Wow, can't believe I missed this thread on learning Geddy's basslines.
I picked up a bass about 3 years ago, tried learning from books, found it boring, so I asked a friend who played guitar to jam on some stuff. He said 'let's try Rush!', and since it's one of my favorite bands I said Sure!
Little did I know how difficult Rush songs are. But...I dug in and learned a few (from tabs on the web), but found tab limiting, so I wrote all the songs in tab and music note form on staff paper.
Things floundered with that first guitard, but then I found a really good guitar player that knows a lot of Rush tunes, and then a drummer crazy enough to try learning Rush songs too. We now jam regularly about once a month and try to do a few new Rush songs each time.
Oh yeah, as if bass wasn't enough, I learned to play keyboards and pedals (and I have even sung a few songs). It's very challenging, but it's been very rewarding. At first it seemed like a mess trying to play and sing, but once I devoted some practice time to a few songs things fell into place.
I never tire of learning new Rush songs, although we concentrate mostly on their first 9 albums and the longer Prog songs. I love their arrangements and complexity. They really are a muscisian's band.
Now that I have some experience I'm also branching into other Prog bands, and learning Slap, and other styles of bass playing.
