, Stephen's the good looking one, and I'm the bassist." - Tony Skillman, Mass Action Incident
Metal Bassist Club Member #38
Mediocre Bassist Club Memeber #544
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06-15-2010, 09:32 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Albuquerque, nm | | | Distortion, hammer-ons, long hair, and a 'tude. Whoa nelly! |
06-15-2010, 09:36 PM
| | | | Smoke a ton of weed, drink lots of beer, listen to Geezer Butler. |
06-15-2010, 09:58 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2006 Location: North Houston | | | ...and renounce your mediocre club membership. Cliff would not abide.
Cop some licks and ideas but don't try to be someone else as a goal. It has far too many limits. It's like the guy I knew in high school who could play the "Eruption" guitar solo perfectly but couldn't write or do much of anything else worth a damn. Mimicry just isn't fun. However, learning a piece, say "pulling teeth" and mastering the techniques involved is a great exercise.
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06-16-2010, 06:41 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Portugal | | | You don't want to be like him. You can be better, everyone can, believe me. |
06-16-2010, 03:00 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: chicago | | like you want to play like him. what do you mean? did you watch some of his videos on youtube?
like playing fast, or like playing how?
maybe you just have to wear a dawn of the dead short, ripped pants. Left leg up on a speaker. Like this guy... http://inmetalitrust.files.wordpress...2/cliff110.jpg |
06-16-2010, 03:22 PM
| | | Quote:
Originally Posted by crow01  Left leg up on a speaker. Like this guy... | Meh. Steve Harris was doing that before anyone knew who Cliff Burton was. |
06-16-2010, 03:23 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Coeur d'Alene | | | Make your bass not sound like a bass.
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06-16-2010, 03:55 PM
|  | Bass players do it deeper. | | Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Kansas City | | | Distortion, Wah, and Bell Bottoms .... oh yeah, and a Skull Ring.
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06-16-2010, 09:39 PM
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Endorsing: Ampeg | | Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Apopka, FL | | | useless exercise in futility. you are not cliff burton, you will not sound like him no matter what you do because you are a different person. it's fine to study his playing and lift a few things he does, but don't waste your time trying to be a clone.
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06-17-2010, 12:03 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2007 Location: Catford, London | | Quote:
Originally Posted by JimmyM useless exercise in futility. you are not cliff burton, you will not sound like him no matter what you do because you are a different person. it's fine to study his playing and lift a few things he does, but don't waste your time trying to be a clone. | Ab. So. Lutely.
TSkills: Here's a possible future scenario... You've just belted out an awesome set at a venue somewhere & afterwards a friend of yours comes up & says either:
"Man that was awesome! You sounded just like Cliff!" or...
"Where I was stood I couldn't see very well, but I thought it was you up there - sounded like your style"
Which would you prefer? (Clue: the first response should only apply if you plan making a career in a Metallica Tribute Act).
Listen to a bucketload of different assorted stuff. Lift bits from here, there & everywhere - from complete lines to little four-note hooks - then let 'em stew in your head. Don't ask yourself "How would Cliff (or Jaco, or Geezer or Duck or whoever) play this", instead ask yourself "What can I come up with that both fits what the song needs and sounds good to me?". As your experience, knowledge & internal library of riffs, licks, hooks, scales etc. grows the easier it'll be to answer this in your own words.
Play like you - it's simultaneously fiendishly difficult & dead easy - the trick is to let it happen, not to force it. It won't happen overnight, next week or even next year - it's a continuous process. If I were ever to come & see you play, I'd want to hear you... not you pretending to be somebody else.
Pete.
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06-17-2010, 12:20 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Saint Augustine, Florida | | | Distortion pedals are good, along with wah. One of my favorite things I've seen him do was the intro to For Whom the Bell Tolls with a little improv solo attached. I didn't know you could bend a G that far that fast. Look up some of his solos and such on YouTube. |
06-17-2010, 12:31 AM
| | | why everybody today wants to sound like someone instead
of being someone... 
BE ORIGINAL!!!!
sure cliff is great but who told you can't be greater?
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06-17-2010, 12:40 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Zürich | | | One crucial component to the Cliff sound:
Misfits sleeveless.
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06-19-2010, 09:04 AM
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A&R, Soulless Corporation Records | | Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Round Rock, TX | | | I'm going to be the guy on neither side so far. What I would do is dissect what you like about his playing, be it his tone, his note choice, his speed, his looks, etc. Then take what you like about his playing, and combine that with YOU. there's a difference between having a role model, and trying to morph yourself into that person. | | Thread Tools | Search this Thread | | | | 
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