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Brown Eyed Girl

#61
When I joined my current band two years ago I had to learn a lot of songs really quickly. BEG was one of the toughest, I had to work through tabs to figure it out. We still play it and it is still one of the toughest workouts I have. But if we were all honest about I don't like this song and he doesn't like that one we would not have a set list of 70+ songs.

On another note, check out Drift Away. It is a great song and it is one of those we found that we could run through it once or twice at practice and then gig it and have it sound like we spent a ton of time on it. And people love it. Great song!!
 
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#67
Any bassline that isn't just root notes, I'll learn note for note just so I'm comfortable with it. Once I've got it down, I'll play with it a bit but I try to be exact on the initial learning. If I didn't do it that way, we would've never figured out our guitarist was playing suffragette city wrong.
 
#70
Just throwing this out there.....
As a guy who does weddings and corporates, and has limited time, I wouldn't spend over 5 hours on a simple tune like BEG. It's just not an effective use of my time. IMO, that amount of time should be spent on learning songs with more complex arrangements like 'Last Dance' by Donna Summer which is a staple for weddings and corporates. My band has a songlist of over 250 tunes, and although I don't expect everyone to pull each and every song off the top of their head, I do expect them to have it prepared for the gig. In a one month span, it's not uncommon for us to play 80-100 different songs, including a bunch not on our list. Quite a few of them will be played for that event only. If I spent 5 hours on each tune, I'd be spending over 500 hours (3 months of a full time job) to get a few gigs worth of songs down. Because we just don't have that kind of time, we use charts to help us learn and retain.

As a band leader I would be impressed if someone learned a tune note for note, as long as it's not sacrificing learning the arrangements to other songs. For me, I'd rather have someone play the arrangement well for all our songs than a portion that they nail note for note. The song that you nail note for note may not be noticed or appreciated, but the arrangement that you execute or flub will be.

Take a look at bar band song lists vs wedding band song lists. Sure, there's lots of crossover, but take a look at the songs that don't cross-over. Not only are the song lists larger for the wedding band, but they tend to be more complex arrangements. Any competent bar band can play BEG and have people sing 'Sha la la la', but they all can't nail the many changes in 'Last Dance', the harmonies in 'ABC' or have the stylistic diversity to play a Bossa Nova. Nothing against bar bands, as I play in them and they have their own set of strengths and challenges.
 
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#71
Never learned BEG, but I had a similar experience learning "True" by Spandau Ballet. Band leader wanted to play it so I learned it pretty much note for note even though I didn't much like the song. Once I dug into learning it I was surprised at the complexity of it. Now the song is sorta burned into my brain and I actually appreciate it now even though I still don't particularly care for it. Funny thing is, after I learned it and played it for band leader (along with the Youtube vid) he decided he didn't want to play it after all. Go figure.
 
#72
klokker said:
We're all so different. Not a very hard song to me. I almost go to sleep on the "bass solo". Glad you're enjoying it though.
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I got so bored playing it, I started to put " Take Me Out To The Ballgame " all throughout it. Then one night the drummer decided to turn it into a mambo, then a Polka. Nobody noticed.
 
#73
Ric5 said:
It's actually a pretty simple song ... You don't have to play it note for note ... just get the groove going. I used to put a slap bass solo in the middle.
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The best audience reaction I got for the bass solo in BEG was when I slapped it, and played almost nothing like the original. People were totally digging it, and got some nice feedback afterwards. Now that I think of it, those were the only times I got reaction from the BEG bass solo.
 
#74
jive1 said:
IMO, IME, no-one except the real anal retentive bass player in the audience will even notice or care. If you are doing it for yourself, that's one thing. But, if you are doing it for the audience, I'd save my time because if people are into the song and dancing, they won't even notice whether you are playing the exact bass line as long as you have the feel and groove it. I have never gotten paid more or received more compliments for learning a song verbatim than if I did if I just played the song well. Even the original artists stray from the original lines when they play live.
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Couldn't agree more. I try to learn songs verbatim but when I can't (and there are lots) I try and play in the groove.
 
#78
RE: Makes me happy.

I gotta say that I play a LOT of songs that I hate, but I do them as well as I can because it makes the crowd happy. And being a sanguine "people pleaser", when the crowd is happy, I'M HAPPY. And when I'm happy, I ham it up on stage more and the whole show is a lot more fun.

The music is really only a part of the experience, but a major part of course.
 
#79
Gaolee said:
Beatles songs are songs you do have to know verbatim. Some are pretty simple on the surface, but you have to nail them exactly. There's no messing around, because the Beatles never seemed to improvise at all.
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Yeah. Try singing "When I saw her standing there" while playing the bass. :D

On a side note, I sing "I Fought the Law" and it has the exact same bass riff during the chorus and solo.
 

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