• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join freeLog in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Request Beginnings by Chicago

Yes I know the text versions are on Big Bass Tabs, but I like the Songsterr style with normal rhythm notation. I can also read standard bass clef notation. Anyone have Songsterr style, Guitar Pro, or standard bass clef versions?
 
Here is the bass line in standard notation- handwritten and rough. Two of three pages have survived the years. The third page floated away on a river of beer.

I generated this transcription for my own use. It is probably unfit for public consumption. I wouldn't post it but for your specific request.

I have since learned how to use MuseScore and my transcriptions are much neater, and safer, now.
But I suspect that I actually learned more, and retained more, when I took the the time and effort to write it out by hand. I have never needed that missing page.
 

Attachments

Yes I know the text versions are on Big Bass Tabs, but I like the Songsterr style with normal rhythm notation. I can also read standard bass clef notation. Anyone have Songsterr style, Guitar Pro, or standard bass clef versions?

Tom Read has one for this song on his site:
https://www.tomreadbass.co.uk/transcriptions-b

I used it to make my "bass custom" of Beginnings for Rocksmith. The PDF is not perfect, but it will get you close.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Eric Nelson
Here is the bass line in standard notation- handwritten and rough. Two of three pages have survived the years. The third page floated away on a river of beer.

I generated this transcription for my own use. It is probably unfit for public consumption. I wouldn't post it but for your specific request.

I have since learned how to use MuseScore and my transcriptions are much neater, and safer, now.
But I suspect that I actually learned more, and retained more, when I took the the time and effort to write it out by hand. I have never needed that missing page.
Very intro.

VeryIntro.PNG


Just the first 4 measures of the bass-line in WUTP's mind.

Intro.PNG
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: JimK
Great ear! see 1:33 and 2:44

Remember Cream's "Badge"? This was an early one we covered in one of my HS garage bands. I played the opening figure across the E-A-D strings. Still a beginner, I thought playing things "in position" was always correct & proper.
Decades later, I see a transcription of "Badge" with the TAB. The TAB had the opening figure using only the E & A strings. I revisited the tune (with more seasoned ears this time) & it is obvious Bruce is playing it like the guy TAB'd it.
 
The stuff that if you do write it out would make the transcription almost unreadable(?). :)

It's an interesting statement/question.
All bass-lines of the "easy-listening" music - Pop, Rock, Disco, Reggae, R&B, Soul, etc... are pattern-based.
(And, yes, they have elements of "noodling", variations, compositional development, etc...)

A pattern - as an initial template of this/that specific/particular Groove, its rhythmic idea, its dynamic articulation, the bass player's idiosyncratic understanding about that Groove, etc...
That pattern - as some basic foundation that I need to be able to reproduce close to perfection (if that's my purpose), or establish my own idiosyncratic "vision" of a new rendition of Groove.
Without getting too much in the weeds, the example from my previous post, tells me that -

I need to learn how to play that B note - either syncopated or not, (and I myself could variate it without even strictly following the original bass-line.)

I need to know that, on a regular basis, the bass slides from Fnatural (or even E as mistake) to F# in the first part of the measure, and does not slide in the second part of the measure.

I need remember that before any repetition of the pattern, I need to emphasize that Music Rest.

I can talk about this or any other bass-lines, but to sum up.

From my personal experience, that serious knowledge of the "basic/initial" foundation (template) will always allow me to play it comfortably, independently of any circumstances.
In my music world, I would teach a beginner bass player how to properly perform the initial Groove template - one/two, etc...- measure long, instead of chasing some "maybe, or, maybe..." notes that are not too important, not too significant, etc...
On the other hand, I've mentioned numerous times, transcribing a bass-line is, more or less, my "hobby" (like working in the garden, playing video games etc...)
 
  • Like
Reactions: JimK and LeeNunn