And remember: you'll always sound better playing YOUR bassline with confidence, than trying (and failing) to play someone else's bassline.
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How to simplify a complicated bass line?
- Thread starter Lux
- Start date
Absolutely this. Most people will NOT notice, and by most people I mean everyone listening to you as well as the people you play with.
There are some basslines that are so iconic and important to the song that you need to have them. You’ll know them because when you ask someone to sing the song without using words, the bassline gets incorporated.
Like most good arrangements in popular music, the bass line starts out pretty straightforward and gets a little more embellishment with each subsequent verse. A good approach is to learn the bass part of the first verse and play that throughout. As you grow comfortable with the song and the bass part over time you can gussy it up little by little. Or don’t.
I never played the song, just gave it a listen (Dusty Springfield version). I think that once you get working on it you'll find it's not as complicated as it sounds. It hits the root on the One very consistently and then fills high. It's not like a prog line jumping all over the fretboard by the sound of it. To start with, play the roots, fill with focus on the 5th and octave, and mostly just focus on the groove of the song. It's not a part where anyone will care if you're not playing a particular version note for note.
Interesting comparisons! Just about all of them simplify the Dusty Springfield version, and a bunch of them were slower, too.
Interesting comparisons! Just about all of them simplify the Dusty Springfield version, and a bunch of them were slower, too.
I've found over the years that for bass, songs I've got to work up fall into two categories:
Either they're really, big technique, fast, busy stuff (prog rock, jazz fusion, Jaco transcriptions, etc.) or they're slower or more simple things technique-wise that will absolutely kill you because it's far harder to replicate carefully considered, just enough big notes that can lock a mighty groove, with just less notes and way more taste.
Tommy Cogbill's part on 'Son of a Preacher Man' is the latter. Aside from some really nice fills, on the surface it seems basically root/five stuff, and while it certainly is, the notes, the releases, and knowing when enough is enough and one step past it is what separates the Men from the Boys. A good guitar player turned bassist, Cogbill had that down cold.
For this tune, learn the main big shapes, then add the fills as you can. If you're playing this live with a local drummer, bear in mind you'll have to translate what you learned to the drummer you're working with.
For me, any fool can toot along at 90 miles an hour on fast stuff with lots of notes, and if you run over a clam or two at speed, really, who's going to know ? Slow stuff ? It will kill you fast as there's NOWHERE to HIDE.
Either they're really, big technique, fast, busy stuff (prog rock, jazz fusion, Jaco transcriptions, etc.) or they're slower or more simple things technique-wise that will absolutely kill you because it's far harder to replicate carefully considered, just enough big notes that can lock a mighty groove, with just less notes and way more taste.
Tommy Cogbill's part on 'Son of a Preacher Man' is the latter. Aside from some really nice fills, on the surface it seems basically root/five stuff, and while it certainly is, the notes, the releases, and knowing when enough is enough and one step past it is what separates the Men from the Boys. A good guitar player turned bassist, Cogbill had that down cold.
For this tune, learn the main big shapes, then add the fills as you can. If you're playing this live with a local drummer, bear in mind you'll have to translate what you learned to the drummer you're working with.
For me, any fool can toot along at 90 miles an hour on fast stuff with lots of notes, and if you run over a clam or two at speed, really, who's going to know ? Slow stuff ? It will kill you fast as there's NOWHERE to HIDE.
Too complicated is subjective. It is busy but what is the holdup?
Maybe first make sure you're on the beat and holding key, then practice the melodic fill.
Not saying this to suggest phoning it it, just that you might be the only one who notices.
If it were me I'd think if I'm on time and in key the fills are just "bass player" domain so walk in with some confidence and learn it fully on your own time.
Maybe that's not the best professional advice to some. OK, fair. But if you're not confident in the entire piece nail the points you know the rest of the band will notice. Because in a rehearsal dynamic they're not listening to your steps. Keep practicing and you'll get it and it will become second nature before you know it.
Maybe first make sure you're on the beat and holding key, then practice the melodic fill.
Not saying this to suggest phoning it it, just that you might be the only one who notices.
If it were me I'd think if I'm on time and in key the fills are just "bass player" domain so walk in with some confidence and learn it fully on your own time.
Maybe that's not the best professional advice to some. OK, fair. But if you're not confident in the entire piece nail the points you know the rest of the band will notice. Because in a rehearsal dynamic they're not listening to your steps. Keep practicing and you'll get it and it will become second nature before you know it.
My guess is you are trying to play the song note for note. The Dusty Springfield version get's progressively more busy and technical as it develops, so at some point the bass line gets too hard for you.
What you may not realize is the bassist is just improvising over a few chords that repeat throughout the song, and you don't have to play all of it note for note.
Learn as many of the patterns as you can now and continue working on the song. For now when you get to a part that is too hard, just play one of the simpler patters you already know.
Alternately you could modify the difficult pattern or make up a new patter, but that tends to come with experience. It's a lot easier after you have learned a lot of music, because you know a lot of licks that will work.
It's not really that hard of a song, and my guess is you will eventually be able to play the entire piece note for note if you just keep working on it. But IMHO there is no really need to worry about it. It's unlikely that the original musicians who played this song would have played it note for note in a live setting...they would have improvised.
Something a good friend, great drummer and mentor pointed out that really helped me in these situations: the best advice I ever got. Please keep this in mind as you explore: Most importantly, always remember the ONE.
Keep the basic groove going with the roots, get them down, and nail that one count every single time. Even if you have no note there or are playing ahead of or behind it, always know where it is! Then add as much as you want to at a time, little by little, trying everything to see what you can and can't do, but always remember never let it keep you from getting back to hitting that one each and every time.
As many know, the idea goes back what Bootsy Collins got from playing with James Brown. It totally changed how I approach learning a song where you want to add a lot. It will really free you up, but will also tell you what your limits are; maintain the groove, which is much more important. It will give you the confidence mentioned above. Then have your fun. Oh, and your drummer will love you!
Keep the basic groove going with the roots, get them down, and nail that one count every single time. Even if you have no note there or are playing ahead of or behind it, always know where it is! Then add as much as you want to at a time, little by little, trying everything to see what you can and can't do, but always remember never let it keep you from getting back to hitting that one each and every time.
As many know, the idea goes back what Bootsy Collins got from playing with James Brown. It totally changed how I approach learning a song where you want to add a lot. It will really free you up, but will also tell you what your limits are; maintain the groove, which is much more important. It will give you the confidence mentioned above. Then have your fun. Oh, and your drummer will love you!
If you have an iPhone, download the Amazing Slow Downer app. It’s a really useful tool to learn by slowing down a tune while still in the same key.
buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
Except sometimes not even the original artist plays it like they did “on the album”...especially when they didn’t really “play” it.
I think a great example of this is Crazy Train by Ozzy. The guitar part - riffs, fills, solo - is awesome on the album. And it’s awesome live. And Randy simplified certain sections live. During a Q&A session at a guitar store, he acknowledged as much regarding one of the fills. I wish I could find the transcription, because he really did say something to the effect of “oh, I just play this thing going up the neck”, as if to suggest it wasn’t about any particular note, but more about a flurry of notes moving in a general direction.
IMHO, The vast majority of audience members are not sophisticated enough to know the difference. In most circumstances staying true to the style and tone of the original bass line is really all that is required to do a fairly convincing cover. Something that often happens is the band does a pretty good job sounding like the original...and then the singer opens his/her mouth and sounds totally different.
Whether I play note for note depends on the band and how it operates. Many bands never really learn tunes together, they just play common repertoire that everyone knows; I.E. head tunes like Mustang Sally that everyone in my generation would be expected to play cold. Every band would play it a bit different, and the audience would typically love every version.
Of course there are exceptions were you need to be fairly true to the original because you have an iconic line. I don't think that is the case here.
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As almost everyone has said here, no need to memorize the bass part the way the original bassist did. Guaranteed that he never played it the same way twice.
Reminds me of the story the guitarist Jennifer Batten tells of meeting Eddie Van Halen backstage at a Jeff Beck concert when she was playing in Beck's group. EVH asked her if it was true that she had learned his solo in Beat It. She said she had, and he asked her to show it to him, because he'd forgotten how to play it.
Reminds me of the story the guitarist Jennifer Batten tells of meeting Eddie Van Halen backstage at a Jeff Beck concert when she was playing in Beck's group. EVH asked her if it was true that she had learned his solo in Beat It. She said she had, and he asked her to show it to him, because he'd forgotten how to play it.
Root Five! ... Every country hit won't argue that. ... I'm sure it's the feel you're have issue with. ... #1 it's behind the beat. ... Meaning, it's not driving the song. ... Example, Heard It Though The Grapevine. ... That bass is pushing the one. ... This tune is more relaxed, so you should stick to nailing the one of every chord/change. ... It's all feel, just relax.
I hadn’t heard this song in ages, so I gave it a quick listen. I’m not a huge fan of THAT bass line, I personally wouldn’t play it that way and it does get very busy and noodly at the end.
how is the drummer playing it? How you approach making your lone depends a lot on how they are playing it. If they are playing a more straight up 4 beat ‘rock’ type pattern, you could easily do a quarter note root type line with a few walk and fills here and there. If they are playing it a bit more funky/soul, you have to play it a bit more... funky. You can play very tasteful, understated lines and still feel funky. There’s a whole lot you can do with just the root and fifth and a few dead notes.
if you start at the A string, 7th fret (an E note)you can use the 5th, octave up, octave down, third and 9th all without changing position.
how is the drummer playing it? How you approach making your lone depends a lot on how they are playing it. If they are playing a more straight up 4 beat ‘rock’ type pattern, you could easily do a quarter note root type line with a few walk and fills here and there. If they are playing it a bit more funky/soul, you have to play it a bit more... funky. You can play very tasteful, understated lines and still feel funky. There’s a whole lot you can do with just the root and fifth and a few dead notes.
if you start at the A string, 7th fret (an E note)you can use the 5th, octave up, octave down, third and 9th all without changing position.
Green Day "When I come Around"
Since I sang lead vocal and played bass on this one, I had to simplify the bass line in order to get by... just played the root notes while singing. For I am not like the incredible Mark King... the man with three brains (one to sing, one to play bass, one to chew gum) |c:
Since I sang lead vocal and played bass on this one, I had to simplify the bass line in order to get by... just played the root notes while singing. For I am not like the incredible Mark King... the man with three brains (one to sing, one to play bass, one to chew gum) |c:
