Playing the melody of a song.

[Corwin29]

In Jaco's modern bass video he says to always learn how to play the melody on bass. How can someone go about learning the melody

[elgecko]

1. Get a lead sheet of song

2. Read/play melody

3. Rinse and repeat

[GianGian]

When I do it, it is by ear. Simple as that.

[champbassist]

I can't really think of a better or simpler way to learn a song's melody than by ear.

[MalcolmAmos]

It all boils down to these choices:

1. Play from standard notation.
2. Play from tab.
3. Play by ear.
4. Place the major scale box pattern and then hunt and peck out the tune.
5. Combine 3 and 4 and write down what you found. Then .....
6. Put it to memory.

Pick one.... or two....

[ryco]

Learn to read treble clef and play off of the lead sheet.
Or pick the melody off of a recording by ear - if you can even tell what the melody is. This depends on the guy playing the melody. I've been trying this method for the past few months and it can be trying at times.

A little off topic. I was soloing the other day and the piano player lost his place. He asked me "When I get lost, why don't you play the melody?". I told him because I'm not fluent at reading treble clef. I told him I basically outline the chords and come up with phrases and passages out of that.

Maybe I should learn the melodies of a zillion pop standards over the last 60 years just to keep my accompanists on track.

[chrisbass0013]

+1 on the treble cleff/reading thing i find its a lot easier to find the music online or whatever if you're having trouble playing it by ear

[Jim Campbell]

Originally Posted by Corwin29

In Jaco's modern bass video he says to always learn how to play the melody on bass. How can someone go about learning the melody

start with simple stuff like dixie,or the star spangled banner.....just listen to one note at a time and listen if it goes higher or lower.....then trial and error.....after a while certain patterns will become apparent,and some of the stronger intervals will be easier to pick out...

[GianGian]

If you know the key of the song it will get considerably easier.

[Infidelity]

Solfege and learning the melodies by ear will help you.. Like they've said if you can sing a tune you can play it..

[Lobster11]

Originally Posted by Jim Campbell

start with simple stuff like dixie,or the star spangled banner.....just listen to one note at a time and listen if it goes higher or lower.....then trial and error.....after a while certain patterns will become apparent,and some of the stronger intervals will be easier to pick out...

What he said. It's not that hard to try to figure out melodies by experimentation, especially when they are relatively simple and already etched deeply into your memory. I find theme songs from old TV shows fit the bill nicely. Great ear training and actually lots of fun, especially as you get better at it. As an extra bonus, it comes in really handy sometimes, as when your guitar player is busy tuning between songs and you break into a rousing verse and chorus of the Addams Family theme. (Guaranteed to have the audience clapping along when you get to that part!)

Thanks for the thread, which reminds me that I haven't been doing this enough lately. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go finish working up "The Brady Bunch"....

[ArticulatedFeel]

Originally Posted by Infidelity

Solfege and learning the melodies by ear will help you.. Like they've said if you can sing a tune you can play it..

What if you can't sing?

[Lobster11]

Originally Posted by ArticulatedFeel

What if you can't sing?

Point taken. I can't sing very well myself -- at least, not out loud -- but I CAN sing perfectly inside my head.... and so can figure out how to play melodies that are IN THERE.

[Corwin29]

Thank you so much for all the great answers i will be trying treble cleff now

[JTE]

Learning the melody is absolutely no different than learning the bass line, or the guitar riff, or the sax line. There's 12 notes (plus the bends in between...), and so you can find the notes relative to each other no matter the octave.

John

[SPAZ5446]

"It's the most melodic way for a bass player to learn how to play, melodic bass lines... is by playing melodically within the bass." - Jaco Pastorius