Aha moment

[mjnyc]

As a beginner, I love these periodic aha moments when something becomes clear.

Trying to learn the bass line for Barracuda. Sort of able to do it, but was getting mixed up a lot and struggling.

I've been printing out the notes/tab using GuitarPro. Decided to clean up the printout by making the various sections start aligned on the left side of page. All of a sudden the similarities between sections (like Verse 1 and Verse 2, or Chorus 1,2 and 3) leap out of the page, along with the minor differences between them. It's suddenly much easier to learn. I can make note of stuff like "Chorus 1, 2 and 3 differ by the first and last 2 bars". And I guess if I only learned one of the variants, I could plug it in for all of them and it would still be playable.

Best of all, it makes the structure of the song understandable to me for the first time. Love it.

Michael

 

[bholder]

Today's Aha moment sponsored by:

 

[mjnyc]

Today's Aha moment sponsored by:

?

But love it!

mj

 

[bholder]

?

But love it!

mj

Oh just my usual thread-derailing riffing on pop culture references, nevermind me hehe.

 

[mjnyc]

Ohhh
The band was A-Ha
Now I get it.
Doh.

 

[two fingers]

As a beginner, I love these periodic aha moments when something becomes clear.

Trying to learn the bass line for Barracuda. Sort of able to do it, but was getting mixed up a lot and struggling.

I've been printing out the notes/tab using GuitarPro. Decided to clean up the printout by making the various sections start aligned on the left side of page. All of a sudden the similarities between sections (like Verse 1 and Verse 2, or Chorus 1,2 and 3) leap out of the page, along with the minor differences between them. It's suddenly much easier to learn. I can make note of stuff like "Chorus 1, 2 and 3 differ by the first and last 2 bars". And I guess if I only learned one of the variants, I could plug it in for all of them and it would still be playable.

Best of all, it makes the structure of the song understandable to me for the first time. Love it.

Michael

Man, I'm excited for you! Having done this so long now, those big aha moments are less and less frequent. But I vaguely remember the feeling of unlocking the secrets of the fretboard and song forms early on.

Enjoy the ride!

 

[bassinflorida]

Man, I'm excited for you! Having done this so long now, those big aha moments are less and less frequent. But I vaguely remember the feeling of unlocking the secrets of the fretboard and song forms early on.

Enjoy the ride!

I think you can look forward to this experience again if you are still playing at 69

 

[mjnyc]

Lol.
Make that 79.

I'm 71 now. After a 50 year break from playing guitar I retired 3 years ago, took up electric guitar for a year and switched to electric bass almost a year ago. Best thing I did.

Michael

 

[Malcolm35]

Most of us started on something besides bass. Banjo for me. Clawhammer and Dixie land, then 6 string acoustic guitar, electric 6 string, keyboard, fiddle, clarinet then bass.

Once I got to bass that became my go to instrument. Just something about the bass.....

Many aha moments on that journey.

 

[tshapiro]

Give yourself another A-ha moment and do some riffing in G major. Then slide up 2 frets and riff on A Dorian (same pattern as A minor but with a major 6th).

 

[Huw Phillips]

Excellent happy for your progress, I am 3 years in and those aha moments make it all worth while nailing a rhythm is so satisfying enjoy

 

[Meenkya]

Thats awesome! Had my first "ah ha" recently, wrapping my head around the root and fifth. The fretboard came alive! (a little bit, lol)

 

[mjnyc]

Just to add to this, I joined an Adult Rock group (at the NYC school of rock).
First meeting was yesterday.
This was the first time I played with others.
Most fun I've had in a very long time.

Michael

 

[Killing Floor]

Today's Aha moment sponsored by:

It's been about 38 years. Think he's trying to find a way out of that cartoon by now?

 

[bholder]

It's been about 38 years. Think he's trying to find a way out of that cartoon by now?

They actually do a very nice, more restrained and poignant version of the song now - he's finally given up on those high notes (I might like this version better than the original even):

 

[IamGroot]

As a beginner, I love these periodic aha moments when something becomes clear.

Trying to learn the bass line for Barracuda. Sort of able to do it, but was getting mixed up a lot and struggling.

I've been printing out the notes/tab using GuitarPro. Decided to clean up the printout by making the various sections start aligned on the left side of page. All of a sudden the similarities between sections (like Verse 1 and Verse 2, or Chorus 1,2 and 3) leap out of the page, along with the minor differences between them. It's suddenly much easier to learn. I can make note of stuff like "Chorus 1, 2 and 3 differ by the first and last 2 bars". And I guess if I only learned one of the variants, I could plug it in for all of them and it would still be playable.

Best of all, it makes the structure of the song understandable to me for the first time. Love it.

Michael

Here's another way to think out of the box (see attachment). Very accurate and useful for band situations where you don't rehearse, just gig. I pulled the bassline out which normally goes under the vocals to avoid copyright issues.

I used this as an example because the song doesnt go by an even number of bars. As a matter of fact, they chopped a measure out in one spot (M143) which most of the transcribers miss.

 

[Huw Phillips]

Thats awesome! Had my first "ah ha" recently, wrapping my head around the root and fifth. The fretboard came alive! (a little bit, lol)

For me it was a huge moment when I connected 1/3 and 1/5s on the fretboard and box shapes enjoy

 

[mjnyc]

Here's another way to think out of the box (see attachment). Very accurate and useful for band situations where you don't rehearse, just gig. I pulled the bassline out which normally goes under the vocals to avoid copyright issues.

I used this as an example because the song doesnt go by an even number of bars. As a matter of fact, they chopped a measure out in one spot (M143) which most of the transcribers miss.

 

[mjnyc]

Great song and great sheet to work from.
Did you create this sheet from scratch, does it come from a downloadable source or did you use some resources like UltimateGuitar or Songsterr to generate it?

Michael

 

[IamGroot]

Great song and great sheet to work from.
Did you create this sheet from scratch, does it come from a downloadable source or did you use some resources like UltimateGuitar or Songsterr to generate it?

Michael

Created the sheet from scratch in Excel the first time, then just paste/edit for each new song. Share by email with band members who edit in bright red if they want to change something.

You are not seeing the whole sheet due to copyright issues.

We only do sheets when there is something we screw up. Otherwise, its no sheet or a quick sheet with just the tricky parts. If somebody screws up a song on stage, the penalty is they have to make the sheet. Guess who screwed up "Footloose".

Believe it or not, I've done a lot of ZZ Top quick charts because I go off in a trance waiting for the guitar solo to end. Now I know exactly how many measures the solo last lasts and just count measures while dreaming about the cutey in the second row.