What song for Music GCSES?

[syt98]

Hello fellow bass players sorry for being such a stranger to this forum but I need some help,
I have a music examination for playing a piece of music which will be getting recorded soon "next few months I believe", but I am undecided on what piece to play however, the song has to be around 4 minutes or over and I need some suggestions, I don't want it to hard to play but I want it to sound quite reasonably interesting solo , I have around 1 year and 7 months worth of bass playing and I am quite good at playing Reggae and Ska basslines but these basslines can get repetitive which will be a problem.

Thank You so much
Peace out

[J-B'ass]

Off the top of my head, maybe something like Ramble On by Led Zeppelin would be good. If you've got some slap in you, then Aeroplane by Red Hot Chili Peppers doesn't stay on the same groove for too long at a time.

[syt98]

Thanks for the reply,
I always did like Led Zeppelin's basslines and RHCP's. I have been thinking about Total Hate by No Doubt, I may end up learning a variety of songs for 2 months and for the final month just polish off my technique ready for recording it.

[J-B'ass]

Sounds good. Don't wait too long, technique is something you can't rush. Knowledge you can cram the day before a test, technique isn't so kind.

Hope it goes well!

[syt98]

Cheers for advice J-B'ass
Happy bass playing

[Bassmanhopkins]

In dying days by As blood runs black?


Sounds really hard but it Makes you look like a pro, especially if you can play it with your fingers.
It has a couple changes and wierd positions but can be easily mastered with a bit of practice.
Hope this helps.

[richardzbaraski]

I actually played guitar for these, i did tehs tyle of psycedelic rock/funk rock .. can't beleive i could do it, but hendrix stuff and chilis got me full marks on difficulty and full marks everywhere else
ended up with an a* in music

[aidan784]

Yeah for some reason I played guitar aswell, really struggled trying to thing what to do on bass, originally recorded master of puppets with me playing bass but it came out rubbish.
Ended up doing stairway, yep its cliche, for my solo and fade to black for my ensemble, both on guitar. Advice I can give you is that it really doesn't need to be as difficult as you imagine, the drummer in my class did 'for whom the bell tolls' and got put in the top difficulty bracket if that gives any indication. My exams were AQA, what exam board are you with?

[Nic.]

If I wanted to play a song to showcase bass skills I would look at some Japanese rock, the rock bassists there like to show off melodic lines. Might not be your cup of tea but worth taking a look for technique development if nothing else.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hWLPXX6gHk
"Driver's High" by L'Arc, the bassline is really sweet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr1b5v7c4rQ
"Cage" by Dir En Grey, has an interesting bassline. Not extremely difficult, but rather interesting to play. Weird as hell PV though.