Immigrant Song - octaves or not?

[snoopyjc]

Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song - verse - does the bass play the F# octave, or does it rest - it's hard for me to hear, though it sounds like a rest to me. What do you think? (vote)

Thanks!

--joe http://www.simple-groove.com/

Octave:
      e   s   s   s   e       e   s   s   s   e        5x               
||-----------------------------------------------------||---------------
||*---------------4-----------------------4-----------*||---------------
||*---------------------------------------------------*||---------------
||----2---2---2-------2---x---2---2---2-------2---x----||---------------

Rest:
      e   s   s   s   e       e   s   s   s   e        5x               
||-----------------------------------------------------||---------------
||*---------------------------------------------------*||---------------
||*---------------------------------------------------*||---------------
||----2---2---2-------2---x---2---2---2-------2---x----||---------------

[I-Love-Ratm]

I dont think it matters man.i think during the verse he plays open e not he plays Fsharp for the intro though.I could be wrong though

[IvanMike]

for the love of god play the octave
do yourself a favor - find you a copy of sarsippius' ark by the infectious grooves and listen to the cover of the immagrant song - esp the intro

[snoopyjc]

Originally Posted by IvanMike

for the love of god play the octave
do yourself a favor - find you a copy of sarsippius' ark by the infectious grooves and listen to the cover of the immagrant song - esp the intro

That cover sounds pretty cool, but I'm trying to play it like the original. If you listen to the original, the bass doesn't even come in until the first change down to E, and like I said, I don't think he plays the octave.
--joe

[johnvice]

I don't have it in front of me but in one of John Paul Jones' columns in Guitar World Bass Guitar mag, he makes reference to this and includes a transcription snippet of how he played it. It is octaves. (He also uses a pick.)

On the live CD (How The West Was Won), the song is extended with a guitar solo and JPJ is definitely playing octaves.

[lowendgod]

it is deffinately octaves...... my theory if you are ever in doubt always use an octave : )

[heath_the_great]

definately octaves....the infectious grooves cover is awesome....i plan on suggesting that to my band at next rehersal....mmmm...immigrant slapping

[andrewd]

the first time through it sounds like a rest, but during the second it sounds more like octaves

change it up a bit.

[jongor]

Isn't it F, not F#?

[SlavaF]

It's F#... 2nd fret on the E string.

[quatre03]

hit the octave and tap the E|-2

[Matt Till]

Octave. I discovered I'm not fast enough to play this?! Wow, my fingerstyle sucks. But not surprisingly I can play the Infectious Grooves version.

[jammadave]

^^^ Blob alert! Matt must be A Boy.

Anyways, I always octave this one, then again I always slap it. I keep the tone thick like it should be for the song tho, I don't go for the slap tone. I always lose ground going into the "chorus" part''s bass run tho, by the third line (when it goes up in key) my fingers start tripping over each other.

[johnvice]

Originally Posted by Matt Till

Octave. I discovered I'm not fast enough to play this?! Wow, my fingerstyle sucks. But not surprisingly I can play the Infectious Grooves version.

Matt, before you say "my fingerstyle sucks" consider that this is a hard song to play. There's no fancy technqiues to learn, just good old fashioned speed!

This is a great song to pratice for speed. Once you get a handle on the rapid octaves in the verse, the chorus is harder: JPJ is playing 2 ascending scales each bar, that's 16th notes.

Slow down your playing and have fun before you take it up to killer speed.

[snoopyjc]

Thanks for all of the responses so far - yeah, I'm also not "fast enough" to play the octaves properly, but I didn't really hear them being played - which was the reason for my post. I can probably "get it" with some practice!

I also am leaving some of the notes out on the chorus, too, rather than trying to trip over the 16ths. I play it like this:
A C# E F#-A x2
B D# F# G#-B x2
C E G A-C x2
C E G-A-A#-B-C

(where notes without '-' are 8ths, with '-' are 16ths)

I realize I'm "cheating", but it sounds OK.

--joe

[heath_the_great]

in a recent lesson with JPJ he talk about using scales as riffs and what not...the chorus is

A mixolydian x2
B mixolydian x2
then
C Mixolydian x 1
then he plays a seccond C Mixolydian but adds a chromatic passing tone which passes the C into the next bar

C Mixolydian
|-----------------------------
|--------------------7--9--10
|----------7--8--10----------
|---8---10--------------------

C Mixolydian with passing tone

|---------------------------|--------
|--------------------7-8-9--|--10---
|----------7--8--10---------|-------
|---8---10------------------|-------

[Matt Till]

Originally Posted by johnvice

Matt, before you say "my fingerstyle sucks" consider that this is a hard song to play. There's no fancy technqiues to learn, just good old fashioned speed!

This is a great song to pratice for speed. Once you get a handle on the rapid octaves in the verse, the chorus is harder: JPJ is playing 2 ascending scales each bar, that's 16th notes.

Slow down your playing and have fun before you take it up to killer speed.

Which is why JPJ is the man! But actually one of my main regrets as a bassist is I've put too much attention into slap, and I'm having to pay for it. I get the "you're better than Les Claypool (B.S.)" line now and then... but I think I'd prefer the "you're better than Geddy Lee (B.S.)" line.

^^^ Blob alert! Matt must be A Boy.

[Tedintheshed]

Octave for sure.


There is a lot of good advice on this thread, but don't forget this song also grooves.

What I mean is that yes, you play the octave but your have to be precise and let the be some air between the notes. This is what helps give the song groove.

Ted

[vegaas]

I play this song with Albatross. I can nail it, but by the end my plucking hand starts to kill me. It gets very hard to keep the groove at the end of the song when your plucking hand is going numb. The guitar player knows this and will purposely extend his guitar solo when we are playing a gig.
Its all in good fun, but I have made one rule. We will never again start the night with this song. I tried to warm up as best I could, but that was pure hell.

Oh, and yes, play the octave!

[wolfhound]

This is one of the songs JPJ used a pick. In one of his columns he said he used whatever fingerstyle / pick method he thought was best for the song.