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Advice on playing old guitar instrumentals, Shadows, Spotnicks, Ventures?

A

AlexanderB

Feb 25, 2007
4,204
2,183
Sweden
#1
I will be rehearsing a number of old guitar instrumentals (Spotnicks, Shadows etc) and try to cop a decent version of the bass lines. However, I find the bass playing to be fairly odd and not at all easy to "get". To me, many intervals, riffs and phrases and rythms frankly sound "wrong". Not "jazz complicated", just odd.

Although I have heard the popular songs like, Apache, Amapola, Nivram, Little B etc, the bass in those have left no imprint at all! (With other classic songs by old bands like Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, ZZ Top, Eagles etc, I know more or less every bass note played.) And now I need to learn a bit more obscure guitar songs...

Can anyone recommend a way to embrace the way of playing guitar instrumentals? Are there any sources for arrangements, isolated bass tracks etc?

Thanks in advance?
 
#2
I've played in The Shadows tribute band few years ago. It was fun for a while but I found out that I prefer music with vocals (and with audience ;))
​
Before leaving band I made bass cover videos to help them with a new bassist. It might be useful to you (although there are some bad notes also but it was all recorded in one long take)
The Shadows Bass covers - YouTube
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I had to listen every song many times to memorize it, and it was much easier after each practice, when I felt a song with a band. Also, it helped if song has lyrics that I could follow in my head.
​
Instrumentals are easy if you play tribute note-for-note style because you can easy practice with original recordings.

Have fun!​
 
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#3
Torrente Cro said:
I've played in The Shadows tribute band few years ago. It was fun for a while but I found out that I prefer music with vocals (and with audience ;))
​
Before leaving band I made bass cover videos to help them with a new bassist. It might be useful to you (although there are some bad notes also but it was all recorded in one long take)
The Shadows Bass covers - YouTube
​
I had to listen every song many times to memorize it, and it was much easier after each practice, when I felt a song with a band. Also, it helped if song has lyrics that I could follow in my head.
​
Instrumentals are easy if you play tribute note-for-note style because you can easy practice with original recordings.

Have fun!​
Click to expand...

THANKS!!!! I am very glad you did all those recordings, as they match so well what I am looking for! This can sometimes be a fantastic place.

Happy new year!
 
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#7
In addition to learning the parts as discussed above, the best advice I could offer with regard to making an instrumental sound cohesive as a bassist is to listen carefully to your drummer and take pains to play in sync rather that become so concerned with execution of note-for-note parts that your playing becomes robotic.
 
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#8
Lowbrow said:
In addition to learning the parts as discussed above, the best advice I could offer with regard to making an instrumental sound cohesive as a bassist is to listen carefully to your drummer and take pains to play in sync rather that become so concerned with execution of note-for-note parts that your playing becomes robotic.
Click to expand...

This is very true.
Many times I learn my part from recording and re-learn it when playing with my drummer.
 
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#10
Small world. I played in a Shadows cover band as well. If I had to do it all over again, I'd use Spotify and my Amazing Slow Downer app to isolate the bass a little better. Even then, the bass is often so buried you'll just have to make your best guess.

The guitarists was an expert on Hank Marvin and all things Shadows, so I deferred to his wisdom and ended up playing a P-bass with flatwounds and using a pick mostly downstrokes. It made a very plunky vintage sound that I was not used to, but ended up sounding great.
 
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#11
As you are both well experienced in the style, do you agree with me regarding the "odd" way the bass lines are structured?

Not like rock (neither riff nor blues based), not like folk (Searchers, mamas and the papas) not like most pop of its time (Beach boys, ABBA), not jazzy (circle of fifths or blues).
I find no other style that has these strange bass lines.
 
#12
AlexanderB said:
As you are both well experienced in the style, do you agree with me regarding the "odd" way the bass lines are structured?

Not like rock (neither riff nor blues based), not like folk (Searchers, mamas and the papas) not like most pop of its time (Beach boys, ABBA), not jazzy (circle of fifths or blues).
I find no other style that has these strange bass lines.
Click to expand...

You tare right. I feels to me that every bass line has a melody of its own. They are usually not simple 1-5 stuff, but knowing harmony helps a lot.
Maybe some bass lines are composed on piano, there are lot of thirds and stuff not so commonly used by bassists.
 
#13
The Shadows are all over the map, I suspect much of it due to working with Cliff Richards who indulged a wide range genres. This I guess means that the bass player had to play things out of his wheelhouse, so he approximated a style as best he could which resulted in charming oddities.

I'll tell you the one that really threw me was 36-24-36:



That straight, not swingy, playing just seems so alien. So I played it exactly like the record then the guitarist said ahh, just swing it. It's too weird straight.
 
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